Hate Field - Scary Fairy Tales [Review]

Genre: Industrial/Middle Eastern Folk Metal
Label: Domestic Genocide Records
Release date: January 29th (Digital release available now via Amazon)
Reviewer: Karim Tarek


After personally not being so active on Metality recently, I received the press kit of Hate Field’s debut album, “Scary Fairy Tale”, and I was pretty excited about writing a new album review after a period of idleness.

Hailing from Alexandria, Egypt, Hate Field is Alfi Hayati’s solo project, where he delivers all his inspirations through Industrial Metal tunes. If you are relatively into the Egyptian Metal scene, then I reckon you might have heard of Alfi’s name here or there as he has been the bassist of one of Egypt’s oldest and most high-profile bands, and one of my personal influences as a teenager, Odious, since 1999, which, I believe, plays a role as a crucial musical influence on Alfi despite the actual musical dissimilarity, with Odious playing Melodic Black Metal with oriental influences.

Hate Field certainly is not one of those side projects that would come out of the blue and go back to limbo fast; I could sense consistency and seriousness throughout the whole album, and I expect Alfi to come up with a new release every now and then while still having Odious as his main band, much in the same way as a lot of musicians do. The fact that Alfi wrote, played, and recorded a whole full-length album on his own in a not-too-long period of time, in a country where it takes most of the bands out there ages to come up with releases, is a point on which Alfi deserves kudos.

“Scary Fairy Tale” came well-put and musically mature; riffing, time signatures, transitions, and the fair touch of electronics came all well-organized and coherent, which sustained and consolidated the album’s musical structure. Riffs on “Scary Fairy Tale” are mostly groovy and mid-tempo, whereas there are some moments on the album that came melodic and others that displayed mastery that is not too common between musicians who play bass guitar as their main instrument.

Electronics too are an add-up to “Scary Fairy Tale” as they were used precisely to create a typical Industrial atmosphere around the groovy music; they are well-played and well-distributed over the album and are one of the elements that particularly helped shape Hate Field’s music.

Alfi’s vocal efforts did not actually add up much to the album as they were rather mediocre; however, they were still far from the kind of vocals that would bore you off, as Alfi smartly managed to diversify his vocal styles and present them disparately. Production too was not very impressive to me, but still that is not a very significant point considering the band’s resources. Moreover, I believe production quality is going to be enhanced on further releases from Hate Field.

Overall, “Scary Fairy Tale” is a record worth listening, coming out from a devoted musician who had put a lot of effort into it to come that way. He also mentions that the whole album was mainly influenced by, and is a vent for, his feelings and emotions that are derived from his personal life experience which adds up to the value of the album and makes it not just an album to listen to, but also to feel.

Highlights: Sweet Nightmare, Hope Overdose, Deadly Supafly.


[Ed note: Click here to order "Scary Fairy Tale" via Domestic Genocide Records (and receive the album's booklet along with your purchase).]