Review by Nekrist on May 1, 2024.

Dragged Into Sunlight is a collective of some of the most extreme, thunderous and disturbing metal that I have come across throughout the more than 10 years that I have been listening to metal, punk and other forms of violent and extreme music. The name of this band appeared recurrently as a suggestion on the different platforms where I listened to my music, however I foolishly ignored these suggestions and preferred to remain locked in my ignorance.

I always saw extremely positive comments about this album, and the truth is that I couldn't resist the urge to give it a listen to see if all the hype was really justified or if it was just gossip from the peripheral masses, I wasn't prepared for the sonic and spiritual assault that was going on, about to suffer. This musical work titled Hatred For Mankind is an authentic demonstration of misanthropy, a monument to hatred between beings of the same species. The theme of the album revolves around the most twisted and disturbing depravity of the human psyche, with the recurring use of audio from interviews and trials of very well-known and infamous serial killers operating in different parts of the United States.

I was always struck by how many people see these maniacs as a kind of “celebrity”, especially and paradoxically in the United States, reaching extremely bizarre levels such as producing merchandising, collecting objects that belonged to those monsters, etc. But Dragged Into Sunlight does not make a “praise”, but rather opens a window through which reality drags us and hits us mercilessly, making us realize what world we live in, and how we are never safe or exempt from something terrible happening. can happen to us or our loved ones, crossing the line between reality and fiction.

Musically, Hatred For Mankind does complete justice to its name, pulverizing and abrasive riffs that at times become “groovies”, memorable and extremely addictive, the drums are lightning-fast, precise, technical and brutal, crushing every particle of our body like torture medieval wheel, in which an executioner breaks each of our bones with a huge steel mallet, leaving us simply a disfigured mass of bones, flesh and blood.

The voice is spectral and gloomy, with screams that make your hair stand on end, and add a feeling of intolerable panic, making us feel unfathomable anguish and terror, while the instruments and voice destroy us like a nuclear explosion, the fragments and excerpts of interviews and trials described above perversely “decorate” the songs, I always thought that the use of samplers was something very gimmicky and cliché, but Dragged Into Sunlight incorporates them in a new way, successfully, being parts that fit perfectly into the sonic puzzle of the album, I will not spend my time explaining and mentioning who the murderers are that appear throughout the album, I am not going to do more propaganda for those animals.

The album closes with an atmospheric and contemplative song, while we are still stunned by the cataclysm that we have just survived, while one of those monsters talks about those unspeakable events for which he was put behind bars, an intense experience closes that all fans of extreme music should be experienced out of self-respect, but be careful, you will never see the world the same way.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Review by Lawrence Stillman on February 3, 2024.

After being strangely obsessed with listening to death/doom for months but without the time nor motivation to actually do it (thanks procrastination/university finals!), I've finally decided that its time and proceed to look for the filthiest, slimiest, most pulverizing death/doom that exists out there. Well that was a fucking mistake because I am utterly unprepared for what was in store for me.

Dragged Into Sunlight is a British band that is surprisingly recent to the genre, being founded in 2006 when most of the big names like Disemboweled and Winter have been around for over a decade by that point. But this does not make their debut any less impactful because unlike those 2 bands, their first (and fortunately not the only) album starts with a short sample from Charles Manson then immediately pummels you with song headcrushing riffs and relentless drumming, catching me off guard and never letting my ears go until the album ends, with various snippets from serial killers as a brief reprieve. Scratch that, you cannot even take a break during the samples because some were played during some really heavy sections, and oh God do they fit into those sections.

I have never listened to a combination of black/death/doom/sludge that is as heavy, despairful, and intimidating as this, not even bands like Revenge or Knelt Rote. While the latter two bands played music that is ultimately just fast as a means of expressing themselves, what DiS managed to do is giving the hatred, malice, and evil of mankind into an audible form. Maybe doom was really the missing link to true expression of evil in music.

Everything about this album just screams raw and unfiltered, and much like the evils of these serial killers have done to their victims. You can feel the cold hearts of these motherfuckers (serial killers) and their raw misanthropy coming from the music itself, if anything I feel Hatred For Mankind is a name TOO fitting for this album, to the point I cannot imagine any other album bearing this name without sounding just as evil and raw. This is an album not for listening, but for torture sessions like an enhanced interrogation technique (Jokes on you, I'm into that shit!) seen in 24.

Although I enjoyed every single second of the album, I do have some criticisms towards this album. For one, the samples do get stale pretty quickly considering how frequent they utilize these elements. Another downside is that the songs are REALLY draining to listen to, to the point I would not listen to this at all if I'm not fully energized, this album is so fucking evil it can suck out every bit of mental stamina from you, to the point that I would describe listening to this as an endurance test.

Bloody well done you fucking tea addicts, you managed to create something so crushing, so evil, that most people who listened to this cannot help but recoil in fear from the sheer raw hatred and misanthropy coming from this album, and I cannot thank this band enough for creating such a depressing masterpiece.

In hindsight I should have begun my death/doom journey with Into Darkness.

Rating: 9.4 out of 10

Review by TheOneNeverSeen on February 1, 2023.

While looking for "evil" metal albums, I came across a Reddit post advising this band. The name seemed curious to me and I’ve decided to check the debut album out. And I can guarantee that so far it was one of the best recommendations I’ve got in my whole life.

Without any introduction, the album plunges at you with raw, infernal guitars alongside ferocious drumming. The sporadic inhuman screeching and growling are nicely merged with creepy audio samples adding to the album’s atmosphere (unlike in the case of Mortician, where they merely make the songs two times longer and get annoying over time, here they make the album much grimmer). Despite the consistent evil mood, the album is not mere white noise and shifts between black/death metal riffs ("Boiled Angel", "Volcanic Birth") and... thrash? solos (such as the one of "Buried with Leeches"). The album’s genre is generally hard to define considering some songs (like "To Hieron") reassemble death metal/grindcore spirit (change the production and the guitar sound, and you will get a great track for Misery Index’s debut), some follow a more death metal structure ("Boiled Angel") and some ("Lashed to the Grinder and Stoned to Death", " I, Aurora") seem to be a mixture of everything humanely possible. This adds to the album’s diversity and thus makes it even more entertaining.

Consistency-wise, the release is quite solid. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed all of the songs equally, yet I didn’t find any of them weak compared to the rest of the album or too long and repetitive. The melody development is uneven (same as the track length), which is another strength of the album. Even the instrumental ambient outro "Totem of Skulls" is skillfully written and doesn’t feel excessive. So far, "Hatred for Mankind" is one of the most diverse metal works I have ever heard.

The lyrics are rather primitive, but it’s understandable considering the vast majority of the album is instrumental (when the vocals do join the party, they are simply flawless at their rampage). Besides, they aren’t particularly bad and do contain a few OK lines, such as "Clench your teeth, fall to your fucking knees/Inhuman pain, crippled with misery" of "Volcanic Birth" or "Spears thrust to the skies above,/Baptized in tides of blood,/In thunderous rage,/Before the throne of plagues" of "To Hieron".

In conclusion, "Hatred for Mankind" is a terrific album for all extreme metal fans. It has a grim atmosphere, harsh vocals, suitable heavy production and a brutal artwork. Just what I required today.

Rating: 9 out of 10