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.