Have you ever noticed, that (generally) when a Metal band has a good bit of symphonic, classical or atmospheric side, it usually comes at some sort of sacrifice to said bands ability to shred ass? As it were, The Project Hate, fail to let this happen. The Project Hate MCMXCIX, a band of Swedish origin, with members that have been in Entombed, Grave, Krux, Dark Funeral and others (the main names here are: Jorgen Sandstrom & Lord K. Philipson), play a sort of mix of Stockholm Death (aka: old Dismember, Grave), Gothenberg Melodeath (aka: Eucharist, Dark Tranquillity) with some industrial influence, and the addition of the wonderful, fairly operatic and emotive female vocals of Ms. Jo Enckell. TPH has been around since 1998, and this is their fourth release- including their 2002 live album "Killing Helsinki". Hate Dominate Congregate Eliminate, is the first album for new comer female vocalist Jo Enckell, replacing the inferior Mia Stahl, much to my pleasure.
Straight up, and I know I will have people that will lash out to agree with me here, this album has one bad-fucking-ass guitar tone, its that old Swedish buzz-saw guitar all over again, reinvented to be even more lethal and razor sharp. Those grating staccato riffs drive into my skull like a fucking bone saw, and live would probably demand you leave the venue in a neck brace. Now, not only do you get some heavy as fuck DM, there’s plenty of melody laying around for all you lovers of melodic extreme metal, and the trippy bursts of electronica, while not exactly "METAL AS FUCK!" shift things around, while Jonna's lovely vocals give the music an ethereal and dark quality that is not often captured in a Death Metal album. I'm still surprised everytime I listen to track five, Congregate, and a shiver runs down my spine as Jonna's voice carries the lyrics "I will turn to the sky, You painted with angels blood and I... I'll try to open my eyes, To see the last sun rise..." That said, yeah... the band are about as good and Christian as fuckin' Charlie Manson. Folks, this is pretty Satanist stuff, not that your freaked out or shocked or whatnot, I mean... common, if it was 1982 and this came out, even early Thrashers and Mercyful Fate fans may have had a line of urine running down their leg, but we're desensitized to this shit in 2003, its just "KeWl" now... or something like that. The drumming isn't what is generally called "Death Metal drumming" in the modern day, where if the drums aren't AT LEAST as fast as Krisiuns’, its some "weak shit." This is more of the rhythmic style that doesn't focus on the double bass that we would expect out of Thrash. The album isn't very technical at all, the musicianship displayed simply fits like a glove though.
Right then, Hate Dominate Congregate Eliminate is one of the best platters of any kind of Death Metal this year, Brutal, Melodic, Old-School, Dark, Blackened, Industrial- whatever the fuck, The Project Hate slays some serious ass and offers something a little bit more original than your run o' the mill American "breu breu breu" vocalled punk/grind with hyperblasting triggered kickdrums, give it a try, its one great disc, and try saying Hate Dominate Congregate Eliminate 10 times fast.
Best Tracks: Whole. Damn. Album.