By:
Daniel Jackson
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 1/5/2016
Label: Altare Productions
This year is already a strong one for black metal, but ‘Blood &
Poetry’ is good enough to be in the top tier of black metal albums released so
far this year.
‘Blood & Poetry’ track listing:
1.
Intro - Blood & Poetry
2.
Saalistajan Kuutamo
3.
Viha ja Vitutus
4.
The Wolfish Hunger
5.
In Dusky Depths
6.
Silvery Howls
7.
Thought and Memory
8.
Talvitunnelmia
9.
Breath of Night
10.
The Ghost Lights
11.
Calm Before the Storm
12.
Song of the Woods
Hatespirit is:
Kalmo
| Vocals
Sevoragis
| Guitars, Bass
Woewrb
| Drums
The Review:
There’s
something about Finland that leads to their black metal being particularly
harsh and caustic. Even going back to the older bands like Beherit, Barathrum
or Impaled Nazarene, Finnish bands are always
meaner than most. Hatespirit has set out
to carry on that tradition, though they have more in common musically with country
mates Vordr than they do the bands I’ve just
mentioned. That isn’t to say that this is a band with no history, though it’s
not easy to come by. Vocalist Kalmo shares a name with Blood-Baptist, the
bassist of Graveborne and drummer Woewrb and guitarist/bassist
Sevoragis look to have been in Serpentfyre
prior to this album, having just released an album last year through Mordgrimm.
Hatespirit’s black metal is
overflowing with rage and spite from start to finish, which makes the album a
satisfying listen from the first time through. Where the album gets even
better, is on repeat listens, once you’ve acclimated yourself to the abrasive
nature of the overall production. It’s much more diverse than your first
impressions will likely lead you to believe. If you listen to the different
pieces at work in a song like “Wolfish
Hunger”, where it begins with a barebones, straightforward, thrashing
blackness straight from some undiscovered ‘86 rehearsal tape. At about a minute
in, the music takes a bleaker melodic turn. The song isn’t even three minutes
long, but it feels like it covers a lot of ground because this band knows the
beauty of being concise with its ideas. I suppose when you’re swarming with
great ideas, the thought of stretching each one to a minute or more a piece
feels like a real misuse of time.
You
could easily say that ‘Blood &
Poetry’ serves as something of a bridge between the primitive style of mid
80s black metal and the more emotionally complex composition of the subgenre’s
second wave. And you’d be right, but the concept behind Hatespirit
enhances the music as well. The lyrics deal with pitting their contempt for
their fellow man with a deep reverence for nature, which the music fleshes out
sonically. While the music is often violent and devastating, like a natural
disaster would be, the album’s closing track “Song of the Woods” offers a much more serene experience (as the
earth might be, were we wiped from it).
There
are moments of absolute brilliance throughout the entirety of ‘Blood & Poetry’, and it’s getting
tougher and tougher for bands to impress with their debut as there are
thousands of metal albums released each year. Hatespirit
stands out from the pack because they’ve got a fully realized vision for what
and who they are from the start, and because they’re already developed into
considerable songwriters. This year is already a strong one for black metal,
but ‘Blood & Poetry’ is good
enough to be in the top tier of black metal albums released so far this year.
“Fuck
every fucking one of you. I wish I was a fucking tree.”
Blood &
Poetry’ will be available here.
