Lately, I have become more enamored, or maybe I should say, I started watching the Spanish and Portuguese Death and Thrash Metal scene with a bit more interest. My main reason is that I will be traveling (again) to Spain, the country of my heritage, and also I wanna look into who is playing and maybe check out some shows while there. Plus, you know, being a true Metal aficionado, to have the opportunity to pick up the latest physical material from the bands is a plus (support the scene!). Meanwhile in my research and digging into all that is a part of the varied and dynamic activity that is happening in the region, I came across the band HATING LIFE. Now I was quite surprised and happy that I was granted the opportunity to review the band’s latest, and I looked forward to what their debut release had to offer. Now, with the band’s moniker and I am assuming much here on who / or what they derived it from, you can probably gather the sound the band is shooting for. So upon my initial listens, you would all be right for the most part. The band has the obvious GRAVE influences and also a major dose of CIANIDE. Plus, at times, there are moments of the obligatory DISMEMBER creeping into the overall presentation. Now this seems to be the band’s debut, so apologies to the guys if I am wrong, but I just don’t see any other material, and also Metal Archives has no dedicated page for them other than the Bandcamp site. So on that basis, and this being a first recorded output from the band, it all comes across pretty good both sonically and in presentation as well. Hailing from Spain and consisting of two members, they create a sound that, while not life-changing by any means, can put a welcome smile on your face from time to time. The band gives us their take on the sound, made popular by the aforementioned bands, but also adds aspects of grime and a bit of grit similar to some of their countrymen (SEPULCHRAL being a prime example and also a current fave of mine). The production, for the most part, is acceptable, allowing the instrumentation to play its role. No surprises here, and nothing is completely forgettable musically, but it can be a bit of the paint by numbers scenario. On the good side of things, allowing for some of my “smile” points I mentioned could. If you like the more lurching, mid-paced crawl of the Death Doom genre, this could be right up your alley. All five tracks (and the standard intro) follow along the same path. A bit of the plodding element and then the bursts of speed. So, in winding this down and like previously stated, nothing here is groundbreaking by any stretch of the imagination. And I hesitate to say it may be lost in the morass of all that we are hit with these days. But having said that, the band are quite new to the club and still have time on their side and also be able to develop their sound and gain some experience. So there is no need to write them off at this stage of the game. Hopefully, when I get to Spain myself, I can pick up some merch from the band. Pulverised Records have a good roster and history behind them, so give the band a listen and maybe your support as well. www.facebook.com/pulverisedrecords, https://pulverised.bandcamp.com