Year: 2026
Label: Primitive Reaction
Rating: 7 / 10
To your attention, another project by Roman Saenko and Vlad from DRUDKH, WINDSWEPT, etc. Although there are no lyrics for this album in my digital promo (and they probably haven't been published at all), its meaning is more than clear. This is hatred. And not forest hatred, as in the other band, but more streamlined and not restrained in any way.
The music of BRAS D'honneur (”gesture of contempt") doesn't stray too far from ILDJARN or VON. It's not that primitive, as it still has 2-3 riffs per song and is played more quickly, but it's kind of the same thing here. An angry tremolo riff, a blast beat; Roman spits out a few lines in double vocal track - here's the song for you. Repeat 13 times. Most of the material is fast, but there is a bit of a medium tempo.
The most distinctive feature of the album is that it is not very similar to the other projects of Roman. In places, you can hear early HATE FOREST with its thunderous clouds, but I know bands that are way more similar to HATE FOREST than BRAS D'HONNEUR, so it doesn't count. This is not the case when it is unclear why it was necessary to create another entity. But I wouldn't say that the album makes a powerful impression. It's a stream of hate for 34 minutes, no more, no less. Roman speaks out about different, um, categories of people, and does it very aggressively (especially in the final third, which contains the best material)... Well, that's it. There is no depth here. I guess that was the point. Therefore, "Hate Speech" is hardly suitable for frequent listening. But it's a good, strong album that fulfills its purpose.
