This is already the 2nd full-length recording from HATRED after their debut “Soulless” in 2004 but the first one from ’em for me. What do we get here? HATRED play totally outdated Speed / Thrash Metal in the Bay Area vein. You easily can recognize huge influences from (to name the most common ones) TESTAMENT, EXODUS, OVERKILL or from METALLICA’s “Master Of Puppets” / “… And Justice For ALL” – era. This music style might be totally unpopular and, as I already said above, outdated these days but exactly this makes them interesting. Metal never was meant to be up-to-date or popular, so fuckin’ what? What you get are 13 tunes of finest Bay Area Speed / Thrash Metal in a simply outstanding sound quality. Honestly the sound on this recording couldn’t be any better which can’t be taken for granted I’d say. Something amazing on this record is the vocalist Matthias “Bacchus” Mauer which sounds a little bit like a mix of Jon Oliva, Zac Stevens (both SAVATAGE) and Gerre from TANKARD, which is for sure only what I figure out, haha. Serious, it’s a great singer with a good Thrash- and a good clean and emotional voice (just listen to ‘Gates Of Hell’). If you are fan of the mentioned bands and the Bay Area sound itself I can highly recommend this CD to you as it’s just a perfect example how to make it correct: perfect sound, great layout and 13 cool and interesting (though everything else than original) songs in a playing time of nearly one hour. Well, and after 50 minutes you finally reached the best song on this CD ‘(We Are The) Mosh Crew’ which turned out as a great last song. For further details, especially ordering details check out www.hatredmetal.de and get in touch with the band to buy this cool Thrash album. English speaking persons please don’t complain about the homepage which is only written in German. Better get in touch with the guys via email at evilewald@hatredmetal.de.