The latest release from Hatebreed really offers up nothing new from their tried and true formula-just thirteen new examples of their furious brand of hardcore and extreme metal. Supremacy though is a kick ass collection of brutal tracks that never relent from start to finish, filled with plenty of hateful, angry vocals, pummeling guitar riffs, mosh inspired breakdowns, and barreling rhythms, basically what you would expect from any Hatebreed album. Most of the songs are fairly short and to the point, as the band delivers manic, heavy anthems of brute force that you can just imagine will go over amazingly well in a live environment. Tracks like "Mind Over All", "Horrors of Self", "Destroy Everything", and "Spitting Venom" are vicious metal numbers, brimming with hardcore intensity, death metal savagery, and thrash precision, sure to please fans of bands like Slayer and Slipknot. However, for some, Supremacy might be a bit of a letdown after their successful and killer 2002 release Perseverance, a truly brutal and inspired CD that really set the benchmark for Hatebreed albums to follow. While the band does come close to matching some of the fury of that album ("Destroy Everything" comes to mind), and at times the riffs are a bit heavier here, the fact that they took close to 4 years to put Supremacy together, makes one wonder if perhaps this one could have been a little better. Hatebreed delivers some pretty solid metal goods here, but in a year where there have been so many standout releases, Supremacy falls ever so slightly off the mark.
Good, but not quite great.
Track Listing
1. Defeatist
2. Horrors Of Self
3. Mind Over All
4. To The Threshold
5. Give Wings To My Triumph
6. Destroy Everything
7. Divine Judgment
8. Immortal Enemies
9. The Most Truth
10. Never Let It Die
11. Spitting Venom
12. As Diehard As They Come
13. Supremacy Of Self