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Title: Heavy, old school black metal done the Darkthrone way
Review: Darkthrone have been mining the same necro sound for their entire career, yet have managed to remain fresh despite the confines of a fairly narrow aesthetic. Hate Them is an aptly titled slab of brutal, simple riffs that call to mind Celtic Frost (of course), thrash metal and the energy of hardcore punk rock circa 1982. It's an angry, hateful and often grooving assault that delivers the bare bones essence of black metal. In other words there's no guitar solos, massive overdubs, operatic choruses or keyboards, just angry, hateful thrashing noise. The sound is big, lots of bass, distorted guitar, drums and Nocturno Culto's voice is mixed perfectly. While Fenriz may downplay his drumming ability, he plays with a lot of variety and more inportantly, feel. Hate Them is a monstrous wall of black noise and may be the heaviest, if not the best album by black metal's most enduring institution.
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