If you know your death metal history, you are then well aware that ‘Hating Life’ stands for one of GRAVE earliest and gnarliest demo days classics, later on rerecorded on their immortal debut ‘Into The Grave’, later on once again used as the title of their fourth full-length, back in 1996. So when a brand new entity proudly waving an old-school death metal flag and bearing the same name seemingly creeps out of nowhere, you’re entitled to except the same kind of HM-2 drenched, tribute-in-disguise and downtuned death metal innit? Well, for the time being, the answer would be yes. And no at the same time.
Not so hidden behind the whole thing is Santi, guitar player and founding member of ATARAXY, one of Spain most respected and relentless old-school death metal outfit since 2008. “The whole process was very spontaneous, the result of me jamming with a Gibson Les Paul and a HM-2 pedal and ending up soon with great riffs, melodies and plenty of ideas. With ATARAXY having now a very specific personality, it felt great to rediscover primitive death metal roots.” Describing HATING LIFE overall sound as “putrid and raw”, he doesn’t deny the obvious GRAVE nod, especially since the opening track/intro of their debut recording is simply called ‘Into The Grave’. “You can call it a tribute or a declaration of intent. The first GRAVE material was and remains a clear exponent, among many others, of the kind of death metal that truly motivated me to compose the tracks for this.”
While he handles here all the instruments, Santi asked his ATARAXY comrade Javi to take care of both the lyrical content and vocals. The duo, or ‘band’ if you ask Santi, very first release ‘Revenge From Beyond’ was recorded in between his home-studio and the rehearsal room, to keep it as natural as possible, with Santi taking care of both the recording and mixing process.
Before you complain about another band pretending its 1991 all over again, the man denies any foolish attempt to travel back in time. “In fact, although our main influences are bands from the late 80s and early 90s, there are also current bands that we like and influence us in a certain way. We are simply two guys who are passionate about death metal and how death, human barbarism, and violence are all reflected in it.”
From ‘Into The Grave’ to ‘Revenge From Beyond’, all in the name of death fuckin’ metal!
1. Into The Grave
2. The Eternal Embrace
3. A Somber Night
4. Rebellion Against The Vile
5. Revenge From Beyond
6. The Sense Of Fear