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HATE
Bellum Regiis
Metal Blade Records

Ever since I got Holy Dead Trinity, a compilation combining the album Lord Is Avenger and the EP Victims, this early taste of Polish Death Metal helped make my appreciation for great bands outside of the States grow more and more. While the band was new to me with abundant hints of many of the great established bands I already liked, this band stood out to me enough to make me a fan for life. It took a long time before I actually caught them live and it was well worth the wait. While some Polish Metal bands have lost a step or two, HATE has been maintaining consistency for 3 decades and is one of Poland's premier Metal bands that has taken Blackened Death Metal to new depths. Though a dozen fierce albums since 1996's Daemon Qui Fecit, lucky number 13 may be just that with their latest album entitled Bellum Regiis.

Having originally started as a Brutal Death Metal band, they took their sound down the Blackened path and have had a successful trip down this road with numerous great albums. Many characteristics in their songwriting set them apart, not just from Poland's other great acts but from Metal as a whole with an almost avant-garde approach as they don't conform to any typical cliche song structure, certainly one of their most appealing factors. So many catchy riffs they let breathe and consume space, they know this is no race against time, they use every amount of space with such an enormous sound. Every album has had catchy riffs and Bellum Regiis is no different, such as the case with "The Vanguard", one of my favorites off this album and "A Ghost Of Lost Delight" is another.

The production on this album is gargantuan, meant to use up all available space and, in vocalist/guitarist ATF Sinner's words, enables him "to portray emotions and meanings in a more powerful way". The opening track does exactly that with the help of renowned singer and voice teacher Eliza Sacharczuk, who also runs a holistic arts center in Bialystok, Poland. It is that sort of energy that while some nay-sayers and those afraid of Metal as a whole won't ever understand, is such an overwhelming and empowering feeling. This is the type of album that strengthens you while at the same time sends a satisfying chill up and down your spine thanks to the excellent production by David Castillo (CANDLEMASS, DARK TRANQUILITY, KATATONIA) at Stockholm's Grondahl Studio.

Through these nine songs also featuring guitarist Domin who has accompanied ATF since 2017's Tremendum, drummer Nar-Sil and bassist Tiermes who both return for the second album with HATE, Bellum Regiis (loosely translated as "A War Of Royalty" or "A War Of Kings") and songs like "Alfa Inferi Goddess of War", reinforce the idea that HATE conquers all. Just as Serpenth of BELPHEGOR exclaims, "HATE is back with another masterpiece! A crushing new opus of dark and epic anthems!" As art is a reflection of life, no matter how negative, it certainly influences us and can empower us and HATE turns the harsh reality that "humanity and why are we, as creatures, so deeply motivated by concepts like power, wealth, glory, and faith" - to create a piece that reminds us that we are stronger than those evil forces. Without any unnecessary focus on "fast" songs, HATE demonstrate the use of every powerful moment in the music making their highly accomplished sound just more intense in nature, taking you to a dark but comfortable place.

5.0 Out Of 5.0