UMUR
"Welcome to Reality" is the second demo recording by Swedish thrash metal act Hatred. The demo was recorded and released in January 1989. It´s the successor to the May 1987 "Winds of Doom" demo. Hatred formed in 1985, released three demos and then disbanded.
The 20 months between the first and the second demo have been spend wisely. Hatred have added the needed aggression and darkness to their speed/thrash metal sound and are now closer in style to Possessed, Slayer, and Dark Angel than the more tradional speed metal of "Winds of Doom". They still don´t produce anything out of the ordinary for the genre or anything unique, but they do what they do well. The performances are top notch considering that this is a demo recording (although the vocals could have been more raw and aggressive and the music would have benefitted from it), and the raw and brutal sounding production values enhance the feeling of doom and darkness.
With this demo release Hatred could easily have been picked up by a label, if things had gelled, but apparently it never happened because they would release one more demo in 1990 and then disband. This one is worth a listen if you enjoy aggressive and brutal thrash from the mid- to late 80s, although you shouldn´t expect to hear anything you haven´t heard before. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.