The Infernal Depths of Hatred

Having formed in 1993, Swedish technical death metal powerhouse Anata have taken their name from an Egyptian goddess of war and secured people from animal attacks and was brought to Egypt from Syria by Hyksos in the beginning of 17. century B.C., which matches the intensity and power of the bands’ attack. Following up a pair of highly-acclaimed demos, the bands’ debut full-length was originally released October 4, 1998 on Season of Mist before a vinyl re-issue October 21, 2016 on KaosKvlt.

From the outset, this here is patently dynamic and charging death metal of the highest caliber as it focuses quite heavily on its genre leanings to generate plenty of enjoyable elements. This mostly focuses on bringing along the challenging traditional death metal patterns and furious rhythms that inject copious amounts of speed and energy into the works while offering spindly leads and driving chunks of meaty riffing to great effect. That these here generate the kind of complex, utterly schizoid brand of technical death is the greatest virtue for the record, offering that kind of material with remarkable skill yet still featuring a rather heavy charge that grounds the whole album in a great weight that’s more in keeping with the traditional varieties on display throughout here. This really makes for a dynamic and impressive effort alone of the fact that there’s the added bonus of enhanced melodic elements interspersed alongside many of these driving rhythms. Though it’s quite predominantly rooted in the frenzied side of the genre, this one can place lighter riffing into extended sections and even introduce twinkling rhythms all mashed together into a strong, stylish whirlwind that’s immensely pleasurable and creates a strong, cohesive attack throughout here. The melodies on display shore up the savage, driving rhythms even better while focusing on the technical skillset needed to wrap these disparate elements together so as not to let any part of the album overwhelm the other, which makes this one of the finest to accomplish this and works so well for the album as a whole.

On the whole this here is one of the genre’s most revered and enjoyable albums for a reason as there’s a little of something for every part of the genre’s fans to enjoy about it, whether it be the technical showmanship, the driving energetic rhythms or the sparkling melodies and leaves this a solid purchase for fans of the style in general.

A lot of "technical death metal" does nothing for me, and in fact pisses me off. There are a select few bands though, that instead of ripping off bloody Necrophagist, manage to nail the style exactly how it should be done.

Anata are one of that select few, and if I had to pick a favorite from the whole technical death metal crowd it would be Anata every time (note I'm not including the old guard ala Atheist, Pestilence, certain Death albums). In fact, when concerning Anata's debut The Infernal Depths of Hatred I'm often unsure as to whether its worth classifying this album as technical death metal.

Sure the band can play their instruments, and the music is technically proficient, but when I think technical death metal nowadays I think; widdly woo, widdly dee dee. Which is exactly what Anata don't do. Anata's debut is essentially a frankenstein monster, created from parts of Morbid Angel, Dismember, early In Flames, and a spluttering of At The Gates. But don't let that lead you to believe this is Gothenburg fodder.

For the most part this serves as a more melodic Swedish routed Morbid Angel, and since I love Sweden, melody, and Morbid Angel this album just so happens to touch me in the right way (wink wink). "Released When You Are Dead" starts the show off in style, launching furiously into a mind numbing amount of riffs, but fuck me when that brutal riff kicks in before the first verse. Now that, is a death metal riff. Guitar leads are used sparingly, and with restraint so when they appear the really leave their mark and tear your face off.

The production is ace, clean enough to hear what's going on but nowhere near the clinical levels of some technical death metal. The guitar tone is punishing, the bass is heavy as shit, drums sound fairly natural, vocals are perfect in the mix. This just sounds great, and is ideal for more modern death metal.

Standout tracks would include the aforementioned "Released When You Are Dead" which is a damn good introduction to the band. "Under Azure Skies" is nigh on my favorite death metal song, and is completely worth the price of admission alone. That intro riff absolutely floors you, then they kick into a godly Swedish death metal riff, slow it down, speed it up, neck is fucked. Then out of nowhere they unleash an acoustic section verging on beautiful, hairs on the back of the neck are reaching for the sky, HOLY SHIT THAT RIFF. Best melodic death metal riff ever, then the drums speed up and my head nearly spins off. Fortunately like any good band should, they revisit the awesomeness of that section later on in the track, with an erhu type sound over the top, and it is complete, and utter magic.

