Billed as the best thing to come out of France since the guillotine… and I'd be inclined to agree-both will do irreparable damage to your head in one way or another!

"Cut Your Flesh and Worship Satan" is so out of yesterday, as far as a title it's hilarious!

I mean, what sixteen-year-old metal kid back in 1986 wouldn't have worshipped a band with a following like that?

As it stands today, sure it's out there… I mean way out there, but the music is pure terror. There's no other way to describe it!

I'm not an authority on Black Metal but I know one thing, lately I've heard a lot of those bands crossing over a little bit into a bit of a kinder, gentler terrain… well not these guys.

Must have been something in the… wine, but they rip and shred with as much intensity as anything you'll ever hear!

And of course, Necropolis, the label that first unleashed the beast for today's generation to enjoy, staying true to form, Anteus is frighteningly fast, dismal, dark and disgusting… just how we like it!

No trace of gothic keyboards to lend the usual tonal inflections backing up the merciless onslaught with which this is delivered and so twice the pain!

And don't bother looking for the lyrics that go with the music-there aren't any and they'd do you no good anyway!

This is one you'll remember for a while… absolute death and mutilation in the first degree, whoever thought the realm of Black Metal could revert to its past and still manage to offer something even remotely interesting…

And, no warning label!

That's the secret, write lyrics that no one can understand anyway and there you have it, no danger to any innocent bystanders… unless of course someone decides to take literally the album title in which case we might be in store for a new underground revolution… and I thought Frenchmen were so well-mannered… how the Hell will they ever live this down?

Released by Baphomet Records: http://www.infernalhorde.com/baphomet/

Review by Vinnie Apicella [va85@columbia.edu]