Year: 2021
Total Time: 35:54
Label: Metal Blade

HATE comes from Poland, one of the countries with a huge contribution to the extreme sound, with a career that this year completes thirty years. Τhe Poles are old veterans who, although they started as a Death Metal band, in recent years they have added some Black Metal elements to their sound. Also, their reputation has spread in the past years, since they signed up with Metal Blade, a normal fact, as the quality of their releases was mostly in mediocre levels. In 2021 they are returning with their new album “Rugia”, with the question being if HATE with their new work can achieve something great…

In this question we would answer that “if they haven’t been able to do it in the past thirty years, will they be able to do so in 2021?”. Of course not, but that doesn’t invalidate their effort which is remarkable without being impressive. So, they are offering us 35 minutes of Blackened Death Metal, with well polished production, massive and aggressive sound while in some parts they also use melodies. Melodies which are influenced by IMMORTAL and recent BEHEMOTH. The influence of the latter extends even more than the melodies of “Rugia”, as songs like “The Wolf Queen” and “Awakening the Gods Within” could be found on the last album of BEHEMOTH.

So, “Rugia” may create high expectations during the first listening, but afterwards it fails to confirm them. Certainly as an album it is better than its predecessor, 2017’s “Auric Gates of Veles”. In conclusion, the album is not bad, constituting a quite good example of Blackened Death Metal, which will be appreciated by those who love BELPHEGOR and the recent BEHEMOTH, but on the other hand it fails to stand out from similar releases of the genre.

Rating: 6,5/10
Editor: Nikos Manousis
Related Link: HATE – Facebook Page