Eschaton (album)

Infobox Album | Name = Eschaton
Type = studio
Artist = Anaal Nathrakh


Released = October 16, 2006
Genre = Black metal
Length = 35:23
Label = Season of Mist
Last album = "Domine Non Es Dignus"
(2004)
This album = "Eschaton"
(2006)
Next album = "Hell Is Empty and All the Devils Are Here"
(2007)

"Eschaton" is the third album by British post-black metal band Anaal Nathrakh. Musically, the album continues in the direction of the previous album, Domine Non Es Dignus, moving further away from the chaotic, wall-of-noise grindcore excursions of The Codex Necro, into simpler verse-chorus song structures with occasional clean vocals and more melodic riffs. However most reviewers (digitalmetal.com, Terrorizer magazine and so on) have commented that the overall atmosphere and production are at the same time a step back towards the out-and-out ferocity of the band's debut. The music is still intense, featuring hyperfast drum machine blast beats and V.I.T.R.I.O.L.'s harsh vocals.

The album is also significant in featuring significant guest appearances by Shane Embury (Embryonymous) on bass and Attila Csihar on vocals, the latter offering vocal work on the track "Regression To The Mean", according to the accompanying booklet.

Track listing

# "Bellum Omnium Contra Omnes" - 03:16
# "Between Shit and Piss We Are Born" - 03:54
# "Timewave Zero" - 03:01
# "The Destroying Angel" - 03:11
# "Waiting for the Barbarians" - 04:46
# "The Yellow King" - 04:54
# "When the Lion Devours Both Dragon and Child" - 04:57
# "The Necrogeddon" - 04:11
# "Regression to the Mean" - 03:12

Trivia

* The sample "Kill everybody in the whole world!" from the intro of "The Destroying Angel" is clipped from the British comedy series "Blackadder II".

* The sample "Drive deeper the thorn," at the start of "The Necrogeddon" is Sam Neill as Damien in the film "".

* The background on the album's cover art is a sample of the Mandelbrot set.

* One of the cryptic quotations in the liner notes ("I suspect you would rather not hear these details..." etc.) is from Robert W. Chambers' novella "The King in Yellow". It's probable that this book also inspired the title of Track 6.

* "Bellum Omnium Contra Omnes" is Latin for "the war of all against all", which is described by philosopher Thomas Hobbes in the book "Leviathan" as the natural state of humanity.

* The Eschaton is the end of time.

* Timewave Zero is an obscure eschatological prediction from numerology and mathematics. It coincides with the Mayan date for the end of the world on the 21st of December, 2012, which can be discerned within the song. The theory has to do with predictions based on fractal patterns, which is likely to be the reason for the fractal pattern used in the album's cover artwork.

* The Destroying Angel is another name of the angel of death from the book of Exodus. The track opens with "SOS" in Morse code.

* The lyrics for the track "When Lion Devours Both Dragon and Child" are in part adapted from the Book of Job chapter 10, with the words subtly altered in a way which significantly changes their meaning. For example, 'Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand' (Job 10:7) becomes, 'Thou knowest that I am wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of mine hands' - the character of man thus changes from the questioning, conflicted attitude of the original passage to one of confirming mankind's cruelty and arrogance.