CoC : Hate Forest - Purity : Review

Hate Forest - _Purity_
(Supernal Music, 2003)
by: Matthias Noll (8 out of 10)

Combine the droning Burzum or Darkthrone approach with extremely deep and brutal yet natural sounding death metal vocals; put them on top of repetitive, dissonant guitar work that sometimes sounds like black metallized Morbid Angel riffs; add an extremely linear, machine-like rhythmic backbone; and you get to the core of what Ukranian NSBM act Hate Forest is about these days. Although the vocals sometimes change to a screechier style, their mostly guttural delivery and the fact that most of the riffs might have more in common with death than black metal might put off the purists, it is the actual execution and delivery of Hate Forest's material that firmly places them in the black metal category. Rather than bringing up images of nebulah hordes or infernal fields, this music drills mercilessly into your skull and resembles a festering, infected wound which keeps pulsing endlessly, sometimes in synch with one's increased heartbeat, sometimes faster, but always there and always hurting until it becomes a masochistic desire to feel the pain. In my opinion Hate Forest have not found a sound that is completely appropriate to their music yet, their guitar tones could be stronger, and they have a tendency to sound a bit thin, tinny and mechanical; but as soon as the pitch-black atmosphere has grabbed you by the throat, the doors to cavernous crypts of eternal torture are open wide.

(article published 30/10/2003)

ALBUMS
6/9/2005	Q Kalis	9	Hate Forest - Sorrow
19/6/2004	P Azevedo	8	Hate Forest - Battlefields