I do love a bit of Anal Blasphemy, and the mastermind behind the madness, Molestor Kadotus, is showing strong signs of a new direction with fourth album Western Decadence. While previous releases could quite easily be classified as ‘fucking mental’ this album seems to be moving away from the obviousness of black metal with Molestor dipping deeper and deeper into electro-experimentation. Opener and album title Western Decadence kicks things off with something that to the untrained ear could easily (yet falsely) be called shitty undifferentiated noise. But no – there’s almost a groove to it – albeit wrapped in bin-bags full of distortion. Yes, there’s a shit-load of blasting and chunky riffage going on but you get subtle whiffs of organ which add a delicious extra layer to the track as it juxtaposes the fast, furious sections against slower segments. It gets distinctly more black metal with I am the Claw of Vengeance as the ‘Blasphemy add more and more samples of what sounds like a dodgy 70’s horror movie dialogue into the mix (the entire album is peppered with this kind of stuff – if it’s not sampled then Molestor must have created it – and what a laugh that would have been).

The fat riffs of Pleasures of Flesh don’t hide the fact that this is definitely a new direction. Three tracks in and you get a sense of cohesiveness that was absent in previous works. There’s a slow, quiet ambience that reminds me of bloody chambers and subdued horror. It’s damned sweet. With …and God Punished Them there’s a subtle throbbing going on that’s almost industrial, and it’s quite disorientating while the slower ebb of Massturbation for the Virgin Whore pulls things back even further. Oh! The organs are to the fore again with Believe In The Devil with its riffs like carbuncles. So far, everything seems simply more engaging – and then the almost random drum patterns and splash of clean guitar (yes, you heard right) slip in forming the intro to Satanic Credo. It’s restrained yet bordering on the tribal as a reverbed vocal goes t0 Satan-Town huge stylee with some chanting fun. Truly this would conjure Set in the desert at night. Outro – The Western Chastity finishes the album with hypnotic electro-loops and noise experimentation, as a sample circles endlessly throughout the tune, finishing with “I’m a good christian girl…” I can almost hear Molestor chuckling in the background. I am so geared up for what he’s going to come up with next. A stirling effort.

Western Decadence is released by Iron Bonehead on July 1