TOTAL HATE – Forthcoming Age of The Reaper
Release Date: 29th November 2024
Label: War Anthem Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Black Metal
FFO: Darkthrone, Gorgoroth.
Review By: Andy Spoon
Total Hate are set to release their most recent offering in their 20+ year career, Forthcoming Age of The Reaper on War Anthem Records on November 29th, 2024. The single on the album was “Burn With Your Prophet”, which was definitely the best track on the whole offering and definitely garnered a few repeats on my playlist. I found that the whole offering ended up being a little out of my personal wheelhouse, although I wanted to give it a really fair shot for the purpose of trying to review what I believe is a very modern and well-made black metal album that black metal and regular extreme metal fans should check out in 2024.
One of the things that is immediately evident is the mix. I found it to be quite thin and static across the board. I understand that the historical black metal sound is generally favoring the type of mix that tends to be “anti-HiFi”, but recent years are showing me that the better a mix is, the overall enjoyment of the experience goes up. I don’t want to be some edgelord and claim that I think the original sound of black metal is out of date. I think it’s important to respect the nuances of the genre, so I’m choosing to be less critical of the mix and take an objective POV, as there are millions of black metal fans who believe that overproduction is the bane of the entire genre. However, I think that if you really compare it to the giants of past days, the album does sound distinctly-better to my ears, featuring more bass and engineering prowess. If anything, it’s a great album to bridge the gap between people who want the old school, piss-poor recordings of elder black metal and those like me, who don’t mind a big fat mix.
The drums are one of the high points of the album, for me. I think that the technicality of the drum section, fills, cymbal strikes, complex fills and variations were extremely-entertaining. If we are comparing Total Hate to the progeny of classic black metal, the drum section is highly advanced from my perspective. It gave me something to anticipate on each track as the album rolled on, something I don’t often see in the black metal world (save for drum-centric modern black metal like Gaerea). For me, the high point of Forthcoming Age of The Reaper was the brilliant rhythm section by drummer Serrator.
This is a band who’s definitely been around long enough to have honed-in their sound, so I don’t think that they are wanting to break any new ground, necessarily. However, I think that they are trying to plant the seeds of the old school Norwegian black metal scene from the 1990s that put an entire subculture into the global spotlight. They seem to follow many of the archetypes of the black metal greats from that time, but also bring a level of musicality and brutality that seem to be on par with the better offerings from that time, such as Gorgoroth and Dissection (as references, only), especially in regard to the level of performance and song structure. I really think that Total Hate is a band that needs to be considered as part of the dynasty of black metal extending into 2024.
Forthcoming Age of The Reaper plays for a total run time of around 46 minutes, which feels nice and full for the music and structure of the tracks. Nothing seems to go on longer than it should, which is often a problem when black metal bands get too deep into creating atmosphere. This tends to lean into the “brutality” side of the older black metal world, which I think makes a good amount of sense, given the overall feel of the album. If you’re a fan of 1990s Scandinavian black metal, but are looking for an album that seems to focus on the nastier, more brutal side of the realm, along with the addition of furious and technically-beautiful drum work, you really need to spend 46 minutes and spin Total Hate’s latest offering.
(3.5 / 5)
