Hate Stand Apart From Polish Metal Brethren on ‘Erebos’ — Song Premiere

The uninitiated might perceive Hate as some sort of death metal explosion coming out of Poland that includes Behemoth, Vader and Decapitated, but such an assertion is shortsighted. Poland has had strong death metal bands for decades, and even Hate have been around since 1990. Other Polish bands laying waste to their homeland include Sceptic, Dies Irae, Trauma, Lost Soul, Bestiar and Masicihist. So instead of considering Hate part of some movement, think of them as their own entity with a vision shared by thousands, domestic and international.

With that notion of Hate as a solitary machine, Noisecreep is thrilled to premiere the title track from the band's seventh full-length album, 'Erebos,' a feast of demolition driven by double-bass rolls, militaristic riffs and disarming guitar melodies.

Listen to 'Erebos'

"The song is about destroying the world -- an apocalypse of sorts made by one man who

possesses a nuclear weapon," frontman Adam the First Sinner told Noisecreep. "He considers himself a great warrior with a mission to realize, and he causes an explosion that brings death to millions."

While the song and album seem to address the ever-effective end of the world metal trope, Hate actually dig a little deeper, confronting issues of faith, tyranny and self-belief along with the good old annihilation.

"It's a metaphor of a fanatic believing blindly in some concept, like dogma," he said. "When it comes to whole album, 'Erebos' is not based on any literature or mythology, as the title might suggest. It's a story about a human living in today's world who is a slave to his anger, weaknesses and complexes and beliefs. It's a pretty dark, apocalyptic vision of humanity.

"It's not a concept album in strict sense, but it has its light motives appearing in most of the tracks, such as looking for enlightenment, looking for real 'self' that has been lost or manipulated to the point you cannot separate yourself from other stories and information that you've heard or seen. It's about looking for this one element that defines you as an unrepeatable individual. It's also about dealing with your weaknesses, frustration and anger that very often leads you to perdition."

Adam the First Sinner drafted the skeleton of 'Erebos' more than a year ago, but at the time Hate were on tour and he was unable to flesh out the song. Bit by bit, he added parts until the tune was finally done.

"When I had the song completed, we decided to put it on our set list, and we played it on our Polish tour with some rough lyrics that later I changed quite much. We went through a few versions of the song until we recorded it. After playing the track on the tour, I realized that it needed some changes here and there. So we re-arranged it just before entering the studio."

Hate will launch a lengthy North American tour that begins March 9 in Springfield, Va. and runs through May 31 in Vancouver, B.C.