Sometimes my family must think I’m some kind of spastic. Like last night when I was headbanging and playing that good ol’ and rather worn down air guitar whilst cleaning the kitchen after dinner, and at the same time listening to the killer debut from Danish death metal monsters Dawn of Demise.

Is it a coincidence that our two-year-old daughter is standing with her legs spread wide and moving the upper part of her body up and down when daddy is listening to music? I think not. That wee girl knows when things are grooving and ‘Hate Takes Its Form’ sure as hell spreads the groove!

Trust me, boys and girls, with this release Danish death metal begins 2008 on an extremely heavy note. And it’s going to be a hard act to follow.

If you picture a Suffocation class beast with a Nevermore monkey strapped onto its back, you are more or less there. Technically adept, tight and above all throwing in a brutal groove, the boys waltz through ten concrete-solid death metal hymns with great variation of tempo and a touch of melody that mainly comes out via the Jeff Loomis inspired solos.

Dawn of Demise is fronted by Scott Jensen who has one of the fiercest voices in this country. Frankly, there isn’t much variation to be found in his effort, but sod it – the man’s voice is just about as gentle as a bulldozer and that makes up for any lack of tonal variation!

Picking out fave tracks from ‘Hate Takes Its Form’ is hard because the level is constantly very high. But if someone was to twist my arm, I’d probably single out Beyond Murder, Within the Flesh and the title track (featuring a guest appearance from former HateSphere shouter Jacob Bredahl). These three tracks rear their ugly yet crushingly efficient heads above the hardboiled waters.