Digipak with 6 page foldout insert.
Inspired by R. E. Howard's story "...a Witch Shall Be Born"
The album is split up into 3 sections:
Tracks 1-3: "What the Silent Mouth Said"
Tracks 4-6: "Still the Same"
Tracks 7-10: "History Tells"
Animal Hate, with their inconspicuous steps complicated by constant personnel changes, have climbed another spot higher in the imaginary domestic metal chart with their current act. While the band released their first album Fatal Error on their own and the second record Bells of Acheron was released under Grodhaisn Prod., the new material is currently being released by the renowned Metal Age Prod. And it comes out in a nice lacquered digipack jacket, the insides of which hide a text insert (unfortunately only in English) and a slightly unnatural photo of the band. At the time of recording, the band consisted of Petr "Hlava" Hlavenka (guitar, vocals), Martin "Beny" Beneš (guitar), Zdenek "Čedič" Kubík (bass) and Honza Kocan (drums), with the drummer leaving and the drummer's stool currently being "audited". The lyrics from the workshop of Luboš Louis Martinec are inspired by a book by R. E. Howard whose title is the same as the title of the CD. Louis divided the story into three parts: What The Silent Mouth Said (tracks 1 – 3), Still The Same (4 – 6) and History Tells (7 – 9), the final song is instrumental.
The band recorded at Head Studio. If the rumors that it is a home studio are true, then it is a studio with decent potential, because the recording plays as if it really “plays” – I just want to indicate that the sound is cool. The whole album is actually cool, after all, after the successful Bells Of Acheron (distributed in promo form for a while under the name Bestial Hate, see the review somewhere on these pages) and last year’s three-song prologue, which I also liked, the expectations were high. And I have to admit that the expectations were met. Animal Hate still play technical death metal with black influences here and there, with a portion of catchy melodies, but thanks to the more abundant use of melodic singing, their music has shifted slightly again. The division of the album into three parts is not only realized in the textual part, but also musically the mentioned sections are different. The first chapter relies on the already proven model from the previous album, i.e. on a more classic form of death metal with mostly classic growl and sometimes natural singing. In the second stage, a little more experimentation begins, black metal elements increase (the most of them are contained in the cover In The Darkness Of Catacomb) - black metal snarls are used more often and surprisingly also more melodic vocals, so for example in the sixth part three vocal positions are alternated. With the onset of the third part, melodic vocals begin to assert themselves fully and I have to praise Hlav because he handles clean singing with ease. As I listen to this album for perhaps the tenth time, one more thing comes to mind that is worth mentioning - and I mean the mechanical performances of the musicians, both instrumentally and compositionally. Everything is fitted together with precise precision and played with clarity, while the music is not simple at all - on the contrary, it is technically demanding. I consider the third track Crucifiction to be the best, appropriately hard, but at the same time melodic and with hit ambitions thanks to the catchy melody of the chorus. Moreover, melodies are intertwined with all the songs and Animal Hate, along with Mortifilia, become another interesting band dedicated to the Swedish death metal model.
Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=pUi5HZ9-Py0&t=522s
