HATEBREED - The Concrete Confessional
May 13, 2016, 7 years ago
(Nuclear Blast)
There's a universal quality to Slayer that transcends the many categorizations we put on heavy music. Along with Motörhead and Venom, Slayer is an entity that is able to unite the disparate metal (and hardcore) factions that have, at times, literally been at war with each other. When someone screams out "SLAYER!" at a show, the response -- no matter the sub-genre or demographic -- is immediate and visceral validation. While it was Metallica that may have truly imprinted itself into mainstream pop culture, it's Slayer that's more deeply respected and beloved in the metal environs proper. It’s a phenomenon that the famous Rob Zombie quote sums up well: "No one ever goes, 'I was really big into Slayer one summer.' I've never met that guy. I've only ever met the guy that's got the Slayer logo carved across his chest." Even Entombed, an extreme metal institution in its own right, genuflected at the altar of Slayer for its 2002 spiritual re-birth Morning Star (“This album is pure Slayer influence,” former Entombed bass player Jorgen Sandstrom told me at the time. “We toured with them and they still sound amazing live. We were just so happy to play with our lords. Some of the working titles while in the studio recording Morning Star were 'Slayer I', 'Slayer II', 'Slayer III'.”)
All this is relevant in the context of Hatebreed because the band has once again leaned heavily on Slayer as a blueprint on The Concrete Confessional. Which is to take nothing away from Hatebreed’s legacy, of course. Hatebreed is probably the biggest metalcore band in the world, the group smashing the stigma out of the ‘metalcore’ term by truly fusing the two genres that inform the hybrid. While both 2002’s Perseverance and 2003’s The Rise of Brutality are the band’s career highlights, Hatebreed has consistently furthered its legacy by continually releasing records that exude the energy-on-energy anthems Hatebreed is renowned for.
The Concrete Confessional follows suit, albeit with some unsubtle shifts. While Perseverance and The Rise of Brutality’s lyrics looked inward to personal crisis and helped the band’s legions soldier on through life’s most difficult hardships (someone, somewhere, should give Jamey Jasta some sort of official recognition for the countless lives he’s probably saved with his unflinching message of strength during adversity on Perseverance and The Rise of Brutality), The Concrete Confessional instead deals with disillusionment and anger towards the outside world. All of which is matched by Hatebreed’s Slayer-inspired soundtrack (“to the apocalypse,” Slayer would undoubtedly add). In fact, The Concrete Confessional’s first three songs even represent three different Slayer eras: “A.D.” is the rush of Reign In Blood, “Looking Down The Barrel Of Today” wouldn’t be out of place on God Hates Us All, while “Seven Enemies”, despite the un-Slayer vocal flow, is a clear devotee to the dirge of South Of Heaven’s less speed-infused, more deliberate material.
Hatebreed’s vigour and dynamic is undeniable, and the band continues to be unsurprisingly unrelenting in everything it does. The Concrete Confessional is another example of its metalcore-without-the-metalcore-connotations, with strength upon strength in the face of brutal circumstances its raison d’etre.