Band:	Hatecraft
Album:	Finally Free
Style:	Melodic death metal
Release date:	2004
A review by:	Undercraft

01. Rebellious Heart
02. Perennial Fight
03. Despair
04. Hate
05. River Of Pain
06. Alone Against The World
07. The End Is Just The Beginning
08. Finally Free

Melodic Death Metal has spread to the whole wide world, everywhere you turn, a new Melodeath band comes in, from every corner of the globe you can spot a Melodic Death band. Russia is no exception, Hatecraft being the living proof of this. I can't really recall any Melodeath band from Russia, so I guess Hatecraft is my first one.

What can I say about this release? Cohesive and quite typical Melodic Death Metal, nice keyboards, good vocals (although can get a little annoying) and overall good musicianship, the artwork is quite nice, although the booklet design is very poor and mediocre.

The album starts with "Rebellious Heart" song that besides the keyboards bears no interest for me, next is "Perennial Fight" a nice song with some cool tempo changes, "Despair" brings some Progressive elements in the arena, this being one of my favorites songs in the album. "Hate" has a "modern" touch, the guitars sounds industrialized and the drum patters sound very machine-like, "River Of Pain" is more thrashy than the others, although never looses its Melodeath spirit. "Alone Against The World" is catchy song with some Thrash elements on it, I love when vocals pair with the melody instead each taking its own road.
The 2 last songs are quite typical, very Gothenburg if you ask me, "The End Is Just The Beginning" features some clean vocals and final track "Finally Free" fails to keep me interested.

The problem is not Hatecraft, the problem is the genre, everything has been done and chances that someone comes with something truly original are few. Hatecraft do their work, and they do it well, sadly other bands did this before. I'm quite tired of saying this, but without a differential advantage you can't make it out there, because they are tons of bands playing the same stuff you do. Best lucks for Hatecraft, hope they can make it.