(Rated this album with 8 out of 10) Reviewed by
zinkalla
from Chadron, NE United States
Hate Crew pretty much follows the same style seen on previous albums: awe inspiring guitar work, semi black metal vocals, blazing speed and rhythem keyboards are all in abundance here. The differences between this and previous efforts is that this is more thrash than melodic death and it is much more venomous than before. COB have always been unique in the melodic death realm for the fact that they always wrote about themes of hatred and vengenance rather than the poetic lyrics usually found in the genre. Hate Crew sees them taking this further than they ever have in the past with such songs as "sixpounder" and "You're Better off Dead". The music is also darker than in the past and follows a more thrashy groove than previous efforts. Which is where my one problem, and reason for not giving this a 5, is. The keyboards don't fit their new darker sound as well. Many times they'll go into an evil sounding part only to have the keyboards come in and make the whole thing sound hilarious and cheesy. If they continue with the more evil sounding stuff it would definitly be a good idea to not rely on the keyboards so much in the future. I recommend In Flames, Death, Lord Belial, Kalmah, Norther, Leviathan, Emperor and Susperia in addition to this.
