“Remember who you are.”
Those words arrive on “The Carrion Choir”, the second track here, and they feel appropriate for Hatebreed’s first album in six years.
I had to check that it really had been six years since “Weight Of The False Self”. Then again, I’ve lost all track of time since the pandemic. I saw something on Instagram earlier pointing out that if Marty McFly went back 30 years from now, he’d end up in 1996. That frightened me. I’m still not entirely convinced 1996 was that long ago.
Anyway, while I’m trying to get my head around the passing of time, it strikes me that this must be a perfect time for hardcore. There’s always something to be angry about, isn’t there?
Anger, it is fair to say, has never been a problem for Hatebreed.
“Kill Count Increase” is a fairly unequivocal way of announcing their return. Welcome back. And by the time “The Carrion Choir” is reminding you who you are, there’s little chance of forgetting who they are, either.
Whatever else has happened in the intervening years, Hatebreed still sound utterly like themselves. Jamey Jasta’s roar remains central to it all, and when he screams “same blood, different shades of red” on “Decisions Become Destinies”, perhaps there’s a reminder that there’s more that unites us than divides us. Delivered like this, it’s difficult to ignore.
“Total Invincible” follows with the sort of defiance that makes you wonder whether this music might actually live forever. There will always be a need for it, you suspect. As long as there’s something to rage against, someone will want to turn the volume up and do exactly that.
The title track slows things down and absolutely crushes. “Still A Threat”, meanwhile, has a slashing riff, and the two together underline how effective they remain whether they’re bearing down on you or cutting straight through.
“Sacrifice Season” brings Obituary’s John Tardy in on vocals and, appropriately enough, is the fastest thing here, if not necessarily the heaviest. There’s something rather fitting about that particular guest joining this particular racket. It certainly doesn’t suggest anyone is in the mood to take things easy.
“Truth Is A Lion” is a real highlight. “How many times have you been told not to believe your eyes?” runs its question, and in the age of AI, that feels pertinent. How much of what we see, or even what we hear, are we supposed to trust? It’s the sort of line that stays with you beyond the immediate force of the song.
“Make The Demons Obey” comes next, and when Jasta is in this mood, do they have any choice? Matt Byrne’s drums are so fast and crushing that resistance seems a fairly pointless exercise.
Then there’s “None Left To Save”. Are we at the point where this sort of nihilism is all we have left? You might hope otherwise, but the song makes you consider it. More unexpectedly, its outro is sensational. At over six minutes, it stretches into territory you don’t necessarily associate with this band.
Hatebreed going prog? Everything’s relative, obviously, but I wasn’t expecting to be asking the question.
The last word goes to “Poison Planet”, a Corrosion Of Conformity cover reaching back to the days when they, too, were a hardcore band, before becoming the outfit we know now. It’s in Hatebreed’s natural ballpark, certainly, but they make it sound like one of their own.
And that’s really the point. They’re a hardcore band, but they don’t sound quite like Terror or Agnostic Front. They’re very much their own men, and “Fatal Paradox” carries that identity through every crushing moment.
Nine albums in, it’s another killer. Six years might have passed, but Hatebreed remember exactly who they are.
Welcome back.
Rating: 8.5/10
