Albums

Album Review: Hate Eternal

Album: Fury & Flames
Label: Metal Blade

Brutal death metal band Hate Eternal have just released their fourth full-length album named ‘Fury & Flames’, their first for Metal Blade since leaving Earache records. It is an album borne of difficult and unfortunate times for the band, in which members left during the 2006 tour, as well as the untimely death of former bassist Jared Anderson, who was in talks to rejoin the band for a new project. Guitarist and founding member Erik Rutan decided to continue with the band and channel his emotions into this album.

The artwork is provided by Paul Romano, a hugely influential artist who has worked with bands such as Mastodon, A Life Once Lost and Trivium.

At first, Rutan, who has produced a number of acclaimed death metal albums at his studio in Florida, chose to begin writing the new album alone, but in 2007 recruited Canadian drummer Jade Simonetto (via MySpace and YouTube) and ex-Ripping Corpse guitarist Shaune Kelley. Bass duties were filled by the formidable Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse) whose virtuoso style and playing was perhaps the only fitting replacement for Anderson.

It is said that the death of Anderson had a profound effect on Rutan’s approach to ‘Fury & Flames’. In an MTVnews.com interview Rutan said that the album is “a very dark and heavy record — not just heavy as in ‘heavy metal’, but heavy-hearted as well.” This is certainly felt in the album’s first track, ‘Hell Envenom’ where slabs of molten riffs and piercing tremolo picking collide with Simonetto’s rapid, pulsating drums, all backed by a growling bass.

Kelley’s guitar-work gives an excellent accompaniment to that of Rutan. Neither seem to stumble on each other and Rutan’s tone can be clearly heard over Kelley’s shredfest rhythm section, particularly on ‘The Funerary March’ and ‘Tombeau (Le Tombeau De La Fureur Et Des Flammes)’.

However, in some ways the guitars lack the biting high-end edge of other bands in the genre such as Suffocation, and are at times hard to differentiate alongside the blast-beats and Webster’s fierce low-end bass. Perhaps this is due to the sheer intensity and velocity in which this music is delivered. It definitely requires repeated listening, and more of the album will reveal itself.

Despite the deep personal feelings Rutan has had in the making of the album, each member of Hate Eternal (old and new) have joined together to produce the band’s most diverse and emotionally-charged record to date. You can tell Rutan wanted this album to be felt and experienced rather than just listened to.

For fans of: Suffocation, Immolation, Cannibal Corpse

Band links = Hate Eternal

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Tags: Album, CD, Hate Eternal, Fury and Flames, Metal Blade

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