Hatebreed have now been around for nearly 20 years. In a way it seemed surprising as they certainly don’t strike me as a band that have been around for “a long time”, they’ve just always been there. Always been consistent, retaining their fanbase, their sound, their record output, their integrity and of course tour schedule. They just seem to be one of those bands that keep ‘em coming and before you know it they’ve been around longer than the majority of the young and modern bands, you’ll hear on the radio, will ever hope to stick around for. This is not an easy feat in this day and age. Always ones to wear their hearts on their sleeves the band pretty much get this across early on with ‘Honor Never Dies’ where vocalist Jamey Jasta screams “Sometimes, standing for what you believe, means standing alone” in a tribute to those servicemen that have fought and eventually died alone for their country – make no mistakes, there is nothing lightweight about Harebreed, especially their song/lyrical content. This sets the bar early and effectively and there’s no time for resting. ‘The Language’ is sure to be a new live favourite with its pummelling drums courtesy of Matt Byrne, this track combines the best of metal and hardcore so wonderfully right down to the break down, you can practically feel the sweat and fury of the moshpits.
Over the years of relentless touring Hatebreed have carved their brand of metalcore and have never strayed far from the blueprints they set out years ago, and there are few bands that can carry this off. How they manage to pack so many crushing riffs into one album, into one career to be fair, is quite something. With Guitarist Wayne Lozniak returning to the band in 2009 after a lengthy absence the band are clearly continuing to unleash these gargantuan sounds that have become their calling card over the years. The band, under their own admission, swayed away from this for a while, but made a point when preparing to make ‘The Divinity of Purpose’ the emphasis was on stripping it back to what they love best and that was no messing around, lyrically or musically, the idea was to get everything out there in the most simple and effective manner, with tunes like ‘Before The Fight Ends’ You’, title track ‘The Divinity Of Purpose’ and the brutal, thrash leaning, album closer ‘Time to Murder It’ (presumably not a track about computers), you would be confident in saying they have more than achieved what they were setting out to do.
