It is hard to believe that it has been eighteen years since the Hate Eternal/Alas demo was released. Hate Eternal being a blistering technical death metal band and Alas being more of a melodic doom project. Both of these projects showing the song writing versatility of Erik Rutan who had been in Morbid Angel and Ripping Corpse. Hate Eternal was also billed as a super group featuring the likes of Doug Cerrito from Suffocation, Alex Webster from Cannibal Corpse and at that point a very young Tim Yeung on drums.  Even with as raw as the first demo material was you could clearly tell that Rutan had a vision for the way he wanted to arrange his compositions and wanted to create a death metal band that sounded apart from Morbid Angel.  When debut, Conquering the Throne came out in 1999 you could clearly hear the difference between the writing of Rutan and Cerrito.  Both writing influences are shown on the debut effort although I believe Cerrito only wrote two songs.

It seems that there was a larval period from Conquering The Throne all the way up to I, Monarch in which Hate Eternal seemed to break free of their cocoon and really opened up their wings and came into the Hate Eternal sound.  With tracks like “Behold Judas’ “Two Demons” and “Victorious Reign” you had the maturation of the relationship new drummer Derek Roddy and Rutan.  Roddy’s preciseness and ability to effortlessly play huge sections of blast beats and unparalleled double kick work made this album one some consider to be the one that truly set the mark for future Hate Eternal releases.

Let’s set the clock to August 2015 and we have Hate Eternal’s brand new effort Infernus.  A big part of the intrigue to Infernus being the switch in the drum department with Chason Westmoreland replacing Jade Simonetto.  The Ocean and Hate Eternal being very much different bands it is definitely a valid question as to how would Westmoreland handle the shift in styles? He handles it just fine. Recruiting Chason Westmoreland into the mix was a wise move and his drumming adds a different flair than others that have beaten the skins for them. Westmoreland’s drum variety seems to have brought out the best of Rutan and bassist JJ Hrubovcak and it isn’t just his unrelenting blast beats there are jazz elements throughout the album giving the band a new sense of depth. Opener,“Locust Swarm” takes all of five seconds to catapult you into a whirlwind of intense blasting and Rutan’s signature vibrato ringing and pulsating with accented tremolo dives.

“La Tempestad” is my favorite track on Infernus. I cannot get over how intensely fast this is. The meter that Westmoreland sets sounds almost inhuman at times. A collaborative effort brings forth this storm of a performance. The instrumental track, “Chaos Theory” might feel the most out of place on the record in that it almost feels like a fusion jazz with the dissonant chords over the shuffling drum patterns with interesting guitar layering throughout the song shifting into more traditional hate eternal style riff phrasing towards the end of the track.

One can never doubt the work ethic of Hate Eternal. The have consistently put the work in either on the road or in the studio. The way they worked from being on Wicked World productions to Earache records and now with Season of Mist they have built a brand. And they show no signs of slowing down what so ever with this effort.Continuing to press the boundaries of death metal craftsmanship in their combination of blazing speed and dissonance and then being able to contrast that with off kilter layered melody and riveting tempo changes, Infernus stands out. In a year already chalked full of great death metal performances from the United States with groups like Nile, Skinless, and Cattle Decapitation also releasing new fantastic albums. Hate Eternal have been able to evolve and build on a sound that has been continuously shaped, arranged and executed.  This is by far this group’s strongest effort to date. Brace yourself.

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