Hate & Bastard Saints

“Hate” is Sinister’s ultimate statement, it is the band’s most conceptually complete, musically savage and their most technically refined album. Mike van Mastrigt delivers his most spirited vocal performance, Bart van Wallenberg shines on both guitars and bass guitar, while Aad Kloosterwaard hammers out what is by all means his most diverse and utterly pummeling work behind the drum kit. André Tolhuizen had exited band prior to these sessions. Bart Van Wallenberg thus became the main songwriter along with Aad Kloosterwaard (drums). This is the start of the second era of Sinister’s first period, and the first record to signal a major line-up change in terms of writing and overall construction. On this record Sinister starts to live up to its chosen moniker, as “Hate” does indeed sounds hateful, dark and broodingly atmospheric in equal measure.

What immediately stands out about this album, in comparison to the two records that preceded it, is how controlled and perfectly dosed everything is. “Hate” is still completely over-the-top in its wall-to-wall brutality, and the unhinged song structures of old remain intact and unscathed – but the whole is more controlled, better paced and just fine-tuned on all major aspects. In all its somewhat slower compared to “Diabolical Summoning”, but the fast parts are faster than anything the band had done prior. Van Wallenberg also appears to be a more technically proficient player than Tolhuizen, as the riff – and song construction have leveled up in terms of technicality. The hateful riffs are denser, while retaining Sinister’s patented crawling melodies, and the drumming has become more involved and demanding. There are keyboards and synthesizers used sparingly to add atmospheric flavors, van Mastrigt uses spooky whispers every once in a while that add a lot to the intended horror character.

The album starts off with the slightly demented sounding but ultimately pointless ‘Intro’. ‘Awaiting the Absu’ is the first real cut of the album. As an opener it is all you could ask for. A blast and bass guitar break follow each other in rapid succession, and not until the track goes into midpace does it truly reveal its strength. Van Wallenberg’s transition to both string instruments appears seamless, as this is the most complex and technical the band had ever sounded. The more technical playing also translates into more layered, and complex song structures. “Hate” is a step forward on all fronts for a band mostly respected for its directness and reliance on brutality. “Hate” is a game changer. The writing is as smart as it is deceptive. On the surface it appears to be a fast album, but these fast sections are surrounded by large swaths of a dirgey midpace that was the bread-and-butter of North American – and European death metal. It sounds like a fast album, but it is another solid Sinister album in actuality. The key difference is that “Hate” presents it in a different manner. Sinister hadn’t really changed from “Diabolical Summoning” – for the first time the writing was able to match the band’s strengths.

‘The Embodiment Of Chaos’ is a stellar example of the band’s new writing style, it starts out with a blast section, but segues into an extended midpace in the middle before concluding with another blast. Sinister was never much of an artistic band, and “Hate” is no different. There are no leads/solos to speak of, but the usage of melody and the way the songs are constructed add to the memorability. The chorus section to ‘Art Of the Damned’, for example, is instantly memorable. ‘Unseen Darkness’ is the slowest track of the album. Taking a cue from the arising American scene “Hate” is a faster, denser and more muscular type of death metal that still retains the band’s thrash roots and the oppressive dark atmosphere which made “Diabolical Summoning” as strong as it was.

In many ways “Hate” was the coronation moment of Sinister’s earliest period. This is arguably their best, most complete offering on all fronts. Everything came together for a moment, and this record best reflects that. The band would never reach Gorefest type of exposure or popularity, but as a more underground offering – it is among the better ones of the 90s Dutch death metal scene. After the “Hate” sessions Sinister would part ways with long-time singer Mike van Mastrigt, who was replaced by Eric de Windt. A bass guitarist would be enlisted in Alex Paul, allowing former bassist Bart van Wallenberg to remain in his current position as rhythm guitarist. Sinister would release another three records after this, all while dealing with the usual line-up changes, before finally calling it a day in 2003 after the terrible duo that was “Creative Killings” and “Savage Or Grace”.

