Formed in Birmingham twelve years ago and following three independent releases, Spawned From Hate have recently released their debut full-length album, Elective Amputation.
From the first note to the last, this album is a testament to death metal’s capacity for storytelling through unbridled brutality. Opening track, Unchained Unbound sets the tone with a cacophony of blast beats and guttural growls that hit like a sledgehammer. Relentless pace is maintained by drummer Giulio Galati (formerly of Hideous Divinity) whose double bass drumming feels like a heavy machine gun firing at full throttle. Unchained Unbound introduces us to the monster that features on the album’s cover and lyrically in five on the album’s eight songs. Created to be a soldier and a ruthless killing machine, submissive to his master, the track deals with him breaking free of that mindset. Butcher My Master – during which the monster, who has killed his master, realises his place at the top of the evolutionary ladder – is two minutes of unbridled, violent aggression that explores the more technical side of the band’s music.
As the album progresses, tracks such as Intravenous Violation (which deals with mind control experimentation) and Bane Consumption (coping with continuous negativity in day-to-day life) contain jagged, exploratory riffs that mirror the inner turmoil of the lyrics - the latter beginning with a spoken word section that, for a few fleeting moments suggests the track might be less belligerent. Daniel Phipps’s unforgiving and crushing vocal delivery soon eliminates the thought of any such relaxation of the brutality.
Oppressor takes down the tempo a little but adds to the suffocating tension that has built up over the first four tracks. Lyrically illustrating the monster’s transition from oppressed to oppressor, he gains a feeling of superiority and sees many as lesser beings. The vocals are ferocious and emotive; the guttural growls convey a sense of liberation and uncontrollable rage that is palpable. The instrumentation - especially the rapid-fire bass of David Hudson – is devastating and savage. P.D.U. is an absolute behemoth both in terms of length (almost five minutes) and intensity. It attacks and strikes throughout, leaving the listener thoroughly shell shocked.
Hereditary Hatred and Supreme Being – the latter of which ramps up the brutality to agonising levels – continue to serve up monolithic riffs, unyielding drumming and cold, calculated but incredibly pitiless vocals. With the monster now seeing himself as a god and a destroyer of life, Spawned From Hate’s almost primitive and ruthless music destroys everything it approaches. Ludicrously deep, throaty growls bubble and rumble through the middle of Supreme Being as if the creature is issuing its blood-thirsty demands. Ending with the title track – during which the monster wishes to evolve and improve through replacing weak flesh with steel – Elective Amputation retains its bile-ridden angst until the final note. Ewan Gibbs’s guitar churn and chug with sheer, abyssal depth while the raw, primal power of Galati refuses to be extinguished even for a second – he truly is a machine and quite possibly the most consistently brilliant thing here.
In the sprawling expanse of brutal death metal, Elective Amputation dwells amongst those albums that forge a path of auditory onslaught. Unrelenting and endlessly animalistic, it is not an easy listen during its thirty minutes but it was never intended to be. Like a pummelling to the head from an unforgiving and unstoppable boxer, Spawned From Hate do not give the listener a moment to relax but fans of brutal death metal should definitely consider stepping into the ring. Violent, visceral and vengeful.
Elective Amputation is out now.