The Sickness Within

Hatesphere really seem a band of wrong preconceptions to me. Melodic death metal is their genre, but they aren't very melodic. Their formula is rigid, yet they have released a surprising diversity of albums over 20 years. Hate is their game, but they touch on other subjects and aren't always that intense. Granted, The Sickness Within represents an early turning point for the Danish crew, one where they relented a little in their flat-out disgust at the world and settled an inch deeper into a modern groove metal pocket. However, I also misjudged this fourth album from the quintet in a few ways, such as neglecting to notice the presence of guitar solos for a long time and failing to see how carefully this was constructed compared to the earlier material. Of course, the way I listened to the songs was, for many years, in isolation to one another since they existed as separate downloads and not as a complete album, meaning that I've only heard the whole 45 minutes in order comparatively recently. Another thing: 45 minutes remains the longest (regular edition) of 10 Hatesphere albums by a reasonable margin.

At this period, Jacob Bredahl was still presiding over the vocals with his incensed bark and slightly deranged emotions, though the feel of The Sickness Within comes about as close to accessible as ever. This probably ranks as the slowest Hatesphere album, with none of the speed of early The Haunted, nor the regular changes of Darkane punctuating the thick riffs and dominant rhythms, even if the influence of both still makes itself felt. Perhaps here Shadows Fall will also help point you in the right sonic direction. That's not to say that 'Reaper of Life' and 'Murderous Intent' don't contain some of the thrashy energy present on other of the band's works, yet both those tracks also dwell on slightly atmospheric groove sections spiced up only by vocal power. Indeed, the drumming energy feels rather flat at these moments, as if designed to let the slower moments lurk in sinister shadow and force the intense parts to communicate by bludgeoning force more than razor-sharp incision. That leaves the up-tempo sections pretty physical with only hints of melody coming through in the riffing style of 'Sickness Within', whereas Gothenburg melodeath would tend to play separate melody lines and focus less on vocals and time changes.

Therefore, The Sickness Within can come across kind of bland because of the strong emphasis on mid-range sounds and pace, Bredahl incorporating quaking cleans on the title track and a few other times, while only those somewhat hidden solos break the pitch hegemony of the rest of the mix. The other side of that argument is that Hatesphere wrote their songs much more carefully, placing more hooks in the overall structure of each cut, mainly in terms of chorus repetition or attractive riffing. The songs never stretch that long (only the closer hits 5 minutes), nothing ever feels like it drags exactly, and the main appeal of these guys - or, it always has been to me, anyway - lies in the way that their riffs catch so quickly and leave you helpless to remain still in your chair as they prance and smash across that fine line between classic and extreme metal. I'll spare you the full guided tour, but 'The White Fever' delivers a taste of slamming riffs to come as the opener, 'The Coming of Chaos' has some sections to hook you in a fairly regular melodeath style, and 'The Fallen Will Rise in a River of Blood' fully cleaves your head off with one of the most delicious rhythmically propelled riffs you'll ever hear.

Common complaints about groove thrash and its associated genres will definitely rear their head while listening to The Sickness Within, and I can sympathize on this occasion. 'Bleed to Death' could and should have been cut from the tracklist, since it never goes that far, suffering from predictable riffs and no real focal point, while 'Seeds of Shame' achieves nothing special either. Moreover, listen to the cries of "Where are the solos?" from all the chaps in denim. Well, I'm actually pretty sure that only 3 of the songs on this release don't have solos, so those guys who think that Hatesphere play no leads obviously haven't paid much attention. I do agree, however, that the solos receive a different kind of treatment to those you would normally hear on an album with the melodeath and thrash genres on its borders, seeing as a few of them fly under the radar in a more atmospheric manner to contrast the forcible riffing, even, as on 'Heaven Is Ready to Fall', being played under the last chorus rather than as a separate feature. Nevertheless, those wanting leads cannot fail to miss 'Marked by Darkness', which delivers on the promise of a guitar explosion in 'Raining Blood' style, building all the tension up to a sudden deluge of alternate leads by the guitarists, which should more than quench the thirst of those who desire an average of one per song. It's a cracking end to the album in general, and only a shame that the intensity dwindles a bit in advance of it.

Because of the vaguely more mainstream aspirations of The Sickness Within, I can feel myself hold back from it a bit in comparison to the unrestrained Hatesphere of Bloodred Hatred and even some of the slightly heavier later works. As an introduction to the band, on the other hand, or as a gateway between simplistic forms of groove and melodeath and heavier and more intricate iterations, this release seems extremely healthy, if not quite showing the usually strong editing skills present in the Hatesphere camp. The Sickness Within deserves its middling score, yet it's an album that I enjoy reaching for every once in a while.

