Born in a nightmare, wonder through the darkest corners of chaos, into a living hell but with a smirk of delight. Right between the edges of madness and a clear mind, insanity might be the answer for a new kind of order, or it is just in your head? The Watcher is observing, gazing upon mankind's ever changing personality, positive or not, this is going to be interesting. Hailing from the French lands, Rock N' Growl Promotion introduces the Heavy Metal pact of FACTOR HATE, a five piece crew of 80's driven Metal enthusiastics, spreading their mania and phobia through the brains of their listeners. Nothing to complex but rather conspicuous, seeded by a concoction of classic Metal influences, from the British JUDAS PRIEST, of the Ripper Owens era, through late 80's to late 90's Danish PRETTY MAIDS, coming to early 90's ACCEPT and U.D.O.. Furthermore, and that was interested, there is that aura of the known Nightmare of the ALICE COOPER eposes. All duct taped together, the band's vision appeared quite appealing. Near the last chapters of 2013, FACTOR HATE disclosed their debut EP, "The Watcher", as a first delivery promo to their upcoming debut album, which will be probably out through the states of 2014.

Four tracks surrounding this EP, no doubt left that sweet taste for additional recordings, which are possibly on the verge of making. Generally, I liked the songs; FACTOR HATE followed the true vibe of classic Metal being able to cover its grounds crossing Europe and America. The band kept it bread and butter of Metal while at times the material inflames with crushing Speed Metal ricochets, delivering heavier gruesomeness of chug riffery, but remaining in the boundaries of the genre. The tunes are marginally simple to interact with, something near the basic structure, beguiling while "You're In The Nightmare" and "Wild As The Wind" are quite hooking as semi energetic anthems, rather emphasizing the band's Teutonic Metal fever. Furthermore, I was also impressed by the guitaring and the vocals. Olivier "Silver" Landais and Hubert "Hubb" Treynel exchange Hard N' Heavy leads, which sounded profound, enclosing an American groovy vibe but with old British / German Metal knacks. Thierry "The Watcher" Grumiaux sounds quite special. Though I noticed the accent in his voice, his voice pattern, thin layered and screechy, displayed a fine mixture of Alice Cooper and modern day Vince Neil.

As always, nothing is perfect, and on top of this praised message of Heavy Metal, FACTOR HATE didn't quite overwhelm with their brandished production. I assume that this was a home recording. After checking out a bit, it was made by the band. In overall, a decent handout, emphasizing much of the guitars with chunks of bass, yet the mix is too raw and mastering, less to be desired, far from creating the buzz that most of the material has. I believe that for the next release these guys should consider an outside producer, if budget allows it for a much better result, engineering wise. In the end of the day, FACTOR HATE is a solid Heavy Metal band; these guys are experienced enough in their Metal and proved that they have the understanding and wits to achieve that old feeling of the genre.