Total Hate - Necare Humanum Est

TOTAL HATE - Necare Humanum Est (PALE DOMINION - CD 2010)

To be honest with you all, there was a time when German black metal was something that just made me laugh and feel pity for most of the bands from this country used to be absolutely shitty. Just think of all the crap that was coming out from the infamous Last Episode (Last Epitaph) Records and bands like Mystic Circle, Eminenz, Dunkelgrafen, Aeba and other similar shit. Yeah, I completely disliked everything that was coming out from Germany. Luckily many things have changed since then. Few bands appeared that caught my attention and some of them became my total favourites for the whole black metal scene - I'm talking here about Secrets of the Moon and Helrunar: two fantastic, wonderful bands. And there are also few other hordes that I really, really like, such as Nachmahr, Sun of the Sleepless, Dornenreich, Lunar Aurora... These bands play maybe more atmospheric kind of black metal, but there are also fantastic traditional acts like Graven, Vargsang and few others I don't remember now. Finally there are some less known bands, which also deserve to be recognised by the true and diehard maniacs, for their solid music, which maybe isn’t the most groundbreaking, but more than just decent. And Total Hate is exactly that kind of band. I already knew them from their first album, "Depopulating Planet Earth", they've done for Agonia Records. Damn, I can't find this CD now, too much stuff is in my CD closet and the mess is too big there, but I would love to listen to this album now again, prior to "Necare Humanum Est" to see if there are many changes between both albums... But that doesn't matter, as I already said "Necare Humanum Est" is more than just solid black metal album.

If you dig the mid period Darkthrone albums - and who doesn't? - then "Necare Humanum Est" is for you. While listening to this CD I have such classics as "Total Death" and "Ravishing Grimness" in my mind, not only for the sound quality, but mainly for the riffing and the overall style of the music of Total Hate. But there are also some similarities to the early Carpathian Forest, "Black Shining Leather" LP, as well as such bands as Gorgoroth (early) and Tsjuder... and here we go. This is what you can find here style wise. The song writing isn't innovative or original, it's just classic black metal, but the songs are very OK, the riffs are blasting with furious, necro energy and the atmosphere on the album is truly dark and hateful. The whole material is well diverse and so there's an equal measure of fast, intense and maybe slightly monotonously played tracks and mid paced, kind of black'n'rollish stuff, with some excellent and almost catchy riffing. The whole playing is very fine, I also like the vocals and the production of "Necare Humanum Est"... There’s just nothing bad I can say about it. And maybe it is not be the most remarkable of all black metal releases I've heard recently, but definitely it is a solid and worthy record, which I did enjoy listening to and will keep in my collection for sure.

Final rate: 69/100