Hate - Victims

HATE - Victims (METAL MIND - CD 1998)

This is one of the lesser known Hate releases, because it was released only for the Polish market (I think) and maybe not so many copies have been thrown abroad. Which is a shame, I must repeat again, as it’s another really awesome pure death metal recording from this band and just as the two previous materials – full length albums “Daemon Qui Fecit Terram” and “Lord is Avenger” – this one also deserves more attention. Who knows then, maybe one day it will be re-released. If it doesn’t, then you may still try to find it in Poland.

But what is “Victims” actually? It’s an EP, with four new songs from the band plus two covers. And as a bonus the CD contains an old demo, which is a fantastic addition, in my opinion. Well, starting with those new tracks… This is Hate we all know from the albums I mentioned above. Brutal, fast, satanic death metal, which devastates everything on its way. Quality wise it’s the same level as “Lord is Avenger”. Hate didn’t make any improvement, didn’t change anything in their style, so these songs may even sound as some leftovers from the session of the previous album… or could have easily been featured on the mentioned album and it would make no harm to it at all. They’re just equally good, in my opinion and the sound (again from Selani Studio, which back then in the 90’s was quite popular among Polish death metal bands) is also very alike. I suppose the song “Holy Dead Trinity” is the best here, it’s also quite popular I think, as it was played on gigs quite often and more so, it’s also featured on the next full length album “Cain’s Way”. I also like “No Life After Death” a lot, as it’s fast, crushing song, creating a bloody massacre instantly. Awesome! The same recording session brings two covers (Napalm Death’s “Kill” and Slayer’s “Postmortem”) and especially the second one is fantastic.

I mentioned that the CD contains also a demo as a bonus and it’s “The Unwritten Law”, truly killer demo from 1995 and damn, I love it. Of course the sound difference is huge, the demo doesn’t sound even half as powerful and clean as the recent Hate recordings, but I like it anyway, as I love such harsh, demo productions. It’s because of it, the music sounds so damn aggressive, dark, obscure, morbid and brutal. I can even go as far and say that I like this demo more than any other Hate recording! It’s just excellent insanely fast and furious, possessed death metal in the vein of Deicide (“Living Sacrifice”, what a killer, fast song, but it has an ending part, which sounds like a copy of “Sacrificial Suicide” haha), with some Slayer-ish riffs here and there (“Performance”) and generally it’s impressive and beautifully reinless. I like also Adam’s vocals, as they sound harsher and just different from his quite recognizable voice on the future albums. Sadly “Victims” doesn’t bring the whole “The Unwritten Law”, as there are two songs missing… anyways, this demo fuckin kills brutally and is a fantastic addition. Love it.

Standout tracks: “Holy Dead Trinity”, “Living Sacrifice”

Final rate: 80/100