Hate Eternal
Phoenix Amongst the Ashes

LA RECENSIONE

Erik Rutan yearns to ascend to the throne of death metal, eagerly wanting to elevate his Hate Eternal above all other bands in the genre. After all, naming albums "Conquering the Throne," "King of All Kings," and "I, Monarch" is already an explicit declaration of intent, and it's pointless for him to say in interviews that he chooses such titles because he considers himself the king of his world or similar things, as no one believes it. Moreover, his desire is more than legitimate, given that he has contributed a lot to the cause of death metal, first with the thrashy Ripping Corpse and then in the court of Morbid Angel; let’s not forget that in "Domination," many of the songs also bear his signature.

The fact is, however, that conquering the throne is not an easy task, and Hate Eternal has never managed to do so. They started quite convincingly with the album "Conquering the Throne," which, however, did not scream for a miracle despite the suffocating collaboration of Doug Cerrito, and they finally made a valid hit with the third "I, Monarch"; but winning a battle does not mean winning the war, and indeed in the following "Fury and Flames" they returned to writing songs that were too monolithic and all the same, resulting in an indigestible brutal death metal stew poorly produced, by Rutan himself no less.

And so we finally arrive at this "Phoenix Amongst the Ashes," and here the title is clear: the band wants to rise from the ashes of "Fury and Flames" to shine again as in "I, Monarch." To accomplish this, Rutan decided to change his approach, and the results prove him right. Setting aside the exhausting compactness that has always penalized his creation with songs shot at insane speed but all annoyingly indistinguishable from each other, the good Erik has decided to slow down the execution times (compared to before, not in absolute terms!) and to create tracks that are a bit more measured and martial, where those sick melodies resurface that just hearing them brings to mind that mix of phosphorescent green and purple akin to the Cillit Bang of the letter D cover by the Floridian masters. An album with roots firmly in the old school and eyes on the present (and the future), a sort of more brutal "Domination."