Glad other people then me like it. A lot of people bash the hell out of that album same with Blooddrunk and hell they even say Relentless sounds too watered down.
As far as a somewhat watered down sound goes I do agree Blooddrunk was, that one was definitely not their better moments even though I like the album but there was a huge sound difference between that and Relentless.
Yeah that was the weak moment for me lol
Thats why I love Hate Me, it has a classical sounding and scary opening.
Hell the early stuff was very black metal influenced.
Did you know Alexi Laiho had a stint in Impaled Nazarene?
Some of his riffing definitely comes from that stint.