Other standouts include the masterful "Slain Upon His Alter" and the skull shattering madness of "Dethrone the Hypocrites". The Infernal Depths of Hatred is a personal favorite death metal album of mine, and whenever I hear a technical death metal album I normally wish it sounded like this. This is the kind of album I'm sure almost any death metal fan could enjoy, with exception of the most ardent old school elitists. Highly recommended listening.

"The Infernal Depths of Hatred," is the debut album of Swedish death metal band Anata. I initially bought this album because I was looking for a good tech death band. I wasn't by any means disappointed, but I was surprised by what I heard.

Anata is definitely a good tech death metal band. There is absolutely no doubt about that. In their more aggressive moments, they're similar to bands like Cryptopsy and their fellow countrymen Dismember. The opening track, "Released When You're Dead," along with tracks two through four, and "Aim Not at the Kingdom High," are prime examples of the bands tech death side. The guitarists, Fredrik Schalin and Andreas Allenmaker display a technical mastery of their instruments.

And then you get to "Slain Upon his Altar," and everything changes. The band suddenly goes from technical death metal to a much more Gothenburg influenced style of playing that lasts until the seventh track on the album. Here the guitars start playing a style that is reminiscent of early In Flames, also from Sweden. "Slain Upon his Altar," opens up with a beautiful acoustic melody that for a brief moment makes me want to classify Anata as melodic death metal. Even on the faster tracks, such as "Under Azure Skies," the band still plays beautiful acoustic melodies.

The influence of the Gothenburg scene is also apparent in Fredrik Schalin's vocals. Schalin uses a style that appears widely on melodic death metal albums, and is similar to Anders Friden, although slightly higher. This works very well for the melodic, yet technical death metal that the band plays.

The drums on "The Infernal Depths of Hatred," are very good, and remind the listener that this is tech death and not melodic death metal. Robert Petersson plays the standard rapid-fire blast beats you'd expect from other bands in the genre, and in the end of the day isn't anything unique.

The lyrics that Anata writes are very thought provoking. They're highly philosophical in nature, as well as anti-Christian. But unlike bands like Deicide, Aeon, Immolation, and others, Anata express their dislike of Christianity in a much more poetic, scholarly way, not the juvenile "fuck your god," style lyrics that anybody could write.

I found "The Infernal Depths of Hatred" to be an excellent album and after hearing it, rushed out to purchase "Dreams of Death and Dismay."

Taking into careful consideration the fact that Anata has a cool logo, I set out to acquire whichever release (within reason) ignited the band's legacy. Phrased less pretentiously: Me want debut. Me BUY debut. Ooga!
As I sat outside in the shade of my campus listening to this album, my mind bubbled over with intricate ways I could phrase my satisfaction with the material, which I would later try to convey to the readers in the form of this review. But then, just as I was breaching the fifth track, a meteor of ridiculous proportions tore threw the atmosphere, widdled down by the intense heat upon entry, and ended up the size of a shooter marble, which jettisoned through my iPod and prevented me from completing the task at hand.

Or actually, I just got bored and put on some Butthole Surfers.

The next day, notepad in hand, I contemplated a delicious review for this band of (at the time) equivalent deliciousness. I thrashed my way through the 4 tracks of fucking radicalness that comprised one half of the album, but then I found myself drifting off again, only to find I was on track 7 with little to no memory of the previous songs. I rewound and listened again, but it was the darndest thing - I couldn't recall a single lick, drumroll, or riff from tracks 5-7! THATS WHEN I NOTICED MY EVIL WIZARD COUSIN DIALATING TIME AND I FGJSGJBNO:NP"MPOM{BNBOBPJpenis

Basically, I couldn't keep focused on the material after track four. I'm a little tired of writing colourful reviews.

