Human = Garbage

Challenging Grief to a misery contest is like bringing a slingshot to a Shwarzeneggar flick, your ass is going to be blown to smithereens either way. Dystopia bravely (and glumly) step up to the challenge. By bolstering their Sludge with a bit of that hyperactive (not to mention already reasonably Metallic) Crust Punk adrenaline to the mix, Dystopia, like pioneers Amebix, Antisect, and Bombenfall before them, increase the heaviness while dropping any sense of hope or positivity.

Judging by the title, "Stress Builds Character" promises some positive Straight Edge shit?! Hell nah man. Right from the mopey bass intro, Dystopia plunge into the never-ending abyss of misery and self loathing. A psychotically quaint morose cry for help through a anguished melancholic arpeggio for the ultimate antonym of happiness yer ever gonna hear, once the riff kicks in, the adrenalin sweeps the track up in the stratosphere. Despite the agony and despair perpetuating into a labyrinth of negativity, the punk riffs while totally shorn of anything resembling polish or even catchiness, are undeniably powerful, moving, and ever consistent. The bands total Doom weight ensures the potency is everlasting. Despite the long bitching on the intro, this is beyond ferocious Crust Punk that never backs down, with a constantly revolving trapdoor of sick riffs. The sludge continues to bolster "Hands That Mold", a very solid midpaced mosh misanthropy, with the middle breakdown being an absolute highlight. Certainly more busy than similar mopey bastards Grief, props to these dudes for maintaining the tension and sickness while pushing forwards with avalanches of unstoppable riffage, and even dare I say unpredictable dynamics and changes. Unhinged screeching vocals join in on the despair as the rest of the band accompanies on this impressive aural assault of misery porn.

The B-Side opens up with another cheerful intro. Yet again we get a glum strumming with fuzz bass opening, this time accompanied by obscure Suicide Docu Samples, the choral humming making everything all the more depressing. The atmosphere of hate is palpable, the whole track is just gleefully seething to combust. Once that inevitably happens, swirling Crust riffs bolstered by the Sludge and atmosphere, taking this into newly charted territories of darkness, reminiscent of the coldest Amebix tracks like winter. Pretty dope Death/Doom riffage towards the end, lending the dirge some much needed energy and thrust. The return of the bleak bass intro is curtailed again in "Ignorance of Pride", another dynamic chugfest of a track. Again no leads, but that razor sharp metallic sheet picking or whatever the fuck that is, adds more chaos to the already mayhemic and unhinged turbulence. "Love/Hate" is an Olivia Newton John what the fuck?! Oh wait never mind... while the band dissolves into total noise, we have samples from Dennis Hopper and Keanu Reeves from The River's Edge, now that's more like it. We even get Carrie Fisher's monologue from The Blues Brother's, see these dudes have a sense of humor after all. In between the glorious noise, we have some nice chunky Obituary/Bolt Thrower worship, the song vacillates back and forth, while the band takes turns screeching with the lead vocalist in this heated desire dominance for anguish and agony. Samson's rant from The River's Edge reverberates as the agony grinds to an alleviating halt.

Not for the faint of heart, this is all the rage, aggression, asskicking energy, and power we have come to expect from our beloved Crust Punk genre, but the inclusion of totally gnarly Doom density, and some really impressive variations on playing, really propel this record. I'm not too wild on the misery porn aspect, but you can't deny these dudes concoct an undeniably bleak atmosphere, and bolster it with an rigid craft of finessed Doom adeptness. More compact, restless, technical and busy than Grief, even if the recording is not quite as boisterous. Not one second is wasted here, and it doesn't outstay it's welcome. Another Sludge classic, this one keeps the desolate sickness moving at a consistently filthy and despairing pace.

Fave Blasts: Stress Builds Character, Hands That Mold, Love/ Hate

This album is the confluence of the best aspects of crust, sludge, youthful talented musicianship, compelling songwriting, and sheer honesty. These factors combine to create an irresistible, absolutely enthralling release that outshines and outlasts so many of their contemporaries. It’s not even close to a perfect album (no albums are) but it’s one of those releases that simply transcends the elements that comprise it into something memorable. This is somewhat amusing, as this album is basically just a refined version of literal gutter trash, so if you hate trash and the poor losers who revel in it you’ll definitely hate this album and you can stop reading any further.

What an incredible release -- brimming with energy, absolutely seething in rage, and soaked to the bone with the rot of collapsed dreams. Dystopia finds a fantastic middle ground between the realms of crust punk and downtuned, discordant sludge metal. The music speaks for itself, and every aspect of it shines, with all elements working in sync to produce a landmark of aggressive material that I must recommend to everyone as a "must listen."

