Let’s pretend that Nachtmystium, Hate Meditation founder Blake Judd’s other band, never happened. Let wipe the slate clean, no assumptions, no preconceived notions, unbiased in full. Hate Meditation’s Scars is black metal in its blast beat, haunting guitars, venomous vocal, synth laced glory. Wait…synths?
Don’t worry too much about the synths, they’re only there to add an atmosphere to terrorize you and make you lock the door at night. After chant echoed opener ‘Prelude to Apocalypse (Intro)' has you prepped and ready for some psychedelia, ‘The Deceiver and The Believer’ slaps you across the face with a blackened crooked cross. Blake delivers a necro-infused vocal roar, along with his ever distorted guitar tone that pays tribute to the early 90s era black metal scene. Drummer Sam Shroyer breaks free from the usual blasting in spots on tracks like ‘The Genocide’ and ‘End Times”, allowing the music to open up a little bit more, making room for a wider range of despair and disgust.
Wrest (Leviathan, Twilight) handles bass on this album, and fuck me running I can hear it! I’ll take it. Not a whole lot more need be said. It’s played solid and sounds great (especially so on ‘The Genocide March’ and ‘Impure Rage 4. End Times’). Job Bos’ synths on the album, they’re good and add to the atmosphere. All the elements of this album come together for an all out onslaught of depression and suffering and rage on the title track and ‘Shadow World (Outro)’. The tempos are up and down through these songs, and the music becomes more drastic and slit-wrist inducing by the moment. Good stuff right here.
Wave aside the pedigree of the musicians involved in this album, and you are still left with one hell of an experience. No need to buy it out of loyalty to certain people playing on it (if that’s your thing, then fine), it’s just worthy due to the icy grip it will put on your soul. Be sure to grab this album now through Indie Recordings.
HAIL!!!!!!
