Review: 5 Minutes Hate “s/t” CD

I expected this to suck. Now, I'm not saying it's great, don't get me wrong, but I'm talking I expected this to really suck. I don't know why, something about the band name and the demo's presentation, but... regardless, it's not all bad. Too damn raw, and lacking direction somewhat, but there are promising moments nonetheless. It's basically death metal with a few high-speed moments that border on black metal and some slower moments that hit on a weird sort of groove/doom combo. Honestly the songwriting's really not bad. The slower moments don't get too far into groovy brutal death metal territory, the speed is fairly well handled, and the structures are fairly linear. Sometimes an out of place breakdown riff can do some damage to the flow, and I'm much more supportive of the lower vocal growls than I am the sneering screams (which are irritating and definitely clash with the vibe of everything else), but unoriginality aside I'm digging some of the dual guitar work and riffing in general. There's not much going on to separate one song from another per se, it can all sound similar after awhile, especially when they start focusing on speed rather than mixing up the tempos. "Ate" has some thrashier influences popping up, and that's a cool touch, but the quick discordant riffs towards the middle are fucking great - I'd love to hear these guys write songs based completely around that style. "Scapegoat's Agony" has some of the most effective slow passages, making for a fairly well balanced track, granted the playing might need minimal tightening up for maximum efficiency. The recording is definitely demo level, though. It's really thin and overly raw, so the guitar and bass tones need a lot of work to get to the level that these riffs need to really drill down. The percussion sounds okay, it's clear, but of course it is a little thin and clicky, though still more effective than the guitars for the most part. I know budget plays a huge role in these things, but a more balanced mix and a thicker, punchier sound could definitely put these songs in a better light. As I hinted at earlier I'm not into the layout here. They tried, and it looks almost decent on minimal levels, but the image quality is a little pixilated and the overall design as far as typefaces and whatnot are concerned is definitely rough. All you get on the back of the insert is the lineup and a thanks list, no lyrics or anything. So the visual presentation is also something that will need some work down the road. It's a little hard to get a clear picture of this stuff based on the recording, but my overall suggestions (aside from the obvious) would be to toss the higher vocals since the lower growls are so effective and work with blending in a little more of the darker dissonance that they hint at briefly in cuts like "C2766". Not bad, but definitely not what it could be.