Review:
I think Jamey Jasta is slightly too busy with the million and half other projects he is working on but wanted to keep Hatebreed in people's minds. That is my best guess as to why Hatebreed decided to record an entire cover album for their first release in 3 years. From what I've read a live album and matching DVD are next up for the Five-some from Connecticut. So it appears it will be some time before we get any new original material from the band.
With that being said, I decided to buy into it and pick up the new record. What I anticipated is 100% what I was delivered. The album is 19 tracks of other people songs as if Hatebreed recorded them. There are no frills or surprises with this release. If you think to yourself what would it sound like if Hatebreed covered (insert song from this disc), you are most likely exactly right with the description in your head.
While the sound didn't surprise me, some of the song choices did. When I read they were covering Metallica I figured we'd get Battery, Damage Inc, Blackened, or something along those lines. When I saw they were actually going to do Escape, I almost laughed. The only thing that would have been more surprising was if they were to do Orion or the Call Of Ktulu. Same thing with the choice of doing Obituary's "I'm In Pain". I would have liked to hear something better like Chopped In Half, Slowly We Rot, or even Threatening Skies. Other than that the song choices were pretty much expected like Madball's "Set It Off" and Sepultura's "Refuse/Resist".
I went into the record expecting some songs to come out better than others. I expected the Metallica song to sound like total garbage but was pleasantly surprised the way it came out and something like Refuse/Resist to sound awesome but it totally didn't. Since I'm not a fan of either Black Flag or Bad Brains, I found myself enjoying those tracks more than the originals. The cover of Merauder's "Life Is Pain" and Slayer's "Ghost Of War" turned out to be the best two tracks on the entire record.
Since I picked up my copy at Best Buy, I was treated to a Best Buy exclusive edition. My edition came with bonus tracks that include a cover of Sheer Terror's "I, Spoiler" and 5 live tracks recorded in Dallas, TX. The Sheer Terror cover fits the mold of sounding exactly what you think of when hearing that Hatebreed will be covering Sheer Terror. The live tracks are nothing to write home about. The production is of good quality but it's limited to 5 tracks that were on the Supremacy album. They should have mixed it up a little and gave us some oldies. I'd mosh my car to pieces listening to a live recording of Filth.
All in all, it's exactly what you expect. The fact that this album is available on their MySpace to listen to whenever you want, that's actually the best bet for you. This is 18 tracks of Hatebreed doing covers, while it's decent, do you really need to own this?
I like hatebreed and all but this is something I would not own. I'm not the biggest fan of bands doing covers, one here or there but not an entire album. I do want to hear the slayer and obituary covers, hopefully they are as good as wren says.
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