Hatebreed - The Rise of Brutality

Hatebreed is ostensibly a hardcore band, but like many hardcore bands these days, they have little in common with bands like Minor Threat or the Dead Kennedys. The metal influences are so overwhelming that if their vocalist growled a little lower, they would be indistinguishable from a death metal band. Still, if you like Hatebreed's previous releases, I doubt you'll find much to complain about with The Rise of Brutality. In fact, I'd say that The Rise of Brutality is probably their strongest release to date

The album consists of 12 mosh pit-friendly metalcore anthems that would have fit quite comfortably on their first two albums. Yes, it's pretty simple music with few surprises, but Hatebreed is quite good at it. Imagine an improved version of Agnostic Front's One Voice album or Earth Crisis' Destroy the Machines if Earth Crisis didn't suck.. The Rise of Brutality may not be innovative, but it sure is fun. The production is considerably beefed up, so the songs have even more of a punch than the ones on the previous albums. The music has changed very little, but the songs make much of an impact on the listener.

The band, as most hardcore bands are wont to do, are still complaining and how it's holding them down and how they have to fight back and so on and so forth. You'd think the band was from the New York City; their song "Another Day, Another Vendetta" goes so far as to include lyrics from Sick of it All's "Just Look Around". However, the band is from the mean streets of New Haven, Connecticut, and I suppose you can't really write songs about Gilmore Girls or going to a bed and breakfast and not getting a mint on the pillow.

My tastes in metalcore usually run to bands like Botch or Converge; the Victory records-style hardcore rarely holds any appeal for me. Hatebreed is one of the few bands of this style that I like, but even I'm taken aback by how much I like their new album. I was skeptical that Hatebreed's move to a major label would result in anything good, but two albums into their deal, and the band are stronger than ever. The Rise of Brutality is one of the most welcome surprises of the year.

Article Author: Chris Puzak

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