Impaled Nazarene. Unless you are into Christian religion, this must be one of the best names in metal. Now, quickly, how many full-length albums has this outlandish Finnish band produced? I never thought that All That You Fear was their eighth effort, but such is reality. There is a chance now with Osmose signing an exclusive distribution deal with The End Records that Impaled Nazarene will become more known stateside. It would be a good thing too, unless you are a lying politician or cheating abusive priest and Impaled Nazarene decide to take their lyrics from words to action. With the intense bowl of anger, hatred and fury that All That You Fear is Impaled Nazarene unleashes onto everybody preaching Christianity and submissiveness to the political system.

Short opener Kohta Ei Naura Enaa Jeesuskaan sets the tone with lots of blasting and angry screams in Finnish. My knowledge of this language is definitely lacking, but I don’t think Jesus is being praised. The rest of the album is sung in English with the straightforward message delivered against the background of raging thrash enriched with definitive punk overtones. Armageddon Death Squad and Tribulation Hell are in your face, world-be-damned, tracks full of punk attitude, distorted leads and superfast shredding. Bridge and chorus on Armageddon Death Squad is catchy, while I swear the chorus on Tribulation Hell is an old sped up Accept riff laid over the blastbeats. Sometimes the warp speed of rhythm guitar shredding gets almost out of control and borders on the chaos of black metal (The Maggot Crusher), but excellent lead guitar work and catchy choruses infuse the sense of overall cohesiveness. Impaled Nazarene brand of blasting thrash got the undeniable groove to it, something that would inspire an excellent live performance. I can already imagine the crowd going wild during the primal section of Urgent Need to Kill.

The middle of the album, Halo of Flies, Recreate Thru Hate and Even More Pain tend to run together a little bit, so the album, indeed, may be a few tracks too long. However, and I disagree there with the hardcore Impaled Nazarene fans, the introduction of several more melodic somewhat out of character tracks does the album plenty of good. In fact, these could be the albums best tracks as they help to avoid repetitiveness and keep the listener hooked. The Endless War has fantastic opening lead and the main riff in the verse that harkens to the melodeath of Gothenburg, or even all the way to the original Maiden. More melodic guitar passages follow, and they do not dilute the intensity of the scream along “War” choruses. Bass solo strumming is noteworthy as well. Suffer in Silence is a slower anthem-tribute to the deceased former lead guitarist Teemu Raimoranta, aka Somnium. The song is full with pain and passion, its melodic chorus and fading lead towards the end translating the magnitude of the friend’s loss. The closer title track is almost “epic” switching mid-song to the apocalyptic bells and keyboards melody driven by the super fast snare beats.

Vocals, rhythm and lead guitar department are extremely well composed and produced. You can almost see Tuomio run across the fretboard and Mika’s vocals are discernible adding to the power of the message. A few hollow snare spots are present in the drum production (The Maggot Crusher), but they are definitely minor.

The album, as a whole, is an exercise in raging intensity and will test your stamina. If the muscles around your neck are strong enough, and you want to throw “horns” in the air on every song, track this album down. Personally, I am focusing on more punky or melodic songs on All That You Fear, but this album is definitely going to be a delight to the old school thrash metal fans.