God’s Hate seems to have it all. A 6’5” tank of a man at lead vocals, who also happens to be a professional wrestler. Labelmates with some of the best hardcore and metal bands out there. A producer who’s recently worked on exceptional records by Drain and Regional Justice Center. Not to mention a whole lot of hype, given the extended amount of time between their debut and their new full length, God’s Hate.

But somehow, it just simply doesn’t work.

I get trying to sound “hard”. You bring some punchy riffs, a double kick pedal, a growling vocalist. You have lyrics of anger, frustration, violence, pain. And God’s Hate does all of this. But it’s still not as simple as all that. There’s taking the individual characteristics of a genre and shaping your songs with them, and then there’s putting them all on pedestals of equal height and keeping them there for the duration of an entire album.

If you can get past the gimmick of a having a borrowed sound byte at the beginning of 9 out of the 10 tracks here, you’ll find a collection of good ideas that never had the opportunity to become what they could have. The musicianship is there, and may be the saving grace for some listeners. But it seems that the backline is too closely following the lead singer. And, his impressive physical capabilities notwithstanding, he’s just not strong enough to build each song around. It should be said that the high point of God’s Hate is the lyrics. They are crafty, intelligent, and boast a wide vocabulary. The trouble is, the verses on each song follow pretty much the exact same metre throughout the entire record. They are then delivered by the singer whose voice does have some boom to it (no doubt with at least some assistance by studio toys) but ultimately is just flat and lifeless. It’s like listening to a student read off lines directly out of a poetry book; sure the work itself may be good, but you’re not hearing it the way it was meant to be heard.

God’s Hate is a passionate bunch, to be sure. Talented, too. And I’d bet my shirt that this band is going to put out much better material in the coming years. But the redundant and dull God’s Hate is a hard pass.