Deathtale - "The Origin of Hate" (Art Gates Records, 2018)

Band: Deathtale
Title: The Origin of Hate
Genre: Death/Thrash Metal with some Dark tunes
Time: 39.38 min
Release Date: 16th November 2018
Rating: 80/100













Do you remember that one year ago I reviewed a Vienna-based band called Hellavista? Well, today Vienna, Austria, returns on these pages through Deathtale, a quintet founded in 2008 by the will of the bassplayer Philipp Späth and of the veteran drummer Tom Kräutner after his demise with his previous band Demolition. With the addition of a second guitarist in the person of Gilli Gehring that made Deathtale a quintet (in fact, before they were a quartet), these Austrian guys released 4 months ago a third album under the auspices of Art Gates Records (please read the interview that I did to Ivan Magdalena about his label). The result of this collaboration has been "The Origin of Hate".


Well, the album starts with "The Dark One", a dramatic intro full of dark tunes, as already anticipated by the same title. Then, it's the turn of the first real song "Bloodgod", that show a band playing a death/thrash metal characterized by a modernist approach, a nice balancement between fast and slower tempos (there are also blast-beats but starting from the third track), and an excellent interaction between the guitarplayers. And I am talking about an interaction that allows to the axes to create many layered riffs as well skilled guitar solos, that can be elegant or more tough, in according to the mood of the various songs.

Speaking about the "mood", there is need to say that Deathtale know how to produce different songs, also because these guys take inspirations from other genres. To mention a few, "Born and Broken" has some dissonant parts with noisy touches while "Embrace the Fire" is mostly a mid-tempo with some dark, sulphurous vibes close, in a certain sense, to black metal. I can mention also "Seven Sins", where there are elegant and neoclassical influences but even raging explosions of pure fury; and the following "Walk Over Water" show some complex and psychotic solutions played in the vein of Meshuggah. Important to underline, both these numbers have great and effective guitar solos. And finally, I could mention "Hell Exists", in which you can hear groove metal influences à la Pantera. At this point, other examples are useless, since I think that you understood that we are in presence of a band that, even though they seem to be mainly influenced by bands like The Haunted or HateSphere, has brought to light an album characterized by a good imagination.

So, Deathtale plays in a personal style that see a nice combination between wickedness, melodies, inventiveness and amazing guitar solos, and blended all this with touches of a dark atmosphere that will can be more developed in the future productions to come. For me, the best things of this style are expressed within the second part of the album, especially in my favorite songs, that are "Seven Sins" and "Walk Over Water" but I must say that also the very wicked "Born and Broken" is really outstanding. Maybe, the production of "The Origin of Hate" could be better (for example, I don't like so much the sound, a bit cold, of the snare) but, in general, Art Gates Records released another very good album. And expect to read other reviews about the releases of this label, so see you soon, brutalbangers!

Tracklist:

1 - The Dark One
2 - Bloodgod
3 - Born and Broken
4 - Origin of Hate
5 - Embrace the Fire
6 - Unleash the Wolves
7 - Seven Sins
8 - Walk Over Water
9 - The Heretic
10 - Hell Exists
11 - Hypocrite

Line-up:

Patrick Pieler - vocals
Arian Rezaie - guitars
Gilli Gehring - guitars
Philipp Späth - bass
Tom Kräutner - drums

FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Deathtale/136426566405029
Art Gates Records: http://www.artgatesrecords.com/