ALBUM REVIEW: Hatred Prayer – Trench Warfare
TRENCH WARFARE are one of the more aggressive and ferocious blackened death metal acts in the US extreme metal underground. Taking their musical cues from acts such as BLACK WITCHERY, BLASPHEMY and REVENGE, TRENCH WARFARE have managed to cover a lot of ground in a very short period of time, releasing their debut demo, Perversion Warfare in August 2015, and appearing on a split at the end of the following year, carving out a small yet respectable reputation for producing caustic blackened death metal. Their debut full length, Hatred Prayer, is the apex of their output to date, and proves to be one of the more vicious, visceral and impressive albums to come out this year.
Decimate Legions starts Hatred Prayer off strong with a dark and aggressive burst of dense riffs, thunderous, chaotic drumming and ferocious vocals. Taking the “war metal” style of bands like BLASPHEMY and BLACK WITCHERY and giving it a sharper, more modern approach, it proves to be an intense and brilliant way to kick off this album, going straight for the jugular and drawing the listener in immediately. Spare No Wrath, Axioms and Barbarous Temperament all prove to be as unerringly caustic, injecting thick, sludgy grooves and dizzying, cacophonous death metal hooks into the mix, each being brief and brilliant blasts or brutality, each one jumping out of the speakers and carving a fierce warpath that doesn’t relent until the song comes to a close.
Astral Projection is a far slower, yet nonetheless feral, offering, with huge chords and steady, primal drum beats providing a solid, primitive edge that allows the vocals to come to the fore, giving the listener a refreshing change of pace that doesn’t sacrifice any of sonic weight or power that was evident in the first few tracks. Evil Shall Triumph dives headlong back into the energetic and frenetic approach which marked the first four songs, with buzz-saw guitars and scatter brained drumming creating an impenetrable wall of noise and moving at blistering speeds. It’s an unashamedly barbaric and savage piece of music, and all the better for it.
Behead Muhammad starts the albums second half off with a fantastic, visceral slab of venomous blackened death metal with a few hints of grindcore thrown in, with the drums in particular not deviating from their machine gun fast pace even a bit, and giving this song a punishing percussive backdrop that only serves to make this song even more bestial. It’s certainly one of the records more aggressive moments, and manages to dram some of the more memorable guitar parts on the album into its three minute span. Young Lord is a short, punk-esque piece of that acts as a short, sharp shock that leads into its twin track, New Lord incredibly well. It’s a slow, dirge-like track, which makes use of a funereal crawl of a pace, crushing grooves and thick, chugging rhythms to craft the albums most eclectic and bleak affair. It could have easily gone on for a few more minutes and still remained engrossing and interesting. Blood Cleansing and Sate Thy Lust are ferocious and speed-driven, with tight and powerful guitar work, solid drums and gnarly, animalistic vocals which both prove a great climactic feel to this album, leading the listener into the final, titular track, Hatred Prayer; a dark and dismal aural assault with some really impressive, frenzied guitars which help bring this great album to a close on an equally good note.
Hatred Prayer showcases all of the strengths of TRENCH WARFARE as quickly and succinctly as possible. Clocking in at little under 34 minutes, this album has very little in the way of filler, and the music on offer has such a lean and focused sound that it’s hard not to get drawn into this record and be thoroughly blown away by it at times. With a few technical flourishes and even hints at punk and grindcore in its sound, its an incredibly diverse record from start to finish, whilst working extremely well as a whole. With music of this calibre and intensity, it’s likely that TRENCH WARFARE could, with time, come to be regarded as one of the premier blackened death metal acts within the current underground scene.
Rating: 9/10
Hatred Prayer is set for release August 9th via Transcending Obscurity Records.
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