RSS Feed


HATRIOT
The Vale Of Shadows

Massacre (2022)
Rating: 8/10

The Vale Of Shadows is the fourth album from Oakland, California thrashers Hatriot who hit the scene running back in 2011 with their-self-titled demo which was followed successfully by the excellent Heroes Of Origin debut in 2013. Back then it was Exodus frontman Steve “Zetro” Souza who fronted the band, with his sons Cody (bass) and Nick (drums) propping up the rear-guard aided by axemen Kosta Varvatakis and Miguel Esparza.

By the band’s third opus, From Days Unto Darkness (2019), the line-up had changed significantly with Cody taking over vocal duties, and Kevin Paterson featuring on axe alongside Kosta and Nick, and that’s the solid formation which brings us the band’s latest full-length.

Unsurprisingly, this new release is brim full of the same fury and energy which splattered the previous releases. ‘Horns & Halos’ comes out of the traps with such a snap, my only issue being the fact that Hatriot is now more diverse in its vocal outbursts whereby we get bombarded by the expected gritty yelps, but now they are twinned with a death metal style growl. However, while the vocal flexibility may not be to everyone’s taste, the musicianship most certainly will be. From start to finish ‘Horns & Halos’, just like the rest of the opus, is a blinding and at times bewildering display of technical prowess where pace fluctuates throughout and peaks and troughs bring speeding, razor-sharp execution melting into savage, thorny angles.

Whichever guise this record takes it remains hostile and seething, spitting out those words with utter venom as the tirades of ‘The Hate Inside’ come zipping from the rafters to the slightly mechanized percussive assaults. There is a lot to take in here. The theatrical tremors of ‘The Twenty Fifth Hour’ take blistering speed bursts, while ‘Clemency Denied’ begins with mournful aesthetics where an acoustic guitar trickles and then becomes savaged by angular gnashing before the track embarks on a nifty chug.

Elsewhere, ‘Mark Of The Tyrant’ takes on an Exodus-cum-Sabbat (UK) snap and remains a bit more straightforward in its attack. But throughout this hostile opus there’s a real spiteful feel, and I really do think it would have benefitted far more without the guttural vocal smatterings. However, this is Hatriot getting their creative juices flowing as ‘Only Red Remains’ provides a killer, infectious groove, while the shorter ‘Forceful Balance’ rigorously relays its violence through despicable vocal spits.

Admittedly, even after a handful of listens I feel a tad lost in the barrage. Not in a way as I would be with, say, Toxik’s latest expression of complexity (Dis Morta), but here, even with the technicality, The Vale Of Shadows just feels a bit thorny at times and by the mid-way stage I’m slightly exhausted by its breakdowns. But one cannot debate the potency of the title track with its Slayer-esque beginnings built upon those stony drums, or the nefarious licks of ‘Hymn For The Wicked’ which again adopts a Slayer-style melody before regurgitating it as a vile, sneering spit.

Hatriot has certainly progressed beyond the realms of standard thrash workouts and I applaud them for such a prickly expression. This album is their heaviest and most devastating to date, even if the vocals sway to a metalcore religion and everything around it feels too barbed to access. The Vale Of Shadows is what I’d like to call, brash metal for the young n’ fearless.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share