Mexican black metal? Yeah I thought so, I was a little stumped thinking of examples too? It is not the place that one would first think of as being synonymous with the genre. Of course there are bands fromSouth Americawho walk the talk but listening to Black Hate they were nothing that I would have expected from the region. When I think of Mexico I must admit the first thing that springs to mind is all the problems that they have with drug cartels and the crime and mass slaughter that goes with them. Indeed the opening sample sounds like a crime radio report and was not unexpected and I set myself up for an unrelenting and primitively recorded barrage of bestial filth but that was not what I got in the slightest.

Apparently Black Hate started life as a one man raw black metal project but have evolved considerably since then as he released several demos and splits leading up to 2011 album ‘Years Of Solitude.’ The creative force behind the group B.G. Ikanunna actually wrote ‘Los Tres Mundos on his own but will continue composing and recording as a full band from now on.

There is an awful lot of ideas in this almost hour long album and it took a fair few listens to get to grips with it. We start with solid groove lines to ‘Lians-per-ti and it is only when the throat ripping shrieks come in that it resembles blackened metal in scope. These are augmented by more guttural parts (kind of like gang shouts) and you are left wondering where this is going to take you but as the battering melody hones away don’t care as it’s certainly good enough to bang your head along to. There is a lot of emphasis on the guitar work and solos and jagged rampant breaks show that there is plenty of skill involved in that department. ‘Ika-nun-na’ centres on the melody and flamboyant licks joust away before a more ritualistic chanting part takes hold with vocals that remind a bit of Attila albeit a Mexican version. Like I said lots going on here!

Although the music has been a bit on the rampant side there has been suggestions of a depressive BM side to it and the sorrowful melody that would not be out of place on a Shining (Swe) album takes over on ‘Subconsciente’ and really expresses this dimension of things with more definition; the tortured vocals working perfectly with the music. It seems like this is partly the way forward but then again as a track like ‘La Ultima Soloucion’ builds there is also a definite tribal feel to things too as it goes from depressive to crazed and manically rabid. It all works well though and clearly this mans vision and songwriting skills are well thought out and expertly put together.

Everything seems to lead up to the title track which is an epic 15 minute depressive odyssey. There’s plenty of drama behind the expressive elongated vocal delivery and the repetitious, spiralling mid-paced guitar lines embed themselves in your head early on in the number. Some piano creeps in and joins with everything else working with some clean vocals but all delivered in a slightly disharmonic way before things go heavy and wretched sounding once more. It really is a great track and marks an end to the cycle perhaps, as forward into a full band, we are told the depressive sound is going to move towards a more avant-garde style of black metal.

No doubt that will be very interesting but and it’s far too early to tell if I am going to enjoy it as much as Los Tres Mundos, which has certainly left its mark and comes across as the closest you will probably hear to a S. American version of Shining and Xasthur.

(8/10 Pete Woods)

http://www.blackhateofficialweb.mex.tl