HATRED DIVINE

The grey cover art featuring a crudely painted gargoyle (or a stoned goblin) and a weary-looking forest, combined with the musicians' pseudonyms (Akatash, Set, Nidhogg, Sakkak), steered my expectations toward a stream of black, cold (or better yet "winter" — the guys recorded this album in winter) music. Like any symphonic black metal these days, the music has a whiff of... you know what, but only a faint one. The guitars sound quite interesting — not the usual "buzzing" fare, but somewhat juicier. The vocalist gives it his all: at first it seems like a small (but no less vicious) goblin has been deeply offended and starts protesting, but then he abruptly shuts up — enter papa goblin, who with his rumbling bass (goblin-style), breaking into growls (also goblin-style), begins to "lecture" his little son. But what family squabble would be complete without mama goblin, whose sinister whisper calms daddy down? In short, the quarrel goes on with varying success for about 45 minutes, accompanied by black metal shredding and somewhat unremarkable (in terms of "mysticism" and "gloom") symphonic melodies. Not a very strong album, but as a debut effort — not bad.