About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

Solid, modern death metal heavily influenced by bands such as Decapitated.

Pros

• Excellent musicianship and generally good songwriting.
• Solid, modern production.

Cons

• Unoriginal.

Description

• Released December 21, 2010 on Selfmadegod Records.
• Calm Hatchery hail from Poland.
• Their second full-length album.

Guide Review - Calm Hatchery - 'Sacrilege Of Humanity'

The latest album from the oddly named Calm Hatchery, Sacrilege Of Humanity, is a fine example of technical death metal from Poland, a country with no shortage of releases in the genre.


A few years back, it seemed as if a billion Polish bands were being signed to, and releasing albums on, the now defunct Polish label Empire Records. However, a cull has occurred and most of those bands do not survive to this day. Calm Hatchery are a bit of a throwback to those days of just a few short years ago when Decapitated were the undisputed Polish kings of the genre, and there were hordes of Polish bands nipping at their heels.

Calm Hatchery are definitely not treading water in the OSDM revival on Sacrilege Of Humanity; instead, the focus is upon technically oriented, modern death metal with all of the production and songwriting elements of the genre. Bands such as Decapitated and Behemoth, to some extent, are the template for Sacrilege Of Humanity, as are the hordes of Florida-style bands from which Calm Hatchery and their Polish brethren are descended.

The approach is utterly solid, if not original. Very precise riffing, all out blasts with lots of time changes galore, growled vocals, and, overall, very tight musicianship are the hallmarks of modern death metal, and appear in spades on Sacrilege Of Humanity, an album that is backed up all the while by a stellar, crystal clear, but not overbearing, production.

Undoubtedly, giants of Florida’s halcyon days of death metal such as Morbid Angel play a huge role in Calm Hatchery’s approach, but Sacrilege Of Humanity has a much more modern feel and could easily be made to compare with Decapitated.

However, rather than being dismissed as a mere clone, Calm Hatchery make up for their shortcomings in the originality department by delivering a finely executed album with excellent musicianship, and generally catchy and engaging songs. There’s plenty of variation to be had in the assault, and I never find myself becoming bored. In fact, some of the songs are quirky enough to garner comparisons to, perhaps, Immolation, and vocalist Szczepan is a dead ringer for the delivery and clear diction of Ross Dolan.

Truth be told, although there are a few corkers present on Sacrilege Of Humanity, there are also songs that are merely filler. Therefore, what you essentially end up with is a better than average modern death metal album.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.