Kev Rowland Having cut his teeth with Ripping Corpse and Morbid Angel, Erik Rutan formed Hate Eternal in 1997, since when he has been pursuing his own brand of Florida-style death metal which is both technical and brutal. There may have been some line-up changes over the years, but bassist J.J. Hrubovcak has been there for a decade now, and new drummer Hannes Grossmann has fitted in really nicely. The first three tracks are setting the listener up for the rest of the album, allowing the ears to bed into the complexity and nuances, then when the fourth song “Nothingness of Being” kicks in, the band allow themselves to become even more brutal, as well as more diverse, complex and really kick it on.

From here the band play as if they are possessed, with “All Hope Destroyed” surely one of the fastest introductions they have ever attempted – it is no wonder they pause for breath before they dig into the main event! Erik Rutan has been driving this band for more than twenty years, and it feels like they are gaining ground as opposed to falling away like some of their peers. This is death metal at its finest, and the only thing to do is keep turning it up and feel the pain. Brilliant.

Nightfly Like the five albums before it, Infernus pretty much follows Hate Eternal’s template of highly technical death metal. It’s a good album for sure – ten brutal tracks of incredible musicianship in a blur of blastbeats for the most part. It’s impressive stuff and if you’re a fan you’ll know what to expect. The only problem is that after a few plays there’s not much that remains in my head. It perhaps suffers a bit from what Nile have sometimes been accused of in the past where technique takes precedence over strong songs and riffs. While there is some variation a fair chunk of the album is a bit samey. Erik Rutan’s production is crystal clear but an earlier album like I, Monarch for example has a warmer more organic sound along with stronger riffs and more variation.

Don’t get me wrong, this is still an impressive record and there are some compelling moments, pick of the bunch being the six minute title track which benefits from slowing things down somewhat and offering a bit more variation. The playing is jaw dropping and if you’re a fan of the band you’ll want to check this album out for sure. A good album then, but a shortage of memorable songs robs it of greatness. Not their best then but certainly not the worst.

UMUR "Phoenix Amongst the Ashes" is the 5th full-length studio album by US death metal act Hate Eternal. The album was released in May 2011 by Metal Blade Records.

If you are familiar with the previous releases by Hate Eternal, you know what to expect when you put on "Phoenix Amongst the Ashes". Fast blasting death metal with twisted dissonant riffs played by a band that know their chops more than most. Frontman and guitarist Erik Rutan has of course reached legendary status in the death metal community because of his involvement with Morbid Angel, but while there are certainly references in the music to Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal has always been a different kind of beast and little has changed in that regard on "Phoenix Amongst the Ashes".

When you put on a Hate Eternal album ( take your pick they all have a somewhat similar sound) you can always expect to be blown back in your seat and that´s exactly what happens when listening to the opening trio of tracks before the band slow things down a bit with "Haunting Abound". It´s the first track on the album that´s actually able to captivate me a bit. The endless blasting, the one-dimensional growling style and the chaotic muffled production job don´t do the music any favours. Fortunately it helps a bit when the pace is lowered. Unfortunately most of the album is played in a furious pace with the chaotic riffs drowned in the muddy production and songwriting the features very few hooks to hold on to, making the 41:06 minutes long album seem longer than it actually is. Honestly getting through this album is somewhat of a trial for me.

Objectively seen I guess "Phoenix Amongst the Ashes" is a pretty high quality death metal album that I´m sure people into the band´s style will enjoy greatly. To my ears the band need to write some more memorable material before they´ll hook me, but I guess that statement is getting old coming from me, since I´ve said just about the same about all other album releases by the band that I´ve reviewed. So I´ll play nice and give a 3 star rating, but I must admit I´m wondering more and more why Hate Eternal are counted among the elite of US death metal.

Time Signature The eternal ruler...

Genre: brutal death-grind

Brutal, chaotic, blastbeat-ladden death-grind is what this release has to offer. And while really brutal music can be awesome, I think that there is a certain threshold in terms of how far you can take it. Hate Eternal, deliberately I am sure, take it below this threshold, which has both positive and negative results I think.

I know that blastbeats is a trademark of Hate Eternal's, so an abundance of them is to be expected. I think, however, that there are too many blasting parts on this album. There are so many that it kind of stops being brutal - I guess it is just a question over over-saturation.

But there are also a lot of interesting elements on this album. For instance, groovy riffage is combined with blastbeats, which creates an interesting tension, and dissonant chords are also extensively used, which certainly challenges the listener. To me, it seems that an essential part of the style is experimentation with how far you can take your music in the direction of chaos without it disintegrating completely - some very good examples of this are "The Art of Redemption" and the title track.

A lot of interesting stuff, to be sure, but to me the music becomes the most interesting when Hate Eternal exit blastbeat country, because then the music attains a more palpable and definable texture.

The high level of abstraction requires a high level of musicianship, and the musicians that perform on this album have that.

This is a challenging listen, but if you are into very brutal music and also like to be challenged as a listener, then I recommend that you check out this album.

UMUR Fury & Flames is the 4th full-length studio album by American death metal act Hate Eternal. The album was released in February 2008 by Metal Blade Records. It´s interesting to note that Cannibal Corpse bassist Alex Webster plays on the album as does Erik Rutan´s old Ripping Corpse collegue Shaune Kelley, who plays guitar on the album.

The music on Fury & Flames continues down exactly the same path as the music on the predecessor I, Monarch (2005). The sound production is fortunately a bit better on Fury & Flames than was the case on I, Monarch, which makes it a notch easier on the ears. The music is still brutal and technically well played death metal with blasting drums and atonal and adventurous riffing. Listening to Fury & Flames is like being run over by a freight train or something similarly unpleasant. The band are relentlessly brutal and take no prisoners in that department. There is no doubt that Erik Rutan is a visionary that wants to evolve the death metal genre and I have great respect for the way he twists his riffs and tries to do new things, but when that is said, I think the album lacks variation and memorable hooks. This is yet another one-dimensional ultra fast-paced death metal attack by Hate Eternal and while the band probably have legions of fans who appreciate their music, they will need to incorporate more variation into their music to captivate me. A 3 star rating is warranted.