It's a fairly well known fact that when ex-HATE ETERNAL/MORBID ANGEL bassist and vocalist Jared Anderson passed away in October of 2006, HATE ETERNAL monarch Erik Rutan lost not only a respected musician but a very dear friend. As Erik has so aptly put it, "...his passing away really affected me and influenced this record a lot. It's a very dark and heavy record-not just heavy as in 'Heavy Metal', but heavy-hearted as well." Dark, heavy, heavy hearted-far and away the three most tangible aspects of the band's latest album, "Fury And Flames". The title alone says it all-this is easily the most furious batch of brutality ever conceived by HATE ETERNAL, and the metaphor of flames carries great weight in the summation of the musical monstrosity this album represents: a trial by fire, a cleansing flame burning away sorrow and grief, perhaps even a torch of honor lit as a timeless testimony to the talent and friendship of a lost friend and brother.

There's no denying Erik Rutan came into this record with a staggering supply of inspiration and emotion as fuel to reach new heights of sustained brutality, and in that he has succeeded in every way. With truly Brutal Death Metal, the kind possessed by carnivorous demons of inhuman speed and ungodly wickedness, the sheer oppressiveness of the wall of crushing sound domination tends to devour all other aspects of the music, and yet with "Fury And Flames" Rutan has managed to harness and even spotlight truly dynamic guitar solos and an amazing amount of tangible groove and rhythm throughout the sustained fury that is the essence of HATE ETERNAL's music (check out "Fury Within" for a prime example of how perfectly the pieces fit together). In successfully capturing and emphasizing rhythm and enhanced solo frenzies while holding ever true to the unhinged brutality the band has come to be revered for, Rutan has raised the bar considerably on what is considered possible within the realm of true Brutal Death Metal.

Despite the heavy revamping of the band's line-up, which includes the first time addition of a second guitarist, making HATE ETERNAL a trio no more, and the loss of a dear friend-or perhaps because of those very facts - Erik Rutan and HATE ETERNAL have struck back with their most venomous and relentless aural assault yet. While the previous album "I, Monarch" is also a landmark in and of itself with its integration of experimental instrumentation that included Tibetan human bone instruments, pound for pound "Fury And Flames" has to be the penultimate offering in an unfaltering career defined by an ability to capture the essence of what brutal music really is. HATE ETERNAL is a true "Bringer Of Storms", and in the wake of its devastation Hell will come riding on winds of "Fury And Flames".