Hate Eternal - Fury & Flames
April 12 2008 at 09:40:45 PM
Momentarily derailed by the death of bassist Jared Anderson in 2006, Hate Eternal returns now at the height of their acclaim with a new lineup comprised of founder Erik Rutan, minor luminaries like Ex-Ripping Corpse/Dim Mak guitarist Shaune Kelly, bona fide legend and original member Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse) and future hero in the making, Jade Simonetto on drums.
The music, however, remains a foregone conclusion as the group pushes every joint, knuckle and tendon to the limits of speed and durability with little to no variation, the outcome rendered just as predictably unsound as all their past efforts. It seems like a practical joke, this excess; every instrument crowded, shouted down and finally buried in mindless competition with one another, churning out substances at once nicely packaged and impossible to recognize through production as stiff and dull as the accompanying publicity shots.
While the memory of Anderson frames the bulk of response toward the album, these sentiments receive no validation in the bloodless, cold and mechanical sound. Save for a simple-minded aria (“Cornach”), which only evokes bad memories of Alas, there isn’t a single human emotion on display as the band fast-forwards through each track with yes, extraordinary precision, dexterity and timing. The effect no more moving than hearing the growl of a trash compactor or crunch of a cafeteria vending machine, which Rutan constantly mimics on his vocal tracks.
This is the limit of the band’s vastly over-appreciated prowess; nothing more required but to play something the other guy can’t, hammer the neck and wait for the accolades roll in. No longer ”inhuman” in the sense that all Death Metal evokes a vague monstrosity, the feeling of something more than flesh or the comic-colored images of our very mortality. Not even fun. It gives up those illusions for naked prowess, reducing magic to the lowest common denominator, confusing fire for the flashing bulbs of a soundboard.
Fury & Flames: “Ooh, lights.”
[Todd DePalma]
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