Friendship – Hatred

Sentient Ruin Records - 2017

As a less experienced powerviolence fan, I'm always slightly proud when I actually recognize a name in the scene. I was blown away by the dirty, raw half-hour assault that I&II was, and Hatred is quite the successor.

Friendship have foregone the unclean, fuzzy sound in favour of a cleaner, more hardcore-oriented sound. This choice is reflected in the riffs, which have a more beatdown feel when compared to the messier sludgy style of the previous album. The slower parts and breakdowns, as well as the riffs they transform into have a punk approach to heaviness, going straight for the throat and leaving the details behind – and it's effective as hell. The rare leads that do appear are atonal nonsense, reinforcing the whole hellish, unnatural aspect of the record. The clearer soundscape also gives the drums some room, enhancing the guitars with blasts and floor-punching, air-kicking beats – the bridge in Life Sentence reminded me why I don't go into those moshpits.

The vocals are what you'd expect, a cross between an angry bark and a motorcycle screaming bloody murder - the introduction to Grief is a great example of just how primal it gets. There's a bit of clean texture from time to time, giving the vocalist an angrier, less controlled and more punk sound. Sure, there's only one note being sung during the entire record and yeah, the delivery is divided into staccatto and faster staccatto, but I wouldn't want anything more from Friendship.

The overall feel of simultaneous dread and pain makes for an uneasy, intense record on par with other legendary acts of musical oppression like Vermin Womb or Wormrot. In the past 2 years, Japan's been putting out a number of instant classics in many extreme subgenres, and while I wouldn't dare define Hatred as such given my limited experience with the genre, it certainly feels like it's got that extra element that pushes it into the realm of memorable albums – there's a soul in this record, and it's tortured. It's an experiment in hate and aggression, at a level not many bands live up to.

Giuseppe Fitzsimmons

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