Perseverance

Perseverance, released by Universal Records in March 2002, is Hatebreed's second album — their first through major distribution, four and a half years after the debut. The title is the record's subject. "I Will Be Heard" received an official music video and became the song that first carried the band's name widely. That first-person declaration — I will be heard — is the prototype of the stance running through nearly everything Hatebreed has written since. "Proven", "You're Never Alone", "A Call for Blood", "We Still Fight": the subject is legible from the titles alone. The method is established here — hardcore's singability and metal's riffing, compressed into songs of about two minutes. On "Below the Bottom", "Unloved" and "Bloodsoaked Memories" it becomes clear who the words are addressed to, which is the listener. Sixteen tracks, closing on an "Outro". That the move to a major did not thin the sound is the fact that explains how this band has stood in the same place for more than twenty years since.