Hate Eternal - I, Monarch

The title track itself starts with another typical Rutan-guitar lead. A fun thing is that the main riff itself is slow as hell, but Roddy's drumming makes it sound fast. Regarding Roddy's playing, the man singlehandedly ups the bar regarding technical death metal drumming. The speed and clarity he plays with is unrivaled, in my opinion. Especially if you know that he didn't use triggers during the recording. "Its Our Will" is another earshattering assault with a cool tempochange towards the end, with again, some awesome drumming. The use of some handdrums on "Sons of Darkness" is another cool twist. To bad that you wont hear those handdrums again, I think they could have been utilized a bit more.

One of my favorite tracks is the closing track, "Faceless One". Its an instrumental, and pretty much a technical showcase for the band. Rutan puts down some great riffs and solos, while Roddy plays some pretty impressive stuff regarding limb independence. Personally I would like to see more of this kind of tracks or passages to open up the sound a bit. Because For some people, this kind of music will sound boring and repetitious. But then again, Death Metal was never meant for people demanding musical innovation on every cd.

I, Monarch is definitly one of the best death metal albums that got released this year. Hate Eternal sounds at their best when they mix up the high-speed assaulting with a bit more laid back moment, but every song on this record is pure quality death metal. Once in a while you run into an album that sets a new standard for a type of music, and Hate Eternal has done that with I, Monarch.