The songwriting is, for the most part, masterful. There are blazing sections of frenetic crust punk material featuring swarming guitar riffs, insane double kicking, and varied styles of barked vocals that surely cover the microphones in a thick layer of spittle. This is interspersed with crushing sludge, featuring a thick and low guitar tone, prominent bass, and interesting, thoughtfully-crafted drum accents and patterns. "Interspersed" isn't really the right word though -- everything flows excellently, sometimes with smooth tempo changes or jarring bursts of energy.

Most notably, there are many breaks featuring extended use of prominent, often disturbing, compilations of samples (which set the atmosphere excellently) overlaying clean guitar and grooving bass lines. Riffs build up on each other, or change abruptly, but it always seems natural. There are hooks all over the place and riffs running the gamut of the hardcore and doomy metallic subgenre spectrum. The riffs are often a good deal more complex than you might expect from the "crust punk" moniker.

Overall, the songs on here craft an intense, palpable atmosphere of, well, dystopia -- the crumbling of the world, the appalling underbelly of society, drug abuse, mental problems, anguish, suicide, serial killing, anxiety -- and never once do they stray from this atmosphere or compromise it in any way. It sounds like they live the nightmare of this music every single day.

The musicianship is impeccable and spirited. The boys are talented and their performance is honest and authentic. There are little mistakes here and there which don't detract from the music but instead inject a human quality to the performance. Though the mix is a bit thin, the instruments all sound very natural and very real. This is the spirit of old school sludge and hardcore in all its glory.

The bass is fucking loud and prominent, with lots of excellent, ominous parts and leads, playing an integral role in the release, although it tends to be the sloppiest of the bunch. Not much more needs to be said – it speaks for itself and forms the beating heart of the release from start to finish.

The guitar work is tight, varied, and full of interesting and sometimes surprisingly complex riffs. It's imaginative too - some of the experimental and noisy interlude sections indulge in very strange and often abrasive extended bouts of pickscraping and other techniques. Most of the guitar is just double tracked, playing the same riff, and there aren't any solos to be found here. There doesn't need to be.

The drums pull their weight as well, with lots of interesting patterns and more importantly, the right kind of accents on all the right notes. Even the slow sludgy sections are very entertaining. Dino leads the way through tempo changes flawlessly, and during the faster parts you can easily imagine just how sweaty he must be getting as he slams his way to the finish with much gusto.

Finally, the vocals are fucked up, disturbing, and just as great as the rest of the instrumentation. They’re just as honest too – very little processing keeps them personable and unrefined. We have a mix of styles here, with my favorite being Dino's, who has a sort of horrific, anguished screech complete with voice cracking and subtle whimpering -- the cherry on the cake of desperation and loathing congruent with the atmosphere on this album. The other vocals are great too (there are two other vocalists, one [the guitarist] appearing on the first half of the album [the EP songs] and the other performing the older tracks on the second half of this release.) These are mostly low or mid-range, a more typical crusty sound. They are full of rage and aggression but certainly lack the sheer level of insanity and unhingedness that Dino's have, providing instead a more solid core that does a better job of framing the riffs.

Before you realize it, the album is over and you just feel worse, but not as bad as you feel when you realize they only had one other major release and an EP. You could apply this review to the other releases as well – Dystopia was quite consistent in their career. But this is the place to start if you are new to them.

No crap is on this album. Just straight forward hate, angst, and misery. What else do you need?

Unfortunately, that isn't enough to be considered a review. Dystopia is a crust punk band with a sludge element. This album is pure gold. The vocals feel tortured just like the subject matter they scream about. The bass is booming with a menacing tone. The drums are an excellent mix of hardcore speed and subtle sludge beats. Guitar has the crushing tone and punk velocity. I don't remember where I found this band but thank god I did. This album is beautiful in the ugly kind of way. Brutal truths that we ignore brought to the foregrounds of our ears. Moments of quiet instrumentation then back to the brutality of punk. The album never slows down though. Those moments of quiet are the perfect length to make you see this band is more than just speed. Stress Builds Character is a perfect intro song. It gripped my attention and it let me know this materialistic world is nothing but a sham. Sanctity is an interesting song broken up by sound bites about suicides. When the sound bite plays, the bass is pumping in a downbeat sinister way, letting you know some shit is about to go down. This album will make you boil with hate and angst, depending on the song you are listening to. You are captivated by what the band is telling which is perfect. Sometimes we need a kick in the teeth to let us know we still have feelings in our cruel world.

Honesty is the best policy and this album gives it to you on a brutal level. If you like dynamic records, this album is perfect. You are constantly on the edge of your seat waiting to see where this album will take you. This album will take your heart and spit on it. It makes you feel unclean and we sometimes need that in our lives. Please pick this album up. Music like this receives too little attention.

