Hatesphere
Murdelust

A Danish sphere of hate that has a bit of a lust for murder, is a possible interpretation of this album by Danish band Hatesphere. It is their eighth album and it comes from a band that has received the Danish Gaffa Award for best hard rock album, apparently they do something that appeals to many. This is not that album though, this is a new one and it comes with a pretty cool cover artwork and some murderous song titles. And if that isn’t enough there is also a limited edition digipak which offers two bonus tracks. I have not even heard Hatesphere before this album so they are a new acquaintance for myself, but what about this Murderlust from what is called Denmark’s deadliest thrash metal weapon?

It is thrash-/death metal with a lot of energy and aggression, it offers aggression on a plastic disk. Hard, raw and heavy, with a voice that is brilliant for the genre. Excellent production and it is easy to hear that this is a band that has been around for a while perfecting their art. They sound confident and sure of their work, experienced I would also describe them as. A quality production from a very professional band, who offer us an album of 42 minutes that will go up to fifty if you count the bonus tracks which include a live track and a preproduction version of the title track.

I would call this a rather good album, the music is well composed and enjoyable. Solid high quality album, just like one should be able to expect from an experienced musical outfit. At the same time it feels a bit cautious, they seem to be doing it on routine rather than really burn for each and every song. Murderlust does, bar a few exceptions, sound like one album amongst many. I think that is probably a bit understandable and a bit unfortunate but at the same time I think they probably will appeal to those who are already fans of the band but most likely it will be seen as a bit of an in-between album. Not one of the best, but then again as I don’t know the band from before I cannot be too sure about that.

As I was alluding to in the previous paragraph, there is some greatness on this disk. One of these great songs is the title track that opens the album, it is absolutely brilliant and I find it unfortunate that the same fire, the same lust, wasn’t burning through the rest of the album. There are some further glimpses of greatness but overall it is a fairly good, but rather ordinary album. Maybe this band has become a bit too comfortable in what they are doing, maybe they have relaxed a bit and it shows. Murderlust is a decent album but Murderlust is a great song, I wish the rest of the album was as good as that.

HHHHHHH