ALL THAT WAS PROMISED

In the expansive world of death metal, it seems like a new branch of this thrash metal progeny sprouts every passing day with new sub-genres giving birth to sub-sub-genres and so forth and so on until a huge surge of creativity has amassed like Dr Strange's multiverse of micro-niches leaving old school hardcores somewhat at odds with the likes of the proggy experimental tech death science fiction crowds. The difference between old school Obituary and the modern classically infused Ad Nauseam is vast and it seems there is no end in site as the world of death metal has weaseled its way to the top of metal's most expansive subgenre.

The good news is that every once in a while a band comes seemingly from nowhere to act as a unifying force thus attracting fans of all the disparate styles of death metal and earns the unanimous heaps of praise and respect for such. The New Jersey based HATH appears to be one such band that has slowly but surely been mowing down the competition and by releasing 2022's most fascinating death metal release ALL THAT WAS PROMISED with its blackened death metal angst of its 2019 debut "Of Rot And Ruin," this cool ass band has taken its new bastions of vision closer to the pinnacle of death metal god status.

Having been compared to classic early Opeth for its adventurous mix of prog infused death metal that offers as much in existential contemplation as it does blistering death metal blitzkriegery, HATH has tirelessly worked to take death metal into that blissful center that marries the old school accessibility with the more technical and progressively infused bands that have been wowing the world in the 21st century. While the skull in still life cover art may depict a run of the mill death metal band trying to capture the spirit of days long passed, the musical mojo inside is anything but a spin down retro alley. Nope. These guys are the real deal.

Frank Albanese (guitar, vocals), Greg Nottis (bass, vocals), AJ Viana (drums) and Peter Brown (guitar) got their start back in 2014 and didn't take long to break through the hordes of death metal bands with its debut "Hive" which mixed the progressive metal aspects of Opeth with the more angsty rampages of more modern bands like Slugdge, Sulphur Aeon and even Behemoth. With the arrival of its debut full-length "Of Rot And Ruin" in 2019, HATH upped its game even further having proven that these guys had mastered the art of not only technically adept chug-a-thons but also had the vision of crafting more diverse soundscapes that incorporated not only disparate strains of metal subgenres but also a cornucopia of non-metal tricks and trinkets.

Three years later and barely a week from its official release date of March 4, 2022, HATH is causing quite a stir with its breath of fresh air sophomore release that melds nine monstrosities of tracks into a 51 1/2 minute mind blowing extravaganza of crushing death metal tracks laced with exquisite byzantine finesse that catapults this New Jersey closer to the top of the skull pile. Forging the perfect marriage between devastating death metal bombast and eerie space ambience, ALL THAT WAS PROMISED delivers an array of multifaceted magnanimity rare in the world of death metal and if you ask me blows Opeth away in the rather shallow reserves of progressively infused death metal. This bellowing bravado of bellicose brutality laced with sensual slithering streams of sophistication is exactly what the doctor ordered!

"The Million Violations" sets the tone for the entire album's run with a fade in of clean yet eerie guitar tones in arpeggiated form that slowly ooze into your consciousness like a centipede crawling into your ears and then the band slowly builds up the frenetic uproar into a frenzy of death metal angst replete with varying tempos, a smorgasbord of tones and interesting drum work outs along with a hints of choral vocals set to zombie mode that become fully realized throughout the album and then what sounds like Deathspell Omega at its most intense moments. This opening track immediately displays HATH's keen sense of dynamics with clever guitar licks, varying tones, timbres and distortion techniques. Brilliant! More! More! More!

"Kenosis" harkens back to the previous album with the no nonsense rampage of fast tempos and crazy brutal guitar riffage and percussive machine gun precision but things really get exciting with tracks like "Lithopaedic" which engages in a little foreplay by allowing choral vocals to slowly usher in the chugging riff frenzy that soon erupts. This is where the unique instrumental interplay allows varying riffing, bass lines, drum rolls and vocal phrasing to change things up frequently to keep our short attention spans from drifting off. The strategy of the album continues these basic patterns with an interesting display of quality control and keeping an organic flow of ideas that showcase various picking techniques and other primo fecundity that even allows small ear wormy chorus-like moments such as on the blistering "Decollation."

The death metal party with all variants invited just gets better with "Death Complex" which showcases everything from brutal hyperactive Suffocation style tempos to mid-tempo Autopsy chill time. The dueling guitars offer not only inventive riffing contrapuntal moves but also drift into a soloing session. "Casting Of The Self" offers a cooling off period with an acoustic guitar intro that then turns into a bit of grunge and then back to a more intricate classical guitar mellow mode before erupting into a Behemoth inspired blackened death metal routine. The title track insinuates a slow nightmarish doom metal tune on slo-mo but lo and behold a full eruption of death metal rage interrupts the regularly scheduled program and offers one of the most intense rage-a-thons of the entire album but in perfect HATH mode if offers a varying display of tempos, guitar riffing styles and overall feel. One of the best vocal performances on the album. "Name Them Yet Build No Moment" closes the album in fine form.

All in all HATH hath shown a major leap in maturity with ALL THAT WAS PROMISED by the keeping of promises and more! This album is a true powerhouse of death metal prowess reserved for the champions of the genre and will surely find the band in the company of the top dogs at the death camps. The amount of creativity displayed on this sophomore release is remarkable both for its competence and its breadth of inspired creative mojo. Having thoroughly gushed over this for a while there are a few nitpicky things that do keep this album from sheer perfection. I agree with those who are irritated by the consistent monotonic snare drum attacks as it sounds a bit sterile in comparison to the wealth of tones, timbres and means of distortion otherwise in full spectrum effect. Add to that there are a few moments where some ideas carry on a wee bit too long but am i being too picky? The album does seem to spoil the listener with a wealth of clever creative music magic therefore heightens the attention span. All in all this is so far my favorite death metal release of 2022!!!! Sorry Immolation, i still love you!

4.5 rounded down