Review Summary: A nice little dose of death metal madness. CHRIST HAS FAILEDDD!
Hatred Embraced is an old school death metal band from New Jersey. They formed back in 2007 and have since released three demos. Suffering of the Holy is the latest demo and it consists of four tracks along with a rehearsal thrown in as a bonus. Rather than going with the Autopsy worship or old school Swedish sound that everyone else seems to latch onto these guys take a slightly thrashier route. That being said you will still hear some major influence from bands like Suffocation and Pestilence among others.
The demo starts off packing heavy punches on "Moloch... The Devourer". The track utilizes some very sinister sounding tremolo picked sections, which is an aspect of the band that is heard throughout this demo. This track really sets the tone and offers the listener some foreshadowing on just what kind of blasphemy they've gotten themselves into. Each track differs in structure from the last which really helps with the pacing of the release. At times things can get quite epic while maintaining the bands raw sound, this happens most often when they slow things down a bit. During these moments plenty of catchy, overpowering riffs can be found. "Remains Of..." and the title track are perfect examples of the band utilizing these slower more downtrodden moments to great avail.
The guitar tone creates an ominous vibe and Chatterjee's menacing vocals only push those feelings into uncharted territories. He mainly sticks to gravely growls, but every now and then he comes in with some nasty raspy screams. The rough, raspy screams sound great and should be incorporated more often to keep things from getting stale. The drums play a major role in the overall sound of this release. They are very high in the mix and there is surely enough going on to keep Donato very busy behind the kit. The frequent changes in pace keep things interesting all across the board.
Overall Hatred Embraced show quite a bit of potential here. They don't do much do reinvent the wheel, but they do a damn fine job crushing the listener with the existing one. Unfortunately they've disbanded since the time of this release. With how well this is composed and flows for a demo a full length offering would've surely pleased Moloch and any other entity with ears to behold it. Fans of death metal in general should give this a look. The new wave of old school death metal has never sounded this evil, and this is truly a breath of fresh air compared to many of the bands that have been coming out sounding like carbon copies of one another.
