Band:	Seraph
Album:	Hatecrusher
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	2003
A review by:	Undercraft

01. Hatecrusher
02. Doomed
03. Under Control
04. Depressions
05. Nightmares
06. Silent Tears
07. Obsession
08. Everlasting Hate
09. Work Under Pressure
10. Hell On Earth

I got this in the mail, the latest album of the Germans Seraph, to be honest I've never heard their music before, I was expecting an Old School Trash Metal release, when I played thins on my record player, I was both right and wrong.
This is the second album of these guys, their first album, called "Strong Impressions" was released in 1999, and my contacts tell me that they received positive critics for that one.

As I was saying, I was expecting an Old School Trash Metal release, instead I got a pretty powerful mix of Death and Trash Metal, the result? A pretty enjoyable Cd.
The Cd begins with some tribal sounds and guitar riffs that reminded me of Sepultura, mostly their "Chaos A.D. phase.
But worry not, this band is not a copy of Sepultura by any means, instead they got so many influences, and they use all of this influences to generate a creative brew, like the keyboards in "Doomed" or the alternating voices in "Obsession".

This is a varied Cd, while the main premise is Death and Trash metal, the band don't hesitate to explore some other terrains like Power Metal, although those influences are few and very sporadic, only trained ears will notice them.

The production of the Cd goes without any complain, the mix is very well done, although I would preferred that the guitars won't have that chunky sound, but that's a minor complain and based on my personal tastes, because the overall sound is good.
Seraph tries to mix various elements here, but the mix is not so obvious for everyone to notice, I'm afraid that this release will be seen as a typical Death Metal Cd, and will go unnoticed for many Metalheads.

Can't deny that Seraph has talent, but they need to improve the sound greatly, and try to make more obvious their outer influences, and they have to try not to let those "modern" Metal influence slip more into their music, nice try though.