Credits:

Impaled Nazarene

Description:

Impaled Nazarene is not the sort of band that typically ages well. Early in their career, they were known for being wild, unpredictable, and generally insane — they were an extreme band within an already extreme genre. A decade into their career, they’re still plugging away, and they’ve found a happy medium between evolving creatively and keeping their deranged instincts in place. Their sound is still a bastard mix of black metal, Motorhead-influenced biker rock, and Discharge-like hardcore, and the lyrics cover a familiar range of topics: death, suicide, hopelessness, religion, pain, and suffering. But unlike many bands that trot out these same themes, Impaled Nazarene — or at least vocalist Mika Luttinen — seems genuinely consumed by them. His delivery is convincing to the point that one fears for his mental health. Far from being a freak show, though, the band balances out the grim ly