Band: Confront Hate
Title: Diabolical Disguise Of Madness
Label: Hell Xis Records
Distribution: Bertus
Release date: July 3rd 2011
Review: CD

I guess Confront Hate might be rather popular in their home country, Portugal (they hail from the sunny shores of Faro), yet I wonder if they will break through internationally. Their 2007-EP completely lacked of any original point of view, and unfortunately this debut full length continues that very same path.
Forty four minutes it lasts, this Diabolical Disguise Of Madness, and the five-piece (grunter David Rosa, drummer Pedro Costa, bassist Pedro Veigas and guitar players Pedro Faustino and Ricardo Albino – the latter did take care of the production and engineering for this recording too) did grow somewhat since their last recording. Yet again, it took almost a handful of years to ‘grow’, so I couldn’t get pleased by less than this, and so are you, I’m sure.
But we can be pleased – except for when we would expect an originalising evolution?... Yes and no, and I’ll explain why.
The pros are not ignorable, because the matured song writing and the more cohesive execution are positive results from years of growing-possibilities. The sound too is a surplus, for being powerful and ear-aching – yet too dense from time to time?
At the other hand the lack of originality is painful, sometimes balancing on the border of self-mutilating masochism. Ektomorf, Machine Head or Scarpoint, injected with elements from Lamb Of God, Sepultura or Meshuggah, for example, grooving and thrashing, deadly and bleeding, fatly grooving yet sometimes too hollow as well, too predictable, too evident yet, at the same time, importantly matured in comparison to their debut-EP.

75/100

Ivan Tibos.