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Good ideas do battle with the ill-conceived or merely superfluous on this debut indie from Californian trio Human Cyborg Relations. The band espouses a fine-tuned melodic death akin to vintage Opeth or Agalloch, with perhaps a bit of classic My Dying Bride as well and, I dunno, maybe a hint of Mogwai or Sigur Ros, too? Basically, sobbing guitars ringing out over a deliberately paced 4/4 backbeat, with loads of atmosphere to spare. The mood is effective (set on course by a fine piano and guitar intro), the riffs and crawling bass lines mature, especially for a band that is almost certainly still finding itself. The drum programming, as is often the case, fails to reconcile itself with the rest of the mix, retaining a tinny, popping ineffectiveness. Less cyborg, guys. More human, you dig? But even that bit of admonishment pales in comparison to the venom I reserve for a trio of songs contained herein. I speak of “Bone Crusher,” “Die” and “Can’t Hide,” all of them so musically and lyrically infantile in their remedial death metal stupidity that they make Six Feet Under seem like Dark Tranquillity by comparison. There is no point to them here – neither for filler, pacing nor irony – and the band’s credibility would be better preserved had they never seen the light of day. Still, it’s not enough to deep-six what is pretty solid work overall. I’m not sure whether reusing the same lyrics for two songs (“Ghosts of Smoke” and “Till Dark”) amounts to self-reflexivity or merely laziness, but I expect more original couplets in the future. And edited, to boot, because your spelling and punctuation suck. Okay, that’s enough out of me, the martinet.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Lost Affection |
| 2. Ghosts of Smoke |
| 3. Bone Crusher |
| 4. The Omen |
| 5. Die |
| 6. Cannibal Jesus |
| 7. Till Dark |
| 8. Cant Hide |
| 9. Under a Gray Autumn Sky |
| 10. Noble |
| 11. Forlorn |
: 42:19
| Buy other Human Cyborg Relations albums |
