If I could give the first six songs of Hatriot’s Dawn of the New Centurion a 10-out-of-10 rating, I would. This is what we’ve all been waiting for—a true revival of thrash metal. For those of you that don’t know, Hatriot is the new band of the former vocalist of Exodus, Steve “Zetro” Souza. Along with his two sons on the bass and drums and two previously unknown guitarists, Souza is on mission to bring back the old-school intensity of thrash. Hatriot is just over one year removed from releasing its debut album, Heroes Of Origin, which blew the metal community away with its lethal combination of thrash metal guitar riffs and ultra-fast death metal drum beats. Dawn of the New Centurion offers much of the same brutality and so much more. This time around, Hatriot has refined their sound and their songs are much more meaningful.
Zetro’s voice has been compared to the gritty, nasally vocal attack of Bon Scott. But he sounds like he has somehow become even more pissed off with Hatriot. His vocals are vicious and evil, which adds that one critical and unique element of ferocious power that makes Hatriot so memorable and entertaining.
This amazing album commences with a sound bite of ex-NRA president Charlton Heston—gun in hand—ending one of his speeches with the famous slogan, “From my cold, dead hands!” The anti-violence message of “My Cold Dead Hands” is triumphantly conveyed through the relentless aggression of Hatriot’s music. And as Zetro screeches cynical lyrics like, “Let this be a lesson that freedom isn’t free,” you instantly know that Hatriot isn’t messing around. “The Fear Within,” the albums third track, is reminiscent of Metallica’s “…And Justice For All.” The song quickly cuts into a satisfyingly forceful Machine Head-like riff and varied tempos and possessed vocals please the ears like chickadees chirping in the midst of a thunderstorm.
Hatriot’s tumultuous storm never seems to want to stop. The guitars slowly fade in on my personal favorite song, “Superkillafragsadisticactsaresoatrocious,” about humanity’s propensity for violence and hatred. Ah, Julie Andrews would be proud. The song fades out with a chanting plea to “Free Pussy Riot!” Honestly, the album could have ended right here and I would have been completely satisfied. But the album’s destructive force continues with a marvelous anti-organized religion tune called, “Silence in the House of the Lord.” Clearly, with this album, Hatriot made sure to cover all the bases. However, the album’s seventh song, “World Funeral,” disrupts the spectacular flow of Dawn of the New Centurion with a redundancy that annoys the heck out of you for almost four minutes; thankfully, it’s the album’s shortest song. The final two songs remind me of Slayer’s “Angel of Death,” but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
After you finish listening to this album, most of the songs will be left swirling around in your brain like a welcome parasite. This is an album I will be listening to for many years to come.
Evan Davits, HMS
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