PHAZM - "HATE AT FIRST SEED"

Phazm is a French metal troupe whose nine-track endeavor contains all of the guttural nuances and disturbing imagery metal has to offer. Falling somewhere between the horror movie shtick of splattercore and the rhythmic structures of black metal, tracks like the war monging anthem "Devoured Tenderness" have the slow crawl of Entombed built inside a song tailor made for a band like Bathory, while the band goes gonzo at the end with a rapid fire death metal version of Motorhead's "Dogs". Doomy, crustily eerie, and forebodingly heavy, Hate at First Seed has a lot of interesting twists and turns that will keep metal fans on their toes.