Human Larvae
Behind Blinding Light
(Malignant Records)
If you’re a fan of acts like Theologian, Gnawed and IRM, you might find something in the third-full length from this German power/industrial act, which features former members of Broken Diode and originally made their debut in the scene back in ’08 with Home Is Where The Hurt Is. Now many years have passed since then, marking almost a decade of dissonant noise, shrieked vocals and horrendous metal scrapes from the German stalwarts.
To some, album opener “Paradigm Shift” might sound like a guy juggling around a bunch of steel scraps that he obtained in a junkyard. But there’s so much more to it than that, like the raging storm of electronic fuzz and incoherent rage that envelops in nearly the form of an air-raid siren on the fittingly named “Severing Sirens.” Then once the tension is let loose and the storm has ended, we are treated to a subtle alien whir which provides the sort of atmosphere not uncommon to a futuristic horror game. With an almost metallic frenzy, (and I am talking in the vein of harsh extreme metal acts like that of Anaal Nathrakh or Meshuggah) the vocals of “Isolation Of The Stain Psychosis” come into play amidst a continued whirring, which seems remnant of the previous number. It’s kind of too much like the previous though, which is why it doesn’t really have much of an overall effect on me.
In fact, it’s not until “Epiphany” that things become unhinged once again, wherein the mastermind behind the project feels like he’s tearing things apart in the middle of an electrical disturbance and shouting incoherently all of the way through. It’s certainly an unpleasant gesture, which comes from a man who seems to be perturbed about something. “Exit” seems to be filled with a great deal of angst and metal scraping, which doesn’t come off as interesting to me as it might to others. I won’t knock it for not being a fan of metal scraping, it just makes me feel as if I’m in some sort of workplace environment by which heavy labor is being performed and one of the guys is screaming along with a metal album that he’s listening to on his headphones.
Human Larvae definitely wasn’t my cup of tea compared to other acts, and I’ve listened to Behind Blinding Light more than enough times to tell that it just wasn’t for me. That doesn’t mean that you won’t find something in it however, and you are by all means welcome to give it a try. At least you can say with this one that you generally listened to a metal album – as in, the fact that you actually listened to the sounds of steel, iron and aluminum pieces clanging and being scraped. Does it even get more metal than that?
Purchase Behind Blinding Light here.
