Handful of Hate – To Perdition (2013)

Four years have passed since their punishing “You Will Bleed” release, and Handful of Hate is ready to rock your world with an even more vicious release with “To Perdition”. In this devastating exercise in Black Metal brilliance, this Italian band delivers 11 tracks of relentless aural assaults that will leave you beat to a pulp. If you like the power of bands like Taake, Gorgoroth, Immortal, etc., this is one album that you can’t miss.

Opening with the ultra-violent title track, this release starts with a bang and keeps going like this for over 40 minutes. The riffing is quite punishing and very BM-esque, but the intensity of the drumming and hellishness of the vocals is what makes this band stand out. The band’s power goes unrivaled through epic tracks like “Cursed Be Your Breat”, “Far Beyond All Scourges”, and our personal favorite “Swines Graced Gods”. These songs provide a whirlwind of brutality and great levels of intensity that very few bands can delivers with such a quality production package.

After changing the pace a bit with the interlude “Caro Data Vermibus”, the band continues the onslaught of devastation with more crushing songs like “Ornaments For Derision”, “Ex Abrupto”, and “Words Like Worms”. Our favorite track of this release is hands down the moody “Feeding Sufferings”. The band takes its time to build this one up, but still delivers fast paced riffing and highly skilled drumming. Clocking in at 6 minutes and change, this is one of the most complete songs of the album.

The album closes with the punishing “Dammatio Ad Bestias”, and leaves the listener hastily scrambling for the repeat button. As a whole, “To Perdition” is one hell of a Black Metal album. While not as unique and complex as other releases, Handful of Hate elevates their music with the sheer intensity and brutality they execute it with. We highly recommend this one to anybody that likes hyper fast and hyper aggressive Black Metal.

Label: Code666 Records

Release: November 12th, 2013

Genre: Black Metal

Country: Italy