Weekly album: Hate Meditation - Scars

Hate Meditation -Scars

2013 / Black metal

1. Prelude to Apocalypse 

2. The Deceiver and the Believer 

3. Impure Rage 

4. Staring into the Abyss (End Times) 

5. The Genocide March 

6. Wrath and Revenge

7. Scars 

8. Shadow World

btcarey: Illinois, a Midwestern state known for its corn, high crime rate, and Black Metal…? I admit, I was skeptical at fist, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. A desolate landscape, rolling fields as far as the eye can see; immense boredom, except for the occasional barn party. These factors could be the perfect breeding ground for some of the most desolate, dark music out there, black metal (that or a serial killer). And Hate Meditation is just that.

“Scars” begins with an ominous, instrumental track, preparing the listener for the forthcoming storm that encompasses the rest of the album. During the first song, “The Deceiver and the Believer” I started to evaluate their overall sound.  At first glance it felt somewhat weak and too undefined for my taste. About half way through “Impure Rage”, I began to understand the aura the band was pursuing and completely changed directions in my thinking. For this reason I would say the album takes at least two spins before you can full appreciate it (at least that’s how many it took for me).

The ghastly shrieks are the thing that really separates “Scars” from other black metal releases. The vocals sound like they were recorded through a vintage loud speaker, providing a decent amount of break-up, and adding a haunting fuzz. Besides the vocals, the rest of the music is pretty standard for melodic black metal. Tremolo picked riffs, eerie synths, and some slower heavier chord progressions make up the bulk of the music.

“Scars” is a good, but not great, release and definitely deserves a few listens. Check this out if you like melodic black metal bands like Satanic Warmaster.

Favorite Songs: “Wrath and Revenge” and “End Times”

Orostider: Hate Meditation was only familiar by name before tp chose it as a weekly album. I have to admit that Hate Meditation's name gave me a slight negative preconception of the material, but boy am I glad to state that it was in vain.

For reasons unknown to me, I instantly knew that the country of origin for Hate Meditation was US. Even though there's something in the sound of Hate Meditation that sounds usbm-ish enough, I can't help but compare the overall atmosphere of the album to Paysage d'Hiver. Hate Meditation represents the same sort of ghastly atmospheric black metal as Paysage d'Hiver, but instead of repeating couple of riffs with occasional hooks nonstop for even twenty minutes, 'Scars' offers a load of varying riffs and emotions.

The overall sound is hollow and piercing, yet clear and the production is top quality, but not too modern. 'Scars' almost sounds like if Satanic Warmaster met Paysage d'Hiver. Raw, atmospheric, yet versatile enough black metal. I gladly recommend this to anyone into black metal.

tp5170: ‘Scars’ is an album I got to know some time ago accidentally when I got a good bargain on the album and on the spur of the moment decided to buy it and see whether it was any good. I actually have pretty low expectations for standard black metal releases from unknown artists, but sometimes it’s fun to just experiment because you never know what you might find, and in the worst case  you end up wasting a couple of euros which is never the end of the world. This time however, taking the risk was worth it as Scars proved to be a rather interesting release.  

 

The album is sound wise a bit different from the traditional black metal. It relies heavily on the vocals which are really distorted, loud and raw - and in my opinion the thing carrying the album. At the same time the instrumental side is pretty clean and maybe even a bit too simplistic at times, but it’s the contrast between the vocal and instrumental sides that makes the album’s sound stand out. The hollowness of instrumental stuff and the utter grimness of vocals work really well together and the resulting atmosphere is chilling and hopeless. In some songs the sound pretty much slips to the side of depressive black metal which adds a nice touch to the mix.

Overall I think the instrumental side of the album could be more complex but otherwise I can’t point out any obvious flaws with the album.  I have honestly been having good time it and I really appreciate different approach, the thought of doing something slightly different with the good old black metal recipe. 

Favorite song: Staring into the Abyss (End Times)