Radical Solution

Anyone looking for depression, negativity, apathy and general misery in the sound and message of their music, their first resort should always be to check out bands from Scandinavia, more specifically, Finnish bands. Finland, with its cold, seemingly never-ending polar winters and the apathy such weather tends to create, is a fertile ground for depressive music to flourish and grow roots deep within this country's soul. Notable depressive acts from Finland, include: Unjoy, Sentenced, Shape of Despair and Totalselfhatred. These aforementioned bands, although varying in sub-genres, all have one theme in common, and that's a depressive musical tone.

However, those bands are pretty popular to some extent, and Ancient Hatred is one of the innumerable depressive black metal bands which have spawned throughout the past few years. Is there anything inherent in this band's music, that make it unique or popular within its surrounding environment? Definitely not. Ancient Hatred is just your average depressive black metal band, with droning and repetitive riffs, extremely long and foreboding songs, which has a strong command on how to write effective and interesting music. There's nothing inherently progressive in this album, however, I have noticed some ideas scattered throughout the entirety of this extended play, that create an interesting case for the criticism of this work.

One interesting mechanism which I have noticed on this ep is the frequent juxtaposition of extremely depressive arpeggiated chords which tend to fall into the background, and very haunting bass-lines taking the driver's seat. This gives a generally overlooked importance to the bass guitar. In a sub-genre where the guitar melody is the central theme of the whole work, it was quite refreshing to see a band utilize the bass in such an effective and elegant manner. The production sounds very harsh and uncompromising. The vocalist gives a very up-front, yet generally subdued vocal delivery, very reminiscent of the style of singers such as Nocturno Culto, and Xasthur. The drums are very audible and do not overpower any other instrument. The pacing is kept at a mid-level speed throughout most of the EP, however, there are several instances during which the drums go completely berzerk.

Ancient Hatred doesn't particularly add much to the already saturated field of depressive black metal, however, their quality musicianship gives them the right to claim their place amongst the better sounding, and more proficient depressive black metal bands out there. I would recommend this release to anyone who is into the orthodox sound of depressive black metal. If you're looking to be dragged into an endless void filled with depression, uncertainty and anxiety, you should look no further than Ancient Hatred's "Radical Solution" EP.