Hatebreed

Hatebreed emerged among the earliest groups to fuse hardcore with metal, their searing guitar work forging a grim and ferocious soundscape. Jamey Jasta’s raw, unyielding delivery led the front line, while the band’s commanding stage presence secured a deal with Chicago’s Victory Records. Their 1997 debut, Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire, fulfilled the lofty expectations placed upon it by both reviewers and audiences alike. Subsequent releases continued this momentum, generating several Top 40 placements and a Hard Rock chart-topping position for 2013’s The Divinity of Purpose. During the 2000s Jasta also served as host of MTV’s long-running metal showcase Headbangers Ball.

The Connecticut outfit formed in New Haven in 1994 with the explicit aim of reviving a stripped-down hardcore style driven by heavy metal guitars, screamed vocals, and brief, rapid tracks. The initial lineup—Jamey Jasta on vocals, Lou “Boulder” Richards on guitar, Chris Beattie on bass, Sean Martin on guitar, and Rigg Ross on drums—toured the East Coast extensively, appearing alongside Entombed, the Deftones, Slayer, and Napalm Death. Victory Records issued the quintet’s first full-length, Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire, in 1997.

Stillborn/Republic/Universal handled the next two albums, Perseverance in 2002 and Rise of Brutality in 2003. Roadrunner Records released Supremacy in 2006, which introduced guitarist Frank Novinec, previously a member of Ringworm, Terror, and Integrity. Wayne Lozinak joined on guitar in 2008; the band then issued the covers collection For the Lions in May 2009 and a self-titled studio album that September. Their sixth studio record, The Divinity of Purpose, arrived in 2013, reaching number 20 on the Billboard Top 200 and number one on the Hard Rock albums chart.

After several years of touring, Hatebreed recorded their seventh album, Concrete Confessional, issued by Nuclear Blast in May 2016 and supported by an extensive global trek. In 2019 they embarked on a large-scale tour with Obituary, Cro-Mags, Terror, and Fit for an Autopsy, then delivered their next studio effort, Weight of the False Self, in 2020.