{"id":94879,"date":"2022-07-22T00:00:33","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T23:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=94879"},"modified":"2022-08-12T18:00:58","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T17:00:58","slug":"album-review-hatriot-the-vale-of-shadows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-hatriot-the-vale-of-shadows\/","title":{"rendered":"HATRIOT – The Vale Of Shadows (2022) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

HATRIOT
The Vale Of Shadows<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nMassacre (2022)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Vale Of Shadows<\/em> is the fourth album from Oakland, California thrashers Hatriot who hit the scene running back in 2011 with their-self-titled demo which was followed successfully by the excellent Heroes Of Origin<\/em><\/a> debut in 2013. Back then it was Exodus frontman Steve \u201cZetro\u201d Souza who fronted the band, with his sons Cody (bass) and Nick (drums) propping up the rear-guard aided by axemen Kosta Varvatakis and Miguel Esparza.<\/p>\n

By the band\u2019s third opus, From Days Unto Darkness<\/em> (2019), the line-up had changed significantly with Cody taking over vocal duties, and Kevin Paterson featuring on axe alongside Kosta and Nick, and that\u2019s the solid formation which brings us the band\u2019s latest full-length.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, this new release is brim full of the same fury and energy which splattered the previous releases. \u2018Horns & Halos\u2019 comes out of the traps with such a snap, my only issue being the fact that Hatriot is now more diverse in its vocal outbursts whereby we get bombarded by the expected gritty yelps, but now they are twinned with a death metal style growl. However, while the vocal flexibility may not be to everyone\u2019s taste, the musicianship most certainly will be. From start to finish \u2018Horns & Halos\u2019, just like the rest of the opus, is a blinding and at times bewildering display of technical prowess where pace fluctuates throughout and peaks and troughs bring speeding, razor-sharp execution melting into savage, thorny angles.<\/p>\n

Whichever guise this record takes it remains hostile and seething, spitting out those words with utter venom as the tirades of \u2018The Hate Inside\u2019 come zipping from the rafters to the slightly mechanized percussive assaults. There is a lot to take in here. The theatrical tremors of \u2018The Twenty Fifth Hour\u2019 take blistering speed bursts, while \u2018Clemency Denied\u2019 begins with mournful aesthetics where an acoustic guitar trickles and then becomes savaged by angular gnashing before the track embarks on a nifty chug.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, \u2018Mark Of The Tyrant\u2019 takes on an Exodus-cum-Sabbat (UK) snap and remains a bit more straightforward in its attack. But throughout this hostile opus there\u2019s a real spiteful feel, and I really do think it would have benefitted far more without the guttural vocal smatterings. However, this is Hatriot getting their creative juices flowing as \u2018Only Red Remains\u2019 provides a killer, infectious groove, while the shorter \u2018Forceful Balance\u2019 rigorously relays its violence through despicable vocal spits.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, even after a handful of listens I feel a tad lost in the barrage. Not in a way as I would be with, say, Toxik\u2019s latest expression of complexity (Dis Morta<\/em><\/a>), but here, even with the technicality, The Vale Of Shadows<\/em> just feels a bit thorny at times and by the mid-way stage I\u2019m slightly exhausted by its breakdowns. But one cannot debate the potency of the title track with its Slayer<\/a>-esque beginnings built upon those stony drums, or the nefarious licks of \u2018Hymn For The Wicked\u2019 which again adopts a Slayer-style melody before regurgitating it as a vile, sneering spit.<\/p>\n

Hatriot has certainly progressed beyond the realms of standard thrash workouts and I applaud them for such a prickly expression. This album is their heaviest and most devastating to date, even if the vocals sway to a metalcore religion and everything around it feels too barbed to access. The Vale Of Shadows<\/em> is what I\u2019d like to call, brash metal for the young n\u2019 fearless.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HATRIOTThe Vale Of Shadows Massacre (2022)Rating: 8\/10 The Vale Of Shadows is the fourth album from Oakland, California thrashers Hatriot who hit the scene running back in 2011 with their-self-titled demo which was followed successfully by the excellent Heroes Of Origin debut in 2013. Back then it was Exodus frontman Steve \u201cZetro\u201d Souza who fronted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-hatriot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94879"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94881,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94879\/revisions\/94881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}