Hatebreed started out by producing a three-song demo and selling it to local people in Bridgeport and New Haven, Connecticut, U.S., and was eventually released in 1995 on a split seven inch with fellow band New York’s Neglect. Consisting of Jamey Jasta on vocals, Lou Richards on guitar, Chris Beattie on bass, Sean Martin on guitar and Rigg Ross on drums, the band self-released the critically acclaimed EP “Under the Knife” in 1996 which has been re-released by all of Hatebreed’s subsequent labels.
The band’s aim was to identify what was important about hardcore music; the thrashing guitars, the screamed vocals, the huge, heavy drums and make that the soul of their sound. The band’s 1997 release “Satisfaction is the Death of Desire” did exactly that, released on then the most reliable hardcore label Victory Records, the album was the highest selling album the label had ever witnessed.
The influence of touring with mainstream metal bands Deftones, Entombed and Slayer was evident on Hatebreed’s following two albums “Perseverance” released in 2002 and 2003’s “The Rise of Brutality”. 2004 saw the band join Slayer, Slipknot and Mastodon on the Unholy Alliance tour of Europe and introduced the band to a wider audience. In 2004 the Hatebreed was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance, ultimately losing out to Motörhead.
Prior to the band’s 2006 full-length album “Supremacy” released on Roadrunner Records, Hatebreed performed at Download Festival in Donnington, UK, and Ozzfest with the likes of Disturbed and Avenged Sevenfold.
Guitarist Frank Novinec was added to the line-up in 2006 as well as Wayne Lozinak in 2008 and both played on the covers album “For the Lions” which dropped in May 2009 as well as the band’s self-titled album in September 2009. “The Divinity of Purpose” Hatebreed’s sixth studio album was released on January 25, 2013 and was another in long line of successes for the band, who have sold over 1.1 million records worldwide.
I saw Hatebreed live in concert, after never hearing or seeing anything about them, at a show with a friend of mine. They play heavier metal songs, which I am usually not a fan of, but this band turned me around on my thinking.
They had great beats and guitar riffs. Their songs have a faster beat than I’m used to. The lead singer spoke to the crowd a lot throughout the show and encouraged audience participation. I think this added to my enjoyment of the show, the lead singer never let up and kept the audience as part of the show for the entire show, it was great.
They opened with This Is Now, and played quite a few of their songs, such as A Call for Blood, To The Threshold, Empty Promises and Destroy Everything. They played for just over an hour and didn’t take any breaks during their set. The audience was really in to the show and there was moshing and dancing throughout the show. They played on a large stage that had a lot of lighting but they didn’t use it much.
I wasn’t a fan of the band before the show, but I definitely am now.
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