Hate Eternal have sent their fourth document back across the barrier between the worlds. Listen closely to Fury & Flames – this is where your unsaved soul is headed.
Hate Eternal are veterans of the aggressive end of the metal market. They play an unrepentant and furious brand of extreme metal, powered by seemingly unstoppable blastbeats and double-kick barrages beneath road-drill percussion that would sound quite military in character - if you slowed it down far enough for someone to march to, that is.
Fury & Flames builds on this bedrock with galloping chords and bass guitar in flattened and discordant scales, sinister descending riffs that wind steadily downwards toward an implied pit of torture and despair. Meanwhile your own personal demon bellows the itinerary of your forthcoming torment interspersed with a litany of the sins you committed to earn it, while the occasional searing arc of a wide-bend half-tempo solo or screaming harmonic pinch leaps across the soundfield like sparks from a possessed Tesla coil.
In short, Hate Eternal make a sound almost too brutal to describe.
It’s to their credit that Fury & Flames isn’t completely unlistenable as a result. While in search of the outer limits of musical technique and sonic power, extreme metal has a tendency to exclude all but the most devoted fans of the style by abandoning musicality in the process.
While making no compromise with their basic ingredients, Hate Eternal have provided enough variety and breathing room that this doesn’t occur. Each track is clearly different from the others, and while Fury & Flames uses sheer velocity almost as an instrument in its own right, there is enough variation in texture for the unaccustomed listener to pick out individual themes and memorable riffs.
That’s not to suggest you’ll be whistling the middle-eight from “Bringer Of Storms” next time you’re cleaning the bathroom, though, and it’s fair to say that Fury & Flames is still going to be a bit beyond the tolerance of the average listener.
However, Hate Eternal provide enough melody and dynamics alongside the bludgeon that the fan of more mainstream metal may find the hooks on Fury & Flames are sharp enough to pull them in to a heavier experience than their usual listening.
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: brutal metal, death metal, extreme metal
