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Dawn of Demise > Hate Takes Its Form > Reviews
Dawn of Demise - Hate Takes Its Form

Brutal? Close but no Cigar. Badass? YES! - 80%

blarg223, November 19th, 2011

The Danish death metal scene is blooming as of late. Bands such as Usipian, The Cleansing, Spectral Mortuary, and Undergang are all whoopin’ some major ass over there. And now, joining their peers in creating heavy as your bitch’s ass death metal, is Dawn of Demise. The style? Groovy as shit, modern, cleanly produced, mainly slow to mid-paced Suffocation worship. The bands influences include (as told to me by a band member on YouTube) are the mighty Suffocation as stated, Inveracity, Abominable Putridity, Pyrexia, and old Dying fucking Fetus.

This album is all about groove. Every few seconds comes a new chugging riff that gets the head banging and the mane whipping the computer screen. The band rarely blasts, usually opting for simple beats with thunderous double bass, with an occasional skank blast. This has groove and breakdowns, but not “JUMP DA FUKK UPP” nu-metal groove, and nowhere near the worthless homoeroticism that is deathcore. The breakdowns are just that: slowing down, getting simpler. So don’t get your panties in a twist yet you whiny little bitch tits.

The guitars are thicker than my cock in your mother’s asshole, down tuned to about C if I remember correctly. The riffs are primarily palm-muted power chords, with a few tremolo picked pieces scattered throughout. Some of the riffs even border on slamming here and there. Rhythm is the main goal here, triplets and pinch harmonics abounding, with shit loads of swaying, violent patterns to get whiplash by the halfway mark. As a rhythm guitarist, I’ve always said that the key to a good band is a good right hand, because picking and rhythm is what makes death metal great. It’s all about the feel. Not coincidentally, this is also what leads to good masturbation…ANYWAYS. The leads are melodic, not being balls out Slayer-esque shitstorms of squeals and dives.

The vocals are meaty and guttural, but surprisingly exhaled instead of inhaled. The vocalist, Scott Jensen, gets an amazing deep sound that most slam death bands wish they could achieve, which matches the slow, pounding music perfectly. He also has a somewhat higher pitched roar, which is still quite low and adds some anger to the sound the band has. Another band member utilizes some quite badass higher pitched *BLEUEUERGH!!*s in the style of John Tardy in the title track.

The drums have a very clear concise sound to them, high in the mix, but not so high they fuck with the guitars. The drummer must really hate his bass drum, cuz he sure beats the fuck out of it. Those of you obsessed with only old school may hate this aspect, for the kick drums are a little clicky sounding. The cymbals are used well also, not being content just knocking the fuck out of the high hat. The drummer is no Gene Hoglan; rather a Paul Mazurkiewicz: not super complex, but the simple beats match the music quite well. His fills are interesting and he does some fuckin’ gnarly tom beats that really bring out the heaviness of the riffs.

The production is very clean and modern, tons of crunch on the guitars, everything mixed evenly so it all can be heard. Except the bass. Duh. That just kinda follows the guitar and adds to low end sound, which is really what this album focuses on. The album art is much like the music itself: clean, yet lethal as fuck looking. All in all, this is a very badass modern death metal album, somewhat of a slower Suffocation clone, but hey, no one said that’s a bad thing, eh?

Pros: Riffs out the fucking ass, great tone, clean production, vocal variation

Cons: Drums perhaps too clicky for some

8 infants impaled on spears out of 10

So boring that it fails to serve even as a lullaby - 48%

dnelson, October 11th, 2008

Dawn of Demise’s Hate Takes Its Form is a polished, solid slab of generic modern death metal that amounts to little more than Suffocation worship. I certainly can’t fault the album for appealing to a mainstream corporate-friendly stereotype, it doesn’t try to show off with too many flowery solos or wimpy melo-thrash riffs, but it absolutely refuses to make any sort of effort to actually contribute to the genre. Should this have been released fifteen years ago, it might receive an extra 10%, because it would have had a reason for existing within the context of its time period, but as it stands today, this is something that no one but a Suffocation fan will find the least bit enticing, engaging or worthwhile.

