Hate Forest sounds like the absolute end of a long, brutal winter. It is a dense, suffocating wall of sound that replaces the typical high-pitched shrieks of black metal with a subterranean, death-metal-inflected guttural growl. The guitars are a constant, frozen tremolo hum, and the drums often possess a mechanical, unyielding precision that feels more like a force of nature than a human performance.
What makes them truly distinctive is their refusal to engage with the listener. There are no catchy hooks, no moments of warmth, and very few breaks in the sonic onslaught. By blending the rawest elements of the Ukrainian scene with a cold, dark ambient sensibility, they create a space that feels ancient and indifferent to modern life. It is music that exists as a monolith, immovable and stark.
Start with 'Battlefields' to understand their peak era of atmospheric aggression. If you prefer something more modern and slightly more refined in its production, 'Hour of the Centaur' captures their 2020 return with all the same icy intensity intact. It is essential listening for those who find beauty in the most desolate, unpopulated landscapes.
Hate Forest is a Ukrainian black metal band formed by Roman Saenko, the leading member of Drudkh, Dark Ages, and Blood of Kingu. Thurios joined the band in 1998 after the recording of Scythia. The music is mostly very fast, but occasionally slow, with low, distorted vocals, raw low fidelity quality production, sometimes with programmed drums (drummer is a live player during concerts), and dark ambient elements (some releases have consisted entirely of dark ambient tracks). Musical influences are mostly from Scandinavian black metal to traditional death metal, especially Bolt Thrower (they covered their song "Cenotaph"). According to the band, its lyrics are about mythology, mainly Slavic, and inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's stories and Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy. The band never gave interviews, never released photos, and held its distance from the black metal scene. After Hate Forest disbanded, Saenko focused on Drudkh, and other side projects such as Blood of Kingu, Windswept and Precambrian which are of different inspirations. After a 16 year hiatus Saenko released a new album in 2020 under the Hate Forest name titled "Hour of the Centaur" and has steadily released more albums and EPs from that point.
Shares black metal, death metal, winter, forest (subgenre)
Shares black metal, death metal, mountain, forest (subgenre)
Shares black metal, death metal, winter, forest (subgenre)
Shares black metal, death metal, somber, winter (subgenre)
Shares black metal, death metal, somber, winter (subgenre)
Shares black metal, death metal, winter, forest (subgenre)
Shares black metal, death metal, winter, forest (subgenre)
Shares black metal, death metal, somber, forest (subgenre)
Cassette uses generative AI to enrich its catalog. How we use AI →