Hate - Intense (1997)

Cost: $1.00

 

I'd like to think that bargain bin diving for so many years has given me a keen intuition based on subtle visual cues when browing through lots of inexpensive CDs. But it's largely a moot point. Because they're all so cheap, I pick up discs I highly suspect will be crap anyway just to be on the safe side. I have to pat myself on the back for this one, since I knew it wasn't going to be just plain death metal as Metal Archives claimed.

I was right, but rather than the groove metal I was expecting, I was surprised to find out it's actually a mix of both (Brutal groove metal?  Groovy death metal?). Let's not pretend I'm particularly interested in a lot of the groovy and chuggy riffs here, but the guitar tone is nice and deathy, and the main vocals are mostly deathlike growls, although there is some aggro stuff.  So the groove metal element I typically find most offensive is largely toned down here, and with the death metal riffage and influences here, I can tolerate it.

Bomberos - Hate (2004)

 

Cost: $2.00

Only picked this up due to the Mayhem connection (Maniac is the singer here) and not the actual music, which is punk. Even as a bargain bin find, this wasn't a particularly good value considering there's less than 10 minutes of music on the disc.

The music itself is fairly aggressive but lacks any noteworthiness for me and comes across as inoffensively generic.  Maniac's vocals don't do it any favors, as they're almost too laid back and unenthused (especially ironic considering I thought the Deathcrush MLP vocals bordered on being too hysterical/shrieky and not evil enough for my taste) in contrast to the energetic songs.  After hearing "Midnight Ride" it suddenly clicked that they're some sort of attempt at a Jello Biafra style.