HateSphere

Bloodred Hatred (Century Media)
by Martin Popoff

Speaking of hatred, I feel moderately that way (Hate = Bad) when I see the stupid cover art, characterless band name, and rudderless album title to this second album from our favorite thrashy Danes. But once inside the musical maelstrom entombed, I’m quite enthralled, eager, ready to hear more Swedish melodic death metal written and played and percussively pounded at the high standards the genre demands through no other reason than merciless, exhaustive precedent.

I love the way this thing is thick and not steely and screechy, a sort of halfway handshake extended to high-fidelity American death metal. That’s one big-ass drum sound, from the crucials through, it seems, every last tom tom. Near bloody anthems like “Disbeliever,” “Insanity Arise,” and the proggy “Deeper And Deeper” raise the trusty names of Dark Tranquillity and Arch Enemy, and as things wind out with the Gothic melodies of “Kicking Ahead” (and a groove that’s got to be one of the biggest of ’03), I come away damn impressed at the pluck of these not-all-that-metal-looking rookies.
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