Hatesphere – The Great Bludgeoning

Hatesphere are a very creative band. They were formed in 1998 and until now they have released 7 studio albums and 2 EP’s. They are from Denmark, they play thrash/death and they have started becoming a well-known name due to the hard work they do and the good albums they release. However, their line-up is not so stable. Apart from their guitarist, Peter “Pepe” Hansen, the other members change very often. The numerous line-up changes in a band can be very risky. There are many examples of bands that changed a lot of members and they continued to create great music, but there are also many examples of bands that have split-up because of these changes. In this album the band has a new drummer, a new bassist and a new singer. With them, the band released their new album, “The Great Bludgeoning”.

“The Great Bludgeoning” combines modern death metal that brings in mind the Gothenburg scene with a couple of thrash metal elements. It also has some groovy moments in it. One that has listened to Hatesphere before knows more or less what he is going to hear; don’t expect to hear a lot of new stuff. It is a solid album, that contains both fast and slower songs. It has a couple of very interesting riffs and melodies, some good songs, but it is not an album that will make you stick with it. It does not contain some songs that you can characterize as “great” or songs that will make you wanna hear them again and again. I don’t mean that it is a bad album, as I mentioned before it has a couple of good moments, some very good riffs, it is a “fresh” record with a lot of energy, but it is not something extraordinary. Their music is very modern. The new singer has an interesting voice and his vocals have some hardcore elements, and I think that his voice fits very well with Hatesphere’s music. The sound of the album is clean and heavy.

I am sure that if Hatesphere continue with the same line-up they can release a much better album. My opinion is that if they put some more old school thrash/death elements in their music, their next album will be much better.