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Battlecreek - 'Hate Injection' - Full-lenght - 2015

Battlecreek is a Bavarian thrash metal band that follows the paths of humorous thrash and independent production. Starting in 2004 in the German metal underground, with mutual efforts Andreas (Bass), Phil (Drums), Chris (Guitars) and Berne (Vocals) self-released a demo (Demolition) in 2008, a first full-length album (Wake the plague) in 2011 and the latest (Hate injection) released in 2015, which I am about to review. The band is on the scene around 12 years so far but I see they had a dull luck in finding a promoter or anyone that would take care of their business. Maybe they prefer doing everything by themselves and that’s totally ok, yet it doesn’t seem that all of their potential has been put to use. The aspect of DIY produces some descent creative products, such as the video the band made for the song Kill or be killed. It is really amusing and funny and for sure they had a good time making it. It is even better than many fully budgeted thrash metal videos that appear. I am not sure about the live activity of the band and their concerts and gigs too much; only that they shared stage with acts like Gama Bomb, Exodus, Tankard, Grave Digger and Cannibal Corpse, but that’s pretty normal for any German thrash metal band as they have a load of good bands playing there frequently.

Hate Injection is not an album that was made to stand out from my point of view. Rather the good time, beer and other vices invested in making the album come to light, which gives it a more sentimental value to the band members. Aside from that, these 9 compositions won’t leave a remarkable trace in your memory, except if you are an addicted to the core thrasher. Generally speaking it’s not as old-school as the band suggests mostly because of the production and the drum line (too much clearness). The modern thrash can be felt in the guitar sound as well which is a bit high volumed and disconnected from the rest of the parts. Old-school sound isn’t defined by the minimalistic and disconnected production if they were heading for that. Okay, so now the music itself. Basically the tempo has middle pace the whole time with rare changes that produces less excitement. Instead Battlecreek headed towards rhythm diversity with installing breakdowns, some heavier parts and solos (the solos are quite awesome and have that rock’ n roll spice). The songs can be separated in better and worse ones. I use worse to describe that they are not the headliners of the album and just fill in the spinning time, not that they are disaster. In that category I’ll put the first two Dealing death and Redneck riot. Two ordinary thrash metal tracks, nothing special about them. Hell in a cell can also be placed here. Kill or be killed is a little bit better version of Battlecreek’s, or maybe just because of the fact I liked the video for the song outstands a bit. Hate injection and Nodeng of darkness have a descent dose of death metal vocals that bring up the vibe of the album so I consider them as good songs. Daedldi daedli dae is a four and half minutes instrumental with some acoustic, distorted, bass parts, nothing extraordinary really. The second best song is Blood for the president where the moniker of the album (Hate Injection) finally finds some meaning in all of this. At last, the one with the worst name possible – Fuck the demon ironically has the best music with a brilliant leading riff throughout the whole set. I didn’t have a bad time listening to the album but I expected a bit more, yet I really support their DIY style and I am glad such bands still exists.