Hatebreed’s metal-orientated approach of hardcore isn’t popular by every hardcore fan, but facts don’t lie. They’ve toured the world multiple times, sold thousands of records and even got a Grammy nomination for their song ‘Live For This’. All in all they’ve been at the front of the hardcore genre since 1994. With their sixth studio album, simply entitled Hatebreed, there wasn’t a reason to change the recipe, although they did add a few new ingredients to spice things up a bit.

 

The biggest problem with Hatebreed is that they have too many mid-tempo songs with vocals that sound very much the same. Although Jasta isn’t the greatest vocalist on earth, he uses his voice way better than on the previous records. His monotone singing style is great for a couple of songs, but after six albums you will have to innovate. Fortunately he did. The best song to understand how Jasta also can use his voice is the song ‘Every Lasting Scar’. It sounds great on this record, but I’m curious whether he can produce these kind of melodic vocals live.

 

Besides the vocals they also created a magnificent instrumental track. Yes, you indeed just read that Hatebreed has written an instrumental track. Anyway, ‘Undiminished’ is one of the best songs on the whole album. The guitar solo parts on this one are great and the piano outro is the perfect ending of this epic song. They haven’t become too soft though, ‘cause ‘Everyone Bleeds Now’ has got a breakdown that easily could have been on one of Despiced Icon’s records.

 

Fans of the typical Hatebreed sound don’t have to fear though, ‘cause there remains plenty of songs on this record that are typically Hatebreed. The first single ‘In Ashes They Shall Reap’ (review here) for example has the potential of being the next big live anthem, in the tendency of songs like ‘Live For This’, ‘I Will Be Heard’ and ‘Destroy Everthing’. At first I was a bit afraid of what this album would sound like, but fortunately these guys have created a record that definitely adds something to their catalogue.