Hate Eternal are another of those bands whose name I have seen all over the place, but which I have never knowingly listened to. Basically "I, Monarch" is pummelling and brutally relentless 2000s death metal - and that is it really. It is unremittingly aggressive and possesses a certain degree of tech-death influence on the songwriting. They don't do anything new with that formula, but what they do they seemingly do very well. Unfortunately this isn't really the sort of death metal that lights my fire, I much prefer a looser, grimier style and whilst this isn't the most constipated-sounding of the brutal death metal albums I have heard, it leans a bit too much towards the rigid intensity end of the death metal spectrum for me to ever fully embrace it.

Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike it as such, in fact there are a couple of real highlights, such as when "To Know Our Enemies" drops into the expansive guitar solo with the didgeridoo playing in the background I think it hits an atmospheric high point. The vocals are great too, Erik Rutan having a suitably brutal-sounding bellow akin to an enraged bull looking to eviscerate a wayward matador. The production is very nice too, clear enough to hear what everyone is up to whilst not becoming too clinical and it is mercifully free of the crazy over-compression ruining a lot of more recent death metal releases. On the whole, however, it is an album I can play, nod my head to in a few places then forget about when it has finished with very little of it sticking with me for long afterwards. I have no idea how this stacks up within the wider Hate Eternal discography and whilst I have no especial aversion to exploring them further, neither am I in any hurry to jump into their back catalogue. Sometimes we just have to say "This is perfectly fine, but not really my bag" and so without it setting a fire in my belly I am never going to award it better than middling marks.

A Pale White Dot appears to represent either a turning point in the career of the band, or a side project. I echo a lot of the early sentiment surrounding this album when I hope that this is not a sign of things to come for Periphery in the future.

For starters, there isn't that much about A Pale White Dot that really stands out. None of the tracks within have that progressive nature to them; uncommon time signatures, whiplash transitions or extended runtimes. I found myself constantly falling out of sync with this album as it worked its way into the musical background as I work on other things. Songs like "Unlocking" and "Carry On" have decent fundamentals and technically sound great, but they are severely lacking in a truly jaw dropping moment that previous Periphery albums have had in spades.

The album really only has two standout moments. The first is the Will Ramos feature on "Subhuman" with its pedal-to-the-metal, unfiltered aggression. The dual vocals are a nice touch to change up the monotony, while the instrumentals have that unnerving texture, albeit far more subtle than what is to be expected by this band. The other moment is "Blackwall", which drops the guitars altogether in favour of new wave synthesizers. As the song builds up over its duration, one may become anxious in anticipation of the return of the drop tuned guitars and a vicious breakdown... only to find out that there will not be one here. The album does return to form immediately following on "Malevolent", but for these two back-to-back tracks, Periphery really made the best use of time.

The issue is that these two tracks are sandwiched in between ten songs of, relatively speaking, mediocrity. Periphery are still a very talented group, even when they are performing less technical music such as on this album, but the pedigree is far too high. This lack of stylistic variety or technical prowess just leaves A Pale White Dot seemingly empty.

Best Songs: Obsession, Mr. God, Subhuman, Everyone Dies Alone

For Fans Of: ERRA, Invent Animate, TesseracT

Continuing my theme of picking records that are by artists/bands who I am already familiar with but do not immediately recognise their side-projects at first glance, I recently discovered Solar Temple via The North playlist. One CD purchase later and I find out that this is one of the guys from Fluisteraars, a reference that I can hear in the first bars of album opener ‘Those Who Dwell in the Spiral Dark’. Despite having just two tracks the album is over thirty-six-minutes long and there is just as much detail in those two tracks as if there was seven or eight to listen through as part of a “standard” offering.

I would probably best describe Fertile Descent as music for the void. Once you are accustomed to the fathomless expanse that you will plummet through for all eternity you will find respite in its more atmospheric moments. You will hear the influence of Drudkh at times whilst on other occasions you will be soothed by otherworldly choral crooning. In short, this record is full of surprises, yet it never truly goes off-piste. For as much as I would recommend putting some headphones on with this one to properly enjoy it, I cannot guarantee that you will be able to still follow all individual elements at first. This is a record that does reward with repeated listens and does take the listener beyond just black metal. It is both dark and uplifting at the same time in fact, a feat many albums in this realm fail to pull off.

If we wanted to get into genre pedantry, then we could describe Fertile Descent as post-black metal, although blackgaze would be a stretch too far. Solar Temple are certainly unafraid to stretch their legs, regardless of one’s opinion of exactly where that takes them too. There is nothing alienating about Fertile Descent yet at the same time there is no evidence of the duo that make up Solar Temple crying out for mainstream stage lights either. Instead, the album sounds like an honest committal to tape of what excites and motivates the artists. I won’t pretend to love all of it, but I can certainly relate to most of it, and that’s progress folks.

