Hatebreed’s fifth record is like a who’s who of heavy metal influences. The guys effectively tap into every great thrash and metal band of the last couple of decades, and project with a fresh and modern view of each idea. Some may be slightly turned off by the fact that each song is vaguely like the next, but continuity is the key with an album/band like Hatebreed. They may not need as much variety, as long as the music does it job; stomping and crushing and taking no prisoner, which it does well.

Dead Hearts is an album that beams with loud, aggressive rock n roll mixed with a dose of more modern heavy metal and punk. You wouldn’t be hard-pressed to say this is a continuation of what the original Guns n Roses would have sounded like if they were still together and Axl Rose had a different type of scream..a little more punk rock. My biggest problem with this record is that there’s little variation vocally. It lacks melody, but everything else is just perfect in my eyes. The guitars are heavy and have fantastic tone, the rhythm section of Alex and Max are perfect relationship (Max could have been a bit louder!) and the song structures are fresh and not very derivative of anything else out there right now. They take the obscure parts of Pantera and Alice in Chains and throw in the GnR and preach it like the Sex Pistols.

Resurrection Through Fire is thus far the most listen-able Death Metal act I know of since Cannibal Corpse or Death. Unlike many death metal bands, you’d be surprised not to hear a lick of Metallica’s Master of Puppets or And Justice For All rearing its head Instead you’re treated, if you so wish to call it that, with a more chaotic tone more closely related to Slayer’s 90’s output in the musical sense Its ranges from blistering fast, to grindingly slow with the greatest of ease and without missing a single double bass blasting beat. The vocals are spt on for what you’d expect this genre to be..I tend to be a fan of a little more melody, but let that not be any reason for you not to give this group a listen or many; they worked hard for the respect and they gave us some great tunes to be a maniac to.