The guitars are rooted in chugga-chugga style riffage with quick flourishes of forgettable chromatic runs that fail to sound evil; they just sound chromatic. The guitarists sound likely they were mortally terrified of ascending beyond the A string here, it seems as though the modus operandi of this tired technical NYDM style dictates that any sort of riffage or innovation beyond the first octave of notes is simply not permissible. These lethargic rhythm-based chord passages are certainly not entertaining or catchy like say, a Cianide riff. Rather, they simply serve as filler in between solos, breakdowns and other negligible crap. Some bands can manage to get away with this kind of song writing, but Dawn of Demise’s filler riffs are so bland that they completely ostracize the listener. I have serious trouble finishing this album, because it’s so repetitive and interchangeable. We aren’t talking about the type of listening difficulty that arises in Portal’s Outre or Gorgut’s Obscura, because there is nothing of any worth to be found in these riffs, there is no subtle genius or esoteric principle behind them that applies to the aforementioned albums.

The music is pretty mid-paced, even slow at times. If you’re starting to salivate over the prospect of Incantation-style doom sections, you need to wipe your mouth because you won’t find that here. Once in a while, they attempt something that could be classified as similar to a crushing doom riff, but the mechanical production and laughably impotent nature of the riffs presented in these sections completely obliterate any success in this respect. Speaking of mechanical production, the album sounds incredibly crisp and polished. The modern tone of the album contradicts the style to a minor degree, but more importantly it gives the album a repulsive predictable and generic quality that quickly turns the listener to despondent disinterest. I stated that there weren’t “too many” flowery solos permeating the album, but the solos that are present are pretentious in their melody that contrasts very poorly with the rest of the music, not to mention being even more mundane than the underlying music itself.

The vocals are fine, The style presented fits with the music, but were it to be re-evaluated in an equivocate context of some sort, you‘d find these are very similar to the more “extreme“ versions of metal core vocals found today. He does a decent job of variation throughout the album even if he is unspectacular. The lyrics are evocative of the entire band’s lust for mediocrity; we’re presented with some stereotypical themes of murder and sadism written with lacklustre expertise. The bass guitar is generous enough to pop out every other song, but the production on the bass is pretty disappointing, it sounds far too acoustic and flat to be heard during the music, and sounds empty when it is given a rare chance to deviate from the guitars. The drummer is your typical metal drummer, he has good timing and mastery of most common beats but his eager style is often counterproductive to the riffing style present.

It should be noted that I define Suffocation as one of the most overrated metal bands ever, so I’m certainly not saying this is a poor emulation. Conversely, it’s pretty decent Suffocation-worship, and fans of static brutal death will probably enjoy it, but I can’t bring myself to exalt an album that is so redundant and pointless in its approach. Quite honestly, I can’t remember one decent riff from this whole album! This is one of the most forgettable and completely impersonal records I’ve ever had the displeasure of wasting my time on.

One of the best albums I own! - 98%

bloodxdemon666, February 16th, 2008

Dawn Of Demise's Hate Takes Its Form album is a true piece of death metal art. This is one of the few death metal albums I own that I can listen all the way through and over and over again. Each song is unique and different from the one before it. The songs' creation are outstanding. Each song is ear catching. Dawn Of Demise mixes up their songs with simple, brutal riffs, and moderate complexity, but not too complex where you get lost in the damn song.

Kim's drumming is pretty basic, mainly blast beats, double bass, and simple beats, but Martin's and Jakob's guitar playing is brutal and complex enough to where it sounds really damn good, suprisingly. The vocals are the only reason why I give this album a 98. The lyrics are good, but I do not like how they sound. I love deep, guttural vocals, but Dawn Of Demise's vocals just don't seem to get to me. The excellent syncronization of the band and the quality of their work takes over the point of their not-so-good vocals. The production of this album is also top-notch, so this is definetly an album I recommend to any true death metal lover!