Hatesphere formed in 2001 in Denmark. After releasing their self titled debut that same year they got some attention that died down soon after. The band is still going strong today but only features one original member. Since this release they have put out two more full-lengths. Unfortunately the band has never managed to top The Sickness Within. The Sickness Within is a good example of the bands signature sound. It features very catchy melodies and riffs and shows emphasis on the bands capability to create a groove. Hatesphere knows how to milk a groove for all it is worth and moves on just before it becomes uninteresting. They aren't afraid to change pace throughout the album and this aspect gives the album an overall fresh feel and creates excellent replay value.

The vocalist shows a decent range during the playtime of The Sickness Within. His voice has an odd quality that sets him apart from the pack of vocalists in similar bands. His trademark yell is mid-range and executed with vicious delivery. He also attempts low guttural growls at times and does so very well. He brings enough to the table to keep things interesting. Aside from a few moments in "Sickness Within" all the vocal work on the album is harsh, and in this song only a few seconds of cleans are used along with someone talking over the instrumentals. The band might have some luck diving deeper into experimenting with clean vocals because in the moments they are used he seems to have an interesting voice.

The riffs on the album come in spurts of very memorable to "heard this a thousand times". For example the main riff on "Seeds of Shame" seems like something that Lamb of God recycled. "Reaper of Life" features some of the most memorable guitarwork on the album, the main riff featured in the song is so infectious that it is almost hard to keep yourself from humming along or playing air guitar. A few breakdowns are included on the album, though not often, they do provide a good pit inducing atmosphere. Knowing exactly how long to hold a riff can make or break a record and these guys have their timing down, so while the guitarwork isn't extremely impressive the structures and tempos make up for it in the long run.

The drumming is very is executed with accuracy. Considering the plentiful tempo changes he is able to keep a groove during the entire record. The fact that the drumming on the album isn't just one continuous blastbeat is always a welcomed plus.The bass isn't audible through most of the album, and it is a shame because the overall sound could use some real thickening up. Another change from their previous releases is that on the surface it appears that Hatesphere is a little less angry than they were before. This could be a very good thing for listeners or an incredibly bad thing. They trade in their gritty angry feel that their past releases featured in order to create a more controlled and organized sound. The vocals seem more trained and are executed with more precision giving it the feeling that the structures were planned before Jacob hit the vocal booth, rather than on past releases where it almost seemed like he just went with the flow of the song and threw the first take on the final product.

Overall The Sickness Within gets a solid 3.5 out of 5. The band manages to keep things entertaining throughout but they fail to make this album anything more than great. The Sickness Within is worth at least one listen to fans of melodic death metal in general. In the future if the band can throw write more memorable instrumental elements than they could just make themselves a masterpiece but until then they will just be another melo-death band that are just good enough to hold your attention.

Hatesphere isn't really a band that tends to stand out when you hear Gothenburg uttered, and the same with this particular album. The Sickness Within was just one of those albums I wasn't very pleased with because of little ingredients needed to make this full-length release complete.

The starting song "The White Fever" begins with a slow guitar picking sound followed by the drums blasting in with full force. Now when you picture it I'm sure you think that change in structure sounds really pleasurable to the ears. Not quite. The drums seemed to lack this edgy feel I was built up to. Then the vocals surprised me slightly because of how uncommon the octaves were sung. But after the bewilderment slowly dissolves it starts to become a little obnoxious and you start wanting Bredahl to shut up for at least a good twenty seconds so you can get the feel of the song.

The lyrics are pretty dull and almost make no sense.

The White Fever: Like a zombie, flying mountain high
This dose, oh so good, oh so bad, I speak in tongues
My insides are shaking
Still I am on top of the world, of all worlds
With ego and sin as my keywords...

Since when could a zombie fly? Tongues? Keyboards? Where are you getting at?

The guitars needed much more variety than what I've heard on the final release because if I remember correctly I never recall a solo played when listened. The bass I couldn't hear, and the drums seemed to use the same damn beat but switch it up after each song was done to trick the listener to believe they were playing something different. I'd hate to say it but "Sickness Within" was the only track that slightly grasped my attention. The lyrics were an improvement and the band altogether seemed to pop out at you. But after that track was finished you become left in the dark once again hoping another dim light would pass by.

Overall, the album is definitely not worth of purchasing but maybe a quick listen from one of your friend's copy and then move on to something better. Denmark just hasn't made its mark that year. Hopefully Hatesphere will make better choices in the future and learn from the mistakes left for us to examine on this boring, repetitive, and average album.