Hailing from Trondheim in Norway and proving that the area has many more styles played by the bands in the area than the obvious ones people would expect The Hate Colony describe themselves as ‘metalcoreish.’ The biog also mentions that they are perfect on their second album, the follow up to debut ‘Dead Or Victorious,’ for fans of Whitechapel, Ministry and Hatebreed, which is an interesting mix. Well I would certainly consider myself a fan of Ministry and am very au fait with Hatebreed and with this landing on my review pile I gave it the required spins and set out to ‘navigate’ my way around it.
The first thing that really catches attention on opener ‘Recheck’ and remains a constant throughout the album is the use of keyboards which are a very strong element within the music and I have to say a very welcome one. I think without them the band would suffer by being a bit too bland for my palate and they really do help give them some definition. As they weave in with a futuristic sound around the hefty drum tumult they remind a little of the bands since as Dark Tranquillity, mid era In Flames and even Deadlock. Vocally things are very different due to the gurgling, gravid growls of Lord Mordor (all the band have amusing monikers). There’s some real convoluted playing on this, not as bamboozling as mathcore but very choppy and churning proving the musicians can definitely cut a tune and play. Vocally it’s all a “grrr urghhh narrrr” tough guy beating chest sort of style and I have to admit it gets a bit tiresome being constantly in the face over 13 tracks and puts me off a bit. Mind you like the aforementioned In Flames they could go for harmonic emo style croons which would not suit them at all; at least we have plenty of unbridled aggression here.
Everything is pretty modern sounding and if put on the spot to guess the origin of the group without knowing, America would be the first choice I would pick. I certainly don’t however get anything of the ‘Ministry’ style mentioned here apart from the fact they play fast, it’s not industrial more akin to put the odd beat-down into the drumming rhythmic flourishes than anything else but to be fair I can hear similarities to the other bands mentioned. It’s the instrumental parts on songs like ‘The Letter’ that stand out for me as the guitars really do a great job at bringing some dextrous melody into the otherwise brootal assault. The thick chundering bass also makes its mark adding to the weight and heftiness throughout the album too and everything is well defined with a nice crisp production behind it.
One of the stand out moments is ‘When World’s Collide’ where they have what sounds like a bit of a metal rapper on hand at the start giving it a bit of a spark away from the normal vocals. The keyboards on this are nice and frosty and there’s a patch of progressive noodling. It would definitely be my top pick track wise. For every top there should be a bottom too and that was equally easy to pick. ‘Dialogue’ is horrible meathead metal anthem with temper tantrum vocals repeating themselves on a level that just reminds of all the worst sort of things from bands like Coal Chamber and Slipknot, yuck!!!
Apart from that notable glitch I have to say that I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to, it is instrumentally varied to a large degree, hell they even inject a bit of a ravey sound into ‘Pandemonium’ and it kept me on my toes throughout.
(6.5/10 Pete Woods)
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