TOTAL HATE is a Black Metal band from Germany with their sixth full length album, a piece of Metal, that could easily have been done in the ’90s, inspired by both Norwegian and Swedish bands from that era. It especially reminds me of EMPEROR, DARK FUNERAL, MARDUK and IMMORTAL. Obviously after playing for so long, the musicianship is very tight, using an old school influenced type of production, with the guitar sound a bit on the thin side, yet still with a good sound, and mostly fast paced Metal. The vocals are probably the more Black Metal part, almost strictly using high pitched screams, very Abbath-ish in delivery, although probably a bit one-dimensional, and something that could be done in a more varied direction for my taste. The band plays mostly in a very fast tempo, but actually to me they do shine more while doing some more mid-tempo parts, and the few more Thrash orientated riffs, actually make them sound at their best, with a strong CELTIC FROST aura, which is always a good thing. Actually there are also some slight hints of more traditional Heavy Metal here and there and the band is not afraid of using melody. And some more SLAYER inspired riffs work really well with their Black Metal. Interesting enough, the band has at least three members that are or were part of Death Metal bands, but there are very few sounds of that in their music. Parts of this is a trip to the nostalgia lane in the ’90s Black Metal scene, but with more actual approach. Needless to say, fans of the more popular bands of the style back in the day will enjoy this one, maybe will find many things that have already been heard and done, yet as I always said, good music is good music, no matter how unoriginal it is. Even the black and white cover art should be an indication. The very good URGEHAL cover (one of my favourite Black Metal bands) makes this a quite interesting overall album, and definitely to be checked out by fans of the second wave of Scandinavian Black Metal. www.facebook.com/totalhate666, www.facebook.com/waranthemrecords