Hate Procession

With a barbarous second attempt at making your local store sell out of razors, Sweden’s Bloodline have once again set foot into another public display of insanity. Following 2003’s debut album “Werewolf Training,” this four-pointed symbol of industrialized black metal put out “Hate Procession” to invite a case of mass hysteria to knock on your door. The pages of the album booklet are littered with images of murder, be it the victims or the assailants themselves. The members come from Diabolicum, Naglfar, Ondskapt, Setherial, Shining and so on, so they’re all from noteworthy Swedish black metal groups. Bloodline is in another realm set apart from these bands, but the music still clings to their portals.

After “Intro: Berzloj” ends with a literally murderous sample, “The Great Becoming” staggeringly builds up, adding on a new element with every execution of the main guitar line. Once the vocals enter the room, the feelings are of absolute anguish and total desolation, which is not surprising considering Bloodline’s members are from bands like Shining and Ondskapt, which harbor similar themes. The music often repeats lines throughout songs in a hypnotizing pattern, snaking in and out of black metal and industrial derangement, blurring your entire experience to the point of pulling out your hair and eventually, pulling on that eager trigger. Stabbing your ears, Wrathyr’s shrieking vocals show no mercy with his wonderfully, dry, throat-tearing screams that drip with dissatisfaction for the world. The tracks are certainly not as fast as most black metal. It’s much slower, but has erratic moments of experimentation that keep things moving with instrumental mystery, despite having songs that are about eight minutes, eleven minutes and one that almost reaches fourteen.

On “Order of the Parasite,” it sounds like the music is emptying with the way the background becomes more hollow and cavernous as the song progresses. Sort of like a parasite is feeding on the music. The atmospheric wall of sound becomes wider throughout the eleven minutes of Bloodline(d) tunes. “Day of the Vulture” starts off in the same vein as “The Great Becoming,” but does not leech off of the chords. Again, the industrial influence creates a wonderful backdrop to the black metalized sound. After this dark masterpiece, comes a quaint visit from “Total Peace.” It begins with such a lovely piano, the subject of the sample, ruthless killing, is made even more aggressive and dark when placed upon a light piano and bass part that adds on very soft drums and guitars. This is a track to be played again and again to drift off into a world of black, white and red.

Bloodline tip-toe their way on the thin line separating violence upon others and violence upon oneself. “Hate Procession” is a truly unique experience and if like me you oftentimes listen to highly atmospheric music while taking a stroll when its pitch black outside, slightly lit from street lights, it was certainly an exciting and blood-pumping experience. “Hate Procession” is obviously black metal, yet uses fragments of other genres, incorporating samples and industrial vibes while still keeping the grounds thoroughly tainted with the blood of a black metal holocaust. For those who are expecting plain old black metal, you’ll be disappointed. For the ones who want to venture into new "terrortory", then “Hate Procession” cannot be missed.

- Written for Tanin'iver Zine