HateCrime - Война, которой нет

HATECRIME - Война, которой нет (PUTRID CULT CD 2018)

Some years ago I didn't think that there's any Russian band, which would be worth attention, but it changed with acts like Pyre, Pseudogod, The Prophet, Trigger or Grond. HateCrime is also from Russia and "Война, которой нет" (which means "A War That Doesn't Exist") is their first album, putted out by Putrid Cult. But this album is not able to convince me too much, I'm afraid. It's a decent record, I think that the band has some potential and really knows how to play their blacknened metal... but I just don't like their music, sorry to say. 

I really feel tired after playing "Война, которой нет" couple of times. This album is terribly long, it's also completely not my preferred style of black / death metal, so you have to forgive me if I will sound rather little enthusiastic and way too lazy to write in depth review about it. HateCrime music is one hand strongly rooted in black metal, but it's combined with death metal, in some riffs even heavy metal... everything is strongly melodic, almost Swedish – like, but that's where the problem lies for me. HateCrime often sounds too "nice", too melodic for me. They can play a nice aggressive, sharp riff and then suddenly come up with an annoying garbage, which would fit an Arch Enemy wannabe type of band, rather than extreme black metal act. Definitely the best parts are those, where the music is fast and the band doesn't care much for that melodic and more accessible side of their music. Like it's in songs such as "Рождение... Смерть" or "Режь вены вдоль". They are pretty decent. But the majority of "Война, которой нет" is slower and mostly just boring. Take that opening track "Во тьме". It's five minutes long instrumental piece, which I can't see a purpose for. And songs like "Духовный терроризм" sound awful to me, most of these riffs annoy and are uninteresting to my ears. I can admit that these guys can play their instruments, I think that even the vocalist, who screams or growls Russian lyrics, sounds not bad at all. And the production of this album is good too (but too clean for me, but I'm not complaining about that!). But it's not enough. It's type of an album, which I played three or four times and can't think of any reason, why would I want to come back to it. Sorry. 

Standout track: "Режь вены вдоль" 

Verdict: 55 / 100