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HateSphere > Bloodred Hatred > Reviews
HateSphere - Bloodred Hatred

Fun little album - 85%

Dead1, February 18th, 2016
Written based on this version: 2002, CD, Scarlet Records

With Bloodred Hatred, Hatesphere prove you don't have to do anything innovative or indeed even anything new to make a great little album. Indeed if an album's greatness could be measured by how much it makes you want to mosh, then Bloodred Hatred is an instant classic.

The formula is surprisingly simple. Basically add two parts The Haunted and one part groove metal and that is it. The result is an excellent little modern melodic death-tinged thrash or thrashy melodic death metal album if you swing that way. Metalcore doesn't really describe the music here either, just as it isn't really applicable to The Haunted.

The difference between this album and the myriad of The Haunted clones plaguing the early 2000s is that Hatesphere focuses on core basics of heavy metal: heavy riffs with catchy hooks and great song writing.

The riffs are where the groove metal elements come to play. They come across as quite stripped down and very catchy. At times they are quite muscular sounding, which is fairly unique to melodic death metal. It should be noted they aren't standard metalcore breakdowns either before someone gets the wrong impression. Instead, they are tough sounding catchy riffs often played at mid to fast pace.

The vocals are fairly standard shouts almost hardcore growls ala Marco Aro from The Haunted. There is some sparse usage of cleaner vocals but these are still quite harsh and stay away from the pure almost pop vocals used by many other similar bands. Adding to the vocal dynamics are some low death growls.

The song writing is excellent. The songs are well crafted and memorable. They also tend to be short in length, which is refreshing in an era of over long songs. Indeed one will find themselves wanting more and this is one of the few albums I'll gladly play twice in a row.

The overall sound could be described as very bouncy, which obviously contributes to the whole moshy nature of the album. Indeed, the fun elements of the album is what it makes it stand out when compared to the rest of the melodic death thrash crowd who usually sound far more serious.

So, if you want a fun little melodic death thrash album to which to bounce along to like some hormonal teenager, then Bloodred Hatred is right up your alley.

Straight for the jugular - 77%

gasmask_colostomy, November 30th, 2015

Hatesphere seem to have been brought together for just one purpose - creating maximum intensity and blistering adrenaline in as short a time as possible. Considering that none of their albums have ever made it to 45 minutes and the majority don't even top 40, their tactic is to attack swiftly and depart before their assault begins to relent. This formula has served them fairly well and rarely better than on the shortest album of them all, the breathless 32-minute 'Bloodred Hatred'.

Arguably, you will know if you're going to enjoy Hatesphere before you even listen to the first song, since their "similar artists" tag on the Metal Archives can instruct fans of The Haunted, Darkane, The Crown, and, most obviously, Dew-Scented that their favourite bands are all worshipped by these Danes. As such, we get a lot of energetic and grooved-up thrash metal riffage done with plenty of bounce, a shot of Gothenburg melody and atmosphere, plus raw screamed vocals. There are hints of a more generic sound, though 'Disbeliever' and 'Deeper and Deeper' are the only songs with a certified In Flames melodic line in, plus the melodeath is thankfully kept to a minimum in the riffing and soloing department here, instead creeping in more as a result of some of the mid-paced rhythm patterns and unobtrusive keyboards, which hang menacingly over some of the slower sections of 'Insanity Arise' and 'Kicking Ahead'. The main objective, however, is to bludgeon the listener with riffs, so the songs frequently pass by at breakneck pace, particularly the more pointed 'Plague' and fret-happy 'Hell Is Here'. At full speed, Hatesphere are like a simpler version of The Crown; when they groove at fast or mid-pace, they remind of The Haunted's early material; the shots of atmosphere are closest to Darkane: despite the familiarity, there is enough nuance and winning songwriting to bring this out of the shadow of others.

One thing that is good to see is that such a short album doesn't lack variety, nor does it skimp on hooks, fusing the brutality with a catchy approach to riffing that satisfies both the neck and the ears. Every song has something memorable flying from the guitars of Peter Lyse Hansen and Henrik Bastrup Jacobsen, whose rhythm playing bears a distinctively original mark, not that the shredding on 'Deeper and Deeper' or 'Kicking Ahead' is anything unworthy. There isn't a lot of stand-out bass action, yet the strings all sound gruff and biting without losing any of their organic quality, and the faster death/thrash parts produce a slight blurring from Mikael Ehlert Hansen's instrument that really ups the adrenaline factor. Jacob Bredahl is certainly an asset at the microphone, sounding convincingly deranged at times and furiously pissed at others. He doesn't have the greatest set of lyrics to play with, because it seems as if the band have taken the theme of hate as a banner for everything they do, but the words aren't too important if they are performed well. Also, there always has to be a mention of shit in the lyrics to every Hatesphere album, which here comes in the form of the hilarious line "like a brick in a pile of shit" from 'Insanity Arise'.

