Hath

Hath

Of Rot and Ruin

release date: April 12th, 2019

label: Willowtip Records

1.Usurpation 06:00

2.Currents 06:02

3.Rituals 08:45

4.To Atone 03:31

5.Withered 06:08

6.Worlds Within 07:13

7.Kindling 02:25

8.Accursed 07:00

9.Progeny 07:48

total time 54:52

This band (New Jersey, U.S.A.) is difficult. The first four songs show a death-based super heavy band keeping the blasting-and-growling at front and center, although they do begin showing their predisposition for slow-grooving sludgy heaviness even in these four songs. The first four songs place the band in modern extreme metal territory, mostly current-modern 2019 death metal. The fifth song, however, is where they come out in full display of their other sides. The sludge grooving heaviness is now manifested in full. By about halfway, there is a sense that more elements have started to come out of the woodwork, and song number five is a good marker of what’s going on. The band is decidedly unmelodic even when the music is slow, and the chugging, that super-duper heavy-duty chugging is all out walking about the room like it owns it. Sludge and groove, and slow, gruff growling are dominant. Instead of melody in the slow passages, the band chooses colder, somewhat dissonant sounds. Towards the end of the song, the speed picks up, for variety’s sake. In short, heaviness is king of the ring here, for sure.

One gets the impression that the band is flexing its muscles very well. In fact, perhaps too well. Song number six features unmelodic clean or acoustic guitar, then blasts its way through the door for a bit of dissonant death metal, then the clean guitar returns, but no matter how many times one hears the song, the transitions do not flow as smoothly as they could (which is normal; this is only the band’s full-length debut; they had an EP in 2015). Now, what’s interesting is that this is perhaps their best song because it feels like they finally, finally, finally let some melody out of the bag (the guitar solo), but it seems like they are still being timid about it. More melody here, and in general, would be welcomed. Actually, this song is all over the place, in a good way. Towards the end, the blasting death metal appears, lest we forget. Anyway, this is a nice track, despite the band throwing a bit too much, too abruptly at the listener. To conclude, some people will say that the band lacks focus, but it seems like these musicians know what they want at this point. They’re a bit too enthusiastic to show all that they can do, if anything. The fact remains: if a listener loves the current-modern-2019 grooving-chugging progressive forms of extreme metal, then this album will be a pretty cool challenge.

hathnj.bandcamp.com/album/of-rot-and-ruin