It happens every decade. One band takes the scene by storm and spawns a swarm of wannabes—often it can’t even be helped, it just happens. The 80s were the age of the IRON MAIDEN wannabe which led us to the 90s or the age of the PANTERA wannabe and it seems that the 00s are the age of the DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN wannabe. Spain’s THE SEVENTHATE might not be able to completely separate themselves from this latter group, but they have one distinct advantage: what they do they do better than most, and they put forth extra effort to do it their own way.

The key is in the overall mood of the music, which is far more laid back and with less forced frenzy than other DILLINGER clones. The heavy hitting chords and breaks into different styles are still here, but it all seems to be more controlled here and the transitions are smoother and make more sense. Also, I sense a heavy FU MANCHU influence going on here too, with the spoken word breakdowns that give it a “Hey bro, let’s party!” sort of vibe made even more light-hearted with the singer’s funny accent. Another thing that helps these guys is that they don’t put forth nearly as much of a nauseatingly pompous front that so many other current acts do, and there still is a desire to keep things fun and not too extravagant.

Still, like any other green band, there are some kinks they need to iron out. Some of the attempts at serious “emotional” displays, such as the slow part in “The First Hypocrite”, just don’t work. What makes this band is the combination of simple yet rockin’ riffs like the one 3 minutes into “Lonely Hearts Live in the Most Popular Bodies” (yep, those nonsensical song titles again…) and simple breaks like the one 3 minutes into “Painkiller” (no, nothing to do with JUDAS PRIEST)—the key word being “simple”. Overall, the fun factor is pretty high on this CD and that’s what this band needs to concentrate on, and if they really want to have displays of seriousness, it can always be done musically as opposed to vocally or lyrically (the acoustic-guitar-with-synth hidden track is a clever example).

Overall, I’m surprised by how much I didn’t hate this album. Thus far, most info on THE SEVENTHATE on the int0rwebz is scarce and at least 75% in Spanish, but when these guys do invade the States they should make a decent name for themselves in the metalcore scene. In the meantime, they now have stateside exposure. De nada, fellas.

- Cardona

OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/theseventhate

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