Hate began carving out their global mark with their first official record for Mercenary Musik, the sonic crusher known as Cain's Way. To this date, Cain's Way remains one of the strongest Death Metal albums I've ever heard in my life. The band signed to Listenable Records after the piss-poor job done for them by Mercenary Musik, and next unleashed Awakening of The Liar. Although not as potent as its predecessor, Awakening of The Liar was still a formidable piece of Death Metal and stayed in my stereo for a long time.
Since then, I've heard bits of pieces of Hate's recent output but never actually sat down with it to see how the band had progressed. When Pardo assigned me Erebos to review, I got a bit nostalgic and somewhat excited. However, all of that faded away when I looked at a promo photo of the band now, proceeded to listen to Erebos and realized that the once mighty Hate had somehow transformed into Behemoth Jr. over the years!
Mind you, I love Behemoth and I'm proud of those dudes for their accomplishments. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that bands from their own country would want to borrow from them a bit, but not when those bands are already established and had already released a plethora of work that stood just fine on its own merits. Imitation may be a sincere form of flattery, but in this case, it's pretty sad.
I'm not taking anything away from the musicianship Hate displays on Erebos, because these guys are still at the top of their field in that department. On the songs "Wrists" and "Lux Aeterna" drummer, Hexen, lays down some of the finest drum work I've heard in a minute. The patterns are interesting, volatile, and not typical by any means. However, that's the only thing that shines on Erebos.
Do you like Behemoth? If so, you'll enjoy Hate's latest offering as well. As for me, I'll be with the rest of my jaded ilk listening to Cain's Way and reminiscing of better days in Polish Death Metal.
Track Listing
01. Genesis
02. Lux Aeterna
03. Erebos
04. Quintessence Of Higher Suffering
05. Trinity Moons
06. Hero Cults
07. Transsubstance
08. Hexagony
09. Wrists
10. Luminous Horizon
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