HATE - Victims (METAL MIND - CD 1998)
This is one of the lesser
known Hate releases, because it was released only for the Polish market (I
think) and maybe not so many copies have been thrown abroad. Which is a shame,
I must repeat again, as it’s another really awesome pure death metal recording from
this band and just as the two previous materials – full length albums “Daemon
Qui Fecit Terram” and “Lord is Avenger” – this one also deserves more
attention. Who knows then, maybe one day it will be re-released. If it doesn’t,
then you may still try to find it in Poland.
But what is “Victims”
actually? It’s an EP, with four new songs from the band plus two covers. And as
a bonus the CD contains an old demo, which is a fantastic addition, in my
opinion. Well, starting with those new tracks… This is Hate we all know from
the albums I mentioned above. Brutal, fast, satanic death metal, which
devastates everything on its way. Quality wise it’s the same level as “Lord is
Avenger”. Hate didn’t make any improvement, didn’t change anything in their
style, so these songs may even sound as some leftovers from the session of the
previous album… or could have easily been featured on the mentioned album and
it would make no harm to it at all. They’re just equally good, in my opinion
and the sound (again from Selani Studio, which back then in the 90’s was quite
popular among Polish death metal bands) is also very alike. I suppose the song
“Holy Dead Trinity” is the best here, it’s also quite popular I think, as it
was played on gigs quite often and more so, it’s also featured on the next full
length album “Cain’s Way”. I also like “No Life After Death” a lot, as it’s
fast, crushing song, creating a bloody massacre instantly. Awesome! The same
recording session brings two covers (Napalm Death’s “Kill” and Slayer’s
“Postmortem”) and especially the second one is fantastic.
I mentioned that the CD
contains also a demo as a bonus and it’s “The Unwritten Law”, truly killer demo
from 1995 and damn, I love it. Of course the sound difference is huge, the demo
doesn’t sound even half as powerful and clean as the recent Hate recordings,
but I like it anyway, as I love such harsh, demo productions. It’s because of
it, the music sounds so damn aggressive, dark, obscure, morbid and brutal. I
can even go as far and say that I like this demo more than any other Hate
recording! It’s just excellent insanely fast and furious, possessed death metal
in the vein of Deicide (“Living Sacrifice”, what a killer, fast song, but it
has an ending part, which sounds like a copy of “Sacrificial Suicide” haha),
with some Slayer-ish riffs here and there (“Performance”) and generally it’s
impressive and beautifully reinless. I like also Adam’s vocals, as they sound
harsher and just different from his quite recognizable voice on the future
albums. Sadly “Victims” doesn’t bring the whole “The Unwritten Law”, as there
are two songs missing… anyways, this demo fuckin kills brutally and is a
fantastic addition. Love it.
Standout tracks: “Holy Dead
Trinity”, “Living Sacrifice”
Final rate: 80/100
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