Denmark remains one of the positive outliers in the world of black metal for churning out consistently high-quality bands. A lot like Canada, I find that there is almost a guarantee that I will like something that lands in my grubby mitts if it has originated from the land of Lego. Heltekvad are members of Morild, Afsky and Sunken. All three bands hail from the same country and having checked out a few releases from each it is not hard to see why I fell for Morgenrødens helvedesherre instantly. In fact, it was not until I purchased the vinyl that I released the band was a super-group of sorts. There is indeed a lot for me to like across these seven tracks that complete the album in a little over thirty-five-minutes. The vinyl copy comes with an impressive booklet, full of medieval imagery to accompany the lyrics, which are all Danish, and with me not understanding Danish the imagery is more appealing.

The music itself has a very European bm flavour to it. Anyone familiar with the vast atmospheric tunes of Sunken or Morild will find a little of that style by way of comparison here, if anything though, you could more easily liken it to an Afsky record, which feels a bit of a cop out given it is Ole Pedersen Luk’s demented shrieking that undertakes vocal duties here, the exact same voice of Afsky. It is not that Morgenrødens helvedesherre lacks texture because of the lack of extensive atmospheric bm. In fact, I would describe it as a very tactile listening experience overall. Jagged riffing plays across angular melodies, whilst on other occasions the more familiar tremolo takes centre stage. With a surprisingly clear production the guitars feel especially free to breathe alongside those raw vocals. My only criticism would be that the drums seem to have a diminished presence in the mix.

The sense of medieval times I have gauged from my reading of the period is that it was a time of desperation, and that despair was very much prevalent in daily life. The desperation and despair in the music are fitting then for my imagined aesthetic of life in this period of history. Uncertainty over war, invasion, famine, disease and inequality in general all provide a tumultuous backdrop for the trio of Heltekvad to write their black metal musings to. Completed by flares of horns and samples of what sound like lutes on one occasion, this medieval theme is certainly underlined well throughout Morgenrødens helvedesherre. The busier pacing of some tracks reflects a sense of chaos and the constant threat of change looming, whilst there is still some bleak comfort from the use of melody also on the record.

Arguably one of death metal’s most often overlooked bands, Tampa’s Hate Eternal have still been at it for the best part of three decades. In that time, they have managed to release seven albums, count the likes of Hannes Grossman, Tim Yeung, Derek Roddy and of course the mainstay of Erik Rutan in their ranks at various points, and share stages with the likes of Nile, Vader and Fear Factory amongst many others. Mr Rutan himself is a much lauded produced and all-round utility man, having been drafted into twist the knobs for the likes of Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel who have both also used him for his guitar playing skills in the past (indeed, my understanding is that he is a permanent fixture still in CC). Averaging around one release every three years, Hate Eternal have consistently churned out albums up until 2018 when they appear to have become distracted from the project. It was hard when looking to showcase an album of theirs to find a “classic” release. Arguably this is just as true from the perspective of looking at their discography in isolation as it is from looking at them within a whole genre view. Hate Eternal might be work-horses but it is rare to find a record they have done that is reviewed all that highly, in the truly standout section of the ratings on MA.

It could be argued that Rutan’s best work was prior to Hate Eternal, with the time he spent in Ripping Corpse and the initial three-year stint from 93-96 in Morbid Angel perhaps being considered more noteworthy in comparison. That having been said, for me personally, Covenant is one of the weaker MA albums. On the flipside, the one and only release from Ripping Corpse is an absolute banger of a record. In selecting Hate Eternal’s third full length release, landing some eight years into their existence, as the feature release for The Horde this month, I feel I have selected perhaps a very representative Florida death metal-sounding record. I have too little experience of the entire discography to possibly place it in any ranking against the rest, yet I Monarch is clearly based on the type of ultra-fast death metal indicative of the likes of Deicide and Morbid Angel. Add to this some of the more technical tropes and brutal bludgeoning’s of Suffocation and Nile and you soon have record worth reckoning with on your turntable.

At the same time, I can pick up similar sounds from other artists who never quite manage to crack the higher echelons of death metal. The sameness that can haunt the likes of Krisiun and Vader does touch the content of some tracks on I Monarch. Equally though, the ripping intensity of the main riff of ‘The Victorious Reign’ is undeniably infectious. The drumming of Roddy on this record is exceptional I feel, and the instruments are all well represented in the mix and have a good sense of clarity from the production overall. Rutan’s vocals are suitably monstrous, and his songwriting is at times top-notch (‘Path to Eternal Gods’). Whilst I may not necessarily be a fan of his solo work, it does still bear recognition for being unique in its tame molestation of my ears as it plays. Ironically, the title track is perhaps my least favourite song on the album as it completely lacks cohesion and sounds like a b-side on an Immolation single.

Whilst I Monarch cannot justify a place in the higher end of the ratings spectrum; it is one of those records that feels as if I am short-changing it by awarding it in the middle range. It does however fall short on the truly standout moments and overall is not strong in the memorability stakes as a result. Whilst not overly technical, there are sections that feel lost on me and consistent application of my attention does prove difficult throughout the complete listening experience. In so many ways, I Monarch makes it clear why Hate Eternal never quite hear their name in the same conversations as some of the real heavyweights of death metal.