Flying the flag for Kiwi metal
Originally slated as the other overseas act to appear on this years Overcranked festival, New Zealand's 8 Foot Sativa are starting to make a few waves outside of their home country with their debut album Hate Made Me after their recent signing to Roadrunner Records. Mixing musical styles of death, thrash and hardcore metal with At The Gates styled vocals, this album has been acclaimed by one as the album that Pantera have always dreamt of recording, that Entombed could have recorded, and that Slipknot are incapable of recording. That's a bold statement, and one that is more than a little over the top and flat out wrong.
Whilst Hate Made Me does have some great moments (such as opening track Before Your Suffering and the brutal Stolen Life), the second half of the album seems more varied that the first half and for that reason it is so much better. But even though these guys are getting a good wrap within their homeland, overall it's hard to see that they are really doing anything that different or new and exciting when compared to bands such as Entombed or even Hatebreed. It's good to see that our neighbours across the Tasman are putting out some metal that is getting recognition, but so far, it seems as if what they are doing has been done before.
(Roadrunner)
