After two and a half decades of existence, most bands gradually begin to let up and start slowing things down a bit; the tours become less frequent, the albums get a comfortable feel to them. But then again, HATE isn't like most bands. Embarking on relentless and incessant tours over the past few years, this Polish Death Metal machine has somehow found the time and energy to release their tenth full-length album, "Tremendum", which shows that the band are about as far from letting up as it gets.

Starting off with militant drumming, "Asuric Dream" sees beautiful melodies melt into a madness-tinged sound before bursting into a malignant maelstrom of an aural onslaught. Tight and skillful guitar licks compliment the darker undertows, giving the album a furious opener of a song. "Indestructible Pillar" is somewhat ironically named; the band certainly give it their all, delivering their most destructive assault, seemingly with enough blast beats to launch a shuttle at least into lower orbit. In contrast to this, "Svarog's Mountain" has a slower feel to it, but despite this the song retains all of its venomous furry, delivering an unstoppable wall of sound. This slower pace is carried over to "Numinosum", which has a wonderful swaying melody to it, that ebbs and flows its way through the song, adding variation not only to the song itself, but also to the album as a whole. At the pinnacle of the album we have "Fidelis ad Mortem", which returns to the more frantic and vicious style. But apart from some really excellent guitar work, this song is not as captivating as for instance its successor "Into Burning Gehenna", which sees HATE burst back into the fray, going straight for the jugular. The roiling textures combined with machine gun like spitfire drumming makes this song really irresistible, and I can only imagine how killer it will be live. "Sea of Rubble" on the other hand takes the pace down a notch again, allowing a more desolate and despairing tone to come to the fore. In the penultimate spot, "Ghostforce" again charges headfirst into the front-lines, redolent with searing guitar sections. This leads up to the equally powerful closer "Walk Through Fire", which encapsulates an unquenchable raw hunger for more. Here, a triumphant melody combined with spiteful and hostile spat Polish vocals add just the right air of defiance, ending the album off on ravaging note.

Whilst their punishing touring schedule over the last few years has garnered the band a broader fanbase, I feel that the band doesn't get quite as much attention as they deserve. Everything about this album screams defiance and ferocity, with a clear production that allows each note to ooze its venom. Not to beat a dead donkey with this comparison, but it's hard to talk about HATE without drawing similarities between them and their fellow countrymen BEHEMOTH and VADER; all three have that same powerful sound, unstoppable riffage, rapid gun-fire drumming style, an affinity for songs written using the Egyptian scale, and those unmistakable compelling and annihilating vocals. However, it would be completely wrong to reduce HATE to a such a mere comparison; their music has its very own ferocious and savage sound which set them apart, and "Tremendum" is surely a crowning jewel in their discography. Definitely worth checking out!