Polish extreme metal, eh? These days, it’s pretty much synonymous with Behemoth, which – to my mind at least – is a massive shame. There’s been a really great and healthy scene over there for a long time now, and Hate are one of the oldest among them, plying their ways since making demos way back in the early 90’s. A really decent band, they’ve always really been in the wake of the titans of their home nation, like the aforementioned Fisher-Price death metal band, or venerable veterans like Vader. Aside from long-time vocalist Adam (the first sinner) though, this is pretty much a revitalised line up, with drumming duties being undertaken by Nar-Sil due to their old drummer being taken seriously ill, and Bass (Tiermes) and Guitar (Domin) being staffed by people who joined just prior to their last album, 2019’s “Auric Gates of Veles”. This is, therefore, a pretty new incarnation of Hate.
What are going to get then? Well, essentially, Hate have decided to crank up the Death Metal. Not by a notch, not by a couple, but by the whole dial. Hate have always flirted somewhat with the black metal side of things; dashes of dissonance, touches of the symphonic. Even the face paint brings to mind the orchestral Scandinavians. Yet here, Hate are really back in touch with that touchpoint of Polish Death Metal – an unsurpassed ability to have harsh, technically superior and surgically precise battery. Third track, “Exiles of Pantheon” is a rocket-enabled cruise missile of a track; immensely destructive but seemingly powered with scientific precision. Even tracks which threaten to be a bit more keyboards-and-moping, like “Awakening The Gods Within” soon actually channel violence, thanks in no small part to the more out-and-out death metal bombast of the drums. It’s hard to waste your song trying to be all black-metally when all your tub-thumper wants to do is wreck heads. This is, to my ears at least, a very welcome change for Hate.
In terms of lyrical content, from what I can make out from the snippets I get, it’s once again back to describing Slavic inspired mythology. The area of the title of the album actually refers to an archaic name for an island on the Black Sea, and it’s really cool to continue to see Hate exploring themes which build on their own heritage. It’s certainly the most savage I’ve heard Hate, probably since their earlier work. I listened back to a couple of my older album of theirs – 2010’s Erebos and 2008’s Morphosis – and found that Rugia was by far a more direct, brutal and uncompromising piece of art. IS it subtle? Possibly not, but then sometimes a straight forward approach brings results. It is, and continues to see Hate as one of the best Polish bands out there. This is an album that showcases their death metal credentials.
(8/10 Chris Davison)
Leave a Reply