Hatchet
Dying to Exist

Dying to Exist happens to be the fourth album by the Bay Area band called Hatchet who has recently signed a deal with Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson’s labem Combat Records. And they recently released this album that has a pretty cool and good-looking artwork. And contrary to many of the album I review the difficulty with naming the similar bands was keeping it down to three as I found that these guys sounds a lot like many bands from that fabled Bay Area. The artwork is good, but what about the album?

Unimaginative is probably a good word to use for this album; it is not exactly brimming with creativity or originality. It is classic Bay Area styled thrash metal with songs and all of that sounds very familiar. Decent energy and heaviness through the album but not much variation and I would say that the three-quarter hour playing time is too much and you have time to grow tired with it very quickly. But the sound and production is quite good so nothing to complain about in that regard at least.

Likeable if you are a thrash metal fan could be one interpretation. The question always arises with bands like these guys; who will find an album like this a worthwhile investment of time and money? I know I don’t. I don’t see it as bad, just uninteresting and the album doesn’t really have much appeal. There are no standout tracks, it feels long to play through and even when I first heard it I found it to be quite unsatisfactory and quite unimpressive from a creative standpoint. It is like the songs for the genre were auctioned out and the impressive bands had most money and bought the good songs while Hatchet had to settle for what was left, some dull and quite ordinary thrash metal songs. It feels like the band has potential but they need to find their own voice instead of plagiarising other bands.

Little bit boring and little bit tiresome to listen to. One of those albums you play and then forget, and it isn’t one of the good ones either. I think that we can bury the Hatchet and then let it stay buried, as we aren’t really offered anything of any real musical value here. Fans of the Bay Area stuff might find it interesting but I think the general population will find this to be an album they can do without – I know that I am pleased that I don’t have to listen to it again.

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