Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Hate Profile - Opus I: The Khaos Hatefile - 2005 - Cruz Del Sur

Track Listing1. Prologue: Chapter 0: Demons in Me (Intro to Inferno) 2. Fallen: Chapter 1: Bleeding Black Heart 3. Fallen: Chapter 2: Veils That Blind 4. Fallen: Chapter 3: The Darkened Angel 5. Fallen: Chapter 4: The Day My Feathers Fell 6. The Vision: Chapter 5: 17 Empty Rooms 7. The Vision: Chapter 6.66: The Khaos Hatefile 8. The Vision: Chapter 7: Recall to Nothing 9. The Vision: Chapter 8: Lapse of Perfection Pralâya

The dramatically titled ‘Opus I: The Khaos Hatefile’ is the first recorded work from Italian one-man project Hate Profile. Though a session drummer does contribute, ‘Amon 418’ is responsible for all the rest: lyrics, guitars, vocals, bass, synth, etc. ‘The Khaos Hatefile’ is a bulky work, generally within the realms of black metal (though death metal riffs, passages, and other effects are not too uncommon) faintly reminiscent of new Dissection’s riff-oriented, mid-paced mixture of the two genres (One of the tracks here even includes the phrase ‘Feathers Fell’).

Another comparison for Hate Profile would be the works of Vladimir Cochet, particularly Unholy Matrimony and Weeping Birth. Both men’s solo works are essentially modernized adaptations of a wide range of extreme metal’s offerings, stripped down to a familiar and palatable core, though it should be noted that Hate Profile should not be considered an experimental work.

Amon 418’s primary concern for Hate Profile, as he has himself stated, is to provide a substantiating medium for his lyrics and philosophy, which he vaguely outlines on his website. ‘Opus I’ is the first of three related works, the second of which is already in production.

This preoccupation does detract somewhat from Hate Profile’s musical appeal, as ‘The Khaos Hatefile’ does not develop significantly from its ‘Prologue’ to the last chapter. Though the drummer is a living body and not a machine, his assignment here is a fairly mechanical one. While this is often more than acceptable for black-oriented metal, in this instance the result is unremarkable. Too, for black metal, three riffs per song is a tried-and-true formula, but with the genre bending here, however limited, such a format becomes more soporific than hypnotically seductive. Hate Profile blurs the lines just enough with scattered ambience and more melodic passages that leave one expecting more than what is provided.

Fans of ‘Reinkaos’, Craft, newer Darkthrone, industrial black metal, and perhaps even Belphegor may find enjoyment here, though. Amon 418 has cultivated a sense of urgency that, in controlled doses, is quite provocative. Not yet entirely original, Hate Profile may find its footing in the remaining two installments of the trilogy.



--Etiam 07.21.06