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HatePlow > Everybody Dies > Reviews
HatePlow - Everybody Dies

Narcs, narcotics, and naked ugliness - 45%

autothrall, May 9th, 2011

Hateplow was an outlet organized by several members of Florida's Malevolent Creation to wax their crude and callous opinions on prostitutes, drug addicts and the mentally handicapped. Signed to Pavement through their obvious association, they forged a parallel existence to that better known (and superior) group during a time when they were releasing some pretty average efforts (In Cold Blood, The Fine Art of Murder). One might hold on to some hope that Phil Fasciana had shuffled some of the inspirational writing that lacked from those albums over to this project, but Hateplow is surprisingly even more void of good ideas or memorable sequences. Everybody Dies has more of a grind and hardcore aesthetic surging through its crack star running shoes, with speed and intensity that rival what Phil's mainstay were recording at the time.

One could certainly dub this 'ghetto death' or 'white trash metal' and get away with the phrase, because that's really the purpose of the band: to explore the hard truths of urban decay by the most mean spirited means possible. Malevolent Creation covered the more serious aspects of cultural decline, serial killings and so forth, but Hateplow pursue more baseline atrocities like killing crack addicts ("Crackdown") or the cycle of the cocaine addict ("Ante Up"). There's also a clear sexual element to the album, celebrating coprophagy ("Ass to Mouth Resuscitation"), anal sex (the brief brute-grinder "Anally Annie", and those are the lyrics...the only lyrics), or the stereotypical caricature of the prostitute ("$20.00 Blowjob"). Even anger at having one's toilet serves as a menstruation depository ("The Gift Giver"). I'd like to say that this stuff was pretty shocking or revolutionary for the time, but it's little more offensive than the 11 o'clock news or the latest King of the Hill episode. There's definitely still enough violence involved for the fans of the related band, but it seems somehow more shallow in this context.

That aside, the music itself is simply too forgettable. "Everybody Dies" opens with a nice pulse of explosive grinding death dowsed in Kyle Symon's percussive gutturals, which carry an adequate resonance through the album, but nothing lurks deeper in the track except repetition and drab chugging breakdowns. A few of the tunes rely too closely on the bland moshing chug rhythms like "Stalker" and "Challenged", while others whittle away in unmemorable deathgrind brutality like "Ante Up" and "Denial". Often, the two will collide into a more dynamic series of blows, but aside from a small handful of riffs ("Prison Bitch" and the silly "Born with Both"), the album fully lacks distinction outside of its primitive lyrical mire. Drummer Larry Hawke, who sadly passed away after laying down his tracks, does offer a strong and taut performance, and the production of the debut is in fine shape: clean and effectively percussive. Otherwise there is just not enough of value to recommend this. Not even the potent cover of Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" is worthy of redeeming the sum of these parts. Not for me I guess.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Born with both - 91%

The_Emo_Hater, October 15th, 2009

In regards to the title of this review, this debut combines the death metal riffage and the blast-happy sensibilities of grind. Featuring members of Cannibal Corpse and Malevolent Creation, the expectations for Hateplow were relatively high. As a side project of sorts, would this be a rousing success or looked upon as a waste of time (Six Feet Under, I'm looking at you)? Thankfully with a few minor exceptions, their first offering delivers the goods.

First of all, if you're expecting the gory straightforward bludgeoning of CC or the violent death/thrash style of MC, you'll be disappointed. Aside from the riffing sounding similar to Fine Art of Murder era Malevolent, Hateplow sounding nothing like the aforementioned. Crazy fucking Larry Hawke does an outstanding job on the drums, preferring blasts but occasionally utilizing slower beats and kicking out the double bass to great effect. Unfortunately, he passed before this album was released. Rob Barrett and Phil Fasciana are excellent as always with their work, using both faster and slower riffs that lean heavily towards thrash. Tim Scott's basswork is buried under the riffs for the most part but shines with the handful of bass solos present throughout. Lastly, Kyle Symons utilizes both lower growls and higher screams, and they souns decent, though they tend to lack power in a few songs.

The lyrical topics in the songs range from little prison bitches to coprophilia to chicks menstruating and some of them are outright hilarious (i.e. "20 dollars for a rock, for it she'll suck a cock"). It is noted in the booklet that the lyrics are, in fact, real stories, which for some sick reason, makes it all the more funnier. I don't know why I find that eating poop and sucking phallus could be so fucking funny, but I digress. The writing could be a little better but that is just a trifle complaint compared to the ferocity of the songs themselves, at least for this being released back in the late 90s.

Musically, the songs range from slower, almost doomish numbers ("Stalker", "In the Ditch"), to compact blinding blastfucks of blasphemy("$20 Blowjob", "Challenged") to short-ass pieces of grinding insanity ("Anally Annie"). There are no solos to be found, save for the solo on the hidden track, but they really don't make much of a difference, and besides, solos wouldn't really fit in with these songs. The title track itself starts off with about 40 seconds of a simple bassline before erupting forth into a raging beast of an opener. "The Gift Giver" is just under a minute in length and consist of the verse being repeated three times, with Kyle's vocals going from almost guttural to nearly shrieking. Finally, closer "Born With Both" has some really catchy riffs and alternates between thrash beats and blasts. Let your disc continue to run after the tune ends, and after a few minutes of silence, you'll be treated to a death metal rendition of the Cream classic, "Sunshine of your Love". It is pretty faithful to the original, aside from the heavier guitars and the vocals. BUT WAIT....THERE'S MORE!!!!! A few seconds after "Sunshine.." comes to an end, listen in anticipation you'll be treated to.......a five second drum fill. Woohoo.

Other than a few minor quibbles, Hateplow's debut is a very solid piece of deathgrind madness that should appeal to any fan of punishing aggressiveness.

R.I.P. "Crazy" Larry Hawke

The First Step Is Already Brutal As Fuck!! - 90%

CHRISTI_NS_ANITY8, February 25th, 2008

The first Hateplow album features fucking brutal death/grind songs that, compared to the second album, are a bit less impulsive and more death oriented. Being formed by members of Malevolent Creation too, sometimes the riffs are inspired by that genre and the production is very similar. Like in the opener, we have good alternation of grind blast beats with some heavier riffs.

“Stalker” too is an example for what I said: mid paced beginning with a crescendo of intensity ‘till reaching the blast beats during the end. The musicians here know this kind of music very well so, nothing to say about the work: heavy, inspired and brutal. Riffs like in “Prison Bitch” are total Malevolent Creation inspired, with great bass sound, not too extreme, and great mid paced parts.

On the other hand, we have total grind/death madness in tracks like “$20.00 Blow Job”, “Ante Up” (fucking great), “Denial” or “Anally Annie” with a great refrain screamed in both growl and scream styles. “Crackdown” has a total hardcore/grind madness riffage with moshing up tempo, while “In The Ditch” they show us a less raging approach, to break a bit the atmosphere. The power of the guitars sound is supreme and the drummer's ability creates always catchy/brutal tempos.

All in all, a very good work by one of the best grind/brutal death metal acts nowadays. So, pals with moshing tendencies check this out. Blasting fury.