Review by Ben for Impaled Nazarene - Ugra-Karma (1993)

Overrated black metal silliness that's at least an improvement over the debut.

Impaled Nazarene were amazingly prolific in their early years, releasing 3 full length albums within 2 years. But it's not hard to see how they managed that when the music they created didn't really push the boundaries of creativity. Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz introduced the band to the world with all their hateful aggression, but it must be said that the debut was filled with corny nonsense and repetitive structures. Ugra-Karma came along just 10 months later and as that suggests, didn't have a lot else to offer. It does however manage to be more entertaining and slightly less silly (and I mean slightly), but once again this album is massively overrated.

If you take tracks like The Horny and the Horned, Sadhu Satana and Hate by themselves, they are quite enjoyable, somewhat brutal black metal with dark riffs, intense, relentless drumming and venomous vocals spat out over the top. But it all becomes so stale and repetitive by about halfway through the album's thankfully short running time. Sure, they tried to change it up with the atrocity that is Gott Ist Tot (a simply terrible attempt to add an electronic element) but Impaled Nazarene are a one trick pony I'm afraid. I'm giving it a very generous three stars as it is an improvement over the debut and mildly entertaining in small doses.