Handful of Hate
Qliphothic Supremacy
[Northern Darkness]
I decided to redo this review, simply because I never had a chance to
praise it enough in the first place. Blame in on rushing the reviews, or
something else. Who knows. But after one year, I assume you can trust me
on redoing the review in proper fashion, since the CD has had a good
deal of time to set in. Let's take a deeper look then:
Basically, this is the best example of modern, clean sounding, melodic black metal available. People have given that crown to such releases as Emperor's"In the Nightside Eclipse" in the past. In all seriousness, this outdoes that releases on each and every level. And please remember that I am generally NOT a fan of this particular form of black metal, but this is something that is just so wonderfully appealing.The guitar work in the first place is simply fantastic. They pulled off a very impressive production with the guitars, giving them a thick sound that allows the well constructed notes to simply drip from your speakers. The riffs here are very memorable, and display a Southern touch; something that is rarely used in today's "We want to sound Norwegian" scene. This is pulled off with the constant usage of dark sounding clean guitars, filled with large amounts of reverb. The drumming on this album, although fairly simple, fits the fast paced music perfectly. Handful of Hate obviously know how to work together as an actual band.
Vocals are another thing that work perfectly on "Qliphothic Supremacy". Occasional deeper grunts add a minor touch of brutality to the music, but it's the high pitched vocals that truly make the album what it is. Although they could generally be considered as generic black metal style vocals, they have a certain flair of their own. Nicola sounds like some twisted little elf creature, constantly belching out demonic little rasps over the flawless sounding music.
This is as close to genius as a band can come in modern style black metal. Although I prefer the classic sound over almost anything, this album has such an incredibly surreal and punishing sound to it that I've become very attracted to it's quality sound. The emotions that the riffs invoke are truly cathartic, while the aura the music creates is second to none. And please trust me when I say that the pleasant feeling you'll experience after purchasing this album will be absolute: your ears, brain, and wallet will thank you. Handful of Hate are going places.
© 1997 brand
Basically, this is the best example of modern, clean sounding, melodic black metal available. People have given that crown to such releases as Emperor's"In the Nightside Eclipse" in the past. In all seriousness, this outdoes that releases on each and every level. And please remember that I am generally NOT a fan of this particular form of black metal, but this is something that is just so wonderfully appealing.The guitar work in the first place is simply fantastic. They pulled off a very impressive production with the guitars, giving them a thick sound that allows the well constructed notes to simply drip from your speakers. The riffs here are very memorable, and display a Southern touch; something that is rarely used in today's "We want to sound Norwegian" scene. This is pulled off with the constant usage of dark sounding clean guitars, filled with large amounts of reverb. The drumming on this album, although fairly simple, fits the fast paced music perfectly. Handful of Hate obviously know how to work together as an actual band.
Vocals are another thing that work perfectly on "Qliphothic Supremacy". Occasional deeper grunts add a minor touch of brutality to the music, but it's the high pitched vocals that truly make the album what it is. Although they could generally be considered as generic black metal style vocals, they have a certain flair of their own. Nicola sounds like some twisted little elf creature, constantly belching out demonic little rasps over the flawless sounding music.
This is as close to genius as a band can come in modern style black metal. Although I prefer the classic sound over almost anything, this album has such an incredibly surreal and punishing sound to it that I've become very attracted to it's quality sound. The emotions that the riffs invoke are truly cathartic, while the aura the music creates is second to none. And please trust me when I say that the pleasant feeling you'll experience after purchasing this album will be absolute: your ears, brain, and wallet will thank you. Handful of Hate are going places.
© 1997 brand