Erebos

Roaaar! Pure ass-kicking modern blackened death metal is to be found from here. No less, no more. If you haven’t gotten enough Behemoth’s latter era’s works, another Polish group - fittingly named Hate - is here on Erebus to provide some very crushing death metal too - and in spite of the very similar style these two bands play, Hate isn’t just a copycat, knowing that the band was already playing death metal while Behemoth was still in its black metal infancy.

What grabbed my attention in the very beginning is the production: it’s really heavy and aggressive, and in spite of the triggered drums that I almost always despise, Erebus doesn’t sound really plastic like many other efforts in this field. For me, a stubborn lover of natural sound, plastic productions ruin whole albums, but Erebus gets my approval.

Needless to say, Erebus is executed with tight musicianship from the end to the beginning, and maybe there’s even too much technical calculation in the music as there’s some stagnation in the middle of the album where the constant bursts of energy don’t have the same impact anymore, but for the most part, the music holds my interest and sounds convincing.

In case you’re looking for proper innovation, I’m afraid that’s not what Erebus offers but, nonetheless, I find the album’s sheer power satisfying in itself. I’m usually not so much into death metal, especially this modern and (semi-)technical, but I do think Erebus is a rather successful release albeit nothing out of the ordinary.

3 / 5
[ http://www.vehementconjuration.com/ ]

Review Originally published at http://www.teethofthedivine.com by Erik Thomas

There’s an old adage in American Football: You should never lose your staring job to injury.


While Drew Bledsoe, Trent Green and Joe Montana might beg to differ, here comes Poland’s Hate to ably replace Behemoth while Nergal recovers from his recently diagnosed leukemia (get well soon!). Long waiting in the shadows of the likes of Behemoth, Decapitated and Vader, lifelong backups Hate are the Kurt Warner of death metal, and now they have their chance.


Further dropping some of their early US death metal influences and industrial/cyber elements that surfaced on 2005′s watershed Anaclasis and 2008′s Morphosis (replaced with more esoteric and mysterious elements), and now even presenting the same robed and face painted aesthetic as Nergal and co., Hate appear to have finally found a sound: The band has risen from their underrated status and delivered an album that should elevate them into the next level.


It’s hard not to think of Behemoth when listening to Erebos (even that title is Behemoth-y); more down tuned guitars, a thick more robust rhythm section, Adam the First Sinner’s deep, processed sounding vocals and more of an emphasis on vaguely militant and Middle Eastern riffs with a far more pummeling, controlled lumbering marches amid the swathe of technicality. It’s not a vast difference from the more mechanical and clinical Vader and Decapitated worship of the bands early efforts, but it’s subtly and tangibly different and pretty damn good regardless.


Of course fans of Behemoth will cry afoul of the bands obvious new digs, but why not embrace it while Nergal recovers? The nine tracks and one intro contained on Erebos all deliver stern death metal with that undeniable Polish hue that pounds and rumbles with chest beating confidence, skill and just enough sneaky melody to make it memorable. Just sit back and enjoy the likes of the stellar title track, personal favorite “Hero Cults”, monstrous lurch of “Transsubstance”, blistering “”Hexagony”, sturdy chunk of “Wrists” and outstanding closer “Luminous Horizons” which deliver some of 2011′s first great death metal.



Is it original? Not by a long shot, as anyone that’s heard any of their peers mentioned above can attest to. Is it a neck snapping, razor sharp display of Polish excellence that will satiate fans of Behemoth? Fuck yes.

For me it's always a healthy blend of dread and anticipation when bands with a track record, such as the one Hate have to-date, release an album, due to the fact that when the hype and anticipation that has been set for it doesn't meet the standard, you end up grossly disappointed after the fact.

Hate are celebrating their 20th birthday in 2010, and given a rocky start, amongst the plethora of outstanding metal bands from Poland at that time, they sure had their work cut out for them. Their 2005 album, Anaclasis: A Haunting Gospel of Malice & Hatred, rocketed them up my list of favorites in the death metal genre, which in succession was outdone in every way by their 2008 follow-up, Morphosis, mostly due to the fact that Hate had written and executed a superb recipe for modern death metal that in itself isn't a gourmet dinner at some fancy restaurant, but rather a huge banquet that one never gets tired of feasting upon, and the only thing that changes in between banquets are small refinements to both quantity and quality of what's served.

It was quite clear to me from the first spin of Erebos, their seventh full-length album, that not only was it a very worthy follow-up to Morphosis, but in some aspects it went beyond my expectations almost immediately. Make no mistake, Hate have their recipe and they're following it to the letter, but as I said, including these small refinements that surely make a good recipe even better. On Erebos, the fast parts are lightning fast, the heavy parts are crushing and all the cool riffs, rhythms and melodies are supercool, presented in a superb aural death metal feast, courtesy of the Wieslawski brothers at Hertz Studios in Bialystok. With the combination of superior self-confidence in songwriting, as their last albums have shown, and the pristine production that they have carried, you have one Hell of a feast on your hands and the presentation hasn't got one single weak point to aim the criticism against. Period.

