Review: HATE FOREST – Innermost

Year: 2022
Label: Osmose Productions
Rating: 7,4 / 10

I was waiting for the new HATE FOREST album with much more enthusiasm than for the new DRUDKH, since everything is more or less clear with DRUDKH, but HATE FOREST, having returned in 2020, released one of the best albums in its history, at the same time giving us the legendary track “Anxiously They Sleep in Tumuli”, which could only have been written by Roman Saenko. Of course, it was very interesting to hear how the sequel would turn out.

Unfortunately, there was no second miracle in a row. The result is a new HATE FOREST album, no more, no less. In itself, this is fine, but the claim is that it does not stand out at all against the background of other works of the band. Perhaps the only distinguishing feature of "Innermost" is the unbridled rage that unites the album with the debut of WINDSWEPT. And this same distinguishing feature entails a problem in the form of low dynamics of the album. In fact, there are only two types of playing on it: fast riffing under blast beats, and the acoustic interludes. The riffs are very good, but they are perceived rather superficially through the incessant blasting. You don't have time to understand the essence of the riff, as it is already replaced by the next one, and after this hopeless race, the album suddenly ends. Acoustic fragments not only do not help, but even interfere. They are not bad or good – they simply exist. And I wouldn't say that they feel like an integral part of the songs. After hell knows how many listenings, only small parts of the first and last tracks remain in my memory, and this is a little disappointing.

However, this is not an unusual case for HATE FOREST listeners. There have already been similar albums in the band's discography, which I have listened to dozens of times, but I only remember about them that they are cold, intense, imbued with a sense of ancient grumpy hatred. And hell if I know what songs were there, I just don't remember them. In a sense, this is also good, because you come back to such albums every time as if they are almost new, knowing that you will listen to some things as if for the first time. But I know that mr. Saenko in HATE FOREST can not only smash, but also record fantastic songs, so “Innermost” did not fully justify my hopes. At least the sound here is great, much better than the overloaded one on the previous album.

The CD edition has the form of a digipack with an 8-page booklet. There are no lyrics, as usual, but there are arts from the mysterious "Mirror Gallery", in places resembling drawings made by Sigrun for BBH releases. Details on a video.