Review: “Cognitive Dissonance” by The Human Race Is Filth

“We wrote this album from August to November 2021 and were really going for straight out Death Grind with a touch of d-beat and Hardcore mixed in. We wanted dirtier guitar and bass tones, more aggressive drums, and more extreme vocals compared to the first three releases and we believe we accomplished those things on this release. Had an issue with the bass guitar day of recording and was lent a bass from Kuyler from the band Sleepsculptor (Mathcore Psychos on Silent Pendulum Records) at the last minute, literally the day the bass tracks were laid down!” ~ The Human Race Is Filth

A wealth of prior convictions in various Maryland and Pennsylvanian Extreme bands including but not limited to Police State, Bittered, Mans Plague, A.P.E., Exterminance, Punctual, Phlegm and Gangrenous Flesh Consumption along with a trio of EPs in 2017’s “Human Exposed“, 2018’s “Liberate” and 2022’s “Echo Chambers” means the reputation of Death Grinders The Human Race Is Filth precedes them. The trio of guitarist Paul Folk, drummer Brett Rebman (who joined in 2021) and vocalist and bassist Kasey Harrison have been creating tinnitus sufferers throughout the US and Canada with straight to the point cuts that lyrically tackle topics including mental health, socioeconomic injustice, technology, personal struggle and privilege. Now returning with their debut full length album recorded at The Kaleidoscope in Lancaster Pennsylvania in November and December 2022, with engineer Ben Roth who later mixed before mastering by Joel Grind (Power Trip, Lord Dying, Poison Idea) of Toxic Holocaust fame, it’s time to run to the hills…

Often considered eccentric and eclectic or perhaps even avant-garde, The Human Race Is Filth are the kind of band who accept no borders or boundaries and may leave you wondering exactly what you’ve heard. A case in point is opening cut “Life Of Tyrants” which begins with vocalist Kasey Harrison’s toddler age son speaking before descending into into madness. Random voices swirl in the darkness, accompanied by a primitive drum beat before kerosene is thrown on the dying embers and “Apes With Christ” roars ferociously to life. An absolute belter of a Death Grind cut in keeping with recent works appearing on Dark Descent Records, it crosses into Sludge territory with a brutally pummelling slow down while Harrison’s caustic vocals are enough to ensure that a straight jacket and place at the asylum are waiting. By the time “Electronic Caterpillars” hits the lyrics are lost in the maelstrom of chaotic percussive battery and powerhouse rhythms, the sounds emanating from his throat the violent darkness of another instrument that threatens to trigger a brain haemorrhage in the would be listener. Dark, sinister and menacing, this monster lives and breathes on the toxic waste of human filth. “Bastardized” finds Engineer Ben Roth providing the clean guitar layer, the slow trudge through black tar pits to self immolation a pleasure you can’t measure with dirge laden Sludge Metal guitars and rumbling bass accompanying the unhinged rantings.

Arguably a cut with more controlled bedlam to it “Cloaked in Shame” was the obvious pre-release single from it if only for the fact that you can actually hear the song title as the track bleeds out. The otherwise vicious little ditty is as razor sharp as the rest of this offering, the very definition of savage and brutal to the last note with “Hopes Wavered” following suit in similar fashion, all the cuts sounding as if they were recorded live from the floor in a basement hell next to a blazing furnace, the intensity of these cuts being second to none. Shifting through the gears like an eighteen wheeler on the freeway “Propagating Technology” offers up the furious combinations like a prize fighter, the noise track that permeates every song rising to prominence in the mix to turn the bathwater black, part D-Beat, part Death Metal, all madness. The main riff of “Vomiting Strings Of Human Decay” sounds like something influenced by Swedish Death Metal masters Entombed as the band push the envelope with something more sludgy and free flowing to fine effect but it’s finale “Tribal Injections Of Division” that wins the day. A punisher of epic proportions, this one is a savage beating in a dark alley on a cold winters night. There is no place to hide. [7/10]

Track Listing

1. Life Of Tyrants
2. Apes With Christ
3. Electronic Caterpillars
4. Bastardized (ft. Ben Roth)
5. Cloaked in Shame
6. Hopes Wavered
7. Propagating Technology
8. Vomiting Strings Of Human Decay
9. Tribal Injections Of Division

“Cognitive Dissonance” by The Human Race Is Filth is out 10th March 2023 with pre-orders available over at bandcamp