In the year of our Lord 2015, metal music has mutated itself into so many sub-sub genres that the uninitiated are daunted by the breadth and depth of what it has to offer. There are clones of clones, and everyone has a voice thanks to the advent of home recording and services like Bandcamp. Despite the saturation the genre faces (which is nothing new), there will always be “torch bearers” in metal music, seemingly guardians and preservers of what makes the genre what it is. Florida-based death metal institution Hate Eternal is one of them, and their newest effort Infernus is like a brilliantly planned attack against any efforts to strip metal of its aggression.
Infernus sees the trio of Hate Eternal take themselves back to a tightly-wound, dizzyingly technical, and ultimately intense form of death metal. While the past two albums – 2008’s Fury & Flames and 2011’s Phoenix Amongst the Ashes – saw the band trade in technicality for atmosphere and visceral brutality, Infernus brings to mind the best moments of their first two albums while still moving into new territory for the band. What has always set Hate Eternal apart from their peers is their attention to precision without resulting to overly sterile production values or trading in pure might for noodily, show-off guitar acrobatics. Add that to the fact that Erik Rutan’s pedigree as a musician has resulted in some of death metal’s most memorable songwriting in the past decade, and Infernus easily stands as a trump card against most death metal being put out today.
Sweeping listeners into a world of rapid-fire dissonance and machine gun drums, “Locust Swarm” starts the album with a bang as drummer Chason Westmoreland propels the band with unrelenting blast beats as Rutan’s guitars blast out chaotic yet memorable riffs. True to the title, Rutan’s vocals are layered one upon another with throaty growls and higher register screams, creating a towering wall of sound. “The Stygian Deep,” slowing down only briefly, brings early Morbid Angel to mind with its minor-key soloing and palm-muted riffs (no surprise given Rutan’s tenure in the band), and “Zealot, Crusader of War” boasts a set of main riffs that turn more toward black metal, accented by a driving rhythm on the chorus, like a leaner version of Behemoth. As a whole, the songwriting on Infernus is both more focused and more varied than what we’ve seen since I, Monarch, and, as expected, the musicianship is in top form, all members at the top of their game and not sounding altered or aided by the production.
The title track, “Infernus” and album closer “O Majestic Being, Hear My Call” are absolute high points on the album, seeing Rutan & co stretching into epic territory as the brutal riffs take on dimensions of black and doom metal with some of the band’s strongest songwriting to date. The melodic soloing is the icing on the cake, and such flourishes prove that Hate Eternal have become masters of their trade, grafting in new sounds and textures while having a firm grip over their identity and progression.
On the production front, Rutan is again behind the mixing board, and his well-known role as a producer and engineer comes to the forefront on Infernus, which has a clean but natural sound, the guitars and drums taking up most of the space in the mix. J.J. Hrubovcak’s bass is still very much present though, especially on tracks like “Pathogenic Apathy,” which rely on the bottom end to have the music in full force. Rutan’s credits are numerous on metal albums today, and this album yet again enforces the standard for the production on modern metal albums.
While Hate Eternal are by no means reinventing the wheel for themselves – if anything, Infernus seems to refine and improve – they have crafted a properly solid death metal album, probably one of the best so far in 2015. Infernus is another solid album in Hate Eternal’s discography, and the opening three tracks, title track, and album closer alone are worth the price of admission.
Rating: 3.5/5
Infernus is available through Season of Mist on CD, LP, cassette, and digital download.