The first time I heard Hatred Surge I felt like my mind got blown out of the back of my skull. All that stuff I’d heard coming out of Texas in the early 2000s was right there in their sound, but it was some sort of mutated version of it. Imagine the scene in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II where Shredder pumps those poor animals full of ooze and they come out these fucking insane, lumbering beasts. Well, Reason Of Insanity and Race Against Time were the sweet little animals and Hatred Surge were their mutated counter parts, at once evolved and degenerated. But what struck me about Hatred Surge is that they kept fucking pummeling me with every release. The split with fellow Texans Insect Warfare was just the beginning of their Gulf Coast assault, and a couple years later I heard this insane collaboration record with Iron Lung. What a monstrosity! And here we have their latest outing. I’ve missed their last two EPs, but if I had been paying attention I may have seen this coming. Is this some bid for commercial success? Are these riffs dumbed down for a reason or did they just phone this in? This record sounds fantastic, the production is massive and so clean and crisp, but the riffs are more metallic, more simplistic. They remind me a little of Mammoth Grinder, but Mammoth Grinder own this style. Why ape it? The B side is has a different feel, and seems to make more sense as a Hatred Surge record. Is this a band at odds with itself? I just looked the band up and found out they now share a member with Mammoth Grinder. I hope that, eventually, they can integrate their styles in a way that sounds fluid, but for now this feels rushed and undeveloped.
–Ian Wise (Iron Lung)