I'm having trouble coming up with the words to describe how amazing and unique this EP is. It would be inaccurate to compare this to another band or album because nothing else sounds like this. Dystopia plays their own unique style, with the most prominent influences being sludge, crust punk and grindcore. This is a misanthropic record if I've ever heard one; I can hear their hatred for humanity in every gut wrenching scream. This album is dirty, heavy, aggressive and above all it is one of the most original pieces of music I've ever heard. None of the five songs are the same, they are all genius in their own special way.

The music starts off with "Stress Builds Character." This one is probably my favorite song Dystopia has ever done. If you are feeling down and want a song you can relate to, this is it. It starts off with a haunting bass line and a rant about the pressures that modern life imposes on people. When the rant subsides, we are treated to one of the most unique instrumental sections ever made. The bass is what makes this section so special, it overpowers everything else with its captivating tone. The rest of the track features heavy slow riffs and and tortured vocals. The next song "Hands that Mold", perfectly shows the contrast between the two vocalists. One produces an extremely gruff deep growl. The other vocalist still employs harsh vocals, but at a much higher pitch. Both of them are extremely hard to forget. This song shows off Dystopia's talent for writing lyrics. The lyrics paint a portrait of human beings eventually destroying the planet that gave them birth. With this track, the originality of the drums become evident. I can't help but being intrigued by the interesting cymbal patterns. The epic riff at the chorus is also noteworthy - it almost reminds me of Black Sabbath's "Heaven and Hell."

Sanctity has to be one of the most disturbing songs I have ever heard. Samples are played over one of the most original bass lines I have ever heard. The samples are extremely morbid, they are the stories of different people's suicides. After the voice says "I can no longer endure the pain, we have often talked about when a person's time is up - mine is now.", some truly aggressive metal kicks in. The pain filled screams on this track are truly twisted and fucked up. The lyrics follow the theme of the samples, with lines such as "God, where are you now?"

"Ignorance of Pride" is a song protesting gang violence and class discrimination. Their grindcore influences become evident on this track. Don't think it is a fully grindcore spazz-fest. The short furious blasts with furious wails are followed by slow, sludgy guitars and deep menacing growls. "Love/Hate" is a worthy competitor of "Sanctity" for the most disturbing song ever recorded. An ironic sampling of "Hopelessly Devoted to you" is followed by the dissonant screeches of feedback. The samples feature the voices of misogynists and murderers of women. One considerably fucked up sample is from a man who murdered his significant other: "I cut off her head and I humiliated her corpse, but I never hit her. I killed her, but I never hit her." The rest of the samples are equally messed up. Dystopia have often been accused of misogyny for this song but they have explained that this song is a protest against violence towards women.

Personally, I consider this EP to be perfect. To me, perfection does not mean being the most technically advanced or the best produced piece of music. It means making the most enjoyable and interesting songs that create a strong emotional connection. This album has an extremely dirty production quality and many of the riffs are simple. But this doesn't matter; the production fits the style of music and the riffs are interesting and enjoyable. The bass is a big part of what makes this so perfect. It is rare that a band uses bass this heavily, especially in metal. Instead of the bass plodding along, indifferently copying the guitar, Dystopia uses the bass to carve out a unique atmosphere. Dystopia certainly isn't for everyone, but they are a true gem to people who like them.

Dystopia is basically one of my favorite crust band, and for many reasons. For one, they make very interesting music. Hell, if a band didn't make interesting music you probably wouldn't listen to them. Also, they find ways to make their music epic sounding, which involves a little doom influence.

Calling Dystopia a sludge band is so far stretched it makes me laugh. There's no sludge here people. Dystopia plays straight forward crust with some doom influences. Musically you can expect some fast and heavy, as well as the slow and epic stuff from them. I think they are quite legendary for this kind of stuff anyways. Sludge? no.

Musically, they are heavy at all times. The guitar has a very strong tone, and it keeps your attention 100% of the time. There is a lot of variation in tempo, as well as the main focus. Every instrument in this band gets its moment to shine very frequently. The bass is also very prevalent, which it always has in Dystopia, and would up until 2008 with their last album, which was self-titled. The bass is very heavy, deep, and very entertaining to listen to. They are especially fun to play. The drum lines are very different from other bands. The drummer is also the vocalist so Dystopia really doesn't do blast beats. The beats vary, but always include various symbols and bass pedal fills. The vocals include very vigorous, high pitched screams and some more death metal sounding growls. Everything in this band is enjoyable, in short.

Dystopia is a revolutionary crust band. I haven't heard a crust band like this before in my knowledge of the genre. They aren't repetitive, the songs are more than 20-30 seconds in length, and there is appealing musical skill and writing. Dystopia is a band who should be loved by all. They are plainly an awesome band.