Worm Gear

I’ve noticed a pattern in my listening habits. When my cup runneth over from too much black metal and death metal, well-executed thrash cleanses the ear-pallette best for me. So when I had reached my black/death saturation point for the week, I was primed and ready for the promo of Memphis, Tennesee’s Shards of Humanity. Mark your calendars: their debut Fractured Frequencies arises from the underground September 2nd, and if you enjoy the likes of Sadus and Massacra with a small dose of Arghoslent’s melodic sensibility, you’ll give this album a spot on your wish list. SoH’s eschew the ear-splintering tendency of most modern-era thrash to ‘treble’ your ears to a bleeding death, grasping hold of warm guitar tone that matches the dusky atmosphere of their around-the-neck wanderings. The riffs employ all the picking techniques that denote the thrash style without forsaking the importance of memorability; the opening / title track’s frenetic convergence of Tasmanian-devil drumming and technically frenetic riffery displays the Massacra influence on its ‘chorus’, while on ‘Aphoticism’, the slides and fifths of the band’s guitars build to a crescendo wherein single-note, doom-evoking vibrato pushes your remaining resolve to not headbang right over the goddamn cliff. As expertly-played scales a la Swallowed In Black race back and forth across your aural periphery, you’ll take pleasure most in the sense their placement makes in the composition, rather than the jaw-dropping efficacy of the performance itself (a blessing, as wankery for wankery’s sake has the effect of an Ambien overdose upon this writer). On ‘Internal Rot’, guitars lock step with in-the-pocket, semi-blast beats bringing to mind blitzkrieging moments of Hornets of the Pogrom, albeit here with Todd Cochran’s (guitar, vocals) Schuldiner-like throat howl directing the march toward miniscule but definitely-there bits of melody.

Shards of Humanity listened to all the right bands beneath the mould and then emerged with a collection of songs sure to aid the resurrection of the thrash genre’s bloated corpse. Their Tennessean speed metal could be just the right Autumn enema for washing the filth out of your extreme metal colon, likely clogged with an overabundance of black/death. -Jim
Unspeakable Axe Records

~ by cliftonium on June 11, 2014.

Posted in ALL REVIEWS, S-reviews
Tags: death/thrash, Shards of Humanity, Thrash Metal, Unspeakable Axe Records