Electric Hellride - Hate.Control.Manipulate

Electric Hellride

Hate.Control.Manipulate

by Lior "Steinmetal" Stein at 21 January 2013, 3:23 PM

Hate, so much abhorrence in the world that one might choke upon it. Various types of animosities towards people can be described in so many ways that I will probably loose count. However, I can always trust music to brighten up my perception towards ideas that concern the meaning of hate, its impact upon our corrupted social infrastructure, the limited self-control that its loss might introduce another form of violence and the manipulation of those that wish to abuse the usage of power to their own personal gain. In overall, this is more of the many examples of how our lives have been deteriorating. Can we defeat the wolf that is about to feast on our sheep? Can we stop this plague? Only father time will tell, or may it be the Thrash / Groove Metal band ELECTRIC HELLRIDE from Denmark to carry the torch to provide some answers to this long-lasting enigma. After being busy at representing Denmark in the latest Wacken Open Air Metal Battle, ELECTRIC HELLRIDE signed with Mighty Music and recently released their debut chugger, “Hate.Control.Manipulate”. Distorted by the sounds of other modern Metal deliverances such as HATESPHERE, SOILWORK, DOWN, LAMB OF GOD, PANTERA,  METALLICA, 90s TESTAMENT, this group aims form a diverse groovy, modern and heavy Metal line to march ahead in the frontal assault against ourselves and themselves.

On the other hand, with their fine intent at being diverse on paper, with several directions whether Thrash, Death, Sludge and slight Hardcorish nature, of course everything delivered through a constricted modern form, I believe that “Hate.Control.Manipulate” didn’t go far. Actually after listening to it for several of times, I felt as if I landed on a pool of mud in a distant barren land. So as you might imagine from my written words, it surely wasn’t dry but in a way it was a sort of an ordeal for me. I think that I was listening to a band that has a say against what has been going on in the world, attacking the inner sickness and other things that will eventually destroy us all and devour our whole existence. Yet, themes aside, their directive that consists of hefty riffing, which had its way to display a sense of diversity but eventually ending up in the same spot that is rhythm based tunes, occasional soloing that kept my hopes up, monotonic vocal line that surprisingly resembled like a crowded mixture of Hetfield, Petrozza, Speed, Anselmo and Angelripper, and a solid rhythm section that played its part, didn’t quite convince me. I felt that this album lacked melodies, other than solos, has a series of some boring and reoccurring riffs, and there is the band’s robust reliance on spastic vocals that might sounded angered as hell, but after a few times channelled as the same type of anaemic raspy discharges found in today’s modern music.

I found tremendous potential within a few of the songs like the oppressive mid tempo demolition of “Hatred Propaganda”, the band’s greatest achievement on this release, that struck down several fine riffs, and a fine chorus, rather uncommon, but with strong lyrics to back it up. “Exhaling Chaos”, moderately assorted than the rest of the tracklist. Still high on fire when it comes to the destructive riffing, which presented a few tasty ones particularly on the verses and passages, this song also displayed a bit of atmosphere that provided by open chords of the rhythm guitars along with impressive bass work. This complex section took a turn as Nu Metal in direction but undoubtedly the song’s lifesaver fresh mint. In short, I liked the band’s aggression on the rhythms, heavy riffing, the fine scorched production inducing the modern sound of the Americanized pattern, the soloing seemed like an offshoot as if it wasn’t the same band at all, yet, there is work to be done on finding ways to make the music more interesting. I have no probably on being on the attack, but there is a way to wage constant war.