Customer Reviews

Technical Difficulties

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I downloaded "release it" from the guy's website and soon find myself picking it up at the music store where there are 10 other LPs to be bought. Hello!! This CD rips it up!! A mix of Prodigy, Depeche Mode, Atari Teenage Riot, and good producing make this worth every penny. Not quite Orgy, but a wonderful addition to the genre. Pass it on...

Hate Dept., once a band playing for $300 bucks a show 600 miles from home and counting on the good graces of the promoters for food and shelter (wait a sec, how does that seperate them from any other band, ever? But anyway...) were at the very least always enthusiastic and immensely talented on stage. When their first album "Meat your maker" came out it had little to no distribution save the immediate LA area, and I had to grab one off of the band themselves when they came through town. And then I was hooked. Since then they have developed not so much their talent (which was never lacking in the first place) but their production values have gone up to enable slicker, more ear-friendly releases. Which I must confess I do not enjoy as much as "Meat Your Maker". It's not to say that they're not good albums, including this one, its simply that on "Meat" they covered up some gaps in technology by overlaying crunching guitar riffs that enhanced the industrial feel of the album in a totally KMFDM way that worked REALLY well for them. Now, I would suppose because of increased production values and capability (or maybe musical direction, hell, I dunno)those industrial elements have been replaced with a more ambient or synth-poppy feel. Still good stuff, but I confess I'm a fan of music with sharp teeth.

This album effectively expresses the emotional twists and turns of resentment and frustration with the world and the people in it. Hate Department may not be the appropriate name for the group. No HATE seems to be expressed, more like anger and frustration, chanelled more appropriately and poetically. To steal a line from Skinny Puppy: "With your eyes open, you know soft-spoken changes nothing." This album is far from soft-spoken, but not "preachy." I find myself in political and emotional agreement with many of the lyrics.

Do you like to dance to Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, Forma Tadre, or old Nine Inch Nails? This is excellent dance music as well. I can't figure out why this has not been all the rage on the dance floors everywhere, though I do hear it in the harder clubs.

Hate Department is not out of place in ballad land with "Wait" or "Leaving" either. Surprisingly, some deep rich vocals are blended in.

Hate Dept's first album, Meat.Your.Maker, was classic coldwave industrial. On their second album, Omnipresent, the angry songs were angrier, but they also started venturing into synth ballady material. On this, the third album, the synth-pop songs are even more synth-pop, which I'm not sure is necessarily their strong point. However, this album is better produced than Meat.Your.Maker. and more solid than Omnipresent. This album is Hate Dept's best. On a sad note, though, the song "Anger Impulse," originally on the Coldwave Breaks II compilation, has been re-done in some quasi electro-funk fashion, which isn't as good as the original version. But, this is still an excellent album, and worth the extended wait.

This cd is the defining point that seperates awsome underground industrial. Totally kicking Orgy's pop butt, this cd surpassing anything you have ever heard on MTV and the radio. These guys will surely be around for a looong time, and if not they still have awsome music.

Track 9 "Leaving" is worth the price of the whole CD, shipping, tax, and several hours of your life. I like the rest of the album, but overall not really better than Omnipresent which ranks as one of my fave albums (others being Moby's "Everything is wrong", Delerium's "Karma", Sarah McLachlan's "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy", Crystal Method's "Vegas", etc.) Yeah, Hate Dept. is that good.

I Love Industrial-techno and Hate Dept. is one of my favorite bands. Right up there with Rammstein and Chemlab. I like every song on this album except for the ballad "Wait". "Release It" is my favorite. Hate Dept. has great electronic Industrial beat with good vocals. It's not too angry and not too Dancey.

Though they are better live than on this CD, the CD is still quite impressive. There are many tracks on here that could have been singles.

I think that this cd express's anger,love,life. Hate's live show's are one of a kind. A very energetic show that bring's the audience into it. Steven Siebold is a caring good hearted very intellegent musician. hate deserves to be one of the top bands out there today.

I first caught this band live at a place called The Outland in Cols. Ohio. Wow! What a high energy show. A couple of months later I found their CD and was pleasently suprised. Not quite as kicken as their live show, but definately worth buying.

When you pop in that Cd you will say Techno? Maybe Punk? Industrial? I would say it's all combined which is what makes Hate Dept. Hate Dept.