Hawthorne Heights’ 2011 EP muses on negativity—due in part to a year filled with lawsuits and the 2007 loss of lead guitarist Casey Calvert. So it makes sense for Hate to open with the brutal onslaught of “Is This What You Wanted,” where screeching guitars continuously wind as JT Woodruff and Micah Carli scream their throats raw. The punching guitar riffs of “Divided” echo the band’s early days, when it looked to Sunny Day Real Estate for inspiration. Hawthorne Heights tone down the ferocity here to contrast gloomy, resonating chords with impassioned singing that’s more emo than screamo. The title track expands on the roots of the genre’s origins: spiraling guitars slowly whirlpool into a sonic tempest as Woodruff spits out a distorted vocal attack railing against his job, life, parents, band, and solitude.