Released By – 7:45 Records

Genre – Thrashy Death Metal

Links – http://www.myspace.com/hateform

Tracklist:

01. Hate Equals Salvation

02. Foundry

03. Abhorrent Reincarnation

04. Rise of The Deceived

05. Remain Unbound

06. Non Compos Mentis

07. There will Be None

08. Needles Be Driven

09. Set Out The Sun

Back in 2008 when HATEFORM released their debut album on 7:45 Records, they went pretty quickly from hometown heroes to winning an award for best newcomer in the Finnish metal awards. As we all now though, bright stars can shine hard and burn out quickly so to say the pressure was on the band to release a good follow up would be an understatement.

So how did they go with their make or break sophomore album then? Pretty bloody good I’d say, and from the general reaction across the world, wide web it looks as though the album will be hailed widely as a success. Style wise it’s pretty similar to the first album, with a thrashy death sound mixed in with technical stuff. But there is a few little tweaks here and there that help make this album an improvement in most aspects. The dual guitar work here is better than ever and some of these lead breaks would make guitar virtuosos quiver in their boots. The drumming is frigging awesome and chaotic, but never sounds out of place. The bass probably could have been put up a bit higher in the mix, but when you can hear it properly it sounds tough as. The vocals here are the big improvement though. I thought the vocals were the only thing really holding the debut back from being awesome, but that has been rectified to great effect here. I don’t think the actual songwriting here is quite as strong as the first album, but the playing, the vocals and the production have all been improved and make for a very easy to listen to album.

To get straight into the good stuff I recommend checking out FOUNDRY, RISE OF THE DECEIVED and THERE WILL BE NONE, all of which have been transferred over to my heavy rotation folder on my ipod. HATEFORM have managed to avoid the sophomore slump and have shown the metal world that they are still getting better as they go. Any fan of technically minded thrashy death metal would do well to get on these guys now as I think they have bright future ahead of them, so you might as well be able to say that you liked them from the start.

Written By ZeeZee

Rating : 8/10