REVIEW: The Human Condition – Death Blessings [2013]
Artist: The Human Condition
Album: Death Blessings
Preview: Truth; Prevaricator(pre production)
Describing themselves as a ”melodic metalcore” band, one would suspect that the music made by The Human Condition would just be filled with overflowing melodies to the point it got overused, that assumption would be wrong, in fact nothing could be further from the truth, to my pleasant surprise ”Death Blessings” is a skillfully done mixture between crunching heaviness, silky smooth melody and crushing grooves that motivate raping the walls of your neighboring houses with ridiculously huge amounts of volume. Starting off with a peaceful and serene intro that in no way prepares you for the impending onslaught this band has to offer, the joyful festivities of heaviness kick you in the face immediately when the second song ”8×6” is introduced, it will soon become apparent that ”The Human Condition” has successfully taken all the best elements from both crushing death metal and (melodic) metalcore without putting either of said genres to shame, who said you cant have the best of both worlds? One of my favorite tracks is ”To Count Worms” mainly because its filled with the best element of this album, which is the very well executed raw guitar riffage, you instantly want to start air guitaring along with this, the simplicity yet addictive nature of these grooves is proof that you don’t need a fuckload of technicality or guitar sweepings to make a solid metal release. Another great example of this raw style can be heard on the short track ”Fault”, which is an ironic name because its only fault is that it should be longer. The last song ”Between The Devil & The Deep” ends the ride with the serene melodics similar to when the album began, like a tornado that came and went.
Another feature that should not be overlooked in this sea of crunching rawness are the lyrics, which are anger driven and provide a perfect foundation for the heavy weighing instrumentals. The vocals are just as raw and aggressive and remain this way throughout the album, a good choice this band decided to make (in my opinion) was not to add cleans which a lot of bands in the same genre have, it is because of this that all the other pieces of the puzzle fit so well together, and keep a good focus on the music.
I have to admit when I first listened to a demo from these gentlemen that I wasn’t TOO impressed, but upon listening to ”Death Blessings” I quickly changed my mind, so its pretty safe say this album is a solidifying debut for the band, one that should not missed by any fans of heavy music, and since the band is offering the whole album for FREE on their Facebook, you don’t really have an excuse to pass up on this, so go there right now and download it! Another good reason to get this would be because winters can be very cold and you need to stay in motion to remain warm, something that’s easily done by jamming ”Death Blessings”.
Rating: 8.5/10
For fans of: For The Fallen Dreams, Legend, Adelaide, Depths
