Beats and yelling: Hate Forest

Against All Odds
Out 25^th April on Osmose Productions

Some artists begin their careers with a clear creative philosophy mapped out, developing themselves through increasingly adventurous excursions beyond their zone of comfort, becoming proudly nomadic, wandering through genres and styles with little regard for artistic continuity from one project to the next. Other artists do the opposite. Early material oscillates wildly in quality and intention, only to gradually ossify into a reliable, static entity, putting down deep roots in a fixed place. Their career trajectory resembling one of those coin spiral machines, circling around a central point that they gradually and inevitably move closer toward with each album cycle.

Although Hate Forest’s career could hardly be characterised as stylistically adventurous at any point, they certainly fit into the latter category far more readily. Whilst their classic era mapped out a clear, distinctive take on black metal – one that has come to define much of their nation’s contributions to the genre – each album communicated a distinct aesthetic and atmospheric intent, achieved either through production or minor tweaks in technique and delivery throughout.

But late period Hate Forest, from ‘Hour of the Centaur’ onwards, has seen a gradual homogenisation of this formula, with each variation on the same theme becoming less dramatic, any notable shift from one album to the next no longer visible to the naked eye. Although this not uncommon for artists who developed an unmistakable angle on a well established genre early on in life. Expectation can be a powerful force, and Saenko has many outlets to express the other aspects of his personality. But right down to the cover art and track listing that reads like an Eastern European biker-metal compilation, it’s clear that Hate Forest are out to deliver satisfaction with none of the unexpected left turns their earlier material was prone to.

If ‘Hour of the Centaur’ was defiant and ‘Innermost’ a howl of despair, ‘Against All Odds’ is a reconciliation of the two through the medium of rage. Hate Forest are hardly known for their melodic contouring, but here this is flattened off to an even greater degree, creating an experience of blasting, ambient rage not unlike what Antaeus achieved on ‘Blood Libels’. But whilst their French counterparts peppered their music with the eccentricity of nihilism, Hate Forest wish to remain austere, dignified, refined. The result is a homogenous wash only navigable via intermittent tempo changes.

As an experience of pure ambience, or textural refinement, it remains a compelling one even accounting for the diminishing returns of the project (and indeed the formula perfected through the Blood of Kingu albums). Despite the substantive simplicity when taken against recent Drudkh material, there is greater artistic import and mileage to be found in Hate Forest through their ability to leverage micro shifts in intensity, key, pitch, and tempo. But the ailment of this project remains much the same and increasingly hard to ignore. In meticulously mapping out how to communicate a singular idea with a gait unmistakably their own, they have lost the ability to offer any development within this tightly confined space, and by extension any reason for the listener to maintain their engagement for longer than a handful of cursory listens.