From the opening intro of the album and the infinitely cool kick-off to Lux Aeterna to the final ebb of Luminous Horizon, my absolute favorite off the album, Erebos is a complete flatline of nothing but highlights. The songwriting skills of Adam and his co-conspirators present to you, the listener, a band that's full of said self-confidence, which I think is the strongest foundation any band could have. Hate know their recipe by heart, and it's phenomenally good! When you have a strong recipe like this, you don't need gimmicks or fancy effects, which is exactly what the essence of death metal is. We all, (well, old bastards like me at least), hold dear and true the start of the death metal genre, where what-you-hear is what-you-get, and those albums from '88-'93 that regularly top the lists of any death metal survey, are exactly what bands with the same caliber as Hate have modernized and upgraded.

To point out a couple of things that make the recipe of Hate special, the guitar riffs and arrangements are laden with huge chord strumming and outstanding compositions where one guitar holds the fort with these thick carpets of chords while the other picks an melodic interlude, or solo on top of it, like the guitar work in Quintessence of Hinger Suffering, which is simply outstanding in both composition, arrangement and execution. Underneath the astounding guitar work of Adam and Destroyer, we have Hexen and Mortifier, on drums and bass respectively, in the rhythm section that deliver an orgy of death metal goodness to the listeners ears. Hell, even the bass guitar is crisp and clear underneath some very low-end laden guitars, which is truly a feat in the mixing and mastering department, which makes me wish that ...And Justice For All would have been recorded and mixed at Hertz Studios.

The cherry on the top of all this, are the vocals on the album, where Adam has truly mastered the art of layering them as an extra rhythm track on top of everything else. This is a feat that has produced some of the best scream-along parts in death metal, such as Glen Benton and Dave Vincent truly excel at. The beauty of such arrangements is the undeniable urge to clench your fist and scream the lyrics on top of your lungs! Which is exactly what I do in the middle section of Luminous Horizon while destroying my furniture in a metal frenzy:

You strive and fail, you stumble and you fall
In this world of hurt.
Thy ink be still and slowly fade away
Beyond the borders of the afterlife

Death do us part! But life inside of thee lasts beyond the grave
Once more you're reborn!

It didn't take me a long time at all to realize that this album is the cream of the crop in 2010, Hell, I'd go so far to say in the 00's, and the best thing about Hate is that their music doesn't age, it never gets boring. Masterpiece!

Original review written in Icelandic for Hardkjarni.com

Erebos marks the 20th year of existence for Poland's Hate, one of the most consistent death metal acts in a massive scene, steadily managing to improve themselves over the course of seven albums, culminating in works like Awakening of the Liar and Anaclasis: A Haunting Gospel of Malice & Hatred, which I'd consider their best. Granted, the band have never quite reaped the rewards of their countrymen Vader or Behemoth, and frankly, this might stem from the similar sounds they produce. Erebos is considerably closer to the latter than the former, but they could hardly be dubbed a rip off, since they were performing brutal death while Behemoth were still storming the Baltic in black metal getup!

That said, the writing on Erebos is quite close in tone, with storms of blast beats, black-tinged guitar lines and vocals that sound almost a sibling to Nergal or Piotr. The benefit here, though, is that Hate have produced a more dynamic offering than the recent Behemoth records, with a thrashing and grooving impulse wrought through through various set pieces like "Quintessence of Higher Suffering" and "Transsubstance". I mentioned before the black metal twist on the guitars, and this is generally only manifest through some of the chords (and band pics), but they perform with an aesthetic that might shiver the spines of some of the more technically inclined black metal acts, long on production and riffs. The most immersible points of Erebos do come later in the album, like the engrossing "Hexagony", psycho-glorious "Hero Cults" and winding, frothing patterns of "Wrists", which achieve a surprising depth due to glints of atmosphere the guitars conjure against the pummeling of the central riffs.

That Hate have matured is not in contention, because they've here produced an album that can survive a number of listens without losing the listener's attention. Granted, it's not perfect, and a few of the tracks have a broader impact than others. "Lux Aeterna" and title track "Erebos" feel like the typical flexing of limbs you here on the more mundane Behemoth tracks of the past decade, energetic but forgettable, where others like "Trinity Moons" excel because they pace themselves with more atmospheric riffing. Adam has surrounded himself with an experienced group with credits like Naumachia, Chaosphere, Moloch, Crionics and Sunwheel, so the performances are top notch, and the production is suggestive and dark, while letting the strings of discord dance with clarity over the bludgeoning, tight metallic matrices. I might not have enjoyed Erebos so much as the latest efforts from Vader or Lost Soul, but it's a well crafted album and nothing whatsoever to scoff at.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com