HATESPHERE

HATESPHERE are typical representatives of the second tier of European heavy music: they arrived too late and brought too little. Their thrash, inevitably prefixed with "neo," was destined from the very start to remain in the shadow of the more fortunate THE HAUNTED. Progressing from their self-titled debut to the current "The Sickness Within," Jakob Bredahl and company have relentlessly accelerated their steel goliath, grinding their guitars ever more ferociously and pouring increasingly viscous negativity into the surrounding musicscape. "Sickness Within/Reaper Of Life" is a two-part promo slab of bloody rawness, digitally dissected by the industrious Tue Madsen. Having reached the apex of their sonic extraction, the band is still searching for its own identity. While their compatriots MERCENARY broke through with their latest release by dialing back the extremity, HATESPHERE's creative flight remains confined within self-imposed boundaries. Sprinklings of harmonious trills between the dense bruto-concrete blocks make for a more pleasant listen, yet I believe a bit more rawness and punk attitude wouldn't have hurt this energetic but conceptually dry creation.