ALBUM REVIEW: Cognitive Dissonance – The Human Race Is Filth
THE HUMAN RACE IS FILTH is not a band – nor a name – to mess about. Now on their fourth album Cognitive Dissonance, they’ve stepped it up a notch to deliver their most brutal and uncompromising work to date.
Kicking off with vocalist Kasey Harrison‘s toddler saying “THE. HUMAN. RACE. IS. FILTH.” in such an innocent, sing-song way instantly dials up the dissonance and discomfort, especially when paired with the anguished, harrowing screams and non-human noises that are belched out by the band on intro track Life Of Tyrants. First track proper Apes With Christ (spoiler alert: there are some fantastic song titles here on Cognitive Dissonance) goes from zero to sixty with utterly unhinged verses and even manages to create a chorus that verges on catchy, which is not something you can often say about deathgrind.
Bastardized is another early standout on this album, adding a dirtier, more disgusting tone to become some pseudo-sludge deathgrind monster. The longest track on the album – although still a snip at just four and a half minutes – is devastating in every measure, and even as the final minute plays out as feedback and fuzz, there is something so ominous in the relative quiet that it still doesn’t feel like a break. And besides, it doesn’t take long for them to come storming back in with Cloaked In Shame to hammer your face into oblivion again.
This double header of all-out violence best showcases the changes that THE HUMAN RACE IS FILTH have made to their sound since the Liberate and Human Exposed EPs, opting for an altogether more sinister and dangerous vehicle with which to deliver their sermon. The guitars are murkier, the drums are more serrated, the atmosphere is far more bleak; but it’s the vocals that feel like the biggest change. The band have always opted for a gnarled and ragged bark-style vocal, but Harrison has plumbed new depths to growl, roar and shout, lending his dystopian themes and messages more bite and more credence.
Cognitive Dissonance doesn’t last much longer than 26 minutes and feels even shorter given the pace of the blows that rain down. But there’s something about the second half of this album that means it largely will just pass you by. Whether it’s a case of having had your senses dulled by the relentless retribution exacted on the world or just that they frontloaded their best efforts, the album just sort of reaches its conclusion and the only clue you have to that is when a child’s voice is suddenly back in your head telling you that THE HUMAN RACE IS (indeed) FILTH. For all their blustering and bellowing, Cognitive Dissonance limps to the finish line rather than strides with purpose.
Overall though, Cognitive Dissonance is a bold step forward for THE HUMAN RACE IS FILTH. They’ve distilled everything that made them so solid before and given their hellacious racket more intent, more fire. While there’s nothing too groundbreaking here in the wider landscape of the deathgrind genre, it is an intriguing entry into their own personal catalogue and one that hints at greatness to come.
Rating: 6/10
Cognitive Dissonance is out now via self-release.
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