Blast Rites #1: Nak’ay / Hate For Humanity – Split 12″ Review

Blast Rites: because grindcore rules.

Author’s Note: Hey, look at that, will ya? I’m trying something new here, taking our established Fast Rites short-form review concept and applying it to my obsession with all things blasting and grinding. Hence, the birth of Blast Rites, a sporadic series of grind-focused scribblings that will often be as short as the records that inspire them.

So without further ado, let’s get blasted…

Nak’ay dropped a smasher of a record last year with their first full-length, Closed Doors / Open Veins, a record that I included as an honorable mention on my year-end list (and one I should’ve included on the actual list, had I not been a chump and given it a fair shake earlier in the year). Now, about seven months later, these Indianan death / grinders are back and paired with California’s Hate For Humanity for this absolute ripper of a split 12″, which is out now digitally and coming on vinyl from Memphis-based Wise Grinds Records.

Nak’ay’s brand of grinding is heavy on the death metal riffs, dashed through with hints of blackness, and typically driven by a vicious tendency towards relentless tempos and turn-on-a-dime twists. Some of their earlier split releases blurred together in a wash of lower-fidelity mixes dominated by Andy Sanchez’ pounding drums, but that’s not the case here, as this latest split is made up of some of their best-produced material yet. From the bulldozer drive of opening number “Death Transcendence,” which clocks in at an epic length of almost two minutes, nearly twice as long as every other song on hand, Nak’ay blitzes forward with vicious death metal riffing and a dual-guttural vocal attack. That opener is a methodical and crushing introduction, one that wouldn’t have been out of place on a classic Asphyx album, but it’s one that belies the frenzy to come. (Fear not, dedicated speedsters, it doesn’t take long before the blasting commences, and then “Death Transcendence” settles into a killer pounding.) Each of these seven songs is a serious rager, each with world-beating hooks built into its riffs, like the eerie melodies that poke through the chaos of “Increments” and “Effigies,” each of those songs balancing the blastbeating against quick moments of swaggering drive.

Hate For Humanity’s side isn’t as technically accomplished as Nak’ay’s, but what it may lack in relative polish, it certainly makes up for in sheer intensity. These two fellers make one hell of a fun racket, fourteen songs of ferocious grinding, none longer than a minute. No surprises; no left turns or twists; just chunky punky riffing and savage blasting beneath Jeff Sandidge’s raw-throat roar. It’s difficult to pick highlights when the lot of it is one cohesive piece like this; each of Hate For Humanity’s tunes is as strong as the rest, the sum of their parts adding up to one destructive whole. The final five of these fourteen songs are taken from the band’s 2020 demo – there’s a noticeable shift in production values between the two sets of songs, with the earlier material rawer and harsher – so this split also conveniently wraps up all of Hate For Humanity’s released material so far. What’s here is definitely a promising start for a band not yet two years old.

The year is early yet, and the days are short and dark and cold, so it’s all the better time for grinding. This is fifteen minutes of filth and fury, so get to it.

Posted by Andrew Edmunds

Last Rites Co-Owner; Senior Editor; born in the cemetery, under the sign of the MOOOOOOON...

All Posts