Hate No. 3 "The Voice Full of Hate From Far East.co.jp" CD
[MCR]
After an intro of samples and spoken vocals over some slower chord progressions ("A Declaration of War"), this Japanese act kicks into some faster, raw hardcore/punk with gruff vocals (trading between lower shouts and midrange yells) that lend a crusty sort of vibe to it. This is significantly different from their last 7" in my opinion, as there's less of an old school hardcore tone, leaning far more towards the punk spectrum. It's still got some heaviness to it, but not in the same way as before. "Report 07/03" is a little bit heavier, bringing in more spoken vocals (this time in Japanese), and I think the spoken vocals are the only thing I'm not into here. They sound more like narration than anything, and sort of break up the music a little bit... I guess in this song that is the intention since the title almost hints at it being more of a news report or something? But there are spoken passages in every song, and the aggressive shouting is far more powerful, so they should stick with that instead! "An Essential Question" mixes up the tempos more than any of the other songs, and in a way some of the rhythms have a really old school British metal sort of thing going on, like back when some of the metal was overlapping with rugged punk. Very cool! The recording's alright. I don't mind the rawness at all, really. The bass tone really has a lot of space, the vocals sound really good, etc. I think this is a pretty good sound for what they're doing, especially since it's such a short EP. The layout is kind of done up in a Crass meets G.I.S.M. style of collaging images and icons, but I actually think the inner spread and the back of the booklet look better than the cover. The cover looks digital whereas the rest looks more traditionally cut and paste, which I prefer. There are no lyrics included, but the message of the art and what "slogans" have been included seems to be one attacking the current state of America's warring nature. Not bad. It's really short, I wish there were more songs! A curious change of pace for this band, who, to me, seems to stand out from a lot of the Japanese hardcore that I hear. I'll be looking out for more down the road... (6/10)
Running time - 8:31, Tracks: 3
[Notable tracks: For the Minority]
Hate No. 3 - http://www.kcc.zaq.ne.jp/h8n3/INDEX.htm/

This review has been displayed 835 times.