Ethereal Metal Webzine

Review by Ryan Murray | May 30, 2020 | Official Facebook

Five Minutes Hate is a death metal band from Italy. After their debut release called “Explanation to Failure” in 2016, FMH has followed that up with a sophomore release entitled “A New Death”.

The band states in their press release “The common thread that unites the 10 tracks wants to continue the concept tackled in the first album: the rebirth through the death of a new subhuman race, in a post-apocalyptic scenario of desolation, which in this new guise will make its way through darkness and chaos.”

This album is definitely a step forward for FMH! I had checked out their debut album also, and this new release is a much stronger production all around! The mix sounds really good, with a more modern sound and musically I like the direction this new album has taken. There are definitely some more melodic, almost metalcore like guitar riffs that remind me of bands such as All That Remains, As I Lay Dying and others.

Mediocrity Will Be Your Grave
This album starts off heavy with a punch right away with this solid opening track! The guitar riffs are a mix of death metal and more of a melodic metalcore sound with heart pounding drums throughout. At about 2:07, you get the idea of a break down coming, which kicks in in full at 2:19.

As a society, we tend to get complacent and we seem okay with being just mediocre. We tend to pass the “extra” stuff off, thinking that we can get away with putting in very little effort and settle for the least of things. We allow this complacency to control us and don’t see the need to break out of it. 

“The rest is not your job
and neither are you aware of it
marionette of the new world
Puppet animated from below“

The Man You Will Never Be
This song starts out aggressively with a sound that almost reminds me of In Flames. With heavy, yet melodic guitars and heart pounding drums, this song really draws you in and hooks you. I found myself going back to hear the riffs on this track several times! Also, around 3:00 in, while the instruments pull back quite a bit, the aggressiveness almost gets even more evident. 

In what seems to be tying up lyrical meaning from the first track, this song seems to share the idea that ignorance and mediocrity go hand in hand. When we are so complacent with the status quo, we don’t seem to care enough to want to change it, even if it’s for the better. We reject anything that doesn’t coincide with what we think or believe in and we reject it and refuse to listen. 

“Rejection is the evil‘s food
Refusal is the evil’s source
A vicious circle of death
The future of our species“ 

Under Its Claws
This song is aggressive right out of the gate! With more of a death metal feel than the last song, it’s got aggressive vocals, a break down feel at :13 seconds, and death metal style blast beats all throughout. The lead guitars definitely offer a melodic feel on top at times also. The song ends on a fade out.

This song lyrically seems to about the darkness that is created by our blindness to see the truth around us. We tend to skip into the complacency of walking around blind folded. With so much knowledge at our fingertips, we unwisely turn a blind eye. This song seems to be a call to wake up and take off the blinders. 

“Knowledge now a word into disuse
Belonged to times that seem too far
Because mind is in trap
Custom built for fools
Conviction of right will grow
Conviction to act for our future.”

Cunning Opportunist Individual
This song has a bit more of a metalcore feel with the guitar riffs.  I really enjoy the intro to this one. The vocals are again aggressive and filled with emotion. 

“Human lives are in your hands
Incapable in the trivial things
That will build roads to death 
Which will also involve you too
Your offspring will perish soon
And suffer the sentence you created
Your mind will misunderstand again”

This song seems to be about those in society that are only out for themselves. Those that will walk all over and destroy people just to get what they want, regardless of who or what they exploited on their way there. The decisions we make now will have a serious effect on our children in the future. Will we build a better future for them? Or just repeat the same mistakes over and over again without care for others?

Rising Rain
Starting off with a metalcore feel with some hard blast beats mixed in, you better have your neck muscles warmed up! This is a hard hitting track has got really catchy melodic lead riffs with aggressive vocals throughout. 

“Your deeds feed hate
Confused with love 
The human species will seek it, feed it and preach it”

This song seems to be about being two faced. Many in society tend to say one thing in front of others while they do something completely different in private. Many claim to be doing things out of love, but really it’s with malice and harmful intent. Sadly, many seek this as being good, even though it’s just perpetuated two facedness. 

Monstrosity
This track has another really aggressive start. This one has more of a death metal feel and is loaded with blast beats throughout. With fast guitar riffs and heart pounding drums throughout, this track is an all out assault.

Crying
This track starts off just a bit more pulled back, but then comes in aggressively at about :9 seconds in. This track is also more of a death metal feel throughout.

“A drift approaching, invisible to most
Disguised in future progress
That fools dare to praise
The uniform motion of human existence”

This song seems to be about mankind’s uniformed march towards it’s own destruction. If we continue on our path of blind complacency, oblivious to the darkness around us, we will wake up to a darker future than we can imagine. 

Torment of the Black Sheep
This song starts off with more of a metalcore sound, and the opening riff is really catchy and can be heard throughout. There are a lot of melodic lead parts that are really catchy throughout this track.

“I’m alone surrounded by people
This is our condition
We are the black sheep
In a very big white wool sea”

Lyrically, this song seems to be about being a nonconformist in a world where so many just seem to fall in line with the status quo. Normally, it would be bad to be called a black sheep, but for me, this song seems to say that being a black sheep and standing alone is better than blindly conforming to the status quo. 

B.O.B
This track has a much more laid back intro for the first :44 seconds. Light, but distorted lead guitars play in harmony with a few pinch harmonics thrown in nicely. Then the aggressive vocals come in at :45. Then at 1:03, let’s kick it up a notch with some heart pounding drums. Then at 2:13 the groove flips into a triplet feel which adds a nice change!

“Success, money and health
Have made a huge ego
Walking six feet above the ground
Watching humanity from above
That shows only small men
Like toy soldiers
That you can take and destroy
Can take and destroy 
Whenever you like!” 

This track seems to be about those in power that make decisions without a care of what will happen to the “toy soldiers”. With just the stroke of a pen, wars can begin destroying countless lives. It seems to say that those who are “watching humanity from above” are destroying us without a care in the world.

The Abyss is Venting Up
The final track! Musically I think this is my favorite one on the whole album! To me, the guitar riffs are a blend of metalcore and just straight up metal. I really like the riffs in this one a lot! 

“Hate coming out like lava
Of an acidic volcano
That awaits a millennia 
Before devastating everything!
Humanity will soon be submerged
A new mixture, an alienating substance”

This song, to me, is about the devastating effects that hate has on the world. I really don’t think many understand how toxic and evil hate really is. Humanity is slowly decaying from all of the hate that just seems to be getting worse and worse by the minute.

Verdict
I would give this album a 4.0 out of 5.0. The sound quality is great with a really good mix. I like the balance of the instruments and vocals as well! While I know they are a death metal band, with the seemingly more melodic approach they took on this album, I was hoping there would be even just a few sections with a bit cleaner vocals just to break it up a bit, but otherwise it’s a great album! If you haven’t heard “A New Death” already, definitely give it a listen!