Hatred - War Of Words

Hatred

War Of Words

by V.Srikar at 22 November 2015, 7:41 PM

With a generic band name like HATRED, it’s hard for any seasoned metalhead to take a band seriously, but the band’s 4^th full length album “War Of Words” is nothing like what you expect, whether it is from the name or the album cover art work, and that to me is one of the beauties of music, when it is subtle, deceiving, soft and yet hard, loud and in-your-face.

As mentioned above, with not a typical ‘Thrashy’ cover artwork, it was difficult to imagine what was in store, and even the 1^st song “D.E.T.Y.S.” which is just a 1:18 min beautifully constructed guitar driven instrumental, doesn’t reveal everything to you. So it has to come down to a drum solo driven “Fuck The Zombie” to get you into the groove and get the action started. With chocking, blunt, Grindcore/Black Metal-ish vocals, and also complex guitar riffs, the music does surprise me and gives me mixed feelings. “Watch The Genocide” starts with a scream that can scare the shit out of anybody, as the song goes along with its fast paced high tempo mode, and the vocals here oscillate between normal thick screaming Thrash Metal vocals in the 1^st half to the aforementioned Grindcore/Black Metal-ish vocals style vocals in the latter half. What’s worth mentioning here is that surprisingly both styles of vocals makes sense and works just fine for the song, along with the plethora of juicy guitar solos and riffs that are thrown around in the 2^nd half and the song ends similar to the way it started – with a nerve breaking scream, this time with both the vocals. Yes, so much, all in one song! The album gets more anthemic with “Chaos” and here there is an addition of a vocal style with a small part of clean vocals towards the end. So much variation that I thought that the band was trying too many things within a short span of time, even as the usual Thrash guitar work kept my sanity intact. “Virus” packs in an atmospheric acoustic piece in the middle amidst the Heavy Thrash madness, and oh, the solos are innovative and keep you engaged. It’s almost ironic that a band with such heavy aggressive sound, has an album titled “War Of Words”, but I must mention that the title song is sheer to become a crowd favorite in their live shows.

“Enter The Halls” is a bit of a disappointment compared to the other songs on offer here, but I must mention of listening to it repeatedly for few days it did grow on me and wasn’t as bad as I initially judged it. Interestingly, “Storm” creates quite a storm with its guitar and drum solos at different points of the song and the song is one of the better one’s on offer here. Oh boy, that drum work with those blast beats makes me jealous of the drummer, Philipp “Flip” Klinger’s skills! “Rise Up” underlines the shades of Death Metal in HATRED’s music, which to be fair, can be seen throughout the album, but is more evident in latter half of the album like this song.  The fast paced guitar work surely is a treat to the ears, and I can only imagine myself the guitarists Martin Koth and Frank Schmauser doing the tapping technique on their guitars! The lads try too hard to experiment and end up with a 7:25 min mid-tempo song in “World Turns Black”, which is rather pale compared to other tracks on offer here, and sadly the variety in tempo simply doesn’t translate into quality. What Thrash band attempts to blast a 13 min of brutal neck breaking Metal with slow solos sprinkled in between, to finish of the album (well, not technically, because we still have 3 bonus tracks)? Seriously, it needs some balls to pull off a song like “Hope - Train Of Thought”, although I do have a few issues like the monotonous vocals, but as a whole, the song surely is worth its length, and is sure to become a crowd favorite for the band’s live shows. The bonus songs are between 3-4 min each as they blast similar fast paced Death Metal influenced Thrash with high-octane drum blast beats and sharp solos in between. Having said that, I must mention that the last song on offer here “This Is Hell” is a tempo building song.

With album names like “Destruction Manual” and “Madhouse Symphony”, HATRED is slowly and surely creating a one hell of a discography that surely deserves more attention that it gets. So into their 17^th year, the German underground Thrash veterans new full length “War Of Words” clocking close to 70 minutes, surely is one of the better Thrash albums that I have come across in recent times, and it mainly stands out because of its unique sound and the band’s willingness to play raw, heavy and occasional surprises sprinkled here and there.