Total War

War metal isn't exactly known for its accessibility or originality. There are legions of bands ready to slap on some spiked gauntlets, bullet belts and gas masks while playing music that can be Blasphemy worship at best or extremely boring trash at worst. Thankfully the good bands playing this style of black/death tend to do more than just retread old ground. Some of the more well-known examples are Revenge, Conqueror, Diocletian, Damaar as well as the subject of today's review.

The easiest way to describe this band would be "Revenge" but that's not doing the boys in Human Dissention any justice. Even though the vocals are highly similar to James Read's style of black metal shrieks, their music brings a heap of grindcore influence to the table. It's pretty obvious, especially when the song "Ingrained Antipathy for Mankind" has some really punky drumming and riffing scattered throughout it. There's also quite a lot more mid-paced grooves than you'd hear on your typical war metal record, most notably on the track titled "Absolution of Earth", which starts and ends with some really nice grooves that sound more akin to something you'd hear on a death metal record than anything else.

Production on this album is also sublime. Guitar tone is thick and distorted without sacrificing note clarity like a lot of bands in this style tend to do. The drums also sounds quite organic, the kick drum has a nice thump to it and the snare has that tin can character that's found on a lot of brutal death metal records which makes it "pop" out in the mix very well. The band's performances are extremely tight as well, especially in the drum department. Unfortunately the bass guitar is buried underneath the all guitars and drums. Perhaps turning up the bass a little bit more would help fill out the low end in their sound, but it's not exactly a deal breaker.

Human Dissention certainly surprised me on this demo with a really good collection of songs, some extremely tight performances and a pretty good production job. I can't wait to see what else they can cook up in the future.