Hate Eternal – “Infernus” [Album Review]

Reviewing death metal is a tough one because, unless you’re a fan of the jackhammer brutality of the genre, the likelihood is that it does live up to the stereotype that “all metal sounds the same” and that’s a real shame because, as Infernus highlights, this kind of heavy music can really be worth a listen.

Fronted by death metal legend Erik Ruten, Infernus is Hate Eternal’s sixth album and, from the get-go, doesn’t waste any time as it hammers home the brutality. Unrelenting from the outset, Rutan and his bandmates have no intention of going easy with this record as they wrap up the dramatic, majestic-sounding air of tracks like “Zealot, Crusader Of War” and opener “Locust Swarm” inside a barrage of shredding solos, breakneck blast beats, and guttural vocals. It isn’t all sledgehammer fury though, obviously most of it is, but there are great huge mosh parts where you headbangers can really loosen up those neck muscles. Who am I kidding though? For the main part, Infernus is just high quality, unrelenting, majestic U.S. death metal.

Listening to Infernus there can be no shoving this under any label other than death fucking metal. It’s brutal, it’s uncompromising, it’s everything that puts fairweather metal fans off the genre. However, as tracks like the title track demonstrates, Infernus also has everything that your ardent death metal fan would look for in an album making this one of the genre’s more essential purchases.

Track Listing:

01. Locust Swarm
02. The Stygian Deep
03. Pathogenic Apathy
04. La Tempestad
05. Infernus
06. The Chosen One
07. Zealot, Crusader of War
08. Order Of The Arcane Scripture
09. Chaos Theory
10. O’ Majestic Being, Hear My Call

Run Time: 45:08
Release Date: August 21, 2015

Check out the track “The Stygian Deep” here.