ALBUM REVIEW: Post Human Disorder – Bloodbox
Creating an album with extremely short songs is a bold move. Of course, long songs are a bold move as well, as you have to create a song that is engaging enough to hold the audience’s attention. However, creating short songs is no picnic, because they obviously have to not sound like a song that is only half finished. In fact, it can be tricky to describe them as songs. Stepping up to this challenge are BLOODBOX and their new album Post Human Disorder, a record whose longest track tops two and a half minutes, while the shortest lands at just one minute and twelve seconds.
The album was created during the summer of 2022, and consists of ten songs. Project 19, which is about the COVID-19 pandemic, starts off with a public speech by a politician before launching into a flurry of chaos. The song makes the most of its minute and a half runtime, and doesn’t feel like it’s incomplete. However, the audience will only want more. Thankfully, they get it. The rest of the album is a frenzy of chaotic noise, which is made up of death metal vocals, drum & bass and metal. It shouldn’t make sense, and it won’t to some people. However, it is simply a genre that has not been pushed to the mainstream yet.
That genre is ‘deathjungle’. It was coined by Megalith X, who is one half of BLOODBOX, the other half being CyZERNOBrG. The duo were both in the now defunct New Zealand experimental death metal act VEXT, who broke up in 1999. BLOODBOX was created in 2001. However, when listening to BLOODBOX, it is clear those experimental influences have not gone away.
Interestingly, if you’re eager to hear some jungle influences, then you’re going to have to wait until the song Withered, which is where those sounds really kick in. Whilst they work very well with the death metal vocals, the pacing of the album isn’t quite right. This could be due to the short runtime, or the fact that the entire album just sounds like a odd collection of songs. Whilst the death metal songs at the start worked well, when the electronic music is introduced, it gives the audience whiplash.
Strangely enough, the songs themselves are paced extremely well. They use their short runtimes well. This is thanks to the expert mixing by Cam Sinclair. Saying that, not all the songs are as good. For example, eighth track The Nightmare Continues feels hollow as it repeats the line “the nightmare continues” over and over again. The listener is most likely to agree to this. If they’ve made it that far into the album, that is. Problems is the final song. Whilst it does talk about mental health, it also feels a little bit like an ego boost for the band as spoken word explains how BLOODBOX are not understood well. It feels cheesy at best, and is an unfortunate end to an intriguing album.
In conclusion, this album proves that ‘deathjungle’ is not a genre that should be mainstream. Whilst the songs themselves mostly hit all the right notes, any interesting idea is swallowed up by pacing issues and tonal whiplash. It is a shame because BLOODBOX have – for the most part – perfected this genre. However, despite the start of the album sounding like an excellent death metal album with some electronic influences, it all goes downhill halfway through when the electronic sounds really make their mark. By the end of the album, it is an incoherent mess. And yet – surprisingly – the short runtimes actually make the album better because it finishes sooner than expected.
Rating: 4/10
Post Human Disorder is out now via Headwound Recordingz.
Follow BLOODBOX on Bandcamp.