Hatebreed

The Concrete Confessional

Written by: MAK on 21/04/2016 11:46:05

Get ready to pump your fists in the air in a repetitive manner, mosh warriors Hatebreed are back with a follow-up to their 2013 album “The Divinity of Purpose”. Known for their huge hardcore influenced anthems, Jamey Jasta and co look set to cause more carnage with their latest effort “The Concrete Confessional”.

Let’s get this out there straight away, don’t expect anything shocking or new musically from Hatebreed. The Connecticut men are twenty-two years into their career and have stuck to a particular formula that has clearly been successful enough for them not to want to shift a great deal. Hatebreed remains in the gap between metal and hardcore, providing brutal riffs and vocals spat through gritted teeth, all unleashed with a devastating atmosphere.

Perhaps what is the most apparent difference is the slight more push towards thrash metal, which we know back on the ‘For The Lions’ album was a massive influence on the band as they covered several thrash classics. Opening track "A.D" channels Hatebreed's inner Slayer and pre-Roots Sepultura for an energetic thrash pit-destroyer, It’s ridiculously in your face. The song itself is about the American dream, how the big corporations are crushing that dream for the average person. This is signifying the political stance Jasta is throwing into this album.

One noticeable thing about ‘The Concrete Confessional’ is the lack of a real stand-out anthem, each previous album had a least one song that was a huge crowd pleaser for shout outs and a sense of unity, take “Honor Never Dies” from the last album or the classic track “Live for This” from the 2004 album “The Rise Of Brutality”. Both are massive and anthemic. I’d like to see “Something’s Off” hit the same heights by having a massive crowd shout along to the chorus chants “OFF”. “Us Against Us” is another track that has the potential to stick out with those title words aching to be screamed by thousands of voices.

It’s not that the factors for an anthem aren’t there, but instead, we have mostly short bursts of chaos within songs that don’t even reach the three-minute mark. This leaves songs that don’t linger long enough to really stick out in your head and are over before you realise. Picking the shortest track “Seven Enemies” at just over the two-minute mark, it is a straight up bruiser. Deep chugs with a Beatdown attitude and drums hit with vindication, it’s not entirely captivating but it does what it needs to do. These are songs purely designed to encourage violence in the pit as Jamey Jasta unleashes what sounds like his most pissed off material to date.

It is understandable at this point in their career why some people might be bored with Hatebreed by now, but why fix what isn’t broken? For those who are happy to listen to meaty hooks inspired by thrash punk then this just another great album for pit warriors to lose their shit to. What else do you really want from Hatebreed?

7

Download: A.D, Us Against Us, Something's Off
For The Fans Of: Terror, Madball, Slayer
Listen: facebook.com

Release date 13.05.2016
Nuclear Blast Records


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