Hate Colony - Navigate

Lennon, Morrison, Jagger, Bowie, Plant, Smith, Curtis, Cobain - the list of influential rock vocalists is long and illustrious. But for Lord Mordor of Norway’s Hate Colony, they are as nothing beside the voice he so unerringly evokes: the rebarbative bark of Extreme Noise Terror’s Dean Jones. It’s as well that a full lyric booklet is supplied, for the words are barely comprehensible as Mordor croaks, rants and roars, his relentless larynx the vocal equivalent of an amp jammed at 10. He’s supported by an accomplished and powerful band who are efficiently brutal in what they do, if not very original. What originality there is chiefly lies in their confluence of grindcore and prog-rock.For example, the uncredited synth - or perhaps a guitar treated to sound like one - which embellishes ‘Domain’ and evokes an oblivious Tony Banks doing his thing while Napalm Death do theirs. ‘Path of Resistance’ displays similar decorative dexterity from guitarists T-Bag Joe and Big Truck, even as the weapons of grindcore (darkly distorted guitars and frantic, yet controlled, drumming) are being unleashed. One key technique used on several songs is to inject swift bursts of juddering guitar, the product of either extraordinary tightness or digital jabs at the mixing-desk. This is actually pretty effective at adding to the atmosphere of disciplined mayhem (not for nothing is another track entitled ‘Pandemonium’). It works best of all on ‘Blood Runs Black’, the album’s pinnacle, creating a kind of stuttering strut as it disrupts the near-Zeppelin riff that is the song’s backbone. Hate Colony admittedly try to go somewhat beyond the conventions of metal or hardcore. This can be heard on “When Worlds Collide’, with its bright keyboard intro and a quite delicate guitar line traced over a blazing riff and drums, or the Brian May-like tone used on ‘The Letter’ (The unwary should know that the latter is not a cover of the Box Tops’ hit, but a hurtling vehicle for the scalding lyrics of T Bag Joe.) There is even a highly uncharacteristic instrumental, ‘Interlude’, which features piano and plucked strings. But in the end, despite the degree of musicality in the playing, Mordor’s distaste for the convention of anything resembling a melody becomes wearing. In fact, although the lyrics have themes of resistance, personal struggle and survival, it’s the playing which best reflects them; the vocalist himself seems to have become the prisoner of a straitjacketed style.

Track Listing:-

1 Recheck
2 Trigger
3 The Letter
4 Blood Runs Black
5 Solitude
6 Domain
7 When Worlds Collide
8 Nothing Less
9 Interlude
10 Dialogue
11 Pandemonium
12 Path of Resistance
13 Welcome to the Hate Colony