Grondhaat

Grondhaat - Humanity: The Flesh for Satan's Pigs
Ketzer Records, 2011
Genre: Black Metal

1. Fucking Slaves
2. Humanity: The Flesh for Satan's Pigs
3. The Last Dawn of Human Race
4. The Gate of Nanna (Beherit Cover)
5. Incantations of Dark Gates
6. The Blackest Blasphemy
7. All Bullets of War








I think this was a somewhat random purchase for me. A couple of my motivators was the fact that I really like Czech Black Metal and I think I noticed that Asura was a member of Trollech, and having a Lord Morbivod connection is never bad in my books. So, I picked this up not really knowing what to expect. What we got was a little mixed, but some decent tracks of traditional Black Metal.

The first three tracks are filled with wonderful guitar work done in the usual Czech fashion, drawing influence from the likes of Maniac Butcher and, naturally, Stiny Plamenu and Trollech. There are times that the work has a fairly Finnish feel to it at times. I guess the Beherit cover should come as no surprise then! The only complaint I have during this material is the vocal performance, which isn't particularly great, but it's not terrible either. The part that makes it a bit off putting is the fact that the vocals are very loud in the mix. They really overtake the music and Asura feels like doing the Arioch thing where he fills as much space as possible with vocals. It's quite unfortunate, because the music underneath is extremely good. Then for some reason "The Last Dawn of Human Race" has a very distinct Darkthrone influence, which feels very out of place with the previous guitar work. I think it even bears a resemblance to the more modern Darkthrone, which I, personally, don't like at all. It's fine if these musicians like that, but the placement feels very off putting after the prior three tracks.

This section sort of marks a turning point for the album and we delve deeper down that slow plodding Darkthrone hole, granted in a far more traditional Black Metal fashion like their middle career. There is attempt at infusing groove/catchiness into sections, but much of these slow sections seem to fall into Beherit fashioned writing, but not as much of a mess as the original. If you enjoy that Beherit and Darkthrone blend, you may find far more enjoyment out of this release than I did towards the end.

I just feel like I've sort of been lead astray from the beginning. What started off as some Black Metal I truly love ended up transforming into a totally different style of Black Metal towards the end. I can understand being influenced by multiple things, but with such stark differences and a clear line where it shifts this winds up feeling like two musical projects shoved together. Still, I'm sure there is a fanbase for the latter half of the album, it's just not me, because Grondhaat have certainly performed that style quite well. The only overarching complaint through all the tracks is the vocals need to be turned down.