Imagine if you will, a convergence of early Oppressor and Theory In Practice, spiced with the tremolo-friendly melodies of Lunar Strain-era In Flames, the brutality an vocal patterns of early Kataklysm, and hints of Lykathea Aflame. Sounds pretty dern' swell, don't it? SPOILER: Yes.
If you circled "N" on the questionaire, you have officially failed heavy metal and need to kindly leave my 80's-euro-fashion band-patch-smothered-jeans-jacket-wearing presence. Contained on this effort are indeed, eight tracks, but I'd be hard pressed to find enough merits to consider this album as a whole worthwhile.

Released When You're Dead, Let The Heavens Hate, the brilliant Under Azure Skies, and Vastlands-Infernal Gates display a near perfect fusion of fingernail snapping technicality, emotional melodia, and brutality with that special something that makes you want to go back and listen to them over and over again.
Unfortunately, Slain Upon His Altar follows, and while the basswork is excellent, and the riffs are pretty solid (albeit, not on par with its predecessors), the choice of drum patterns sucks out the memorability from this track like marrow from a chicken bone. The result is an uninteresting wall of ineffective, black metal-esque noise and dull melodies with no complimenting instances of brutality.

Tracks 6 & 7: re-read the second half of the above.

Luckily, the band rises from the wreckage their shitstorm created, and produce one more awesome track with Aim Not At The Kingdom High. The emotional quality, vicious energy, and variation get me off my chair and thrashing the fuck out, all the while scratching my head in awe of why they even bothered recording this song's retarded triplets.

Something tells me the "luster deficiency" this album experiences at the halfway mark is just a fluke, or a result of laziness, because the tracks I deemed "listenable" are fucking incredible - literally leagues above the detractors. I'm going to hunt down Anata's sophomore album, and hopefully, rock out to it like a silverback on PCP.
Overall: worth a listen, just don't spend too much.

Technical death metal is a genre that started off on the right foot, with a great deal of promise and full of vigor. Bands such as Nocturnus and Demilich both released amazing material that surpassed that which was thought to be humanly possible, with the former dabbling in keyboards and wanky lead sections that popped up at just the right moments. The latter focusing on singing as though their oesophagus exited their ribcage and a thick, bass-heavy riffing structure with plenty of technicality. Then Suffocation and Cryptopsy came along and took a shit right on that ideology, replacing it with an utterly disposable system now emulated by the majority of bands in the scene. Brutality or out-right blasturbation seems to be the only choice for tech death bands who want praise, dark times indeed. Enough of the history lesson however because thankful Anata do not subscribe to the newsletter of shitty, generic tech death and instead forge an interesting path in a genre I believed to be filled with the most stereotypical metalheads ever.

If there is something that the death metal scene is general lacks its original riffs. The scene for the most part has indulged in palm-muted, stop-start riffing as a means to be brutal or something equally moronic. Anata still have heavy and powerful riffs but instead of playing the same chord in different keys they move around the fret board forming some powerful and technical riffs that flow beautifully throughout the album. There are various tempo changes throughout and the riffs used in each change suit the mood just right, whilst the riffing can be similar in some cases it is an unfortunate inevitability. At the same time there is the use of harmonised guitars but they aren't wanky and flowery reject leads which are rampant throughout the gothenburg and metalcore bands. Much to my dismay there are very few leads within the album, nor is there an abundance of soloing which is something that makes the guitar work on this album feel a bit lifeless. Don't get me wrong, there are more creative riffs on this album than an In Flames album, but the lack of solos is something of a loss.

