The unsigned (as of March 2008) band from the Netherlands, Hepatites, is a thrash death band. And thrashy it is. Not bad, but sometimes I wonder if “thrash” really is a stand-in for, “we don’t have any good equipment” or “our talent and skills at our instruments is actually not valuable enough to take the extra step to play loud and bold brutal death with the best of them.” I of course have no answer to this quandary. Hepatites, in SLAUGHTER THE INNOCENT, has released a CD full of some heavy playing, but the sound is rather low in the recording. A problem. track, “Human Breakdown” opens with a cool slow ambientesque part but then turns into crappy riff metal with fairly conventional vox. “Homicidal Playground” opens with machine guns and screaming before it blasts and the force in this track is the one element what gives me hope for this band’s future. It is creative. The vocals change style a bit in the song and the rhythms alternate from very slow to quite fast. Decent track. But the rest of the album is unimportant. “Homicidal Playground” is the kind of thing the band does well and should concentrate its energy there to see the best results for the future.

Hepatites
http://www.myspace.com/hepatites