Hate

Irony is something of a tricky beast, often manifesting itself in an album that inspires the same reaction as its namesake would suggest, though obviously not in the manner that said LP's creators had intended. One might chalk it up to the curse of success, but the sophomore outing of the Australian deathcore disseminating act Thy Art Is Murder did elicit something of a backlash in some quarters, perhaps owing to the exodus of guitarist Gary Markowski and the shifting role of Sean Delander from guitar to bass, which essentially revamped the band's entire arrangement. The result that coincided with these sizable shifts in personnel is an interesting one where the band's entire approach to balancing their style's death metal influences with the progressive groove quirks and hardcore ones has been inverted, which gives some clue apart from the commercial success that followed as to why there is a degree of hate directed at Hate.

Getting past the bizarre visual that adorns this album's cover (essentially a three-headed demon answer to a SyFy channel monster movie featuring key alumni from the Police Academy franchise), the approach taken here is fairly impressive, albeit a bit stylized and stripped down compared the preceding works of these Aussies. Essentially the focal point of this new approach is the breakdown, resulting in something that is less chaotic and, at times, almost cold and mathematical in its demeanor. This isn't to say that the technical factor has been downplayed, as newly recruited lead guitarist Andy Marsh is actually a superior shredder to Markowski with a lot of Petrucci influences oozing from his concise yet auspicious solo sections, but rather that the pacing is a bit moderate in character as the blasting and thrashing segments are a bit less frequent and the production quality has a more processed character.

There are some clear moments of absolute brilliance contained within this largely well-rounded and formulaic endeavor. "The Purest Strain Of Hate" shares a greater degree of stylistic affinity with the more chaotic feel of The Adversary and has more blasting moments and ornamentation during the breakdown points, although it starts on a decidedly mid-paced stomp. "Dead Sun" and "Gates Of Misery" are arguably the closest to full out forays into death metal brutality, forgoing any atmospheric intro or grooving prelude and launching right into overdrive with riff that would be reminiscent of Slayer if it were not so heavily down-tuned and obscured with brazen machine gun drum work. Much of the remaining work found on here tends to hover more in breakdown-happy territory where climax points are a bit more measured, but out of said pack "Immolation" stands out as the most unique and gripping, due to a greater depth of atmosphere thanks to some tasteful keyboard usage and a masterful display of virtuoso guitar soloing out of Marsh over one of the few overtly thrashing sections of this entire album.

To a degree, the hate that this album received among fans of the pre-2012 version of Thy Art Is Murder is understandable given that this is a pretty pronounced departure. However, while the author of this review prefers the wilder and more ephemeral character of The Adversary, this is a rock solid album that makes the most of the plainer and more streamlined approach to deathcore that is, admittedly, far more popular and manages to throw in enough technical twists to keep things interesting. Often times this style is dismissed as a canned version of extreme metal reserved for hacks who splice together a lot of differing ideas in a random order with hopes of appearing progressive despite have little technical prowess, but Hate is a bit different than the typical Whitechapel or early Job For A Cowboy album and takes an admittedly contrived formula and spices it up quite nicely. Nevertheless, it is a fairly predictable listen from start to finish that would have been more of a trailblazer had it been recorded four or five years earlier