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When it comes to band and album names, no band has ever been a bigger thorn in many metal fans eyes then The Project Hate MCMXCIX, commonly referenced without the roman numberals at the end of the name. This Industrial Death Metal band came onto the scene in 1999 with their debut full-length effort, which actually came before their 1999 demo. The band, formed in 1998 in Sweden, has since issued seven albums over the years, and became a rather well known name in the Death Metal underground. Two years after their seventh full-length effort, The Lustrate Process, the band issues their most annoyingly titled album yet, Bleeding the New Apocalypse (Cum Victriclis in Manibus Armis), which I'll simply refer to without the words in parenthesis. So, how does this offering stack up? Bleeding the New Apocalypse hammers in right away with the first track, "Iesus Nazarenus, Servus Mei", which shows the band's ability to create what sounds like the Death Metal version of the stylish atmosphere and approach of a Symphonic Black Metal album. The actual Death Metal sound of the recording is heavy and hammers away on this track, but sadly, this song also shows the band's faults. While the Industrial aspects of the recording are a nice touch that really helps the album sound a little more unique, the track also features recently admitted Ruby Roque singing in a more operatic style, which often takes away fromt he bite of the song and lends to cheap, generic moments of operatic attempts that really did not need to be incorporated, and in fact sound forced into the recording, as if to maket off the stylish sound of Metal today, and have an excuse to sound that way and have a female vocalist in the band. Sadly, this starts to remove some of the unique and hostile atmosphere associated with the band. Sadly, this becomes practically every track on the recording, and many times it just sounds god awful, primarily with Ruby herself. The music seems to drift away slightly from Death Metal when she's present, and on the following track "They Shall All Be Witnesses", her vocals sound atrocious at times, as it sounds slightly off, and also like they digitally messed with it to try to reflect the proper pitch for the recording. The Industrial elements of this track, and many other, are left behind for a more techno sound that is becoming a common occurance with some Metalcore and Melodic Death Metal bands, and the Techno moment of this track sounds very watered down, tacked on, and simply is boring, hammering into a much stronger performance by everyone in the band, including Ruby. However, at this point it hasn't even reached the half way mark of the song, and it continues to change up throughout the song, both for the better and for the worst. Now that all the necessary nitpicking is done without even having made it through half the album yet, you get the general idea of what to expect from the album. If you go in expecting anything like the band's previous material, you will be greatly disappointed. However, if you go in expecting another flashy modern-sounding album that takes on many cliche's and just generic musical tools, then you'll probably enjoy some of it. The material here isn't that bad, but at the same time it's really nothing new or refreshing. The only newer idea is incorporating a strong Techno feel through the Industrial sound, but even that is starting to get a little old. Ruby, admittedly, is not bad when she really gets into the music and starts to belt out some very emotional and well ranged vocals, and the gutterals on here sound great, matching the overall atmosphere and intensity well. But, even to new fans, the insanely long lengths of some of these tracks cause the songs to feel drawn out and repetitive after a while. Aside that, there isn't much else to say positive about the album. "A Revelation of Desecrated Heavens" is actually an enjoyable track. The music still retains that stylish atmosphere, which, in a sense kind of works with the more Techno-sounding moments that are incorporated here, but this song has a stronger Death Metal push to it then anything else, having more power and intimidating in the music and gutteral vocals, though the music does shift in intensity, leaving some of it out after Ruby starts singing. This is something you'll pick up throughout the album. "The Serpent Crowning Ritual" is also an enjoyable song, though the band seems to find the female vocals favoring a more Lacuna Coil approach this time, leadin the music to be a little more generic, though still a little more intense like "A Revelation of Desecrated Heavens", just in an accessible way that fans of today's Behemoth would probably enjoy more then strictly intense Death Metal with Industrial influences. Of all the song too, this is the one that really doesn't feel drawn out, and does offer up enough fluid variety throughout to keep it interesting. While Breeding the New Apocalypse really isn't anything too impressive, and sadly falls prey to many generic elements of today's Metal styles, it's not the worst thing out there, and manages to have a few tracks that are enjoyable. But, for the most part, it's just not a great album. There's plenty of talented musicians here, and it shows in the music, but for the most part it feels like you're listening to a blend of Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir and Deadlock, except more of a concentration on Death Metal then anything Black. The female vocals are amazing most of the time, but feel pointless to even have as the music really doesn't fit them, and when it does it feels like a forced transition into music that best suits it. Many of the songs feel like they take forever to end, and two songs in fans are going to want to eject the CD, though there's two tracks that genuinely are entertaining that follow. The Project Hate MCMXCIX have put together a clusterfuck of pretty much every staple popular metal idea and gimmick of the past two, three years, and put it all here in obnoxiously long songs to create an album that shows signs that it could have been good had they not gone down this path, had there been no female vocals, and had there been a strong influence of Death Metal instead of trying to incorporate as much idol worship as possible to make this one painful as hell listen. |
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Digital review copy of this release provided by: Season of Mist Records.
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