Find the coverage and some great photos of this year's Devilstone Open Air written by our Lithuanian contributor Inga here>> www
Death metal is such a limitless genre. You can do whatever you'd like. It can be over the top technical or slow. Brutal or insane and it's all so good. When we made "Visions of Death" it just came out with a natural old school-ish vibe and that's great, but our newer material has a much more modern technical vibe. I love how death metal has evolved.
For me, death metal should be heavy as fuck, brutal (which doesn't necessarily mean "fast"), atmospheric and evil. If the "evil" thing is not there, you can't label yourself death metal, that's a fact. I'm so fucking close minded when it comes to metal music... I listen to the SAME hard rock, heavy, thrash, doom, death and black metal that I used to listen to 15 years ago.
On their Deity Down Records debut "Blasphemous Deliverance" Holland's Hatred is part (early) Gorefest, part (early) Vader and part Monstrosity. Taking the blunt force approach of Gorefest mixed with the no-holds-barred ethics of Vader and the technical prowess of Monstrosity "Blasphemous Deliverance" is a record that at once sounds familiar yet feels fresh due to the band's excellent ideas in what works in this genre and what doesn't. Despite playing mostly mid-paced and lacking interesting lead work Hatred is able to keep their material interesting with a good sense of dynamics and a nearly constant pumping groove. Structurally, this leans towards "False" era Gorefest with the intensity of "De Profundis" era Vader and "In Dark Purity" era Monstrosity as far as hooks and general technicality is concerned. Vocally, Hatred is a bit on the one-dimensional side and more adventurous vocal lines would be beneficial for future material. Recordings were done at Excess Studios, Rotterdam and this gives the album the expected high end production values that this genre needs. Artwork, design and lay-out are functional but not entirely visually stimulating or remarkable in any significant way. Deity Down Records has added another strong unit to their roster, although it must be noted that Hatred isn't as technically accomplished as their peers in Devious or Vermin.http://www.deitydownrecords.comcomment itWouter 8