The drums perform very well on this album, they don't overwhelm everything else but they still maintain a strong double bass kick pattern and some good snare work. There is the occasional fill in the right place and strong cymbal work when it's needed. The bassline is fairly audible in parts; it follows the guitar riffs for the most part but breaks into its own path but is still fairly obscured. The vocalist is decent; he alternates between using shrieks and lower growls whilst sticking to something in the middle for singing. It works but of course it's completely incoherent, the lyrics are lost as a consequence. Not being a man of many nor any words for that matter, the lyrics mean little to me. At least they're not mindless drivel which is again something different. The lack of clean vocals is definitely a boon on this album; their use would be rather awkward and ruin the strength the album maintains.

The song structures are fairly unique, since there is a distinct lack of solos there is simply the flowing from one powerful riff or the use of melodic interludes and breaks. Sometimes these breaks into slower tempos work well and other times they feel grossly misused and simply a means to waste time when a bitchin' solo could be going off instead. I know I've mentioned the lack of solos an innumerable mount of times but that's probably the traditionalist in me speaking; I like my riffs in the double digits, and my solos at a rate of 1 per 3 minutes, more if both guitarists can solo effectively.

The album can get a bit monotonous at times but the variance in riffs and the use of melodic sections helps to break up the album and keep things interesting. Anata may not be Necrophagist, but this release is an excellent slice of technical death metal for those looking for something that breaks the mold.

So, I bought this album a few weeks ago, completing my collection of this band's LP discography, having worked my way backwards, starting with Under A Stone With No Inscription. After listening to the change from their middle to most recent album, I figured something of that same sort of sound progression/regression for The Infernal Depths of Hatred as compared to the album that would follow it(i.e. midpaced, obviously technical but with some good riffs, somewhat raw, not entirely classifiable).

It took me a while to get around to listening to this album, since I wanted to give it the time I thought it deserved. This time turned out to be a 9 hour plane trip this past week across the Atlantic. I pop this album in, hit play, and for the next 48 minutes (give or take a few) I am absolutely entranced. This is definately not what I expected. Sure, it's still Anata, you can definately tell that from the great guitar duos to the "boar shrieks" of Schalin (as my friend so aptly named them), though somewhat higher than his later work. But in the midst of the pure Anata-riffing and furious drums, there is a more wild element, including almost emo guitar intro/interlude in one song, and keyboards in another. I thought, what the hell? and hit play again. And again, and again, until I'd listened to this album 7 straight times through.

At first, I was bewildered. Anata always seemed so slick and mechanical. But this album is intensely felt, and intensely performed in a very emotional way. Very well produced as ever, each song is a definate stand out. I also definately enjoyed the vocal experimentation going on here; it added a very dynamic and feral touch to an already volatile album. Lyrically, this album is not as philosophical or mature as the later albums, but its spots of strong poeticism make checking out the lyric booklet worthwhile.

It is hard to find enough good things to say about this band. Despite some criticism about lacking progression, this band always brings their own distinct touch to each album they release, and any fan of Anata's work will definately enjoy this album and the variety it offers.

When all else in the extreme metal world has been said and done, when every band is simply a Morbid Angel or Internal Bleeding jr., when the slew of gothenburg clones seems never ending, here comes Anata with one of the finest death metal albums in recent history. Sadly, "The Infernal Depths of Hatred" will be overlooked by most metalheads, but hopefully someone will stumble across this review and give them a spin

Anata play a style that is undeniably death metal in nature, but completely unlike any other band's style and thoroughly unique. They use melody, but avoid cliche'd In Flames harmonies, opting for beautiful yet crushing twin guitar leads that are as catchy as they are complex. Ah, yes, another factor in Anata's sound: they write memorable riffs. Despite being more brutal than a truck full of fetuses colliding with a giant razorblade, Anata's songs stick to you. There is no filler... each track holds it's own.

The vocals are growled and there are no pitiful attempts at clean singing. Another awesome trait is the basswork... simply stunning bass interludes that are hypnotically melodic. Instead of following the guitars, Anata's bassist strays into his own territory while still complimenting the music.

I could go on like this for a few pages worth of text, but hey, don't believe me... check this incredible band out for yourself.