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Hatebreed: Satisfaction is the death of desire

12/08/09 || Habakuk

Note that this is not a review of the people that listen to Hatebreed, the load of copy/paste bands they supposedly helped spawn, or baseball caps. It is about an album that isn’t exactly metal (to rain on the pvrists’ parade before it begins), but that doesn’t have to shy away from much, if anything, in this beloved genre of ours in terms of intensity. Back in ‘97, of all men, a young bunch of Connecticut-based meatheads stepped in to stir things up a bit in heavy music. I don’t know much about Connecticut, I’ve got to admit, but something there must have pissed them off mightily. Or maybe it was the high percentage of shit that came out of the metal scene that year.

“Satisfaction is the death of desire” features only one song that crosses the 2:30 minutes-mark, most others clock in around 1:40 minutes. These guys know what works for them and stick to their guns, simply combining fast and straightforward rage with slowly grooving, stomping slam-parts. The order of these basic two ingredients is twisted around a bit, the band adds a couple of build-ups here and there and, most importantly, they know when to stop. Lo and behold, if there’s not more than one repetition of the chorus, a simple verse-chorus-breakdown setup actually works! Well, sometimes there isn’t even a chorus. No frills anywhere, which secures this album a place in the efficient albums-Hall of Fame. The difference to many contestants in the field of musical efficiency (mainly hailing from the grindcore scene) however is that the music at hand is kept a lot catchier.

The production is a huge leap forward from their terribly produced “Under the knife” EP. “Satisfaction is the death of desire” sounds like they recorded it in a studio that was passed by a Rhino stampede during the session. Fuck knows why something like that would happen in Connecticut, but chances are said stampede turned into a circle pit 14 seconds into the first song and no more geography questions were asked. The production doesn’t leave much to be desired, featuring a loud, crisp, dry sound, and perfectly balanced instruments: Down-tuned guitars that sound as thick as they get while retaining some sharp cutting edge, non-fuzzy bass that rumbles nastily in the back, drums that pack some serious punch and on top of all that, clearly audible vocals. Since, as you’ll find out soon, those actually are the major driver of the songs, it was quite a logical move to place them prominently in the mix.

Now while their sound might be awesome, what actually happens across the 12 strings worked on by Mr. McIntosh and Mr. Richards isn’t all that special. It’s a competent performance, and from time to time the guys churn out some pretty awesome riff, but oftentimes they simply produce background noise (but in the best possible notion) to the vocals. There’s quite a lot of the chugging breakdowns that are nowadays found guilty for everything wrong to metal, I must however at this point remind you that this doesn’t attempt or claim to be metal. It just gives a lot of metal bands a run for their money. So, these said breakdowns do work fine in the stripped-down musical context, but musically they’re nothing to go crazy about. Lead sections or solos wouldn’t fit anywhere on this album anyway, so it’s a good thing the guys don’t go Santolla on us. No time anyway. Must produce noise.

The bass is basically the same: It sounds really, really good, but there’s not much to it. It ma(i)nly follows the guitars, gets to shine here and there, but that ‘s about it. Solid stuff, no rocket science.

Drummer Jamie Muckinhaupt is a groover, that’s for sure. He’s knows what he’s doing behind the kit, providing extra punch where appropriate, adding some nice double-bass work from time to time, freshening up his patterns by a couple of extra snare hits and overall doing a great job at making it all flow nicely despite the use of pretty basic components in the song structures. He obviously likes his cymbals a lot, since they see some extensive use, but that’s fine by me.

Anyway, let’s get to the really good stuff: Fuck you and then some, Jamey Jasta is pissed off! His vocals are the definition of ballsy “tough guy” hardcore shouts. Hate those? Feel free to skip the band altogether. This is all about the vocals. With a different singer than Jamey Jasta, chances are that Hatebreed would have been surpassed by some other band in their genre, because it’s his vocal delivery that keeps them rolling. To be frank, he could probably spew out his guts over the sound of a passing train and it would sound awesome. Just add drums. His performance is flawless, absolutely captivating and the best thing about this album. Many have tried to recreate it, all have failed. His lyrics are mostly written from a first-person perspective, which may read a bit awkward, but the moment you hear Jasta bellow them out, you’ll quickly find that they work perfectly. As immature as all his “me against the world” stuff might seem, you’ll be shouting along in no time. And it’s actually a lot less cheesier than some of their later material.

Every second breathes life into a reason for dying.
Our own ignorance will only stunt our final will to live.
Bound and Gagged, I feel forced back in a losing race.
I’ve been stepped on and passed by but I have enough hope to keep fighting.
All of my life, all of my pain, driven by suffering
Every single choice I must make, driven by suffering.

The cover art features a black and white picture of band folks jumping around on stage in front of a picture of folks not jumping around on stage in light blue, and a red and white band logo. Get rid of the flames, for fuck’s sake. And while you’re at it, go all the way and make it say Hätebreed altogether. Anyway, the weird color choice makes everything look a bit scrapped together. The album title is written in some gay tattoo-style font and I wouldn’t be surprised to read this on the back of that fat baldhead fucker going ballistic in the moshpit. I dunno, man. I prefer fonts associated with more user-friendly mediums. It doesn’t take a good cover to produce a strong album, though, once again it’s all about efficiency: Take a solid instrumental base, place an awesome singer in front of that, give it a very good production and get to the point. The resulting music on display is clearly better than just the sum of its parts.

There really is not much fancy stuff, but Hatebreed concentrated on what they knew best: Producing honest, straightforward, no-bullshit music that’s stripped down to its essential core. Haha, core! It’s definitely not the cleverest output to ever grace the earth, but it packs a lot more hunger and anger than a great deal of “modern” metal albums . Don’t let the band’s different imagery or reputation among many seasoned and not-so-seasoned metalheads put you off. If you’ve had enough of tech demos or half-assed attempts at recreating the same old story, if you can get over the fact that the band has a somewhat different musical background, and if you have an interest in intense, fast, violent music, “Satisfaction is the death of desire” might be a refreshing 26-minutes glimpse out of the metal box.

Information
Released: 1997
Label: Victory Records
Website: www.hatebreed.com
Band
Jamey Jasta: vocals
Matt McIntosh: guitar
Lou Richards: guitar
Chris Beattie: bass
Jamie Muckinhaupt: drums

Tracklist
01. Empty promises
02. Burn the lies
03. Before dishonor
04. Puritan
05. Conceived through an act of violence
06. Afflicted past
07. Prepare for war
08. Not one truth
09. Betrayed by life
10. Mark my words
11. Last breath
12. Burial for the living
13. Worlds apart
14. Driven by suffering

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