Limping off the blocks on a decidedly boggy note with "Become the Fuse", the band proceed to weave a tapestry of stock-standard metal core filler into a gang-vocal chorus that borders on self-parody during "Not My Master". In fact, it takes a full four songs before the simmering groove of "In Ashes They Shall Reap" gives us our first real taste of the substance that's propelled the 'Breed to the heights of their considerable success. "Hands of a Dying Man" likewise stuns with a breakdown rearing its head around the 1:30 mark that should come with a health warning attached.

Yet no sooner have we had our asses handed to us, for what we're ready to demand it handed back in the face of the characterless shite that makes up "Everyone Bleeds Now". Worse still is the suspiciously glam sing-a-long that starts off "No Haloes for the Heartless"; truly epitomizing everything wrong with what they appear to be consciously presenting to us as a defining moment in the band's discography. It sounds to me as though Hatebreed are fast running short of ways to hammer home their sermons of self-empowerment, and like a pride of wounded lions, their response is a mixture of raw ferocity and blind panic. On _Hatebreed_ they have delivered some of their most punishing work to date, hamstrung by far too many tracks unbeffiting their talent.