There’s a lot to be said for a band like Impaled Nazarene in the world we live in. Although, when all is said and done, there’s little wrong with the intellectual end of extreme music becoming acceptable to mention in polite company, you do wonder sometimes what happened to Metal’s reputation as something bikers listened to before they went out drinking and hell-raising. There’s few of us who can say that they got into Extreme Metal because it was something that they could enjoy with their parents, after all, and if there’s one band that was designed by Lord Sathanas himself to be cruel to authority-figure ears, it’s Finnish ‘no, we’re not Nazis’ filthgrinders ImpNaz.

(In)famous in the scene for its love of goats, sex and Finland, it’s hard to believe that the band is on album number ten. Perhaps this is due to a refreshing lack of non-album releases, making for not only a more streamlined songwriting approach but also making it a damn sight easier to collect the band’s output. Perhaps the reason for the band’s survival is simpler: it makes some damn good music! Manifest is packed full of kickass tunes, experienced songwriting meaning that although at over fifty minutes this is one of, if not the, band’s longest albums, it never drags or gets boring, especially since the average track length is around the three minute mark. Mika’s vocals are as harsh as ever, whilst the instrumentation is flawless, especially the drumming and guitars.

There’s a good variety of songs on show, from the Punkish You Don’t Rock Hard to what is practically Power Metal in The Calling, although I can’t remember the last Power Metal band I listened to that had lyrics about ‘fucking hookers’ corpses’ and the like! Pathogen manages to keep the album flow varied without actually deviating much from the formula, yet it’s still a kickass song, even managing to incorporate short bass solos and mini breakdowns towards the end. There are organs in Funeral For Despicable Pigs and trumpets in Mushroom Truth, there’s even some high speed ‘nananananananana’ing in the chorus to Original Pig Rig.

It’s a testament to ImpNaz, however, that far from detracting from the core sound or watering it down, it’s branching out, taking the extra elements and making them its own. This is, most probably, the band’s most diverse and experimental release to date; yet it’s still a perfect conduit for that Impaled sound that we know and love. Hopefully this album will go a way towards gaining the band some real recognition, as it’s always seemed to be on the leftfield (or should that be the right?) of similar yet more successful acts, and Manifest deserves to be heard by as many people as possible. Let the impalement commence!