Hate ‘Auric Gates of Veles’
Album Review By Adam McCann
Metal Blade Records/Blackened Death Metal
Sadly, some bands have careers that extend well beyond their stadium-filling peers and never receive the recognition they truly deserve. Poland’s Hate are one such band, after beginning their career playing pretty generic death metal, the band evolved their sound into something more akin to blackened death metal. This change has delivered superb albums such as 2015’s ‘Crvsade: Zero’ and 2017’s ‘Tremendum’, but the question remains; can Hate continue to hone this formula for their latest album ‘Auric Gates of Veles’.
Well, the answer is a clear yes; ‘Auric Gates…’ manages to pick up near perfectly where ‘Tremendum’ left off and whilst there are very little Polish lyrics or atmospheric passages, there is still a continued evolution in the Hate sound. Hate waste no time and immediately dive straight back in with pounding rhythmic drums and solid riff after riff as a classic death metal sound is carefully sewn together with black metal melodies to create something very enjoyable. Because of this, these black metal elements have the ability to remind the listener not only of fellow Poles Behemoth, but also early Satyricon or even Dark Funeral and Belphagor, especially through tracks such as ‘Triskhelion’, ‘Salve Ignis’ or the superb ‘Sovereign Sanctity’. Yet as enjoyable as this album is whilst it is playing, ‘Auric Gates…’ is just not very memorable, it struggles to grab the attention of the listener beyond its initial play time. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing; so what? the album isn’t memorable, ‘Auric Gates…’ is actually a hell of a lot of fun whilst it is playing and for those forty minutes, Hate rule the airwaves.
‘Auric Gates…’ does try its best, yes there is still an evolution in process which shows Hate are still refining and honing this new beast of a sound that means this album falls just below its predecessor. However, do not let this get in the way of enjoying this album; it is certainly worth playing and cranking up the volume.
Rating : 80/100
MHF Magazine/Adam McCann
