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A very impressive start for this fresh new Metal act.-
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| Human Sculpture: Our World / Torn Down |
Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore
Self-Released
September 5th, 2011
- Deconstruction - 5:08
- The Wait - 5:28
- A Heart - 5:48
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| Review Information |
Release length: 16:25
Review posted on September 3rd, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 8.5/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| EP(s): |
Our World / Torn Down (2011)
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| Review |
Human Sculpture is a five piece Death Metal act that comes to us from Finland. The group has actually only recently formed this year, but the group wasted no time to head into the studio to record Our World / Torn Down, a three song EP that shows precisely what this unsigned act is all about, and the talent the group possesses. Blending together some Metalcore concepts with some hints of melody that straddle the lines between traditional Death Metal and Melodic Death Metal compositions that all blend together some melody with tenacious brutality. But, does this independent release leave the listener in a position that he or she feels compelled to keep an eye on this fresh new act?
Our World / Torn Down is a surprising release, especially for such a young band. The production quality here is fantastic, being pretty clear, modern and stylish, but musically is far from sterilized like this quality can often do to Death Metal-related releases. The guitars here have the heavier sound to them common to many Swedish Death Metal bands, being bludgeoning but still rather clean, and they compliment the deep bass you can literally feel perfectly. The drums here are intense, clean, and all at the proper levels. The bass kicks have a great click to them that doesn't overpower anything, the snares are full and pounding, and the cymbols are just loud enough that they make a great impact and ring out nicely. The vocals are about the same volume level as everything else, which works great with the varied gutturals and screams used throughout the songs. While the tracks are in a faster pace, the music is intense and just hammers away at the listener with an unquestionable brutality, but during the slower moments you can't help but feel a bit of a commanding authority and ominous atmosphere being present.
The band also utilizes some breakdowns, usually having them restricted to two total in a song it seems, but the closing track "A Heart" uses them more then once but they work well with the song and feel natural to the general pace of the song, and they are fluidly transitioned in and out of in a manner that doesn't really require any building up to it. These often hold the same kind of intensity to them as the music they transition out of, just a bit slower, though not that commanding. The final breakdown on "A Heart", however, flows at a much slower pace and would have been the perfect way for the song to close, but it's trudging, crawling pace that seems to fall on it's face, as if a battered body giving up, is abruptly ended as if the corpse suddenly was reanimated with a surge of energy to fight for it's life and blisters to an out-of-nowhere conclusion. Either way works, it's just that such a slow breakdown ends up pretty much being wasted due to that sudden burst, but perhaps live it's a far more enjoyable tactic, as that's kind of seems to be the basis for the song's development, which is fine and would definitely be a great way to end the band's live performance. The rest of the song actually seems to have more of an Alternative Metal meets Groove concept to it, sort of like the song "Trip of the Brain" by Suicidal Tendencies but without the Trash input and more like something you might expect Sepultura to do at this point in their career, or even Soulfly.
All of that does lead to a fun song clearly aimed at getting the pit going for one last round, and really it's a good song that does leave the listener a little antsy to start a circle pit of their own through much of that, but it's the first two songs that really show the most impressive material from Human Sculpture. "Deconstruction" blasts away at the listener with a bit of a Thrash presence mixed with it's Death Metal brutality, assaulting the listener with a furious start, then eventually slowering to a more commanding Death Metal presence with a catchy, hook driven melodic chorus and breakdown that you can't help but want to run to the nearest living thing and initiate a very brutal pit with. "The Wait", however, is much slower and doesn't really have much of that brutality to it that "Deconstruction" has, or even that energetic vibe "A Heart" holds. The song really focuses on a more dismal atmosphere through some slower material, and it sounds good, especially with how heavy the music sounds in general, but it's really just not up to par with the other two songs, as well as kind of sounds a bit generic. However, this track does have enough catchy passages and bridges that will find you bobbing your head along, of head banging to during the faster moments, more then some of those not-so-great moments that pop up throughout the song, gaining a grasp on the listener's attention well enough to keep him or her attentive throughout, and somewhat satisfied by the end.
Aside the less-then-fantastic "The Wait", which is still enjoyable for what it is, Our World / Torn Down is an energetic, commanding album of Metal brutality. These three songs really will impress the listener right from the first song, and even leave the masses wanting more. The various styles the band builds the song foundations with, and some of the other ideas that come into play like some thrashier riffs and speeds and even some groovier elements all show a band that is still growing, but all the while able to really utilize all these different elements to create some highly enjoyable and even professional sounding material. The only complaint is that this group only offers this three song EP and it's not a full-length recording, but judging by the quality of the songs on this effort, there's no denying the band has that potential stored inside them, and that we will definitely see that full-length recording at some point barring any unforseen unfortunate events. Human Sculpture is definitely a band worth keeping an eye on, and if this is what this young band has to offer us so early in the game, it's anyone's guess as to what they will sound like as they continue to grow and mature as a group, the prospect of which should definitely excite fans of the band, as well as just generally brutal, authoritive, and/or catchy Metal.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Scratch the Surface PR.
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