Review originally written for Least Worst Option - www.leastworstoption.com

Without a doubt among my top 10 old school death metal albums, this was one of the albums I grew up with. This album can best be noted for its atmosphere. It conjures up an entire world for the listeners pleasure, and what a world that is!
The album begins with the sounds of a ritual being performed at some small wooden building, with the floors cracking and chanting and ritual music in the background, and the then singer, van Mastrigt, screaming verses is Sumerian. After that all hell breaks loose as the title track ‘Awaiting the Absu’ comes on, and from then on you are tossed into a malevolent pit of death metal carnage. All of the tracks are awesome. In fact all of the riffs in all of the tracks are awesome. This is the best work Sinister has ever produced, ever. I can link it in greatness to Pestilence, Magus, etc, it is simply one of the best pieces of music made.
The album sounds like it is a ritual being performed live, it is entirely tight, no slips or mistakes, everything is perfectly played, everything accentuates everything else, the entire thing is so powerful, you almost feel like they did invoke the spirit of some unnamed elder gods to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting listener. It sounds like it is recorded live, and the sound is also really raw and grimy enhancing the ritualistic nocturnal feeling the album emanates.
The instrumentation is also fucking superb. The dual guitars are either playing the same thing and making it sound like one incredibly powerful guitar is playing, or they play nicely off each other, making it again sound like a single instrument. The bass is nice and almost entirely undistorted, and sounds oozing and obscure. The drums are recorded so nicely, I have rarely heard drums sound so brutal and clear without triggers, and retain all of the warm and organic overtones of the analog recordings. He plays a lot of blast beats and a lot of double bass, but he can also groove and stay in the background, he does not overpower the beautiful guitar work, and does not take anything away from the recording because of his skill, he does the hardest thing of all; to add to the music and accentuate it without dominating it. Especially in extreme metal, this is almost unheard of.
And the there are the vocals. Rough sounding yelling in a frequency that is so low, and yet not guttural, it will make your brain rattle. His voice radiates power, and the lyrics back this up immensely. The lyrics are obscure and occult themed, having to do with Satanism for the most part, and the lore of the Babylonians for the lesser part, mixing the two pretty well. Some of the most Satanic death metal out there lyrically, describing the battle of Armageddon with Satan rising as victor, rituals and blood sacrifice, darkness and death. It is an excellent album in every sense, truly worth every penny, buy or fucking die!

I don't think that they could beat their previous two albums by any means, so I'm not surprised that this album isn't as good as Cross the Styx or Diabolical Summoning, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't pick this up. If you like death metal, you'll like this. It's that simple.
I can definately see how one could relate this to Deicide's Legion. Both albums are fast, occult oriented (Sinister moreso, but they do have their nice anti-religious themes here and there, just like Glen&Co.), and slightly technical. Sinister was still very into their technical Possessed-esque riffs on here, and it shows.
"Awaiting the Absu" is a great smorgasbord of riffs. "Embodiment of Chaos" is total blasting violence, complete with a crazy guitar "melody," if you could call it that, at the beginning. "Art of the Damned" just fucking rules, with the crushing riff at the beginning. "Unseen Darkness" is along the same lines, just faster. Oh, and I love some of the lines in here: "From the breath of Lucifer I'm born, Hell's creation, death in its purest form." Ahhh...as Mike so soulfully croons these lines, you can almost believe he IS born from Lucifer's breath. I kind of lose track of the last few songs, but "To Mega Therion" and "The Bloodfeast" really stand-out. "To Mega Therion" has a meaty riff in it as well as the beautiful chorus of "TO MEGA THERION! TO MEGA THERION! SIX-SIX-SIX!!!" and that conjures up warm images of days gone past that never really happened. Like sitting with my blonde-haired honey girlfriend by the fireplace, drinking some tea and spit roasting a baby deer that still has spots. The former song is about Charles Manson, and has some more of that atmospheric riffing that they used on "Desecrated Flesh."
The production is even beefier on here, and that brings out the excellent low end of their music, making it brutal. Brutality needs a degree of warmth to add to the meatiness, but not too much. If you add too much of that low-ended soul bass, it starts sounding like mallcore. THIS MUST BE LIKE MEDIUM RARE FAWN CHOPS.
I hate to be nit-picky, but I think the main problem on here is that Bart, who was the bassist before this album is now the guitar player. For those of you who don't play bass, let me tell you: playing guitar is quite different from playing bass! He doesn't use the weird little solos like Andre did on Diabolical Summoning, and sometimes it's like he's trying to be overly technical.
I think I'm going to drink some more Mad Dog and listen to this album one more time. As one reviewer noted, this DOES make me want to rabbit punch a senior citizen. Or maybe just college loser druggy neurotic prep fucks.

