Album Review: Hate - Bellum Regiis
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Poland’s blackened death machine, Hate, are revving up for another slice of misanthropy with the imminent release of Bellum Regiis, their thirteenth full-length album. Rest assured that the nearly thirty-years since the issuing of Daemon Qui Fecit Terram, the band’s debut record, has not found Hate going gentle into that good night, rather they burn with a more intense fire than ever.
As with its dozen predecessors, Bellum Regiis is an album that is bound by a single theme, this time it’s main-man ATF Sinner pondering humanity’s unhealthly preoccupation with Power, and whether that is a natural preset of the human condition?
In order to fully contemplate this question Hate take us on a journey across borders and time: from the mythology of Scandinavia to that of ancient Greece, and Slavic pre-history.
Obvious musical point of reference here is Behemoth, with both bands sharing a genre and a homeland, yet Hate is much less accessible to the mainstream than Nargal’s crew, theirs’ is a blackened death metal that revels in the bleak and uncomfortable, though not without its hook-laden moments.
The first song reportedly written for the record was Alfa Inferni Goddess of War, and it’s here that that you will hear the Behemoth influence the most prominent. It’s big and features a few classic metal licks, along with snarling vocals and soaring guitar parts amid the uncompromising progression.
The album begins with the title track, translated as A War of Kings, it opens with folk-influenced acoustics and some ominous sounding keys. As a way to set the scene Hate hit the nail on the head, Sinner’s strangled rasps and his, along with six-string partner, Domin’s, whirlwind guitars create the kind of dark atmosphere that evoke torch-lit stone corridors. It’s like a declaration of war, played out in death metal.
Picking up on that aspect comes The Vanguard, with its precise riffing and majestic pre-chorus it plays like a call to arms, a jingoistic, chest-beating recruitment tool. Between the two is Iphigenia, named for the Greek princess and daughter of King Agamemnon who find herself sacrificed to the goddess Artemis for her father’s hubris. Hate’s ode to this tragic character is Bellum Regiis’ lead single and features a doomy chug and an eastern motif. There’s also the appearance of a female vocal, to give voice to the character.
Although barely six-and-a-half minutes in length, A Ghost of Lost Delight is the album’s longest and most ambitious sounding track. Leaning more heavily into the Black Metal aspects of Hate, it is built from edgy guitars that are simultaneously foundation strong and painfully fragile. Choppy guitars dally with acoustic moments to take the listener on a timeless journey of endless repetition.
Divided by the pagan drums and battle horns of the brief interlude, Rite of Triglav, the second half of the record sees Hate cutting loose, bringing infections, grooving hooks to Perun Rising, solid blitzing guitars to Prophet of Arken and rounding things off with the blackest blast of Bellum Regiis on Ageless Harp of Devilry, so blasphemous sounding that it would challenge anything from the frozen forests of Norway.
Perhaps not the first band you think of when contemplating blackened death metal, but certain one of the genre’s most consistent and reliable acts. Before this album hits the shelves the band find themselves on tour with Venom, Inc and Krisiun, which is bound to be one of the most ferocious line-ups we’ll see this year.
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