(Andy Synn says that these old dogs still bite just as hard as ever on their new album, out Friday)
What more is there to say about Hatebreed?
After all, we’re talking about a band who have been Hardcore royalty for almost thirty years now, and a veritable institution in the Metal scene for almost as long, selling millions of albums and touring around the world, from toilet bowls to stadium shows, along the way.
So you might think that everything that needs saying has already been said, in one way or another.
But you’d be wrong, because real fans know that while there’s never been a bad Hatebreed album, not all Hatebreed albums are created equal… especially when you consider their last few releases which, while never without at least a banger or two to their name (The Divinity of Purpose in particular features a bunch of killer cuts that have ended up on my regular playlist), have sometimes felt a little too formulaic for their own good.
Which is what makes Fatal Paradox worth talking about, because against all odds – and without radically reinventing the proverbial wheel or breaking the metaphorial mould – it might just be the band’s best album since The Rise of Brutality.
Is that a bold claim? Sure, but it got you to keep reading, didn’t it? And, let me tell you, it’s a claim I’m not afraid to back up, as it’s clear that everyone involved in this album (up to and including the band’s long-time producing partner Zeuss) came at this one with all guns blazing.
The group’s formidable frontman, and all-round Hardcore icon, Jamey Jasta in particular sounds better here than he has in years, delivering every brutish, vein-popping bark and catchy, crowd-calling hook – like the angry exhortation to “Remember who you are!” during “The Carrion Choir” and the forthright declaration of “The lone wolf dies, the pack survives” during the punishing paean to collective strength that is “Decisions Become Destinies” – with the raw aggression and righteous conviction of a man who has firmly rediscovered his passion.
Of course it would be a mistake to give Jasta all the credit for the album’s success, especially since every one of his brothers-in-arms have also stepped up their game just as much in their own way, cranking out punishing, pit-friendly anthems like the ferocious “Total Invincible” and the gruelling ground ‘n’ pound of “Make Your Demons Obey” like it’s still the early 00s and the whole band still have a chip on their shoulder and something to prove.
The real paradox here, however, is that by slightly tweaking their traditional formula – adding an extra dash of Ringworm-esque thrashery to instant-classic opener “Kill Count Increase”, beefing up “The Carrion Choir” (a song so good I’ve mentioned it twice) with some almost Misery Index style blastbeats and chunky, choppy chugs, and wallowing in the Obituary influenced stomp of “Sacrifice Season” (which also features an appearance by the one and only John Tardy himself, just to drive the comparison home) – the band have produced the most definitive statement of their identity, and the most Hatebreed-sounding album they’ve done, in over two decades.
You might even go so far as to say they’ve remembered who they are… and, in doing so, delivered a lean, mean, all-killer and no-filler (well, for the most part, as I can take or leave the closing Corrosion of Conformity cover, especially after how well the unexpectedly epic, by the group’s usual standards anyway, “None Left to Save” ties things together) Metallic Hardcore machine that successfully builds on the band’s legacy without being beholden to it, and reminds you – just in case any of you have forgotten – in the words of hook-heavy mid-album highlight “Still a Threat”, that Hatebreed are “never one to bet against.”