Scythia - Hate Forest

Released towards the end of Hate Forest's career in 2004, 'Scythia', is a re-recording of their first demo from 1999, and combines their stripped-down, relentless black metal style with some interesting musical touches and atmospheric devices to create a suprisingly varied and cohesive album. The songs are still comprised of harsh, freezing black metal, and many of the riffs on offer here possess an icy, droning quality full of strained melody and dread, that will likely appeal to fans of early Gorgoroth and Mayhem. The sound here is less trebly than on earlier efforts, with more low-end sound present, and the songs rattle on with a well established sense of ...  Read the complete review