Depths of Hatred are a Canadian death metal band and this is their latest EP.

Here we have 22 minutes of Depths of Hatred’s brand of punishing intensity. Mixing together multiple strains of death metal with some decent character and a professional recording, the band’s modern attack is easy to recommend.

For the layman not steeped in death metal’s intricacies Bloodguilt probably just sounds like a mass of distortion, drums, and unintelligible screams and growls, but for those who have an appreciation of the style, there’s a lot of different facets to Depths of Hatred’s sound. Importantly, the band know how to incorporate all of their relatively diverse death metal influences quite seamlessly together, resulting in an EP that’s easy to absorb if you like music that wants to smash your face in with brutality that’s both sharp and crushing.

Some of the material is very technical, recalling bands such as Hideous Divinity and Beneath the Massacre. At other times the band channel their melodic side well, evoking bands like At the Gates and The Black Dahlia Murder. Modern death metal and deathcore are represented, (Thy Art Is Murder, Carnifex), and there’s a touch of dark blackened majesty and esoteric grandeur here and there, (Behemoth). I can even hear a tiny bit of Slipknot at their most extreme, but only very occasionally.

The end result is a solid slab of death metal extremity, taking a varied-yet-balanced approach to the genre. This is my first encounter with Depths of Hatred, but it won’t be my last.

Highly recommended.