Review by Jeger on August 11, 2024.

There is no colorful history behind Hate Eternal: no controversies or protests of their shows, no deaths in the band, and no banishments from any venues - only the world’s finest death metal crafted under the Rutan standard of recording excellence and epic like fucking Galactus devouring a solar system… Hate Eternal ushered in a new vision of dynamic range and overall epicality for death metal following the genre’s golden age and into the new wave. Erik who? The dude who is literally taking over Florida death metal. “Just want you to know you’re sittin' in my chair” (Tombstone 1993), says Rutan to Burns, and yes, that’s a fact… 

Since Hate Eternal’s inception and Rutan’s not-so-quiet Florida insurgence said scene has not been the same. Erik’s engineering work with bands like Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation, and Vital Remains along with his production of albums from bands outside the Florida scene like Rivers Of Nihil, Nile, and Krisiun has solidified his legitimacy as one of the most highly sought-after engineers the world of extreme metal has ever known. And not to mention his unparalleled work behind the axe. Schuldiner? Yeah, dude, he was an amazing talent and a ridiculous guitar player, but it’s what Rutan does in the rhythm department that makes his contributions so special: towering riffs, dredging grinds, and bewildering scales all unleashed with mind-numbing speed, technicality, and with a surgeon’s precision. In 2005, during the height of American metal’s great resurrection, Hate Eternal rose up from the mantle of diabolism’s brutal macrocosm their most renowned work, I, Monarch, unleashed via Earache Records. 

Just an unmatched ear for attributing to each record its own unique and form-fitting sonic footprint; a master of capturing the essence as it were. For “I, Monarch”, the essence is a master’s touch - like the horse-backed General as he navigates the killing fields with predatory calculation; making each kill appear to be effortless has Rutan been as a presence in the studio. It was just that time; that time in every great band’s scourge when the planets align, Lilith creams her silkies and everything just hits like it never did before. The plateau! And for Hate Eternal, the plateau is an impossibly high vantage for any other death metal band. Hard to even breathe up there, the terrain and the weather proving to be too much for children like the Tampa crew. 

This is brutalism incarnate - the sonic equivalent to 1000 crucifixions or to the crowd-faced beheading of a tyrant - the kind of shit that forces deities to their knees and crumbles entire civilizations in its dawn. Death metal envisioned as something far more than some degenerate’s wet dream, for this is betrayal, this is the inferno… “Two Demons” - a diabolical rising from out of the pits of guise - a delving into the realm of duality as tracked into sound by Godlike cadences: like the boots of a doomsday legion pounding their way toward holy death and mountainous riffs that shake Valhallan foundation as they strike fear into the hearts of Titans. Only room for one! One absolute Overlord to see you into whichever downfall he seems fit: betrayal, murder, or martyrdom. 

The concept of “I, Monarch”, so absolute and so intangible just like the music. A new era ushered in where the artillery hoard is exchanged for implements of a more meaningful variety - the mind as the cache and betrayal in its many forms as the weapon. And its priceless moments like the effects-laden lead in “To Know Our Enemies” like a swarm of locusts closing in on a cathartic psychological crop; violently devouring your sanity with each maniacal emanation and the air-tight, suffocative nature of the titular track as it plays out like waterboarding that make “I, Monarch” one of the most unforgettable death metal albums ever composed… The tonality of the record alone is something to make the competition tremble in their little Doc Martens. 

Hate Eternal has ridden the glory of I, Monarch into a most glorious future. Aging like a vintage is the music and like a Sage in his musical wisdom has Erik proven to be. Hate Eternal’s latest album, 2018’s “Upon Desolate Sands”, is about as great as this one, and Metal Archives needs to get their shit together and learn how to review a fucking death metal album because these scores don’t cut it. Simply the best contemporary death metal band IN THE WORLD are Hate Eternal and I’d say that only Azagthoth possesses the ability to write death metal like Rutan. And motherfuckers act like they forgot about Trey… For shame… With “I, Monarch”, Hate Eternal bridges the gap between the crudeness of DM past and the genre’s dynamic future with bold compositions that challenge the way musicians were writing death metal and cast the music in a never-before-seen epic radiance. A monumental yet criminally under-sung accomplishment for death metal and quite possibly the greatest death metal album to have been released since 2005.

Rating: 10/10