Reviews : Albums : Hate Theory, "Hate Theory"

Personally, I prefer to put my hate into practice, rather than theory, but I have to say that for the metal'd out moshcore that this album reminds me of, most of it's pretty good. I really do not like metalcore on the whole, except for Burnt By the Sun/Dillnger Escape Plan kind of stuff, so Hate Theory's self-titled debut caught me a bit off guard, as they resemble Integrity more than anything. The vocal dexterity of vocalist Jeff Fahl is most impressive, as he to ranges from Jeff Walker to Chris Barnes, along with some clean vocals, including one song where he sounds like Maynard James Keenan, of Tool. This kind of range impresses me to the point where I'll forgive the Barnes resemblance on parts of this album. I also liked the drumming of Jason Lamtman quite a bit, which is aided by a very crisp drum sound. The guitarwork isn't shabby on here either, and though it hardly resembles In Flames, these guys can definitely play their instruments.

However good the music on Hate Theory is though, it never changes. The songs all sound the same, to the point that having more than two songs on here is redundant, and I get the feeling that this is the moshcore equivalent of Darkthrone's Transilvanian Hunger. This is not helped by the fact that this album is at the perfectly wrong speed: too fast to be total doom, but too slow to disguise any monotony of the actual music. Hate Theory isn't a bad album, it just doesn't have enough variety sustain the hour and change that it clocks in at.

Fortunately, there's enough good stuff on here to be optimisitc about their future work.

Standout Tracks    Whore    Vent

K.Huckins