Here we are in 2023, 5 years after their last effort (2018s Reduced to Flesh) and these long-time thrashers from Denmark are now on their eleventh studio album.  Hatred Reborn is another in a long line of awesome death/thrash albums going all the way back to 2001’s self-titled debut.  Hatred Reborn also marks the debut of the band’s fourth vocalist Mathias Uldall.

Things kick off with an instrumental called “The Awakening”.  The acoustic guitars sound gorgeous and then transition to a catchy drum fill transitioning into the title track. As with most Hatesphere albums, the huge production is noticeable off the bat thanks to another killer production job by Danish producing legend Tue Madsen (Aborted, Gorefest, Illdisposed, The Haunted, Witchery etc).  The guitar work of Peter “Pepe” Hansen and Kasper Kirkegaard is incredibly well-locked in throughout the entire album.

“Cutthroat” is the featured track and has a sick music video.  What makes this track so catchy is the aggressive down-picking and fun gang vocal parts.  Uldall’s vocals are fantastic, and he delivers one of best performances since original vocalist Jacob Bredahl.  “Gravedigger” is going to be a circle pit inducer and has a bit of a punk vibe and builds into this a nice, layered octave harmony run.  The guitar solos throughout a well thought out and are bluesy and shreddy at the time. “918” is an excellent example of Hatesphere’s ability to use groove and then go up-tempo.

This is quite the massive album in that you get ten original songs and two bonus tracks. “Darkspawn” is quite possibly the fastest song the group has done to this point in their career and it most certainly is a banger.   The first of the two cover tracks is a cover of “Another Piece of Meat” by Scorpions.  They do a fantastic job with it.   The other bonus track is a live version of “The Fallen Shal Rise in a River of Blood” which is from The 2005s Sickness Within album.

Overall, this is my favorite album from these guys since probably The Sickness Within.  If you are a fan of bands like The Haunted, Carnal Forge or Dimension Zero this should be right up your alley.  Hair whip away!

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