Sickness Within (CD - 2005)

Personnel: Steve Smyth (guitar); Tommy Hansen (keyboards).

Audio Mixer: Tue Madsen.

Recording information: Hansen Studios, Ribe, Denmark; Jailhouse Studio, Horsens, Denmark; Signal Creative Studios, London, England; Smart 'N' Hard, Aarhus, Denmark.

Bands like Hatesphere continue to prove that extreme metal has made quite the comeback during the early 21st century. The Danish band's fourth release overall, Sickness Within contains all the necessary ingredients of classic '80s thrash metal, with hardcore barking being the cherry atop this metallic ice cream sundae. In fact, next to industrial metal acts, Hatesphere is probably the most metallic sounding band out there -- the beginning of "The Fallen Shall Rise in a River of Blood" sounds akin to machinery in a factory sputtering out of control (or coming back from the dead, to teach its mean operators a thing or two). Singer Jacob Bredahi must have industrial-strength vocal cords, as evidenced on such screamfests as "Reaper of Life" and "The Coming of Chaos," while the rest of the chaps have no problem keeping pace on their instruments. Hatesphere has no problem spreading the, er, hate on Sickness Within. ~ Greg Prato minimize