They are evil, the Italians. At least these three. Furiously they attack, and we're not talking about A Handful Of Hate here, rather a big fat fist in the face. I Hate, is the name of the song, and any comparisons with Cradle Of Filth or Dimmu Borgir are far off. Rather Naglfar or Immortal, I'd say. True, old school black metal. Not like nowadays, with pop styled keyboards and the likes. True wrath, times nine, on plastic, bon appetite! I'm telling it like it is. The first, above mentioned song did a very well job in impressing me. Italy is hardly the country you usually associate with black metal, but rather with the by me so beloved genre "melodic power metal avec chant sans cojones", and therefore HANDFUL OF HATE is a nice surprise, when Autumn's finally showed its claws, and big brother Winter is coming knocking at the door. Somehow fits the season better. And, as said, I Hate and its companions make me want more. It is pretty obvious these guys have a few years of practice behind them. Vicecrown is not the debut, but album number three, and thus, a certain professionalism is to be expected. If all songs would have been as cool as I Hate I'd already have told you to go get the album, but it seems like a certain amount of repetition has managed to crawl along, and well... I'm totally confident that these guys from pastaland will develop and hone their skill in writing versatile songs in the future, no doubt. They have a lot to offer in the way of hate, which is a feeling that should be nurtured, as it is a very driving force. The same attitude, the same power, but songs that are a bit more different from each other, and bands like CoF, D.B. and the likes could piss off. For people who can't take the fact that Immortal has split, try HANDFUL OF HATE. It will be worth it.

Handful Of Hate