ALBUM REVIEW: Human Shield – Dylan DiLella

Over the course of three tracks, none of which are less than 12 minutes long, DYLAN DILELLA uses his impressive technical ability to deconstruct metal music. Heavily influenced by jazz and noise, DiLella uses his guitar as a weapon, teasing the listener with moments of brilliant technicality before burying it beneath waves of loops and distortion. It could almost be a response to someone shouting ‘that’s not music, it’s just noise’ at PYRRHON gig – DiLella is a founding member of the tech-death group – but this is no reactionary piece of music. Across 40 minutes, he pulls in various influences from harsh walls of noise and drone, twists and bends them into the discordant rhythms of jazz and then cuts through it with savage metallic riffing.

Human Shield is at once anxiety-ridden and anxiety-inducing. Claustrophobic and yet endlessly expansive. To try and pinpoint even a moment for some sort of critical analysis feels fruitless because it never stands still long enough to be examined. Its brutality is only amplified by the off-kilter patterns, the sudden moments of quiet that are shattered by distortion.

The second track, Telepath, assaults the listener in waves. It leaves you stranded, the sudden bursts of fuzz rocking an already sinking ship. The fretboard work at the halfway point sounding out like an SOS, before it collapses in on itself, twisting itself around.

So much noise music can feel contrived. The musicians hiding behind a desk of pre-taped soundbites. It’s a genre that, like Tetsuo: Iron Man, has morphed from the most extreme expression of human emotions into something mechanical. It’s still painful, but there are cogs and hydraulics under the surface. DiLella bucks this trend. Perhaps it’s the clear use of an instrument; his tortured guitar providing the baseline of everything else here. He is less a human shield and more of a conduit, something the genre has been severely lacking.

It could be desensitisation, but Dredging Futility seems almost conventional in comparison to the first two tracks. There are more recognisable ebbs and flows. Fewer layers of chaos over the guitar. It remains terrifyingly impenetrable however, dragging itself across the 13-minute runtime. The very real threat of collapse looming over every string played.

Human Shield is a strange album. The sort you may be loath to recommend. It clearly isn’t for everyone, encompassing a host of genres and yet conforming to none of them. An album so deeply personal and experimental that any examination of the themes presents feels futile because the next listener will hear something different. It’s far from a curio though. Enjoyment could be too strong a word, but those with patience and a strong constitution will find a lot to appreciate here.

Rating: 9/10

Human Shield is out now via Nefarious Industries.

Follow DYLAN DILELLA on Bandcamp.