Impaled Nazarene

It can be argued that right after Rovaniemi's Beherit, IMPALED NAZARENE--from the city of Oulu--are Finland's second most important black metal band.  Owing to their more prolific output and being signed to a big label like Osmose Productions, it is likely that Impaled Nazarene is actually more well-known outside black metal circles than Beherit.

Forming in late 1990, Impaled Nazarene quickly came to make a mark on the Finnish extreme metal scene.  They released the demo Shemhamforash in early 1991, and soon thereafter were performing shows alongside bands like Sentenced, Amorphis and Beherit.  By the end of 1991, they had released a second demo entitled  Taog Eht Fo Htao Eht as well as the Goat Penis 7".  Their sound was clearly indebted to the old-school 80s black thrash, but with a very heavy punk influence.  They definitely were not as raw and necro sounding as fellow countrymen Beherit nor did they have the pummeling brutality of Archgoat.

This is the Taog Eht Fo Htao Eht demo in its entirety

Following on the heels of the underground success of these early demos, Impaled Nazarene released the 1992 full-length album Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz.  It continued in the same vein as the demo material, with a black metal sound that paid homage to the 80s underground and old-school punk, but at the same time ramped up the chaos.  The album broke into the charts in Finland, apparently--a first for black metal.

From Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz, here is "I Al Purg Vonpo/My Blessing"

Supposedly, an alleged feud erupted in 1992-3 between Impaled Nazarene and members of the Norwegian black metal circle, with the result being that Impaled Nazarene began to distance themselves from not just the black metal scene (eschewing corpsepaint and Satanic stage names), but even the very label black metal was something they dropped.  To this day, they would insist they are not black metal.  But if you listen to ImpNaz, it squarely falls within the black metal style.

"Total War-Winter War" is from 1994's Suomi Finland Perkele

After Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz, Impaled Nazarene's style never changed radically.  The black/thrash, the punk, the chaos--it's present in every Impaled Nazarene album since.  But thematically, they did begin to expand beyond goats, Satan, and sex.  They begin to explore Finnish history in their music, writing songs about Finnish military history.  1994's Suomi Finland Perkele, for example, was a very proud-to-be-Finnish album, while still maintaining ImpNaz's signature style.

Impaled Nazarene has continued to release a steady stream of albums since their inception.  1993's Ugra Karma, 1996's Latex Cult, 1998's Rapture, and 2000's Nihil were all more or less a strong blackened continuation of their initial sound.  But with 2001's The Absence of War Does Not Mean Peace, there was a slight shift in their sound: the punk and thrash influences became even more pronounced.

Off of 1998's Rapture, this is "Goat Vomit and Gas Masks"

And from 2003's All That You Fear, here's "Armageddon Death Squad"

And they still release albums down to this day.  2003's All That You Fear, 2005's live album Death Comes in 26 Carefully Selected Pieces, 2006's Pro Patria Finlandia, 2007's Manifest, and 2010's Road to the Octagon are all indications that Impaled Nazarene has no intention of slowing down.  I will now leave you with a clip of them playing live....

Here is a live version of ImpNaz's "The Horny and the Horned"


Select Discography:

Shemhamforash (demo) (1991)
Taog eht fo Htao Eht (demo) (1991)
Goat Perversion EP (1992)
Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz (full-length) (1992)
Ugra-Karma (full-length) (1993)
Suomi Finland Perkele (full-length) (1994)
Latex Cult (full-length) (1996)
Rapture (full-length) (1998)
Nihil (full-length) (2000)
Absence of War Does Not Mean Peace (full-length) (2001)
All That You Fear (full-length) (2003)

Next time: ABHORER