Hailing from Monselice in Italy, UnHuman Insurrection is a band we suggest you will be hearing a great deal more of and increasing praise for as their debut album reaches an increasing number of ears. Equilibrium offers up eights slabs of metal as broad in their flavouring as they are in their enterprise; a collection of songs which quite simply demand attention.
Rising from the ashes of Burn of Black, UnHuman Insurrection emerged in 2016, initially just going under the name UnHuman. Since their first steps on the Italian metal scene, the band has earned potent support and plaudits and gone on to share stages with the likes of Sabaton, Lacuna Coil, and Arch Enemy. Their sound is a tapestry of industrial, thrash, and melodic metal but has plenty more in its arsenal of enterprise to entice with; a mix well covered by inspirations to the band which include artists such as Testament, Fear Factory, Exodus, Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, and Machine Head. As Equilibrium reveals, it is a blend which at times has familiarity to it and in other moments an individuality which can only flourish ahead.
The album’s title is a perfect echo to the band’s sound, a fusion of raw and imposing trespasses balanced with a melodic radiance and enterprise; that predation and seduction uniting and in full roar within opener, Primal Instinct. A sonic mist descends initially, its industrial chill quipped with an electronic pulse. Within this breath guitars connect their wires eventually coming to a head and charging through ears with a thrash driven eruption. The potent clean tones of vocalist Giacomo Cordioli rise within the midst of the growing web of temptation, his calm but tenacious presence courted by the aggressive swings of drummer Alberto Lemoni and the throaty dark growl of bass. Guitarists Matteo Theo Milani and Marco Markwild Piva wrap it all in a web of enterprise, melodic and aggression driven metal escaping their craft and imagination in a track which just captivates from start to finish.
The great start continues through Chasing Hope, it instantly grabbing ears with force and adventure as melodic tendrils vine the song’s immediate trespass upon the senses. Again Cordioli’s vocals come with a harmonic croon as powerful as it is radiant against the heavier darker climate of sound. Milani’s classic metal nurtured vines spring across the track’s growing adventure, the song epitomising that mix of the recognisable and inescapably fresh within its compelling grooving and tenacious adventure.
As strong and rousing as the first pair are, they are eclipsed by the album’s best track, Lobotomized. Straight away the song grips attention and appetite with its sonic nagging, teasing grooves which eventually turn primal as guitars and rhythms stalk the senses alongside increasingly rousing vocals. It is a galvanic edge which escalates in the track’s anthemic chorus; an essence giving an already imaginative encounter greater insistency and captivation as does the subsequent spirals of guitar, every twist and turn escalating the track’s magnificence.
Through the industrial climate of Shreds of Identities, another major highlight of the album atmospherically chilling and barbarously predatory, and the almost demonic realm of The Edge Of Nothing, the album went from strength to strength. The second of the two is an intriguing offering, a track which overall did not quite spark the same greed as its two predecessors yet every moment with it brought fresh imagination amidst unpredictable trespasses to enthral and increasingly impress.
The following Parasite instantly lived up to its title, the song leeching on the senses and imagination with its feral tides of death metal lined riffs and melodic breezes. Another song nagging submission to its lures whilst invading with technical and malevolent enterprise, it quickly declares its presence as another memorable pinnacle of the release, intimation matched by Buried Alive and its electro hued but equally carnivorous exploits. As all tracks though, its body is a lattice of flavours, textures, and contrasts which had us thoroughly gripped and pleasured.
Ashes And Dust brings the album to a close, it another which maybe did not quite excite as those around such their strengths, but left release and ears in an even stronger union. There are only reasons to recommend about Equilibrium and plenty of them, seemingly more and more emerging by the listen. UnHuman Insurrection maybe pretty much unknown beyond their homeland but most likely not for too much longer if their debut full-length is the sign of things to come.
http://www.unhumanband.com/ https://www.facebook.com/unhumaninsurrection/ https://twitter.com/unhumanband
Pete RingMaster 14/11/2018
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
Post-war Blues comes next, starting in the distance with a spicy hook which only sounds more flavoursome full in the ear, providing the seed for even spicier inventive grooves and stabbing riffs. Vocals again angrily sear air and ears; Marinakis’s dirty tones a pleasing contrast but equally pleasing conspirator to the emerging adventure of flavours and styles blossoming within the song. From heavy and classic metal to thrash and death animosity, the track’s textures are a fluid kaleidoscope which works really well.
Mark McDonald and sonic intrigue from the guitar of George Masouras backed by that of Angastiniotis as his vocals spill further malevolence into the mix. Elements of the track, as across the album, bring thoughts of bands like Dark Tranquillity and The Pete Flesh Deathtrip but only as spice to something distinct to Stormcast, something again shown by New World Order. The track backs up the might of the first two songs with consummate and uncompromising ease. Keys and guitar offer an immediate inviting drama, before passing the fire to a torrent of niggling riffs and intensive swipes from drummer Andrew Laghos, both courted by a prowling and magnetic bassline from Andreas Spyrou and the return of the roaring horns. Whereas the previous track was a maelstrom of dark emotions and riveting enterprise, keys and guitars weaving radiant melodic colour across a brutal rhythmic and riff painted canvas, the third track strides a brighter terrain of still imposing incitement and intensity. Hooks and grooves light up its landscape with enthralling imagination and expressive hues, whilst the bass of Spyrou makes for a carnivorous accomplice to the raw throated narrative of Angastiniotis.
