I, Monarch

Erik Rutan has never made two Hate Eternal albums with the same personnel. On this, their third release, he’s joined by new bassist Randy Piro and drummer Derek Roddy, returning from 2002’s King of All Kings. There’s little subtlety, and no mercy, to Rutan’s vision of death metal. Hate Eternal’s music sounds like a blast furnace, like a wall of fire sweeping across the landscape, devastating everything in its path. Roddy’s drumming is breathtakingly fast, complex, and aggressive, while Piro’s job as bassist is to shadow Rutan as he cranks out one chainsaw riff after another, occasionally laying down a solo that seems to float in from a calmer, more psychedelic realm than the furious hellscape where he typically dwells. The music’s not completely monochromatic, though; seemingly just for the hell of it, there’s a didjeridoo on “To Know Our Enemies.”