Hatebreed: Frank "3-Gun" Novinec, Sean Martin (guitar); Chris Beattie (bass guitar); Matt Byrne, Jamey Jasta.

Personnel: Jamey Jasta (vocals); Sean Martin (guitar); Matt Byrne (drums); Josh Grden, Brendan Feeney, Patrick Sullivan (background vocals).

Recording information: Planet-Z, Hadley, MA.

Photographer: Daragh McDonagh.

Metalcore quartet Hatebreed moved to the Roadrunner label for their fifth full-length, SUPREMACY, but they stuck to the sound fans love: punishing punk-metal delivered in 30-second blasts. Hatebreed's music isn't built on subtlety or variation, but that isn't what the group is about. Jamey Jasta's fierce, machine-gunning vocals are backed by a brutal metallic onslaught that seems intent on flattening everything in sight. SUPREMACY doesn't deliver anything new, but for lovers of head-crushing, fist-pumping metalcore that's a very good thing.

It's nearly impossible to judge Supremacy -- or any other Hatebreed record for that matter -- outside of the monotone world that the brutal Connecticut metal quintet inhabit. All of their songs clock in at under three-and-a-half minutes, rarely deviate from one or two keys, and rely on lead singer Jamey Jasta's one-note megaphone of a voice to deliver the bullets. This insular approach to writing and recording pretty much works every time -- this is metalcore -- especially on the blistering opening track "Defeatist," "To the Threshold," and "Divine Judgment," but after four albums, even the hint of a melody line or a midtempo breakdown would break through the ether like a lighthouse in a Nor'easter. ~ James Christopher Monger

Alternative Press (p.204) - "The metalcore standard-bearers' combined experience and the presence of a second riffologist gives time for the band to empty, reload and regroup at will."