War Metal. The most extreme sect of Black/Death Metal, this genre is also one of the most tricky to navigate due to an obscenely large amount of far-right leaning or otherwise disclaimer-worthy bands. Luckily, Sulfuric Hatred is not one of these. Formed last year by Undeath vocalist Alexander Jones and Liam McMahon (of Ninth Realm, Vile Ritual, who also released a solid album this year), this new act tries to establish a sense of identity in the swamp of other War Metal bands by adding dash of stompy Hardcore to their potent concoction. But, in an already stacked year with great releases from bands such as Impetuous Ritual and Profane Order, does Sulfuric Hatred bring the required destruction?
Sulfuric Hatred starts off promising with “Merciless Subjugation (Upon Our Knives)”, a vomitous cacophony of frenetic blast beats and snarling, buzzing down-tuned riffs. Jones has such a trademark growl that you can tell that this is the Undeath vocalist trying something new. He does a good job of it as well, given how the first five tracks are solid exercises in seething ferocity. Unfortunately, the momentum screeches to a halt with the first of two Ambient/Noise tracks: “Transmission I”. If this song were the intro to the album it would work a lot better, but smashed in between two proper songs makes the pacing of this album feel awkward. Thankfully, the next three tracks are all solid, and the best stretch of the album as a whole, with eponymous track “Sulfuric Hatred” being the main highlight due to the unending barbarity displayed. Jones’ vocal performance is the best I’ve heard from him. But Sulfuric Hatred as a whole lacks memorability. Sure, the proper songs are decent, but they never move into the “very good” or “great” territories. The problem with releasing albums so late into the year is they need to either be so incredible that they make top ten lists, or they will most likely be “solid, if unremarkable”. The latter is what happened with this debut. Sulfuric Hatred is most definitely a promising band, but if they ever want to emerge from the roiling swamp that all War Metal resides in, they need to work on memorability in their songs. Otherwise, people will always go for better acts—Profane Order, Vile Ritual, or Teitanblood to name a few—every time.
