Hate – "Bellum Regiis"

Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Heavy is the sound that bangs the head.

You know that feeling when there's a band whose name is so fatuous that you can't take it seriously, so you deliberately don't get into them, but they put out a steady stream of albums for 30 years, and then one day, because you own a metal website, you decide you're finally gonna check them out, and then it turns out they just released what might be death metal album of the year?

Yeah, I know, right?! Just happened to me!

Yet another splendid death metal outfit from Poland, Hate have been around since the early '90s, although with members coming and going around sole original mastermind, vocalist and guitarist Adam Buszko. And – full disclaimer – while I haven't heard any of the (former incarnations of the) group's albums, if "Bellum Regiis" is in any way representative of those, then I damn well should. As should you.

Because holy shit, this is tremendous stuff, people. That painstakingly meticulous unsettling crescendo in the opening title track aside, the whole thing explodes in the most awe-inspiringly majestic death metal I've ever heard. And this is coming from a guy who's been digging on Morbid Angel and Nile. But like their countrymen Behemoth, this is some of that "blackened" death metal – the chords are often tremolo-picked, and they often have Minor-third extensions, making for an atmosphere as solemn as it's grandiose.

The drums feature a wealth of alterations, but marvelously aggressive as they are, they never become masturbatory – only unyielding and brutal through-and-through. The growls are impressively deep, but still more decipherable than with 8 out of 10 other growlers – which only adds to the impressiveness. And those lyrics… Oh boy, oh boy. Rarely have I heard lyrics and music fit each other and transcend the sum of their parts like this:

There is a wheel of faith melting in our blessed sun
There are words in stone granted by the Ancient Ones
The Tree of Life with branches slowly burning
Deliverance in shivered flesh and bones
Entranced in splendour and might
We are victors over emptiness
Victors over meaningless greed
We all preach the sermon of the spear

And this is just the opener. And the grandeur continues. "Iphigenia" is based on a pummelling, slaughtering half-time drive with some wicked drum rolls that are guaranteed to make you wanna hurl your hair around. But it manages to combine those boulder-heavy metal elements with an exorbitant pathos that I can not recall having heard from any other band in the genre.

"The Vanguard" is driven by a gigantic, melodic black metal riff, brilliantly managing not only to combine the dramatic with the fiery intense, but also to make it memorable. The drums in its verse are downright belligerent – and this juxtaposition with aforementioned riff is a minor masterstroke in itself. Its chorus – which doesn't really sound like a chorus, mind you – ends with the most outrageous combo of bass drum half-time and tremolo riffing you could ever imagine. One killer section takes over after the other like small massacres during an invasion. The energy is constantly in the red zone. This band is like a killing machine.

I just plain can't fucking fathom how gigantic and overwhelmingly powerful this is, you guys. It's like there are no other death metal bands.

And in contrast, "A Ghost of Lost Delight" stands out. Not only in that its slow pace is less frantic, but in its triplet-feel 9/4 time meter evolving into even more irregular periods, combining the progressive with near-doom metal, accentuated by a more melodic Minor-key expression. It all sounds as immensely inspired as though the whole concept of writer's block would be somehow incombinable with the band. And again, majestic and dramatic are key words.

Indeed, I just plain can't fucking fathom how gigantic and overwhelmingly powerful this is, you guys. It's like there are no other death metal bands. And it just goes on for 45 blessedly profane minutes. "Prophet of Arkhen" is almost impossibly heavy – but in yet another little case of semi-brilliance, the verse metrical units are almost catchy. While the bass drum figure harkens back to this little ditty called "One", it's still wrapped in a package that works. – But much more than that. The excessive qualities of both evil and heavy combined make for an otherworldly atmosphere, which, along with aforementioned lyrics, once again becomes more than that proverbial sum of its parts:

I can hear the voice
Now I can sense your grace
For what is it to exist
But to wake up to the seed of force?
I can hear the voice
And I can sense your grace
For what is it to die
But to melt into the Sun?
Melt back into the Sun
Melt back into the Sun

In fact, I'm finding it impossible to adequately describe the music, but I'm so psyched about those cosmically-esoteric lyrics that I'm just gonna post some from the ending track here:

In splendor and perfection and only in darkness
Our truth can be seen
Behold! We are the candle
In the temple of storm
In our perfect stellar field domain

This is not just heavy, people. This is eye-opening, overwhelming, and domineeringly powerful.

Rating: 5 out of 6

Genre: Blackened death metal
Release date: 2/5/2025
Label: Metal Blade
Producer: David Castillo