Doom noise maven Josh Lay sets off on his own for this release, perhaps taking a break from his previous noise crew Cadaver in Drag, to do a little solo wrecking. ?Hater of Life? congeals somewhere in between West Coast wall noise and the current crop of experimental doom metal crews you may or may not hear on the Battlecruiser label. Well, this tape comes out on Peasant Magik who continues their streak of quality tape releases, this one unfortunately limited to 48 copies though some are available as of the writing of this review.

If you?re into dark, distorted drones, ?Hater of Life? will be right up you?re corroded alley. Both sides (titled ?Hater? and ?Life? respectively) work off pedal noise and tape manipulation developed slowly over twelve-minutes but well worth the patience. Over the twenty-five minutes, we swing through a chasm well executed, atmospheric noise with plenty of abrasive moments that can be eerily soothing with such a bass heavy sound palette. If given a choice as to the better of the two, I would say ?Hater? is the standout side, a dark heart throb that is synthetic evil and b-movie terror inside a room of suffocating blackness. Though Josh Lay wears his misanthropy on his sleeve for this project, such a static, black exploration of the wall (though, in this case, not nearly as harsh as its west-coast practitioners) has a nihilistic undertone implicit. It is the idea of unending, unrepentant evil without pause. Well, that?s where the second side fails. I don?t know if this is part of the composition, recording, or just a dubbing error, but the drone falls off at several points leaving unwelcome gaps that ruin the second half of the track that otherwise is a great Haters-esque piece of static noise.

All in all, ?Hater of Life? is good not-fun for you depressive loners who like unrelenting black noise that can crush the sadness through the back of their skull. Did I say this was ?black? yet? But don?t be put off by the noise tag, even the serene drone heads can get into a tape like this. And with a monster portrait and upside down crosses on the cover, you know you?ve got a ledge in your room ready for this bad boy. 7/10 -- Kenneth Zubiate (7 August, 2007)