Artist: Dying Humanity
Title: Living On The Razor’s Edge
Genre: Death Metal
Release Date: 4th November 2011
Label: Bastardized Recordings
Album Review
Ever since their debut album back in 2007, DYING HUMANITY has begun the steady pace of following the “album every two years” standard that fans and record labels have placed upon musicians these days. Under this sort of pressure lots of groups have collapsed and submitted to the tendency to release the same kind of album as before, and in the process lose fan interest. DYING HUMANITY have escaped this fate so far, either by making albums longer, tackling new themes, or adding in different music structures over their career, although ‘Living On The Razor’s Edge’ is probably their most defining moment yet. The band’s core sound is a mix of both Black and Death Metal; it is mostly Death Metal though, easily heard through the blast beats mixed with deep growls and the occasional shriek. However, rather than keep every track a high octane fury that is on par with a group like BEHEMOTH, DYING HUMANITY aim more to mix up subtleties. A perfect example of this is the opening track ‘Clarity Of Mind’. The track is ferocious and crushing, even with the melodic parts weaved in, but the best parts is that suddenly the band will switch over to acoustic moments which add a lot more atmosphere, both in the middle and end of the song. There are lots of tracks like these to help break up the album, such as ‘Inception’ and ‘Perception’, and overall they round out the sound to prevent any bouts of monotony bogging listeners down.
Even the harder tracks like ‘Abused’ and ‘Blinded’ still have lots of melody fused into them. ‘Abused’ has both electric wavering and acoustic parts layered on top of each other, although the electric ones are always the louder. ‘Addicted’ is more along the lines of a straightforward Death Metal track with little room for melodic interludes at all. It is just full on guitar and drum pummelling with the hybrid of vocals doing all the rest of the work. The only parts that really hold any “melody” on tracks like these are the solos, but even these are a bit short lived compared to the other tracks where melody seems more spread out, like on ‘Between Angel and Beast’. Not only are the music structures intriguing, but the lyrics are also more thoughtful and provocative. According to the press release from Bastadized Recordings, ‘Living…’ is DYING HUMANITY’S first concept album, following a straight line of ideas as opposed to “jumping all over the place” with their past albums. While the overall theme of the music and lyrics encompasses the typical ideas of DYING HUMANITY- mankind’s downfall- it seems a lot more poetic to arrange them like this. Overall, this Death Metal approach should awaken interest in those who felt the band was dying out after their sophomore effort; it’s more dressed up and complex compared to the average Death/Black Metal album that usually goes for full aggression and leaves little room for breather moments, unless it is right in the beginning or end. DYING HUMANITY spread their breathers out nicely, so it is all the easier to absorb the message.
Tracklist
01. Clarity Of Mind - 7:47
02. Inception - 0:41
03. Blinded - 2:31
04. Till the End - 3:58
05. Outcast - 2:40
06. Abused - 3:13
07. Perception - 1:20
08. Welcome to the Abyss - 3:24
09. Addicted - 2:28
10. Between Angel and Beast - 3:23
11. Revenge and Murder - 3:15
Line-up
Vocals - Marcus Dietzsch
Guitar - Kai Siedel
Guitar - Simeon Keller
Bass - Hendrik Wetzel
Drums - Danny Vanis
Website
http://www.sicksational.de/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 7
Total: 7.5 / 10
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