The key problem that 'Bloodred Hatred' has is not really its execution or the quality of the songwriting, but more the fact that it ends up as inessential. The songs are all of pretty even standard, which means that nothing stands out above the others and I don't go searching for this album in particular, just for any melodic death/thrash album that can get me in the mood for action. This isn't quite as frighteningly focused as The Haunted's debut or as technically spot-on as The Crown were in the same period, although it never falls as far as Dew-Scented's work, from which I can discern no specific songs or specific albums, because everything is totally homogeneous and featureless. Where that leaves Hatesphere is in the second tier of bands in a relatively niche scene, so that they have little hope of breaking through to a wider audience. Of course, more than 10 years on from this album's release, the band must have become accustomed to that fact and - kudos to them - have not changed their approach, remaining focused on the jugular that 'Bloodred Hatred' went for. And even though some of their kills have been neglected, they ripped right through the artery with this album and left behind a trail of blood red metal.

Just Plain Hateful - 88%

SpaceMarinesAttack, April 23rd, 2009

Hatesphere are not a great band in the traditional sense. Without a truly original sound to call their own, they've never been metal media darlings, with most dismissing them as a clone of The Haunted and other such Scandinavian death-thrash face breakers. This might be partially true, but critics have to listen to a lot of shit to find the real gems out there and their tired ears often fail to recognize a good neck wrecking when they hear one. Few bands have suffered more from this sad fact than Hatesphere.

Bloodred Hatred, their second release, has the misfortune of dropping just when the melo-death-thrash blimp was crashing and burning. Most feed back I read at the time dismissed it as another Gothenwannaburg clone and threw it in the bargain bin.

Their loss. Far from the most original release (or, at barely over half an hour, the longest) Bloodred Hatred remains an exercise in headbanging euphoria. What sets the release apart at first listen is it's proclivity for the thrashier side of the Gothenburg sound, relying less on the overdone twin guitar melodies of yesteryear and more on driving, buzzsaw riffs. Straight thrash moments, like the opening riff on 'Hell Is Here,' are commonplace throughout, broken up by the band's excellent sense of tasteful groove. Look to 'Insanity Arise' for the perfect melding of these two elements.

All this is topped off by a tremendous vocal performance from Jacob Bredahl (who sadly left the band in 2007). His maniacal screaming is a bit one dimensional, but I'll be damned if he doesn't do it with a palpable sense of intensity.

It's a shame that this incarnation of Hatesphere is no more, as they created one hell of a death-thrash ditty here. Piece by piece, it's nothing you haven't heard before, but these basic metal elements are melded in such a heartfelt and effective way that I find it hard to let Bloodred Hatred fall out of rotation since I got it seven years ago. Fan's of head-banging need only apply.

Well balanced and Mature. - 85%

CHRISTI_NS_ANITY8, March 11th, 2008

Hatesphere belong to the new born generation of death/thrash musicians from Sweden. They take inspiration a bit from those groups that made history in early 90s in their mother country and a lot from the newcomers in this genres: Soilwork and Darkane. The tempos are always quite fast in this “Bloodred Hatred” and the group’s energy level is already shown in the first track: “Believer”.

As I said, there are a lot of new elements in their sound so we can meet stop and go, melodic solos and frenetical vocals too that go from screams to growls. Some more clean vocals and keys sounds are very good too. Anyway this is not “new metal” crap, it’s simply a continuation of Darkane/Soilwork work with massive thrash metal influences, like in the “Hell Is Here” song.

The production, of course, is the best that a recording studio can offer today: clean, sharp and able to make clear each single solo or melodic part. The fact that this band is never too monolithic or “only impact”(Dimension Zero?) is great and they’re able to create great melodies too, taking from the famous melodic death metal.

Catchy and violent up tempo mixed with melodic lines can be found in a good song like “Insanity Arise” where the use of keys and clean vocals is not exaggerated and is well balanced with the vehemence. The solos and arpeggios on “Disbeliever” are well done: technical and melodic while the rest of the song is one of the most “modern” here with martial tempos and keyboards sound.

The following “Plague” and “Low Life Vendetta” are fucking violent with always great tempo changes and melodies. “Deeper And Deeper” is remarkable for the weird beginning, followed by groove stomps and following restart mixed with melody. Excellent. The more impulsive “Kicking Ahead” ends this very good death/thrash album, always well balanced between old and new, melodic and violent.