The Austin/Houston hardcore band Hatred Surge started out in 2004 as a powerviolence quartet built around the male/female vocal dynamic of Alex Hughes, who also plays bass, and lead vocalist Faiza Kracheni, currently of Mindless. Under this lineup, they released a series of splits and one full-length, 2009's Deconstruct. They've since abandoned the dualing genders angle; Kracheni was replaced by Rahi Geramifar, currently of Houston's War Master and formerly of grindcore insurgents Insect Warfare. Geramifar also guested on Deconstruct, credited as “Gargling Urine”; his guttural vocals live to that moniker in his other bands, but they were somewhat redundant placed alongside Hughes.
Now, almost a decade after forming, Hatred Surge are a trio, rounded out by long-standing members Chris Ulsh (also of Power Trip, Mammoth Grinder, and the Impalers) on guitar and drummer Mike Sharp (who's played in the Impalers as well, in addition to Sungod and a former stint in Trap Them), with Hughes taking over all vocal duties. Human Overdose, released during the recent Chaos in Tejas festival in Austin, is their first record as a three-piece, and it's their burliest, most focused yet.
Ulsh's guitar work in Mammoth Grinder, which combines death metal, Discharge, and the “power groove” sound pioneered by Pantera, creep into Overdose, especially in the longer songs. Those seeds were sown when the Hatred Surge did a split with Mammoth Grinder-- Hughes and Ulsh essentially doing a split with themselves-- in 2011, and now they've sprouted fatally poisonous berries. Nowhere is this more apparent than in “Psychonaut”, which could easily be a Mammoth Grinder song if it weren't for Hughes' deep growl. A galloping intro breaks way into a Swedeath catharsis. The intro riff on “God Complex” brings to mind a more fluid, less mechanical Prong, and “Delta Nine” jerky swings are among the most “power groovy” riffs on the record. In fact, the swifter songs on this album are like Pantera's “Slaughtered” raised on punk, right down to the lyrics, exploring the link between social corruption and the breakdown of one's inner will.
Travis Bonner's production lends Overdose a stronger death metal feel than their previous work, emphasizing downtuned crunch and smearing it just enough without turning the album into incoherent “bestial” beige. With the album's focus on concise, concentrated explosions, the ambient intro “Figurehead” feels like a blockade (not endless, thankfully) to the emotional release of “Psychonaut”. Those electronics appear again at the very end of the title track, also the record's closing number, in a shorter, more fitting fashion. Overdose's consistent quality renders this less of a gaping flesh wound and more of an annoying scab, really.
Hatred Surge could be the spiritual successor of Iron Age, another Austin band Hughes took part in. Iron Age started as another hardcore band with some metal influences, but by 2009's The Sleeping Eye, they morphed into a beast with crossover's ferocity and Manilla Road's sense of grandeur. It's useless to ask “what could have been,” especially in a genre with vocal contingents of fans who inquire about Cliff Burton and Lars Ulrich switching spots on the bus, but Iron Age were definitely onto something a lot of their revivalist peers were not, save for Power Trip. Hatred Surge, likewise, by incorporating more metal into their sound, have both matured and grown even heavier than before.
