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Hate Eternal: Conquering the throne

05/11/10 || Habakuk

You know, there are these people that can tell a Tipton from a Downing solo. I can’t figure that shit out for the life of me. Not that I try to hard, but personal differences in guitar playing are beyond my comprehension, for the most part. Enter Hate Eternal and their debut album. Contenders: Erik Rutan of Morbid Angel fame, these days making a name as producer of all kinds of bands, and Doug Cerrito of Suffocation. These two set out to create a follow-up band to the long gone Ripping Corpse in which Rutan had played before, named it after an unreleased song of said band and went off to find a common formula.

The general skill level is high, unsurprisingly. A common song formula there is not. There are two kinds of songs: a) Rutan songs (8). b) Cerrito songs (3).

a) is characterized by a lot of blast beats, high speed, repetition and not much groove.
b) is characterized by a lot of blast beats, high speed, variation and a lot of groove.

Cerrito’s songs, for one more simple reason are easy to separate from the rest: they are a lot better. Every Suffocation fan is in for a treat, blast/groove alternations galore, classy breakdowns included. Rutan’s stuff on the other hand takes the direction of later Hate Eternal, with a ropy flow of riffs that try to by chaotic as all shit, but come across as rather uninspired. The results are one-dimensional, ultra-fast songs that stick to one pace from start to finish. Zzz.

And yes, I can even tell who plays the solos. Rutan’s characteristic crystalline yet dissonant melodic style makes it possible. It’s distinct, but I don’t like it too much, it dragged “Gateways to annihilation” down as well. Rutan thanks Cerrito as “the Riff Master” in the booklet, and he probably didn’t know how right he was in admiring the skills of his counterpart. Ole Erik hasn’t come up with a riff as good as the intro to “Spiritual Holocaust” on any Hate Eternal song I’ve heard. While we’re at it, that is one fantastic tune. Produce an album full of these, and I’ll gladly hand out a ten (And I never hand out tens). That didn’t happen until today, though. I do not know why they parted ways after “Conquering the throne”, but it sure didn’t help the band retain a seat there.

In other news: The production is pleasantly full yet still differentiated even during the meanest blast assault. And if the strings weren’t being picked constantly, one could even enjoy the fat, sawing guitar sound that shines through on some open parts. No fucking with Rutan in the production department, that’s for sure. Well, maybe if you’re a bass player, but then again, this is a high-speed death metal band with two guitarists. Not being able to hear the bass here is forgivable, I think. Vocals (done by Rutan, of course) are quite good as well, with a raspy growl that has a kind of “hollow” tone to it. Quite alright. Last but not least, the drummer has an important job here, and he’s obviously fast and pretty tight as well, but doesn’t come across as overly creative during his non-stop barrage. Solid performance, though.

So, what do we learn from this: Just because it’s fast and downtuned and heavy and christhating, that doesn’t mean Death Metal works without songwriting. I don’t know how often I’ve written something like this before, but thanks for the reminder, Erik. I mean Doug.

6,5

Information
Released: 1999
Label: Wicked World records
Website: Hate Eternal MySpace
Band
Erik Rutan: vocals, guitars
Doug Cerrito: guitars
Jared Anderson: bass
Tim Yeung: drums

Tracklist
01. Praise of the almighty
02. Dogma condemned
03. Catacombs
04. Nailed to obscurity
05. By his own decree
06. The creed of chaotic divinity
07. Dethroned
08. Sacrilege of hate
09. Spiritual holocaust
10. Darkness by oath
11. Saturated in dejection

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