Rage Nucléaire – Unrelenting Fucking Hatred

For over a decade there has been little known about the Canadian black metal band Rage Nucléaire, other than its vocal duties would be handled by none other than Lord Worm (ex-Cryptopsy).  That alone is what caused me the most intrigue, and I am sure a lot of other potential fans would agree with me.  Now that it has been over 12 years since the bands inception, they have finally decided to release their debut album “Unrelenting Fucking Hatred“.  There are many questions that I have in regards to the band,  but the main one seems to be why in the hell it took so long to produce a single album?  I’ll be the first to admit that the amount of time it has taken them to write and record nearly 51 minutes of music has me a little worried, but I can at least hope that Rage Nucléaire are able to subdue my apprehension.

Normally at this point I would start to give you all my general thought process as I continue to progress through an album, but there is only one way to describe my time with “Unrelenting Fucking Hatred“:  Unrelenting Fucking Boredom.

Allow me to summarize my previous statement in a manner you will understand.  Rage Nucléaire set forth to create some truly misanthropic and sadistic black metal, and they have.  Unfortunately, that is about all they got correct with “Unrelenting Fucking Hatred“.  The entire album is nothing more than a mish-mash of older Anaal Nathrakh and Marduk that is homogenized into a sterile and flavorless mockery that has very little substance to it.  This type of album is specifically created for me since I love both of those aforementioned bands, but Rage Nucléaire were unable to apply any of the overwhelming charm the other two bands have.  I was able to bear with the band for the first few songs, but after the ending of ‘The Gift Of The Furnace’, finishing the rest of “Unrelenting Fucking Hatred” became not a test of patience, but one of sheer willpower.  Could I even stand to make it to the final notes of ‘The Feeding Habits Of Homo Horriblis’?  Just barely, and I believe I may have developed some sort of PTSD because of it.

Now I shall go through how each individual that helped with the creation of this repetitive mess should be ashamed of themselves, because there was so much potential to be had, but ultimately squandered at near every turn.

Alvater, whom is responsible for the cheesy long-winded keyboards, inaudible bass, and useless samples: You are one of the main composers of Rage Nucléaire, and you are not able to create anything that is worth listening to with the people you have to work with?  For shame.  Also, your keyboards remind me of the ones that are used in the Goldeneye 64 soundtrack, and now I can never stop replaying the ‘el-Saghria Temple, Egypt’ level theme in my head.

Dark Rage, the worst offender of repetitive riffs since Five Finger Death Punch arrived on the scene:  I know playing a shitload of chords are totally kvlt and trve in black metal, but have some variation for fucksake.  Every once in a while you’ll come out with some nice melodic leads that are on top of your fuzzy-as-hell riffs, such as in ‘Fields of the Crucified’, but then you go right back to being an all encompassing black hole of creativity.

Fredrik Widigs, whom I suspect/hope is merely a session drummer:  Honestly, I can’t really blame your lackluster drumming all on you since you may very well be doing your best with what you were given, but you only seem to have two beats when it comes to this album: polka beat and gottagofastblastbeats.  Neither of these are bad in their own right, but when your drumming turns into a predictable mess throughout each track I can’t help but slap myself in the face to prevent from passing out.

Lord Worm, whose vocals sound like they were recorded over a payphone:  Lord Worm, you and I have had some great memories together during your tenure in Cryptopsy, and I know you wanted to branch out and do something different, but this is not what I had hoped for your future.  Your anguish-and-psychopathic vocal style is not utilized to its full potential in this music for the majority of the time.  Every once in a while I’ll come upon a portion where you sound very spirited and pissed off, but they are few and far between.

I know that Rage Nucléaire‘s debut album was highly anticipated, and even I jumped on the bandwagon after they released a song or two some months back because I was excited to see what they could produce.  Unfortunately, they were unable to live up to the hype, and instead provided us with something that would be better used as a drink coaster.  With “Unrelenting Fucking Hatred” quickly turning into the Duke Nukem Forever of black metal, I really don’t know if I could even bring myself to review, let alone sit down and listen to, a follow up album by the band.  Unless you are a fan of taking your hard-earned cash and flushing it down the toilet, I would skip this album entirely.