Alternative Press (June 2002, p.76) - 8 out of 10 - "...An album that's as intelligent as it is brutal....PERSEVERANCE finds Hatebreed reaching beyond their thug roots to delve into motivational positivism..."
CMJ (3/18/02, p.16) - "...2002's Loud Rock Album Of The Year....the musical and lyrical ferociousness that Hatebreed has refined since its debut convulses with energy of fracturing tectonic plates..."
Hatebreed includes: Jamey Jasta (vocals); Lou "Butcher" Richards, Sean Martin
(guitar); Chris "The Xmas Bitch" Beattie (bass); Matt Byrne (drums).
Additional personnel include: Kerry King, Jonathan Donais, Paul Romanko.
Recorded at Long View Farm Studios, North Brookfield, Massachusetts.
The New Haven, CT metallists never give up, as evidenced here on PERSEVERANCE, their third full-length album. They've further refined their sound--the guttural vocals are more full-throated, the tempos more breakneck, the lyrics just as extreme--all of which points to their second decade proving as tumultuous as their first.
Hatebreed's no-frills, breakneck, double kick-drum propelled, back-to-basics approach is just as much in evidence here as it was on their debut, 1997's SATISFACTION IS THE DEATH OF DESIRE. Songs such as "A Call for Blood" and the tom-tom driven "Bloodsoaked Memories" remain almost as timeless as a Bram Stoker novel, with the same illicit, chilling effect, while "Hollow Ground" ("all that you cherish, all that you love, in the blink of an eye can be taken from you...") has particular resonance in a modern world rife with both random and premeditated violence. PERSEVERANCE is another roar from the crypt from these master exponents of the speed metal genre.