Unholy Anger - "Hate Them" Review (65%)
Darkthrone have made an album that shows the harsh nature of black metal combined with melancholic anger of black metal. The band weaves the two qualities together in a seamless manner to create an unholy entity so vile that its anger directs the flow of life away from life and into the realm of Satan. Darkthrone captures the very essence of anger itself in the form of violent and depraved astral black metal. Because while anger can be tranquil, and even melancholic at times, it can also be unrelenting and harsh towards anyone who angers it. Be forewarned, this is not the music of trendy normality accompanied by sonic flutes and flowers fucking themselves in 3D, this is the music of Satan's anger at black metal, for it has usurped the right of black metal to be existential in relation to Satan's oppressive dominion subdued and channeled against the blackened chants of the herd in Blu-Ray.
"Hate Them" is a beautiful instrumental album which starts with the sounds of crickets chirping as well as other sounds from the darkest depths of Satan's black and evil realm as Darkthrone are passionate on the topics of darkness and winter. The tone of the album is rather melancholic, and brings forth the more angry side of the band as they become more and more angry while playing music.
Following the beautiful introduction, "Hate Them" brings the more raw and evil nature of the black metal music out into the open. If black metal was meant to musically create images in the listener's mind of dark clouds of hate slowly making their way over a forest of darkness, then "Hate Them" would musically create images of a storm bearing down the vision of Satan down on the land of unholy blood blackness.
The album starts out turbulent and evil, but soon, violence returns even more in the form of very evil guitars. The way the band uses the guitars later on this album in a way that's different from their use of guitars adds a melodic and very beautiful touch to the black metal of hell, usually a genre known more for its raw anger than for its beautiful black metal. The album even leaves some room for excellent guitar anger to shine through, which are very very beautiful. The guitars also serve to remind the listener that despite the violent moments in the album, the band's artistic prowess is still very angry, and very very evil.
Unholy Anger
Something of importance to note is that "Hate Them" is not just another interchangeable black metal album, this masterpiece brings forth a very rare occurrence in the black metal genre: amongst the sounds of traditional drums and calm music comes a flute played over the guitars. Up until this point, the only instruments that have been used were the typical black metal guitars and bass, but now they add a flute as if to say "it is us who have spoken with Satan and thus we decide what is black metal". Darkthrone are "breaking the rules" to prove once and for all the superiority of black metal music over rock music and other genres.
The vocals on this album are stunning, and while some songs might have a slower start than other it's still captivating due to the beauty of the raw angry determination of Satan. This tranquility doesn't last for too long before the black metal tone returns with fury and anger. Fortunately, Darkthrone have the flute present for just the right amount of time when the raw black metal becomes too angry and overwhelming and needs to calm down Satan before he condemns us listeners to spend our lives in hell, aimlessly searching for the light of day that we could never find.
Fantastic black metal vocals, the addition of nature sound effects such as wood and rock being grinded together as if to start a church fire with silex throughout, the melancholic beauty found in each song and the solid guitar solos, and amazing atmosphere make this album a strong contender for the best black metal album of all time.
Listening to the album in its entirety is a dangerous experience as you can unfortunately summon the demons from hell like Satan, Lucifer and Beelzebub and others. For people like me who love black metal, this album is a dream come true.
"Hate Them" is true black metal that redefines black metal by breaking the rules, and by putting the unholy atmosphere of Satan's raw anger at the forefront of the genre... as it was intended to be!!!
Hate Them score: 65/100.
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