I know that I shouldn’t, but as soon as I hear “one-man band,” I tend to assume that we’re talking about either suicidal blackened monotony or maybe some atmospheric acoustic-augmented snoozefest. Oh, it’s not black metal, you say? Well, then it must be one of those slam-death gore-and-gurgles types like Putrid Pile or Insidious Decrepancy, and those aren’t my favorites either. There are exceptions, of course, mostly in bands that weren’t always one-man – Bathory, Edge Of Sanity, Blut Aus Nord… Hell, I’ll even concede that the earliest Toxic Holocaust recordings are fine, fun-enough retro-thrash. Still, by and large, most one-man bands don’t do it for me – they usually seem so… one-sided.
Pictured: Striborg.
But never say never ever, I guess, because along comes Belgium’s Humanity Defiled, and damned if it doesn’t tick most of the right boxes.
The death metal outlet of Iwein Denayer, who also has a one-man black metal project Doodsangst (so, see, I’m not entirely off-base in my assumptions), Humanity Defiled has released two full-lengths in three years – this being the second. Mostly, the reason Humanity Defiled resonates with me is that they sound quite a lot like Bolt Thrower, and that’s never a bad thing. Atop their steamroller drive, these songs are given room to breathe, the riffs balanced nicely between chunky chords and ominous melodies, the tempos ranging from double-kick-driven thrashing to doom-paced trudges. The drums are programmed, but Denayer does a good enough job keeping them human – the sounds are realistic, the patterns natural, not unduly precise and robotic. Denayer’s vocals are low, throaty, definitely following Karl Willets’ lead, and while they do get a bit monotonous throughout (only breaking into a different sound once), they’re capably executed.
Like almost all metal, ultimately The Demise Of The Sane lives and dies by the quality of its riffs, and from those, the quality of the songs that hold them. Therein, Humanity Defiled succeeds more than it fails – the Bolt Thrower influence is immediately evident in the pounding title track, with its relentless trudge and tremolo-picked guitars. From there, through the harmonized riffs of “Angel Wings” and the thrash-drive of “Forked Tongue Delusion,” Demise is rock solid. Standing strong at the album’s halfway point is the literal and metaphorical centerpiece of “Asystole,” which at over eight minutes in length is both Demise’s longest and greatest track. Microcosmic of Demise, “Asystole” shifts between doom-gaited lurches and death metal pummeling, while guitar melodies and sparse piano chords intertwine between the riffs.
In Demise’s second half come the only two (admittedly somewhat minor) quibbles that I have with it – the cover of Boston hardcore act SSD’s “Headed Straight” is an interesting choice, given the death metal treatment, but it still sticks out a bit. (It is, for better or worse, the only time Denayer varies his vocal attack, barking more here, sounding choked and more like a d-beater.) It’s not a dud, but it’s almost unnecessary in light of the quality of what precedes it, and the same can be said for the instrumental “Loss,” which is basically a shreddy guitar solo performed by guest guitarist Alexander Swaelens. Neither track adds much, but neither really detracts either, only prolonging the Demise.
I must say that The Demise Of The Sane is a more-than-pleasant surprise, all told, a one-man band that doesn’t bore me after a few tunes. Further icing the cake, Denayer provides his records as pay-what-you-want downloads on the ol’ Bandcamp, so if a nice Bolt Thrower-y dash of death sounds like a good time (and it does, and it is), then scoot on over and maybe throw the nice man a couple of Euros.
