### Calm Hatchery: Sacrilege of humanity

#### 07/02/11 || revenant

I sincerely hope that when the lads came up with this name they intended to be ironic. When I think of a Calm Hatchery, I picture a room filled with plush pillows and cushions upon which chickens sit, warming the eggs underneath them while drooling vegan idiots gently massage their backs and classical music gently plays in the background. That illusion, however is smashed within the first minute of this album as the barrage of thumping drums, crunching guitars an ferocious growling turns my once peaceful scene into a place of butchery, with blood and feathers flying in all directions under the brutal force that is this band.

I have to say this one came as a bit of a surprise. I know K wrote of this “sounds pretty good actually” in reference to this album, but even so he could have just written that to ensure some claimed this for review. As it turns out, I would almost consider those words an understatement. This is actually bloody good.

The music itself borrows influences from a number of areas. You get your old school death metal in spades, the occasional eastern influence (think Nile) and a smattering of technicality. The best part is the focus is different in each song, giving each of the songs a sound of it’s own and giving the album a great feel of variety. Yes, that’s right, no cookie cutter song after song here. Where “Sea of Truth” is tech death with insane complexity, “Messerschmitt” is more of an old school brutal death track that will grind your face in the dirt (and which sticks like fucking glue into your brain I might add), and so it goes on throughout the album.

The highlight performance of the record is the drumming. It’s a fucking barrage of machine gun double kicks and blast beats, and it never lets up. It’s a brilliant performance from the man behind the kit with its fast technicality. The kicks are hellish fast, the pounding brutal and not until the intro to “The Blood of Stalingrad” is there a reprieve. It reminds me a bit of the work on the last Behemoth album and, given these guys are from the same land that spawned those metal giants, it’s fair to say there may be an influence there.

All in all, this is a well crafted album. Technical, brutal and at times darkly melodic, this album is sure to find this band quite a few fans amongst traditional old school death metal fans as well as those into more alternative sounding death metal such as Nile. Highly recommended.

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Selfmadegod Records
- Website: Calm Hatchery MySpace
- Band
- Szczepan: vocals
- Panzerhauser: guitars
- Zombie: guitars
- Hacel: bass
- Radoslaw Szczepañski: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Rattlesnake’s Dream
- 02. Sea of Truth
- 03. Messerschmitt
- 04. We Are the Universe
- 05. Mirror Giants
- 06. Hymn of the Forgotten
- 07. Them
- 08. Lost in the Sands
- 09. Those Who Were
- 10. Shine for the Chosen One
- 11. The Blood of Stalingrad