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Hate: Awakening of the liar

30/07/12 || Sokaris

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Polish band, plays death metal advancing the musical scriptures provided by Morbid Angel, incorporates a slightly blackened edge, explores occult themes and has a singer/guitarist named Adam.

I’m talking about Hate, of course!

Okay, the Behemoth comparisons are obvious and inevitable so let’s get that out of the way first. Graal (longtime Behemoth artist) even did the layout here and the production style isn’t dissimilar from the one given the then one year old “Zos kia cultus”. These guys even seem to share Behemoth’s fashion sense as of late. Oh and in the time between drafting and proofreading this review, Hate scheduled recording of their next album with Behemoth’s soundguy. All that’s on the table so let’s move on past the obvious comparison.

I’ve dropped the B-word plenty of times already but it’s not meant to be an insult in any way. I promise. I’ve always considered Hate to be peers and both bands to represent the best of a small niche of Polish death merchants that all share some common ground. Both bands developed their respective sounds over time and only came upon their current formulae through many years of evolution and strengthening. For Hate, up until this point they had been a fairly solid if not standout act that laid on the Deicide influence nice and thick. Considering their previous album Cain’s way was barely in the rearview mirror it’s surprising how much more experienced the band performing on “Awakening of the liar” sounds. There’s a swell of confidence, determination and purpose that drives the songs.

There’s a fair amount of diversity that helps make the runtime just breeze by. The band will occasionally jackhammer ultra-simple rhythms as clever transitions. They might just as easily play a twisted riff puzzle and turn it into a viable hook. The common element is that it’s all about good riffing and compelling songs rather than any specific instrumental performance. This facet of the foursome would be brought even further to the forefront in the future (fuck!).

If you’ve never heard Hate, this is a fine place to start, as it’s the first of their releases that steps into the more modern sound that would define them. The industrial elements the band successfully experimented with haven’t been introduced yet but the main ingredients are still the same. Chunky but esoteric sounding riffs alternate with aggressive tremolo melodies, the occasional Middle Eastern inflection and a heavy amount of percussive (but never boring) picking patterns. Complimented with overly fast drums and Adam the First Sinner’s guttural howls, we have a winning recipe for quality death metal.

Even a fairly new death metal listener is likely to stumble across the fact that Polish dudes know how to play the genre damn well. Buy the Vader discography, snag up Behemoth’s more brutal work, obtain some early Decapitated and then Hate probably stands as the next go-to band if you’re still thirsting for more prizes from Poland.

7,5

Information
Released: 2003
Label: Listenable Records
Website: www.hate-metal.com
Band
Adam the First Sinner: vocals, guitar
Kaos: guitar
Cyprian: bass
Hellrizer: drums

Tracklist
01. Flagellation
02. Anti-god Extremity
03. Close to the Nephilim
04. Immolate the pope
05. The shroud (A hellish value)
06. The scrolls
07. Awakening of the liar
08. Serve god, rely on me (Hymn of Asa’el)
09. Grail in the flesh
10. Spirit of Gospa

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