CD: Hate Theory
Reviewer: JL Schwartz
Review:
Tracklist:
Whore
Vent
All This Flesh
From Scabs To Scars
A Couple Hundred
Rage Implant
So You Think
Days In Here
Crawl Alone
Lightbulb
Wish
Freezing (demo)
The first time I listened to HATE THEORY was about a week ago. I was on my way to see the MidwestMetal.info overlord Maggot. Getting behind the wheel of my car, I turned the cold engine over and slipped the CD in for the short ride. The first second Whore came on, my foot went down hard on the accelerator. In mere seconds I found myself dodging in and out of rush hour traffic. As the sun drew a close early to my wintry day, the streets grew ominous as I drove and listened. Flipping on my headlights to dispel the darkness about, I noticed my speedometer. It read 63 mph as I cruised down the mighty river Des Peres. Funny thing is that I never felt I was going as hard or as fast as From Scabs To Scars. My adrenaline was forcing itself in tsunami like waves giving me nerves of steel as the bass of Crawl Alone pushed my endurance farther. It’s 35 degrees, I’m doing 70 as I turn to go back on Gravois and beads of perspiration run from my temple to the middle of my cheek. The bone-chilling cold mist rising from unreleased fury of HATE THEORY staining the windshield glass thick with ice cold vocals. Crawl Alone turns all the tricks out making my hands grip the steering wheel white-knuckle tight while paranoid delusions dance in unison with excruciating guitar distortion. Before I start to come to a point of no return. Driving a vehicle recklessly into my coma like void state, the sweet melancholic pain of Lightbulb lulls me back to a life detached but not vacant. It brought me home to a pain I had once thought forgotten. A time when life almost beheld all things as possibilities. “For nothing, for nothing” the delicate hook interlaces it pierced barb into my deep-seeded auditory senses. “your saving her eight times a day” gives flashes of all the anger and pain I’ve ever yielded. Finally feeling chilled enough to get my ass back home, the beautiful pain that being alive is brought back from its dormant state by Wish and Freezing. Sitting for a few seconds, motionless well after the CD’s finale, I shake my head violently to get my sobriety to return. It’s then, in that moment that I realize my reality was nothing more than a hallucination. I had never taken the lumbering white van out of park. HATE THEORY is one of the best metal bands I have ever heard. Their regard for tight chord structures inside a myriad of arrangements only compliments their musicianship further. Their style possesses the potential to become unique and particular enough as to be referred to in the future by other musicians as the HATE THEORY sound. Many metal fans Midwest and otherwise would be well advised to embrace them or face being consumed by the hate, the blood, the pain, the tears, the darkness that will haunt you into your oldest nightmares and sleep well into your darkest hours with HATE THEORY.
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