Hailing from Argentina, these Melodic Deathsters have supported the likes of In Flames, Amorphis and Children Of Bodom on their recent Argentinean tours, and it’s not hard to see why after giving initial EP Blinded By Hate a few spins. Although their style of Melodeath is like, ooh, most of the Melodeath you’ve heard before, this (mid-period In Flames with a touch of Scar Symmetry if you want it broken down) is well-played, passionate and enjoyable to listen to. It’s a nice change to hear Melodeath that isn’t perfectly polished for once, given the identikit production that most bands seem to get these days, and this has enough grit to make it stand out – that Blackened touch that some bands have is present and correct here, but fear not, the emphasis is most definitely on the melody.

Melted In The Darkness starts the EP off with galloping guitars and alternate growls and screeched vocals before clean vocals make an appearance. It’s a nice little trio, the clean singing different enough from the norm to hold your attention whilst the harsh bits are suitably intense. The band has a way to go yet before they’re songwriting masters, but there’s nothing exactly wrong with the material here; it does take a notably heavier path as the EP progresses, with fewer clean vocals and more blasts on later tracks. The Kiss Of The Vampire has an interesting structure, and Circles Of Fire is a bit more groovy and ‘alt’ but there’s little difference overall – it’s pretty obvious that the same band did them all. From the material shown here, Hate Fusion are well worth keeping an eye on.