Human Overdose

When Hatred Surge released Human Overdose, their final album, the death metal meets hardcore trend was just starting to emerge. Xibalba had not yet released their third album, Disgrace was barely a blip on the radar and back then we were still complaining about Entombedcore bands. Remember those crusty Stockholm death bands? Those have fallen off the radar almost completely now eh? Certainly death metal meets American style hardcore was not really a thing. Essentially this means Human Overdose was sort of a pioneer. Sure there aren't that many death/hardcore bands nor is it something truly different. It was and I dare say that even today 5 years later quite fresh.

While other early bands and records playing this style of metal would at least get some appreciation by those few who heard it. This record just did not really catch attention. There are basically two reasons. First of all the band started as a powerviolence band of reasonably high quality. Their collaboration with Iron Lung for example is of a quite high level. The hardcore community did not really like that Hatred Surge decided to release an album with a lot of death metal thrown in.

Well why did the metal community ignore it as well? Well it's simply not a good record. At first Human Overdose sounds fairly decent but a couple tracks in the flaws start to become apparent. There is nothing catchy on this album. This is not a style that can coast on atmosphere, the songs really need to be there in your face. Furthermore the drums are lacking in power. The vocals got all sorts of weird effects going on which are cool in theory but because the vocals are not delivered with real energy they just end up being weird background noise. In fact by the final track I did not notice anything any more. The production does not really help either. Everything just sounds kind of muddy with no real feel of grit or anything.

I personally get the impression that Human Overdose truly reflected the position Hatred Surge was in at the time. The band members wanted to create something more death metal oriented but the chemistry between the band members to write something potent just was not there. They decided to finish and release this anyway and soon there after, I think wisely, called it a day and moved on to other musical endeavours.

Personally I think that the band members decision to move on was a wise one. The released put out by the members after they left are all pretty decent at least. Sometimes a band simply has run its course and it is time to bury it. As final words I want to say: If you are a fan of bands like Xibalba or Disgrace don't bother. If you like powerviolence don't bother but do pick up their early records.