Handful Of Hate - ViceCrown
2003 - Code666 Records
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Code666 website.
Italian upstart label Code666 are rapidly becoming as reliable in their selection of quality extreme metal bands as other finger-on-the-pulse organisations such as Rage Of Achilles and the mighty Relapse - and the latest in their roster are Italian violent black metallers, Handful Of Hate.
This is their third full-length album (the first two were released on the now-defunct Northern Darkness Records), and they keep themselves busy in between albums with braces of EPs and splits. Sonically, they come across somewhere between Dark Funeral, Dissection and Carpathian Forest - the typical elements of hyperfast drumming, riffs hewn out of blizzard winds, harsh and tortured screamed vocals and near-inaudible bass are here, albeit wrapped within a clean, balanced production that manages to retain that trademark basement ambience without sounding like it was recorded on a 4-track in someone's bedroom.
Some of the melodies that rise out of the holocaust winds of buzzsaw riffage are genuinely chilling, and occasionally, more epic tendencies rise out of the barrage of violence - see the memorable, wailing guitar breaks in 'Beating Violence', for example. 'Catharsis In Punishment' later in the album takes a markedly different approach to the majority of the material on the album, taking in far more of a death/heavy metal influence with a stomping pace, occasionally more guttural vox and galloping riffage, which adds a nice touch of variety to proceedings.
Sadly, originality isn't very high on the agenda here - if you've been following the careers of Carpathian Forest, Marduk, Dissection and Dark Funeral (among myriads of others), then there will be nothing in particular here that you haven't heard many times before. However, the record is well written and played with proficiency and obvious conviction, so if, like me, you're a fairly die-hard fan of violent, extreme black metal, you could do far worse than to add ViceCrown to your collection.
7/10
2003 - Code666 Records
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Code666 website.
Italian upstart label Code666 are rapidly becoming as reliable in their selection of quality extreme metal bands as other finger-on-the-pulse organisations such as Rage Of Achilles and the mighty Relapse - and the latest in their roster are Italian violent black metallers, Handful Of Hate.
This is their third full-length album (the first two were released on the now-defunct Northern Darkness Records), and they keep themselves busy in between albums with braces of EPs and splits. Sonically, they come across somewhere between Dark Funeral, Dissection and Carpathian Forest - the typical elements of hyperfast drumming, riffs hewn out of blizzard winds, harsh and tortured screamed vocals and near-inaudible bass are here, albeit wrapped within a clean, balanced production that manages to retain that trademark basement ambience without sounding like it was recorded on a 4-track in someone's bedroom.
Some of the melodies that rise out of the holocaust winds of buzzsaw riffage are genuinely chilling, and occasionally, more epic tendencies rise out of the barrage of violence - see the memorable, wailing guitar breaks in 'Beating Violence', for example. 'Catharsis In Punishment' later in the album takes a markedly different approach to the majority of the material on the album, taking in far more of a death/heavy metal influence with a stomping pace, occasionally more guttural vox and galloping riffage, which adds a nice touch of variety to proceedings.
Sadly, originality isn't very high on the agenda here - if you've been following the careers of Carpathian Forest, Marduk, Dissection and Dark Funeral (among myriads of others), then there will be nothing in particular here that you haven't heard many times before. However, the record is well written and played with proficiency and obvious conviction, so if, like me, you're a fairly die-hard fan of violent, extreme black metal, you could do far worse than to add ViceCrown to your collection.
7/10
