| Written by Alex Stojanovic TRACK LISTING One Less Hell Daze Into Darkness Carnival Of Execution Organic Remains World, Flesh & Devil Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed In The Mind Of The Mad Delete Ethereal Nightmare HATRIOT IS: Cody Souza - Lead vocals & bass Kosta Varvatakis - Lead guitars & vocals Kevin Paterson - Rhythm guitars & vocals Nick Souza - Drums |  |
Release Date: July 26, 2019 / Label: Massacre Records / Website: www.hatriotofficial.com
I remember first hearing about Hatriot when they were first announced back in 2011, and learning that Steve "Zetro" Souza of Exodus was the singer. Hearing their demo, which featured the tracks "Mechanics Of Annihilation", "Weapons Of Class Destruction", "Globicical" and "The Fear Within", cemented my stance as a Hatriot fan pretty much immediately. The original incarnation of Hatriot featured Zetro on vocals, his son Cody Souza on bass, Andrew Gage and Kosta Varvatakis on guitars and Alex Bent on drums. Fast forward to early 2013, Zetro's other son Nick joined the band as the new drummer, and the band released their debut album Heroes Of Origin, which was a raw and in-your-face old-school sounding thrash album. The album received a great reception from the metal community and was quickly followed up with Dawn Of The New Centurion, which came out only a year after in early 2014. The second album featured a maturity in the songwriting, while still being an aggressive thrash record. It would also be the band's last album to feature Zetro on vocals because at that time, he rejoined Exodus.
Zetro officially left Hatriot in 2015 to focus on Exodus, and Cody took over vocal duties. It's amazing how much he sounds like his father vocally. After five long years, the band are finally ready to unleash their third album and their first with Cody on vocals called From Days Unto Darkness. In the time between this album and the last one, they released demo versions of a couple of new songs that appear on this album. Those being "Carnival Of Execution" and "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed". Both songs were left as they were from the demos. The only difference is that "Carnival Of Execution" now has actual carnival music playing at the start before the song kicks in. Musically, the album picks up right where Dawn Of The New Centurion left off.
The album starts with the beastly opener "One Less Hell", which begins with an eerie acoustic intro played over top of a crackling noise. It builds up to a vehement thrash attack that includes monstrous galloping riffs and blast beats. The underlying grooves that are integrated with the thrashy tempos are always a home run in my book. The next track "Daze Into Darkness" is a little slower in tempo, but it's not a soft track (there isn't one to be found here). It's one of the moments where the band take a breather from the breakneck tempos, even though it's early in the album. There might not be a great deal of variety in the vocals, but the styles used fit the songs really well. There's Cody's razor-sharp Zetro-esque thrash voice, combined with some lower death metal gutterals. Cody also does a great job by including highs, mids and lows.
Some of the songs are a mix of thrashy and groovy tempos, while others are just pure thrash all the way through. "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed" is a good example of one that's fast from start to finish, while "In The Mind Of The Mad" is more groove-oriented, but it gets thrashy in the second half. When it comes to the songwriting, the band sticks to what they're comfortable with. Sometimes that can be a double-edged sword, because they're writing awesome and brutal songs, but at the same time, they shouldn't put boundaries among themselves as writers.
If there's any flaw to be found on this record, it's that most of the riffs have a "heard this one before" kind of vibe. Now, there are some riffs that have been used a million times that never get old, but there are also some riffs that should be retired just because they've been beaten to death by the amount of times they've been used by bands over the years. From Days Unto Darkness might be just another cookie-cutter thrash album to some people with hardly any experimentation to be found, but if you love thrash like me, it's guaranteed to satisfy you to the fullest. The vocals are downright mean, the riffs are brutal, the drums are raging, the bass is pounding and the solos are searing. I really hope that with this record, Hatriot finally get some touring opportunities and they can hopefully make their way up to Canada at some point. Look out kids, Hatriot is back with a vengeance!
Highs: "One Less Hell", "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed" and "In The Mind Of The Mad"
Lows: A little more variety would've elevated this album to greater heights.
Zetro officially left Hatriot in 2015 to focus on Exodus, and Cody took over vocal duties. It's amazing how much he sounds like his father vocally. After five long years, the band are finally ready to unleash their third album and their first with Cody on vocals called From Days Unto Darkness. In the time between this album and the last one, they released demo versions of a couple of new songs that appear on this album. Those being "Carnival Of Execution" and "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed". Both songs were left as they were from the demos. The only difference is that "Carnival Of Execution" now has actual carnival music playing at the start before the song kicks in. Musically, the album picks up right where Dawn Of The New Centurion left off.
The album starts with the beastly opener "One Less Hell", which begins with an eerie acoustic intro played over top of a crackling noise. It builds up to a vehement thrash attack that includes monstrous galloping riffs and blast beats. The underlying grooves that are integrated with the thrashy tempos are always a home run in my book. The next track "Daze Into Darkness" is a little slower in tempo, but it's not a soft track (there isn't one to be found here). It's one of the moments where the band take a breather from the breakneck tempos, even though it's early in the album. There might not be a great deal of variety in the vocals, but the styles used fit the songs really well. There's Cody's razor-sharp Zetro-esque thrash voice, combined with some lower death metal gutterals. Cody also does a great job by including highs, mids and lows.
Some of the songs are a mix of thrashy and groovy tempos, while others are just pure thrash all the way through. "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed" is a good example of one that's fast from start to finish, while "In The Mind Of The Mad" is more groove-oriented, but it gets thrashy in the second half. When it comes to the songwriting, the band sticks to what they're comfortable with. Sometimes that can be a double-edged sword, because they're writing awesome and brutal songs, but at the same time, they shouldn't put boundaries among themselves as writers.
If there's any flaw to be found on this record, it's that most of the riffs have a "heard this one before" kind of vibe. Now, there are some riffs that have been used a million times that never get old, but there are also some riffs that should be retired just because they've been beaten to death by the amount of times they've been used by bands over the years. From Days Unto Darkness might be just another cookie-cutter thrash album to some people with hardly any experimentation to be found, but if you love thrash like me, it's guaranteed to satisfy you to the fullest. The vocals are downright mean, the riffs are brutal, the drums are raging, the bass is pounding and the solos are searing. I really hope that with this record, Hatriot finally get some touring opportunities and they can hopefully make their way up to Canada at some point. Look out kids, Hatriot is back with a vengeance!
Highs: "One Less Hell", "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed" and "In The Mind Of The Mad"
Lows: A little more variety would've elevated this album to greater heights.
FINAL RATING
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