Over 16 years since their conception, Birmingham duo Anaal Nathrakh would probably never have guessed that they would become one the largest names in extreme metal. 2014 has seen another big year for the band with a recent performance at Temples festival, a new signing with Metal Blade records and new album Desideratum. It seems there’s no stopping this band just yet.

While the guys may be known better by their real names these days, they began life with pseudonyms. Choosing to perform under the acronym V.I.T.R.I.O.L., Dave discusses where this unusual choice came into being. “It was meant to be two things. Obviously the bands really harsh and what I do in it is quite harsh even within the genre that we play so it’s an old term for sulfuric acid from the days of alchemy and stuff and that seems about right but I also had an interest in philosophy and the acronym stands for a Latin phrase about the philosophers stone so it was just to put a nod, only for our own benefit but a nod to an interest in philosophy, but basically acid. At the time it was the done thing for bands. It wasn’t that we wanted to copy but we toyed with the idea of being secret, of not telling anyone who we were. We didn’t stick with it in the end obviously but we toyed with it and having pseudonyms kept that possibility open. We weren’t sure what we wanted to do so we were hedging our bets I suppose. A lot of bands in the kind of music we were listening to at the time, they were only known by pseudonyms anyway. I mean, Darkthrone for example they don’t say ‘I was talking to Ted’, they use a pseudonym.”

From the original album The Codex Necro, to most recent work Desideratum, all works have strong influences running through from both literature and philosophy. While some may creep back into the work there is always something fresh to say with each album. “There are probably some recurrent themes, although you’d reflect differently on a given theme at a different time compared to another so it’s not really that we’re saying the same thing. Nihilism is one theme that runs through a lot of what we do, a sense that a lot of the received wisdom and ways of perceiving the world are meaningless, that’s in a lot of stuff. As a result of that there is a few illusions to stuff by Nietzsche, there was a song we did a few years ago now called ‘When the Dragon devours both Lion and Child’ and that’s a fairly direct reference to some stuff in Thus Spake Zarathustra. Really it’s a general interest in various things that crop up either in philosophy or in philosophically minded stuff, so were not a Nietzsche band or anything like that but it’s just philosophically informed.”

From lyrical interests to musical, variety is what informs every aspect of what Anaal Nathrakh creates. It’s not surprising then that their listening stretches far beyond the realms of metal, and even what is considered music itself. “We tend not to listen to most of the stuff that’s mainstream but things like Portal, in the terms of being notorious they’re a fairly newish band and I really enjoyed their last album and Deathspell Omega, I really liked their recent output so I don’t think were completely unimpressed by metal we just tend not to be beholden to it or obsessed by it. Stuff outside of metal; we’re both quite into various kinds of electronic music. I think Micks favorite album at the moment is by Broken Note which is all electronic and the new Aphex Twin album. It could be anything really, not long ago I bought a load of Chopin, Nocturne and Ballades played by this particularly gifted pianist. It could be literally anything and we’re not concerned with genre of music. We like sounds that we like and we like just sounds themselves. We’ve sat on the London underground giggling like schoolgirls because we were really enjoying the clattering noises. We like sound itself so we’re really not bothered by what kind of music we listen to, we just care if we like it.”

When it comes down to the basics however, a young love of extreme genres still dictates everything this band continues to produce. “We grew up listening to stuff like that, I mean Mick was listening to Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror when he was 11. When I was a kid I had an idea of a sound in my head and I was sure there must be music out there that sounded like it and I didn’t come across anything like it till a few years later and I picked up on the extreme end of metal. For all I say about not being obsessed with metal, we’re certainly fans of a lot of metal music and it just seemed natural for us to do things the way we did them. We’re big fans of certain old black metal albums and stuff like grindcore, Napalm and things like that and that was how it seemed appropriate. It also seemed appropriate to stick a few other influences in and that’s why you’ve got electronic music. Its got a metal basis because that’s what we grew up listening to and we had in common when we met but we’ll throw things into the mix that similarly reflects the fact that we listen to other things.”

Like many of their lyrics, the names of the albums carry significance, often very personal significance to the band. Recent release Desideratum continues this trend, carrying layers of meaning from both the word itself, and from the most personal experiences.

“It’s the kind of thing I could probably bore you with for ages and ages, but a lot of the world at the moment seems to be driven by wanting something. A desideratum is a word in English, it’s just a very uncommon word so it seems like its Latin, but it’s something that you want. Read that as anything you want really, there are lots of ways you can interpret the title. An example would be, I think the world in general is driven by want and wants recently have become more outlandish, I mean you can make of that what you will but that’s one idea in there. There was also a poem that my mum liked as a little kid called Desiderata, which is just the plural and that had a sense of peace, belonging and tranquility about it. I find that a very difficult idea now but it would be lovely to be able to feel that. Or another level, the word itself comes from Latin even if it is used in English and its desiderare, which basically means something along the lines of ‘to pull down a star’. I find that quite a compelling idea, first of all from a health and safety point of view, stars aren’t something you want to get too near to but also in a way getting what you want can be a destructive process. Obviously having got what you want, if you think about it, the star’s no longer there. It’s stuff like that. I don’t want to go on for hours and hours but there’s a lot of stuff wrapped up in that.”

As with all their albums, a myriad of influences runs through the lyrics, from art to current events, and even comments overheard on the bus…

“Obviously the theme of the title runs through a lot of things but there’s a mishmash of idea and inspirations involved. For example there was the Nichtze stuff that led to ‘Monstrum in Animo’ and there’s a piece called a Freemans Worship, you can find that on the internet its written by a man called Bertrand Russell, that cropped up. There are various reflections on politics and world events, for example, the joy stream was on that and World health organization statistics about poverty related deaths. They crop up in that song. Ita Mori was inspired by a painting I came across, a portrait of a guy by Howells, and millions of other things. Basically anything can be an inspiration and we’re always mindful of what’s going on, so something you see on TV or something you read in the newspaper or a book, or something somebody says when you’re sitting on a bus. There’s quite a diverse set of influences really.”

Despite a new album, a change in label and numerous shows on the table, Anaal Nathrakh is not a band with a grand plan; a distinct sense of the present keeps them grounded.

“It would be very nice if we could get to play in some new places, if we could play live in Japan or exciting far away places like that but I don’t know if that will happen. I tend not to think about the future very much at all. It’s more, concentrate on what were doing at the moment, which to us is what’s interesting.”

Anaal Nathrakh on Facebook

CAITLIN SMITH