HATESPHERE – Ballet Of The Brute

All right… the singer might try to sound like a demon with a sore throat who’s puking, but still Danish Hatesphere’s new release, Ballet Of The Brute, is an interesting listening experience.

Even though the Death Metal genre never has grabbed my attention a whole lot, I have to admit the Hatesphere guys (and that puking demon) are quite skilled at what they are doing. They could use a more creative lead guitarist, someone who makes the songs’ distinctive stamp a bit more colorful, but at least the drummer makes up for the most of it. The drummer, and all of his energetic playing, is perfectly attended to in the production/engineering mix, and lifts the overall expression of the music to a higher level.

There certainly is a market for releases like this one. If you prefer melodies, variation, and the possibility of hearing the singer annunciate what he sings about, this is not the album for you. But, once in a while, some of you just need to bang your head and exorcise some of your inner demons. If this is the case for you, then Ballet Of The Brute is indeed the right choice. Hatesphere isn’t trying to make anyone happy, and Hatesphere has no ambitions of tucking you in warm and cosy before you go to sleep. Instead, Hatesphere will more than likely make you afraid of falling asleep!

My favorites from the album are “The Beginning And The End”, “Deathtrip”, and the Megadeth-riff-oriented “Last Cut, Last Head,” with “Vermin” as a strong number four, while tracks like “Blankeyed” and “Warhead” totally leave me indifferent with their unimpressive lack of rhyme and reason.

If you are tired of your old Death-shit music, check out Hatesphere. Ballet Of The Brute, the band’s third album, is to be released the 7th of June in Europe. American and Japanese dates are still not decided.