Kicking off this album is an atmospheric layer of incoming explosions, machinegun fire and the distant rumble of approaching tanks, set amid an aged symphonic melody playing through what sounds like an antique gramophone, broadcasting its ominous tones throughout a wartorn city. Then the fury of the dogs of war is unleashed upon the listener!
This album, ‘Hatesongs‘ is a remaster of the bands’ debut album, in anticipation of the 2nd album release scheduled for later this year. Hailing from Germany, these guys know how to pound out some crushing, heavy modern death metal, all the while keeping a furious groove. The first number of tracks whirl past in a maelstrom of excellent riffage hammered down via a really aggressive drum sound. These guys are really tight, but they sound very REAL. There’s an excellent lack of the overblown pro-tool sound. Instead, they sound like a well-rehearsed band ploughing out the songs like they actually know them and they haven’t been pieced together like some sonic jigsaw. That isn’t to say the production on this release is lesser by any means, it has been well recorded, performed and executed like clockwork. The drums are punchy as fuck, the guitars are crunchy like concrete and the bass flows like wine at a Roman banquet. The vocals tend to remain with the traditional death metal growl-tone, but they are proficient & delivered extremely well. There’s no room for whining & screaming like a pouty child on this record! There are some truly excellent, ‘hooky’ and memorable riffs right here.
There isn’t too many guitar solos in amongst it all, which is quite refreshing in this day and age of over-indulgence and free burners. The songs seem to be more focused on a steady overall delivery and creating an intimidating sonic wall instead. At times the band has an almost ‘Blizzard Beasts’, a la Immortal moments in the music. With an obvious influence from older death metal bands like Cannibal Corpse or Deicide, it has a very modern feel circa the early 2000s.
There are also some very catchy riff moments, reminiscent of Mexico’s ‘Brujeria’. Though the songs do have individual vibes or tendencies, the album flows very fast at the beginning, then into a mid-pace
feel, continuing through into a blistering series of madness before the end.
The album closes with a live track, recorded live at a show earlier in their career. This only shows to demonstrate that as a live band, these guys take no prisoners & can belt out what they do in the studio effortlessly. As this is a remaster of the debut album recorded roughly around a decade ago, I will definitely be looking forward to hearing the new album & seeing where they’ve taken this monster of a band and how the members have progressed as musicians.
Overall, this is an excellent and truly brutal re-release and I would highly recommend it to anyone that is a fan of the death metal genre, old school fans and new death metal fans alike. Homicidal Violence indeed, 4 roos for this raging bull of a release!!
Homicidal Violence: Facebook
Release Year: 2016
Label: self-released
Category: Album
Country: Germany
Reviewed by Black Jack
