UMUR
"The Great Bludgeoning" is the 7th full-length studio album by Danish thrash metal act Hatesphere. The album was released through Napalm Records in September 2011. Hatesphere has been through several lineup changes in the past and that trend continues on "The Great Bludgeoning". Most notably lead vocalist Jonathan "Joller" Albrechtsen, who sang on "To the Nines (2009)", has been replaced by new vocalist Esben "Esse" Elnegaard Kjaer Hansen. So Jonathan "Joller" Albrechtsen only lasted one album, after he replaced long time vocalist Jacob Bredahl (who´s last recording with the band was "Serpent Smiles and Killer Eyes (2007)"). The rythm section of drummer Dennis Buhl and bassist Mixen Lindberg have also been replaced for the recording of "The Great Bludgeoning". New drummer is Mike Park Nielsen and new bassist is Jimmy Nedergaard. So basically the only two remaining members from the lineup that recorded "To the Nines (2009)" are guitarists Peter "Pepe" Lyse Hansen and Jakob Nyholm.
Bearing in mind all the lineup changes, it´s actually surprising how little Hatesphere have changed. They still sound unmistakably like Hatesphere. But that´s probably due to the fact that band founder and main composer Peter "Pepe" Lyse Hansen has always stuck to his guns and never panicked because of changing trends. As long as Peter "Pepe" Lyse Hansen is in control of the band, he will probably always make sure to bring crushingly heavy and aggressive thrash metal to the people. However sticking to your guns in this case doesn´t mean the band haven´t developed over the years. There have been little tweaks to the sound and incorporation of new elements, but the basis of the band´s sound has always been brutal thrash metal. That´s also the case on "The Great Bludgeoning" which features several fiercely aggressive, fast-paced and crushingly heavy thrash metal tracks like opening track "The Killer", "Smell of Death" and the title track. The 6 minutes long "Venom" is where the band make a little tweak. Especially the ending of the track which includes keyboards is quite unusual for the band but works really well for them.
"The Great Bludgeoning" is a relatively short album with only 9 tracks distributed over a 36:58 minutes long playing time. "The Wail Of My Threnode" is even a short instrumental interlude, so there are only 8 "real" thrash metal tracks on the album. There´s nothing to worry about though as the quality is high throughout. Powerful and well sounding production, excellent musicianship and for the style varied songwriting are some of the assets of the album. Hatesphere leave no doubt that they are still the kings of Danish thrash metal and fans of brutal thrash metal in the vein of early The Haunted and Dew-Scented should find lots of like here. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is warranted.