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Hate Squad: I.Q. zero

04/10/11 || Habakuk

1995 – Germany. There’s still a bunch of young guys that sport long-ass hair despite Phil Anselmo getting rid of his. They have apparently heard ”Chaos A.D.”, yet they still know their thrash ABC. Which translates to the youthful rage being still there, however the times of leather gear being over, which is now replaced by Adidas jerseys after Andreas Kisser has been seen in a Borussia Dortmund soccer dress. In the same fashion, “pure” thrash is no more. Now, what does soccer jersey thrash sound like?

Hate Squad’s interpretation: Up the bass a notch, insert a notion of groove heavily carried by what I call “intermittent snare hit patterns” for lack of a better term. Take good use of snappy double bass drumming and go for a Cavalera-like shout somewhere in the badlands between thrash and death; actually the lyrics are similarly dumbed down as Max’ later work. So, pretty much we have old school-rooted German groove thrash here. What’s interesting is that apart from the groove meets thrash shtick, it has little pieces here and there that sound like ideas that should later on make it into some metal deviations full force, but here they’re nothing but ideas – for example, a little jungle beat to accompany a song coda or a very small number of bits that are sung in an effect-laden clean moaning (and suck). You see a pattern here: That kind of shit seems to be mandatory for today’s Plague Metal bands, so yes, this album could be considered “influential” – but it’s kind of baffling why exactly those portions that are clearly not too good (and scarce at that) take the merits for that. The rest of the whole mix isn’t bad at all – sure, it gets a little repetitive after burning its initial fuel in the great “Not my God” or “B.D.D.”, but it never fails to regain its thick, smashing momentum after a short quality dip.

And you know what’s also baffling? That no-one seems to know this album, despite Heaven Shall Burn covering the opening song half-decently (note the intermittent snare hits during the opening riffs). At least someone’s appreciating their roots here – however, with exactly one reference found, “influential” seems to be not the correct term for the album. More like, “ahead of the pack”.

I mean, this came out in 1995. Before Shadows Fall or Killswitch Engage or all these shit bands even surfaced. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m Mr. know-it-all here, you know how I found this? Listened to a Driller Killer song called “Hate Squad 69”, and was like – “why is there no band with that name?” – Google did the rest. Pure chance. Never have I seen this band mentioned anywhere else. Putting this in contrast to the musical content, I guess it’s safe to say this album is criminally under-appreciated. Again by pure chance (I didn’t even find it on the web), I found a copy in a used CD store for 5 bucks or something, and the case still has the “Hate Squad on tour with Kreator” sticker on it. I bet these guys were at least equal to Cause for Conflict -era Mille and the boys on that tour.

I know that being named alongside ass bands (minus Kreator) exclusively isn’t exactly the best advertising, but I’m really trying to take up the cudgels for these guys – what they did on “I.Q. Zero” is unique and good enough to be judged on its own, not in conjunction with all the fail bands that evolved from it. And if only for historical value: give it a shot – if you can find it.

7.5

Information
Released: 1995
Label: GUN Records
Website: Hate Squad MySpace
Band
Mark Künnemann: guitars
Tim Baurmeister: guitars
Burkhard Schmitt: vocals
Bauke de Groot: bass
Helge Dolgener: drums

Tracklist
01. Not my God
02. B.D.D.
03. My truth
04. I.Q. Zero
05. Dishonesty
06. Crucified
07. Different from you
08. Terror
09. Respect

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