### Hate Eternal: King of all kings

#### 15/02/08 || The Duff

Just when I was starting to get into death metal, I foolhardily purchased about as many albums revolving about the sub-genre as my student allowance would permit without knowing which bands were good or, more importantly, which bands I would perceive most palatable to my tender, unaccustomed ears that hadn’t quite lost the fragility likely to impede one from discerning between the combination of blasts, guitars and death grunts encompassing such a style of metal and a monkey getting violently raped in the ass sans lube. Hate Eternal, as much as I was told their debut was amazing, was one of those bands I simply didn’t get during my early days as a deathster – that being said, Cerrito (of Suffocation fame) played some part in the debut album’s genesis, and with his departure, I was being told Hate Eternal had become derivative, with writing falling entirely into the hands of founding member, Erik Rutan (ex-Morbid Angel – so two of death metal’s most elite outfits).

Three years on, after having forgotten about the band’s inability to impress, I chanced a purchase with “I, Monarch”, and although I found it to be nothing new, deep down I was blown away, even if I sneered outwardly at the lack of originality – there was something seriously fucken good about the technical riffs that lacked any form of subtlety whatsoever and a vocalist who sounded like he shit fire, and of course, Derek Roddy, who owns the spotlight to absolutely every single piece of work to which he has contributed his skills. I found “King of All Kings” going cheap, and figured wouldn’t lose anything in giving it another shot.

Starting off with the first handful of tracks, and I can see why Hate Eternal didn’t succeed in holding my interest back during my tender years (I did have Iced Earth, after all…); even with a couple of years now as a seasoned death veteran under my belt, these tracks, although not bad, don’t have much going for them. The brutality is there, but despite the odd touch of genius, the riffs have all been written before and nothing strikes out. The vocals are top notch, but the production heavily lets the first three-four tracks down, as the guitars carry no force about them, and well, Erik’s past with Morbid Angel makes the material presented in the first ten minutes a little worthless. Derek’s drumming is ridiculous – apparently no editing of the music was executed during the recording process so as to render the final product more authentic, and to think this guy has done all his parts in one take would make even Chuck Norris shit his pants.

Thing is, from “Born to Fire” onwards, this album kicks so much fucken ass it’s silly (and slightly tedious, considering the tracks preceding); aside from the closing track, where things drop from excellent to good (the riff at the 2:10 mark is so damn sexy), as much as the production remains just as flaccid and the music reminiscent of the oft copied Golden Age of death metal, the songs rock out so much more so as to demand my attention. The musicianship is top notch (Rutan is an astounding guitarist, and his leads quite restrained for the most part, as well as cleverly panned out – when he breaks into shredding, his speed is unmatched by many), but you won’t find anything sugar-coated here – this stuff is brutal, straight and to the point. I think that, although there lacks the variation of “I, Monarch”, overall the consistency of the songwriting is more apparent (yeah, the first four tracks – and a terribly shit intro – aren’t great, but at least there are no absolute duds like the title track to the band’s 2006 release), and if you like your death metal complex but very obvious, you should give this a try.

7 revisits to my timid and innocent youth out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2003
- Label: Earache
- Website: Hate Eternal MySpace
- Band
- Erik Rutan: guitars, vocals
- Atoni: bass
- Derek Roddy: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Our beckoning
- 02. King of all kings
- 03. The obscure terror
- 04. Servants of the gods
- 05. Beyond redemption
- 06. Born by fire
- 07. Chants in declaration
- 08. Rising legions of black
- 09. In spirit (the power of mana)
- 10. Powers that be