Hatesphere – Murderlust Track-By-Track Breakdown
Wednesday, 27th November 2013
One of the absolute bastions of European thrash, Denmark’s Hatesphere have returned with their eighth album in the form of Murderlust (Massacre Records). The album – released in Europe this September – is another mobile, sharp, brutal-icious slab of deathened thrash, the sort of albums the likes of Legion of the Damned and Dew-Scented wish they could make. However, we won’t waste our time discussing lesser bands. Instead, guitarist/founding member Peter ”Pepe” Hansen was kind enough to provide a track-by-track rundown of an album full of traditional Hatesphere cuts, some noticeable guest spots, and even a Muse cover, which one of the band’s most daring moves to date. Read on…
1. Murderlust
The third track we wrote for the album – if that has any interest, he-he – and in many ways a track that contains what makes us Hatesphere. A fast catchy verse riff, a riff that pulls the song down in pace – a part in the middle of the song that adds some atmosphere – and last but not least what makes this song stand out: a very rock-like and catchy middlepiece. So it contains the things that we really want a song to contain – and the riffs are made for staying in your ears for a long time…
2. Pandora’s Hell
The first song we wrote for the album, and therefore also contains a bit of everything. I think we – without thinking about it – always try to make the first song as varied as possible. A long intro, followed by some groovy atmospherical stuff, a fast verse and a very catchy rock-like chorus – and of course a solo in the end. I think the track stands out with its very rockish arrangement and riffs. Still it’s Hatesphere but I find it different nevertheless.
3. Fear Me
A long and slow atmospheric track that is most definately the most different song on the album… and the most different we have made in a long time. Usually when we do slow songs, we focus on the heavy groove but this time we have focused more on the atmospheric part, and the result is in many ways an evil song. A song that also grew on us in the studio, when we had time to work on it.
4. The Violent Act
A groovy, melodic and heavy track. The full melody of the song unfolds in the chorus, and it ends with a fantastic guest solo from Ryan Knight (from The Black Dahlia Murder). Even though the song has a fast main riff and verse, it’s the groovy and melodic parts, the chorus and the hard rock part after the solo that shapes the song. One of the more different songs on the album.
5. Punishable By Death
A really fast song that only slows down after a couple of minutes in high-speed hell. The groovy and catchy fast riffs and the atmospherical melodies behind them makes you feel like you’ve been hit by a tornado… it works – in our opinion – just as it should. One of my personal favourites on the album. A great songs doesnt necessarily have to be different or have lots of different parts in it – it needs to work and sound good! This song has a pretty simple form but the small details and melodies make it work amazing.
6. In Process
The instrumental track of the album. We have made these before but never this long – and almost always intro-like sounding instrumental songs. To begin with this was meant “just” to be an intro but the more we worked with it, the more we found out that it could be more than that. So, this is different. We could have brought in some vocals but in the end we felt that the melody lines and the riffs could stand our perfectly on their own. It all starts out with nice clean guitars and a very catchy melody line before the song speeds up and changes rhythm in the end of the song.
7. Iconoclast
A fast catchy song that has Trevor Strnad (The Black Dahlia Murder) making a guest appearance, and the mixture of his and Esse’s vocals does the song well. The track starts out fast but has a long melodic middle section that – in our opinion – reminds us a bit about early Metallica… you know, back when Metallica was a great band. The middle section is interupted with a solo, and then the song speeds up in the end again. We already play this song live, and I am pretty sure that this song will stay in our live set for a long time!
8. Darkest of Forces
Again a song that contains a bit of everything. Fast, slow and groovy parts plus a solo – what more do you need, he-he. Actually the groove and the simple melodies of this song make it work. It stays in your ears for a long time, and I guess that in a good way there is not that much more to say about this song. It’s catchy and it works like a charm.
9. Refill the Chest
Starts fast and in your face but slows down in pace. The chorus is slow and groovy and the song is split in half by the clean guitar part in the middle. The chorus actually reminds me a bit of Carcass which is not a bad thing in my book, haha. Anyway, quite typical us to have different tempos and atmospheres packed down in one song.
10. Assassin (Muse cover)
Why do a cover song and why do one of Muse? We have the opinion that there is no point in doing a cover of a song that you just wanna play exactly like the original… mainly because the original is always the best but also because there is no challenge in doing it either. So, taking a song a making it your own gives meaning to us. We chose Muse simply because we love the band. We chose “Assassin” because we thought it had good possibilities getting turned into a Hatesphere song, if we had some time working on it. The start riff is pretty metal but the rest was quite a big challenge to transform into something Hatesphere-like. We were close to giving up but agreed on working extra hard – and we ended out making the song extra fast and adding a Slayer-like solo. One of my favourite cover songs we have done.
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