Rage Nucléaire — Unrelenting Fucking Hatred
The Canadian band's imagery and thematic’s are also a mix of grindcore (war, suffering, politics) and black/death metal (pathological anatomy, diseases, general slaughter). Their intentions are made pretty clear right from the album's title “Unrelenting Fucking Hatred” and by the fact that their cheesy metal logo is encapsulated by a crown of machine guns. It's that kind of stuff.
The first track “Violence Is Golden” sets the tone for the rest of the album. It's an immediate and powerful burst of sonic violence. Drums sound like a machine gun and guitar and bass are noisy and messy yet technical and careful, never indulging too much in metal wankery. An extremely odd and sometimes tacky keyboard work holds everything together, adding a bizarre and lunatic touch. Ex-Cryptopsy vocalist Lord Worm offers a great performance, with completely unintelligible and distorted guttural vocals that bounce from channel to channel. The mix is loud, brutal, intentionally filthy and completely stupid. The audible assault is constant for the whole set, and while all tracks are rich with very silly sampling and ear-shredding guitar abuse, the mere bulk of the sound is impressive and totally overwhelming. Rage Nucléaire’s style is definitely not for everyone, as their pathologic insistence in overlapping atonal chords and their brutal production might be too much to some ears. Those who will “get” their spirit will love this album though. I admit that it took me a few listens to really appreciate “Unrelenting Fucking Hatred” and that the first minutes put me off at first, but this record slowly grew on me.
In conclusion, hats off to Rage Nucléaire’s mastermind Alvater (who's behind the excellent yet wacky keyboards and bass, and who's responsible for the album mixing) for putting together such a grotesque combo and for creating a very peculiar, both primitive and inventive production style.Not for the squeamish.