Humanity's Last Breath - Ashen (2023)^{Release ID: 46310}

I've made this discovery and review shortly after doing the same with Cryptopsy's The Unspoken King. Humanity's Last Breath are professionals at brutal tech-deathcore and can execute it better than Cryptopsy could in their flopped-down 2008 album. Humanity's Last Breath's Ashen is one of the darkest heaviest albums of modern metal!

The amount of downtuned riffing and time-signature unorthodoxy can bring Meshuggah and Ion Dissonance to the minds of many listeners. This complex chaos also has the doomy atmosphere of downtempo deathcore and some melody dragged out into haunting levels. If this is what this whole "thall" thing is about, consider me hooked! Lots of violent experimentation make this a true apocalyptic gem.

From the intro, "Blood Spilled" would have you think the band has joined the epic deathcore league led by Lorna Shore and Shadow of Intent. But instead of symphonics, we have the out-of-this-world trench-deep-tuned guitar riffing of Buster Odeholm and Calle Thomér with its ambient crawl. The chorus of "Linger" stomps through, memorable with its blend of brutality and accessibility. Melody and dissonance stab through each other as if they're fencing without those protective suits alongside the rhythms and beats. Complexity makes its leap in "Lifeless, Deathless". While the vocals are always welcome, it can pulverize as an instrumental just as well. The drumming by Klas Blomgren never overtakes the guitarwork. "Withering" also has great flow in the drums and guitars, all leading to a breakdown so simple and ravaging at the same time.

"Instill" has some background choir in great harmony with the tremolos and blasts borrowed from black metal. So much beauty and brutality without having to rely so much on polyrhythms. Then there's more of the intense soundscape of "Labyrinthian" with its grim yet crushing attack. The Meshuggah influences are plain to hear within the destruction of djent and its Stewie Griffin-like brother thall. Chugging like a thall train is "Catastrophize", having some catastrophically memorable downtempo deathcore, from the beat to the breakdown. "Death Spiral" kicks through noise and melody, even inching towards Gojira-like territory of heavy prog-death that isn't highly melodic.

The band continues their breakneck cutthroat action in "Shell". The riffing explodes into hellfire, as different sounds cover sludgy mosh-worthy breakdowns. All in fascinating rhythms! Next track "Passage" has more devastating leads and riffs, leading into another doomy bridge. I have no problem with the synth interlude "Burden", the calm before the final storm... "Bearer" is truly one of the heaviest most apocalyptic tracks of djenty deathcore. A massive f***ing sh*tload of brutality that will take a long time to get over.

Ashen can certainly get Humanity's Last Breath recognized as a band that can make anything dark and brutal. From the cover art to the music including the riffing. It is a soundtrack to the destruction of the universe, all in djenty downtempo deathcore chaos and grace!

Favorites: "Linger", "Lifeless, Deathless", "Instill", "Catastrophize", "Shell", "Bearer"

Progressive Djentcore with a Hint of HOLY BASS

I have made it no secret that deathcore is an acquired taste for me. The main reasons why it does not work for me is the lazy stich work compositionally and the atomic drops of the breakdowns that not only feel disjointed, but destroy the mixing of a project. The new Humanity's Last Breath album asks me "what if we just removed the patchy compositions and focused primarily on atomic drop breakdowns?" The answer is about as predictable as you might expect.

I do have limits when it comes to how massive a heavy metal record should sound and deathcore almost always tries to go the extra step too far and Humanity's Last Breath are without a doubt the genre's most egregious culprits. I don't know what kind of tuning the guitars are using here, but the mixing is very flimsy and wonky. Those lowest tuned strings with low gauges sound like they are wobbling at a snail's pace and it unfortunately carries over into the overall sound of the record. It almost feels like someone wanted to make a metal album, but had no idea how to mix guitar properly.

As a result, the percussion is putting in extra work to match the guitar, which is never a good compromise, while the bass and vocals may as well not even be here at all. I can't even really comment on the compositions themselves because I was so distracted by the mix peaking out every single breakdown that even if they were good, I couldn't tell you what they sounded like. The record does have some post-rock/shoegaze interludes which are nice, but come out of nowhere, kill whatever momentum the tracks may have had, and I can barely hear them because of how many times I had to turn down the volume just to make Ashen a bearable listening experience. Hot tip: if you're metal album causes to turn the speakers down because the clipping makes it sound like they are going to explode, you're doing something wrong.

Best Songs: Lifeless, Deathless, Withering, Labyrinthian, Death Spiral