Review by Saxy S for Humanity's Last Breath - Ashen (2023)
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