Hate Forest "Innermost" CD

Descripción The year 2022 has blessed us with many extreme metal releases, mostly that of black metal sort. We’ve had Watain’s “The Agony and Ecstasy of Watain”, I Am the Night’s “While the Gods are Sleeping” and Lord Belial’s “Rapture” to name a few, but like a bolt from the blue comes Hate Forest’s new album “Innermost”. Released on December 19th on Osmose Production’s YouTube channel, only 2 days before its official release date on December 21st, it came totally unexpected, even amidst Ukraine’s current situation. Although the previous album “Hour of the Centaur”, released only 2 years prior, was still quite fresh with its overall well received status, the black metal community would certainly not hesitate to give the new Hate Forest album a warm (or in this case “cold”) welcome and embrace it with open arms. So, does “Innermost” deserve a warm welcome?
Hate Forest’s musical approach remains pretty much the same after all these years, staying faithful to what it does best. Those who are familiar with Hate Forest and its style, they already know that it’s black metal with cold, misanthropic and diabolic tremolo riffs, blast beats, double-bass drumming and growling vocals with occasional harsh screams, which is the bread and butter that Roman Saenko still incorporates to this day, even on “Innermost”. All tracks have plenty of those mentioned above, while tracks “By Full Moon's Light Alone the Steppe Throne Can Be Seen” and “Temple of the Great Eternal Night” also have acoustic interludes that later switch to tremolo picking and blast beats, with only a brief instance of mid-tempo riffs and drum patterns on the second track “By Full Moon's Light Alone the Steppe Throne Can Be Seen”. The third track ”Ice-Cold Bloodless Veins” does something a bit different from the rest, it starts off with the main riff and growling vocals without any drums and bass for a few seconds before it starts blasting, and repeats the same formula in the middle of the song, but the final track “Solitude in Starry December” is somewhat too repetitive and straightforward, leaving nothing more till the very end. As for the sound production, it sounds cold and misanthropic as it should, with heavy guitars, drums that aren’t too loud and vocals that blend well in the mix.
Overall, the album doesn’t really provide anything new other than new songs and new riffs, it is still substantial to a certain degree and faithful to Hate Forest’s sound. This album won’t be anything special to people who feel a bit overfed with what Roman Saenko has been doing with this band for 20 years now, but if you’re just someone who is looking for a good Hate Forest album or a good black metal album with growling vocals and cold misanthropic sound, this does indeed deserve your warm welcome.
Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=E5MadagyMMM&list=RDE5MadagyMMM&start_radio=1