HaditOn seeing that this was from 2015 I got ready to berate its tardy arrival on the arrival pile but promptly forgave them when I saw it had an initial 150 copies cassette run and wished I had one. This Italian duo going by the names of Xn (guitar/vocals) and Fulgurator (drums) and are currently engaged writing their debut full length but in the meantime we have this EP.

Leaving my bias aside the songs infesting this release are barbaric and often terrifying as the opening feedback tones of “Occult Whispers Declare The Impending Apocalypse” lead you into a quagmire of double kick and some of utterly grotesque vocals. The speed workouts are cemented into the slower more pervading death metal traits and give this Scandinavian feel of the early 90 especially from Finland. “Reborn In New Flesh Supremacy” is chaotic with cymbal smashes detonating like flares and the kick drums sounding like boulders raining down. Critically the cymbal work is a little dominant in the overall sound making parts of the release sound clamorous. Xn’s vocal style borders the demonic side of death metal but nothing can understate the horrifying sounds that escape Xn’s throat.

Closing the EP is the gargantuan “Thirteen Plans Of Nonexistence Awaiting Hadath” which clocks the eight minute mark and starts with one minute of distortional rancour that uncoils slowly with the double bass thumping remorselessly until the blast juts in. Some releases in death metal leave you with a foul taste and a sense of being sonically violated as the ordeal of this tune drops it into an Immolation like drawl. There is a blackened shroud to the riffing throughout the album but especially the closer as the sporadic blast bursts are welded to the more obliquely savage style that one hears in black metal.

Despite this being about a year late the debut offering by Hadit is worth your time and is for fans of Immolation, Desolate Shrine, Sulphur Aeon, Incantation etc.

(7.5/10 Martin Harris)

https://www.facebook.com/haditdeathmetal