Hate Eternal "Fury & Flames"

Tracklist: 01. Hell Envenom 02. Whom Gods May Destroy 03. Para Bellum 04. Bringer Of Storms 05. The Funerary March 06. Thus Salvation 07. Proclamation Of The Damned 08. Fury Within 09. Tombeau (Le Tombeau De La Fureur Et Des Flames) 10. Coronach Release: 2008 Genre: Death Metal URL: www.hateeternal.com Label: www.metalblade.com

I'm really lucky that there are still bands existing that never gave any thoughts during their career about adjusting their music to be more attractive for a bigger crowd. Exactly such a case is Hate Eternal. They are giving a shit about playing on a self-imposed snuggling musical level and they haven't lost speed and brutality in opposite of for example the new Decrepit Birth. Rather than that, they fuelled some extra speed and brutality. Anyway at the time as drum god Derek Roddy left the band I had a real bad apprehension. My ego tried to make me believe that the band is history and that they probably play pop rock in near future. Of course you people can understand how I have felt relieved after I've listened to "Fury & Flames" for the first time. Hate Eternal are really angry and it sounds like that it's their most aggressive output so far. Furthermore they doesn't sound slower than on the previous stuff, it's rather that they increased the speed level. The new drummer Jade Simonetto is blasting so tight and extreme that I have to confess "who the hell was Derek Roddy"? He's really able to hold the high Roddy level and maybe he's even able to excel it a little bit. Ok on the band picture in the booklet Jade looks like a small lost wimp but musically he is blasting the band to higher levels. But he isn't the only new face in the band. For the bass Erik Rutan engaged the Death Metal bass legend Alex Webster. So it's understandable that the bass sound is pretty much standing in the foreground because of such a great bass player. Also new in the band is Shaune Kelley who was a part of Rutans "Ripping Corpse" epoch. Besides Hate Eternal he's also a member of the death touch martial arts Death Metal band Dim Mak. This line-up alone is reason enough for me to believe that the technical level must have been increased a lot. And yes with this full length the band has maybe done their most versed technical effort 'til now. At many moments the guitar work sounds almost like Mathcore but all together it's still the typical Hate Eternal sound. Of course everything is presented in the high speed area of approximately 250 BPM or more. That's the reason why I'm really glad that they grant some good melodic and technical guitar solo parts to the listener to take some breath. Happily the guitar solos don't get out of control like we know it from some other technical bands in the genre. Personally I would say that it's the best solo guitar work since "Conquering The Throne". But is it really the bands best album so far? That's questionable. Definitely this record is the most extreme album of all but "Conquering The Throne" is possibly offering even better songs to the listener. It's still enough here for a good rating because which band is able to beat their classics anew again and again? Everyone who has already been into this band will definitely receive what one needs. All the other people who had their problems with Hate Eternal before will carry on to hate them perhaps even a little more. Personally I really enjoyed this album and at the end of it one can hear a outro with classical music which is very unusual for the band. The runtime of over 39 minutes and the amazing cover artwork done by Paul Romano (Mastodon) should make the decision to buy this album even easier.

Rating: 91 % | from Gore | Date: 25.04.08 | Time: 16:40	shut down