This album has too many random sounding riffs that go nowhere, and I generally dislike the muddy production of the album. Morbid Angel is excellent with this type of production because they have something called ATMOSPHERE, but this all-out brutality just doesn't sound good with the muddy production. In short this album is a big disappointment, seeing as it has Eric Rutan (ex Morbid Angel) and Doug Cerrito (ex Suffocation) in the band. The musicianship is good, and the band has a good drummer. Also they put on a killer live show. Unfortunately the album is pretty dodgy, and I don't like the songs. This is brutal death metal done completely the wrong way, although I have heard of people liking this album. I don't recommend it.

This review is credited to:
Julian Forbes

Ordinarily, I tend to concentrate too much on originality and novelty when analyzing a CD. But I seem to give Hate Eternal more credit than they might deserve. "Conquering The Throne" caught a lot of people's attention, featuring two well-known names in the underground: former Morbid Angel guitarist, Erik Rutan on vocals/guitar, and former Suffoctation guitarist, Doug Cerrito on guitar. In addition to the popularity of the two musicians, Hate Eternal was invited to tour with Cannibal Corpse in 1999 soon after the release of their debut album. Needless to say, it didn't take much for Hate Eternal to be recognized. Hate Eternal certainly puts on an incredible show if I might add.

"Conquering The Throne" doesn't have much too offer in the fields of creativity, diversity, and dynamics. They just serve technical-oriented brutal death metal with catchy & propitious vocals, non-stop double-bass drumming as basic and straight-forward as they can. And there's no problem with that. The music is intense and production of the album is flawless. Unfortunately, every song is structured the same and there's nothing special added to any song that hasn't been featured in every other one. I wouldn't call the songs monotonous because there are noticeable differences, but I couldn't be able to pick out my favorite song for they are all of equal pace and quality.

I think Rutan overexaggerates when it comes to the band's sound. It's really nothing spectacular, it's just basic death metal. But Hate Eternal does a good job at what they do. If it wasn't for the great production, the great vocals, and the intensity of this band, then I would've given up on them. But I think they have pretty good hopes for the future. I know for a fact that many people will enjoy "Conquering The Throne". Especially people that haven't been exposed to more complex music (or have but didn't care for it).

This review is credited to:
insanitee