For the third time in a once, let’s look towards Poland for an interview with the death. Hate was created in 1990 (firstly under the name of Infected, then Somuchhate to finally be named Hate in 1991) by the genius Adam « Adam The First Sinner » Buszko with the help of Piotr « Mittloff » Kozieradzki and Marcin « Martin » Russek. They will leave the band later.
At the beginning, some demos are released to result as an album in 1996. The ninth and last one is the one we push for, the magnificent Crusade:Zero. Real hymn to the death as anti-religious manifest, it’s in my opinion the best Hate‘s album to date (even if Erebos and Solarflesh were awesome).
Vox Dei (A Call From Beyond) and Lord, Make Me An Instrument Of Thy Wrath! are both introductions, as if the wait becomes endless. The first one is only composed of orchestration and samples, but the other one involves all the musicians (Adam and Konrad « Destroyer » Ramotoswki on guitars, Pawel « Pavulon » Jaroszewicz on drums and Filip « Heinrich » Halucha on bass) until the first « real » song comes : Death Liberator.
Indeed it’s a kind of liberation, under the band’s heavy riffs. An almost mystic sound comes to us, not without pointing out Behemoth‘s song. ATF Sinner‘s powerful voice remains unparalleled. Then comes the mastodon we all know with the lyric video, Leviathan. The heavyness of this track is hardly descriptible. It’s a real steamroller, on stage and through the CD. Hate are back, and it’s for real. They have nothing to envy to anyone, in term of gloomy atmospheric parts and in term of flood of power.
Doomsday Celebrities will highlight harmonies that the band masters, before Hate Is The Law. Even if the beginning is not that impressive, the whole song will quickly change your opinion. After a well played lead guitar part, power is unleashed again and destroys everything. Not even convinced ? Let’s switch to Valley of the Darkness (with a video clip). As the previous one, this song can become dantesque with the right conditions.
Crusade: Zero will increase the tempo without affecting the quality of the song. Contrariwise, this song is one of the catchiest ones. A bit of rest with The Omnipresence, an instrumental one with samples before going on with Rise Omega The Consequence!. A raging and blasting song. They’re all very accurate and powerful, with a perfect mastering. The slo in the middle of this track is flabbergasting.
Dawn of War comes back with the epic sound before leaving for a new instrumental song, Black Aura Debris. A new dose of samplers, but more troubling. We really feel oppressed at the end, then silence before the bonus track, The Reaping. Another fast song, but without loosing the band’s heavyness.
Crusade:Zero shows us a band in its golden age. Hate, even if they’re a bit less known than other polish bands, are rising thanks to numerous tour they do with other famous bands (Vader, Decapitated…). It would be a pleasure to see them on stage again as soon as possible, and you should follow me. On Adam‘s Facebook profile, he says that new material is on the way. Wait and See !
90/100
