Hate Forest

Hate Forest
Origin	Kharkiv, Ukraine
Genres	Black metal, dark ambient
Years active	1995–2004, 2019–present
Labels	Ancient Nation Back on Black Beverina Black Metal Store Blut & Eisen Blutreinheit City of the Dead Darker Than Black Dread Elegy Funeral Galgenstrang Hammer of Damnation Kolovrat Ledo Takas Miriquidi Nawia Night Birds Noble Wolves Northern Heritage Osmose Primitive Reaction Pussy God Red Stream Slavonic Metal Soldats Inconnus Sombre Supernatural The True Neverdead Those Opposed Totenkopf Propaganda War Arts Werewolf Zyklon-B
Members	Roman Saenko
Website	https://osmoseproductions-label.com/bands/hate-forest/

Hate Forest is a Ukrainian black metal band formed by Roman Saenko, the leading member of Drudkh, Dark Ages, and Blood of Kingu. Thurios joined the band in 1998 after the recording of Scythia. The music is mostly very fast, but occasionally slow, with low, distorted vocals, raw low fidelity quality production, sometimes with programmed drums (drummer is a live player during concerts), and dark ambient elements (some releases have consisted entirely of dark ambient tracks). Musical influences are mostly from Scandinavian black metal to traditional death metal, especially Bolt Thrower (they covered their song "Cenotaph"). According to the band, its lyrics are about mythology, mainly Slavic, and inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's stories and Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy. The band never gave interviews, never released photos, and held its distance from the black metal scene. After Hate Forest disbanded, Saenko focused on Drudkh, and other side projects such as Blood of Kingu, Windswept and Precambrian which are of different inspirations. After a 16 year hiatus Saenko released a new album in 2020 under the Hate Forest name titled "Hour of the Centaur" and has steadily released more albums and EPs from that point.

Members

Lineup

• Roman Saenko (also in Drudkh, Blood of Kingu and Dark Ages) – Lead vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, and drum programming.

Previous members

• Khaoth – drums (for live performance, 2001)
• Alzeth – guitar (1998–1999, 2002; former Dark Ages)
• Roman Novik – bass (for live performance, 2000 and 2001)
• Thurios (also in Drudkh, Blood of Kingu and Astrofaes) – vocals and guitar (1995–2004, for live performance, 2002)

Discography

Albums

• Scythia (1999, Beverina / Pussy God / Ancient Nation / Noble Wolves / Blutreinheit / Osmose / Back on Black / Dread)
• The Curse (2000, Nawia / Kolovrat / Hammer of Damnation / Galgenstrang / Funeral / Werewolf)
• The Most Ancient Ones (2001, Supernal / Northern Heritage / Osmose / Back on Black / The True Neverdead / Dread)
• Purity (2003, Supernal / Slavonic Metal / Blut & Eisen / Osmose / Back on Black / The True Neverdead / Dread)
• Battlefields (2003, Supernal / Slavonic Metal / Blut & Eisen / Osmose / Back on Black / Darker Than Black / Dread)
• Sorrow (2005, Supernal / Soldats Inconnus / Totenkopf Propaganda / Back on Black / Osmose / Darker Than Black / Dread)
• Those Once Mighty Fallen split with Ildjarn (2013, Osmose / Darker Than Black / War Arts)
• Hour of the Centaur (2020, Osmose / Black Metal Store)
• Innermost (2022, Osmose / Black Metal Store)

Compilation albums

• Blood & Fire / Ritual (2001, Red Stream)
• To Those Who Came Before Us (2002, Night Birds)
• To Twilight Thickets (2003, Blutreinheit / Soldats Inconnus / Elegy)
• Nietzscheism (2005, Supernal / Primitive Reaction / Osmose / Darker Than Black)
• Dead But Dreaming (2009, Primitive Reaction / Werewolf / Darker Than Black)
• Celestial Wanderer / Sowing with Salt (2023, Osmose)

EPs

• Darkness (2000, Miriquidi / City of the Dead)
• Blood & Fire (2001, Sombre)
• Ritual (2001, Miriquidi / City of the Dead)
• The Gates (2001, Miriquidi / City of the Dead / Elegy / Soldats Inconnus / Funeral / Galgenstrang / Hammer of Damnation / Those Opposed)
• Resistance (2004, Ledo Takas / Werewolf)
• Temple Forest (2007, Hammer of Damnation / Galgenstrang / Funeral)
• Grief of the Universe/Spinning Galaxies split with Legion of Doom (2008, Zyklon-B)
• Celestial Wanderer (2020, Osmose)
• Sowing with Salt (2023, Osmose)
• Justice (2024, Osmose)

External links

• Hate Forest on Myspace