Hate Eternal – Fury and Flames
Metal Blade – 3984-14656-2 – 19 Feb 2008
By Ryan Starr
Back in ’97, Erik Rutan parted ways with
Morbid Angel to start a new project. That project was
Hate Eternal. 11 years later, they have become a house hold name in the death metal scene. This year gave us
Hate Eternal’s fourth full length titled
Fury and Flames.
Overall, this is exactly what we have come to expect from Rutan, high velocity and high impact death metal. The riffs seem solid, even though the production is a bit muddy during the tech parts. While Rutan is known for his studio skills, and there is some definite power behind this mix, I think he missed the mark just a little bit. Not only are some parts a bit murky, you can’t hear any of Alex Webster’s bass work. That is the part that really annoyed me. Webster is a god amongst metal bass players. To cover up his playing is simply criminal, especially when you brag about his work being “like compositions rather than bass lines”.
Mixing problems aside,
Fury and Flames is a decent release. It’s on par with
I, Monarch but doesn’t match up to
Conquering the Throne. If you’re a fan of
Hate Eternal, you will probably enjoy this, but if you’re new to the band, I would buy the first two albums.
Official Hate Eternal Myspace
Official Metal Blade Website