What many, including myself consider to be Sinister's swansong album. Their last true moment of Death Metal supremacy. Hate encompasses all of the best elements of their prior three releases, and somehow manages to eclipse, or at worst, match them. This cacophonous collection of blasts, breakdowns, and growls doesn't have a dull moment.

It opens with probably my least favorite song on the album (but by no means "bad"), "Awaiting The Absu" Probably the most atmospheric and nightmarish piece of brutal Death Metal ever written. This is essentially a song to showcase the riff-mastery of Bart, their guitarist. Fast, slow... He really does it all on this one. The next tune, "Embodiment Of Chaos" takes it up a notch and ends up being a definitive high point on this record.

"18th Century Hellfire" and "To Mega Therion", which comprise the better half or the latter half, are utter monoliths of brutality. If these songs were any heavier, they'd have their own episode of the Maury Povich show.
There's really a lot on this album to be heard, and you have to give yourself a few listens before you get a good grasp on what's going on. Sinister have no problem with changing everything within the song at a moment's notice. You would think that it makes for a difficult listen, but everything flows together fluidly. Not one single sound is out of place or could even be seen as "extraneous"

Sadly, the production doesn't allow for everything to be heard all of the time on most stereos that costed less than $1000. It's clear, but a bit rough around the edges. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but it's not once you hear what I'm talking about. The closest comparison I could draw would be to Iniquity's "The Hidden Lore". Gritty and ugly. The way it should be. This doesn't hinder your enjoyment really, it just makes you feel bad when you finally hear this record on something decent. Makes you love it that much more.

This album is a classic, and an essential for anyone with even the slightest interest in this music. And for the potential Sinister fan, there could be no better place to start than "Hate" When you do get around to buying this, get four or five copies for your friends and family. They may look at you funny now, but they'll be thanking you later when you see them in "Diabolical Summoning" t-shirts.

BUY THIS NOW.

Lets put this album into persepctive, it's a solid death metal album with a skullcrushing atmosphere from the hammering drums to the sludgy 'n' groovey guitar riffs to the mandatory guttural albeit quite clear vocals (to avoid an oxymoronic meaning what that prhase means is, there's an added clarity to the guttural chord grinding tone to the point where you could sing or growl along).
The album was released in 1995 when Death Metal was at the height of its populairty, unfortunately for some unknown reason to me by the time this furious big wave from Florida hit Sinister in Holland across the Atlantic, it seemed to have either avoided this particular band or simply died out into calm clear water and the band went on unnoticed. Quite a shame because this album could have easily been as popular as Morbid Angel's Covenant or Domination. There's a swag of songs that stand out and while they are not wholly original, the band puts its influences to good use and at the same time adds a fresh sound or perspective to virtually every song. Choice cuts include: Awaiting the Absu -- the lengthiest track -- offers very little room for the listerner the breathe with a crushing drum sound and riff patterns that change from uptempo to Obituary-style sludge, the album is clearly made for headbanging and not for a stroll through the park and reflecting over your day at sunset. The soloing intro of Embodiment of Chaos is something to take note of before the song slowly descends into another infectious sludgorama, kinda leaves you in a headbopping mode. Track 3 - Art of the Damned is where the album starts being a high point for me, a certain rolling rhythm from the guitars and drums bulldoze this song .. they literally sound like some bulldozer wheel rolling through piles of skulls you know like in sci-fi movies you'll see some huge futuristic tank .. or maybe think of it like a tank from Warhammer 40,000 (this bring me to another point, there is a bit of a Bolt Thrower like vibe on the album). Other interesting songs include the interrupted sound of Unseen Darkness, the very brutal sounding 18th Century Hell Fire, and the ending sludge-fest of The Bloodfest can someone say "slloooooooooowwwwww" in a very guttural voice whenever the really sludgy part creeps through.
A worthy and fun Death Metal album. It won't offer anything new that you haven't heard elsewhere but you will hear an interesting mix of influences from old school Death Metal bands like Obituary, Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation etc.
A word of advice if you don't like a very loud thick bass sound tweak around with your equlizier because the bass is THICK here and unless you're into that sort of stuff, you'll have deaf ears by the time you finish listening to this (it will kinda feel like you've just come back from seeing the band live).