Profanatica

The name of this album, and song titles like "Smashing Fucking Religious Statues," "Angel with Cock" and, ahem, "Fuck the Blood of the Lamb," is a warning sign that NYC's Profanatica are not messing around on their second full-length (and also a warning sign to never, ever hang out with these dudes). The album's insane bass tone hammers that point home, creating a hugely heavy black metal din that's the most evil sound created within the genre in some time. The insane production, which is almost industrial, in a sinister way, pushes this album over the top to a place where few raw black metal discs go: the land of repeat listens. "Christ's Precious Blood Poisoned" gets sludgy, noisy and drone-y ― a true mess of a song that turns into blasting blasphemy before abruptly ending. But for all the chaos, "No Trumpet Shall Sound" is the most chilling number, sounding maturely evil; it's The Exorcist to the other songs' Friday the 13ths. This is one great disc, a document of how ugly, twisted and nasty raw U.S. black metal can really be.