Review of Hate - Morphosis

While Decapitated, Behemoth and Vader are considered Polish death metal royalty, there’s a second tier of the Polish death metal aristocracy headed up by the likes of Yattering, Trauma, Crionics and underlooked veterans, Hate.

Not only buried under the prestige of their own country mates, but also 2008’s slew of killer death metal, comes Hate’s 6th full length album, and as with their previous albums it delivers a damn solid, if not elite delivery of slightly cybernetically tinged death metal that pulls elements from all the above mentioned bands, but namely Behemoth and Vader meets Crionics.

With a few minimal whirrs and beeps given the album its minimal cyber gloss, that’s never as present as Crionics, the base of Hate’s assault is drummer Hexen who is machine like in his blistering performance, getting right to the savage salvo of “Threnody”, “Immum Coeli” and “Catharsis”, which while on the surface reach furious, singular levels of Crionics styled similarity and pacing, have far more depth and skillful pacing swirling underneath the blast beats by virtue of subtle melodies and pace shifts. “Resurrection Machine” stops the album from careening into runaway train territory by slowing things down. And thusly, unlike Crionics, Hate manages to break up the relentless pace of the album with well placed and menacing slower songs and segments.

Slow, sturdy burners like “The Evangelistic Pain” and closer “Erased” offset the albums savage opening few tracks and the intro to the otherwise vitriolic standout “Omega” delivers a short moment of relief. Throw is a stout Hertz Studio/Wieslawski Bros. (Decapitated, Severe Torture, Hermh, Elysium), production and forcefully gruff but not guttural vocals and the end result is a super tight death metal album worthy of the attention of their country mates and peers.