Arson Cafe: Total Hate - Marching Towards Humanicide Review

Monday, February 27, 2023

Total Hate - Marching Towards Humanicide Review

It's been 15 years since the debut full length album of German hatemongers Total Hate and the animosity still boils within the veins of this band, as it is obvious from all textual stimuli of their material and the latest record Marching Towards Humanicide. All things considered, they continue serving traditional, polished black metal with their latest release, one that does not diverge from previously tested formulas but is still exciting to experience when executed correctly.

The album has eight tracks and is 37 minutes long, mostly consisting of sharpened, furious guitar riffs where tremolo picking is king and drums blast fast but clearly. Its energy is radiated through the epic guitar lines and it's by no means a down-tuned, draining record that will snatch you of your stamina while listening to it. All tracks move at similar, fast paced tempos, are quite consistent with each other and the band manages to keep the interesting going even while presenting something standard.

Marching Towards Humanicide makes a really clean cut of black metal and you will hear a lot of patterns you yearn for if you are a fan of the genre, while it is equally anti-religious, hateful and misanthropic in its lyrical theme, as expected. While Total Hate decided to add some color to their artwork this time (front cover done by Misanthropic-Art), their mindset hasn't brightened at all and the depiction of Marching Towards Humanicide perfectly fits its concept and title, making this aesthetical choice quite fitting for me in this case.

There's not a specific highlight but not a filler track either, and if there was a drawback to be mentioned, it would be the slightly monotonous vocals, which hardly vary from their typical high pitched screaming. It feels that they are also a bit distorted in post-processing with an effect that gives them a more sonic and less natural sound, yet the result doesn't ruin the overall result except if you are a really picky eater. Total Hate fire another well rounded shot with Marching Towards Humanicide, a record that keeps their quality to the same level and is meant for the followers only.

DAMAGE: 3.5/5 [Great]

Release date: 24 Feb 2023

Release label: Eisenwald

Listen: Bandcamp

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Reckoning

From all the hills came screams. A piece of sky beside the crescent sun was detaching. It was a loosened circle of evening sky, suddenly lighted from the back. It was an abrupt black body out of nowhere; it was a flat disk; it was almost over the sun. That is when there were screams. At once this disk of sky slid over the sun like a lid. The sky snapped over the sun like a lens cover. The hatch in the brain slammed. Abruptly it was dark night, on the land and in the sky. In the night sky was a tiny ring of light. The hole where the sun belongs is very small. A thin ring of light marked its place. There was no sound. The eyes dried, the arteries drained, the lungs hushed. There was no world. We were the world’s dead people rotating and orbiting around and around, embedded in the planet’s crust, while the earth rolled down. Our minds were light-years distant, forgetful of almost everything.