Review by Michael on September 10, 2025.

"With "Kur" , ANZV descends even deeper. Infused with the arcane spirit of Mesopotamia and the fury of black metal's rawest form, the album conjures a realm where ancient rites, death deities, and forgotten truths clash in a storm of sound and shadow. It is a sonic ritual—a metaphysical journey through the gates of the netherworld, where awe, dread, and transcendence await."

So far the information on the homepage of the Portuguese band. What sounds super mysterious and especially when it comes to the music like some ultra-brutal raw and unpolished black metal is not that raw as promised. Nevertheless the band sounds very interesting because they combine some more dissonant black metal stuff like their countrymen from Gaerea with a lot of influences that sound a lot like what the Polish scene produces, especially Mgla or Behemoth (when Nergal didn't have the $-sign hanging in front of his eye$ yet) and Canadian Panzerfaust (with whom they will perform some gigs in Portugal in November).

Lyrically they probably deal a lot with the Mesopotamian history when you look at the song titles. "Ekur" or "Shamash" belong to the Sumerian mythology and deals with their gods and mythology. Let's take "Shamash" as an interesting example for the lyrics:

"I stand as Shamash,
I stride forth.
Seeker of truth guiding the lost
Through shadows devout.
Through realms unseen, devoid of light.
Let your eyes behold death.
Let your eyes glimpse the breast of Aruru,
Your creator […]"

I guess when you are a history nerd, this is something that is worth diving deeper into because indeed the Sumerian history is super interesting. All this mythological stuff where a lot of people drew inspiration from (maybe one or the other remembers Erich van Däniken) seems to be an endless source of inspiration for books and lyrics. By the way, German Sumerian Tombs dealt on their latest album also with this topic.

But musically, as I already said, they are kind of straight-forward classic black metal with a lot of tremolo picking. Some might find it slightly irritating that there aren't any oriental-peppered tunes to find here, just like Melechesh used to compose. Nevertheless they create a very dense and brutal atmosphere, sometimes with a more classic heavy metal-style like the guitar solo in "Shamash" shows. Technically the guys seem to be very skilled and also the song-writing is really fine and a song like "Etemenanki"  is a cool fast stomper with catchy melodies.

What is lacking here and there are some surprising twists in the songs that give them the certain touch to differ from the aforementioned bands. Please don't get me wrong, this is a good album indeed but not really groundbreaking. The production is very well done, the album artwork is really beautiful and the only question is if the fans will buy the album. If you like bands like Mgla, mid-Behemoth, Panzerfaust you should check "Kur", with this second album by ANZV you cannot make a mistake.

Rating: 8 out of 10