Witness The Apocalypse
Keeping heavy metal fresh in this day and age often involves blending unrelated genres together and hoping for the best. Swedish stalwarts The Project Hate MCMXCIX have been doing just that for 13 years, peddling their unique brand of anti-Christian industrial death metal. Their newest album, Bleeding The New Apocalypse (Cum Victriciis In Manibus Armis), is a catchy entry in an unappreciated subgenre.
The record tears out of the gate with “Iesus Nazarenus, Servus Mei,” the roaring guitars contrasting nicely with new female vocalist Ruby Roque’s powerful soprano. This track, and all tracks, tend to follow the formula of “scary metal with clean and death vocals, electronic trance breakdown, more scary metal.” While most bands would bore you with this repetitive composing, Project Hate manages to keep it fresh with the sheer passion they inject into the music. “A Revelation Of Desecrated Heavens” utilizes a piano to offset the grinding bass, giving the track an Arcturus feel, and vocalist Jorgen Sandstrom’s demonic whisper during “Summoning Majestic War” is genuinely creepy. Finally, the 13-minute closing track, “Bring Forth Purgatory” opens with an epic wash of horns and strings before ripping into a punishing march worthy of Armageddon.
The production is perfect here. The death vocals have that necessary satanic presence and the use of a mild delay on Roque’s soprano gives her a wonderful ethereal tone. The guitars crush, the bass grinds, and the drums pound. If anything, one wishes that the drums would hurt a little more, but this doesn’t detract from the impact of this album.
Fans of “avant-garde” metal, or those looking for something to challenge their sensibilities, should give this a spin. If you can handle the length of songs (the shortest is just shy of 9 minutes), and you want your death metal just a bit gloomier, check out Project Hate.
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