This is why you should always listen to an album more than once, kiddies. Originally, I wasn’t too keen on Finnish band Hateform’s debut album Dominance. Frankly, on the first few listens, I was bored to tears with it. I remember seeing people praise the shit out of this thing, but it couldn’t hold my attention span for more than 3 minutes.

So I did what I do with any release I don’t quite get from the get-go: I put it away and came back to it later, hoping something would eventually click. And it did. Dominance is not an easily digestible record. You’ll have to sit with it awhile and give it time, but once you do there are quite many quality tracks on here.

Hateform essentially play a shredding style of death metal not unlike their countrymen Amoral. Unlike Amoral, however, Hateform place more emphasis on mixing their death metal with elements of modern thrash. The resulting sound on Dominance comes across as a bizarre melding of Amoral and early Mors Principium Est with later-era Testament, Susperia, and various mid-pace thrash acts. The hooks and groove aren’t readily accessible, but with repeated listens, they fall into place working in tandem with the extremely complex solo work to reel in the listener. And those guitars do shred in the truest sense of the word; the Children of Bodom fraternity fucks will shit a brick upon hearing Dominance’s guitar performance. The drum work is a lot more natural than most acts, but takes the back seat to Hateform’s extremely well structured guitars. Lastly, the vocal approach by Petri fits this style of death/thrash perfectly, sounding coherent and harsh but not overly brutal or blackened.

The problem with Dominance, as stated above, is that it’s most definitely not readily accessible. It’s neither bad nor mediocre by a long shot, but it takes a FUCKTON of patience to get into. I can easily see people completely skipping over it simply because "Square Zero" or some other random track didn’t jump out at them. Hateform is definitely a band that must be tried before you can buy it, but Dominance will ultimately reward those with patience who wear the record in.

I’m thankful I actually came back to the listen to Hateform’s Dominance. It’s hardly the best death/thrash record out there, but it is certainly great for certain moods now that I’ve gotten used to it. If anything at all can be gathered from Dominance, it stands as a testament to the potential Hateform have. With time and experience, I can easily see the band pulling out a classic, all things willing. For now though, Dominance is only for those with the balls to wait it out. You’re in for a treat, but it will be a test of determination.

Review byNecro-tron