Horrid Human Condition – Perpetual Balance

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7.0

The one proposed by the Italians Horrid Human Condition is a nice Bignamino: “Perpetual Balance” is in fact a small but exhaustive manifesto that best represents all that world that moves between Crust Punk and Grindcore, a musical area that, despite the passage of time, always has a faithful audience – just think of the Czech Obschene Extreme festival. We are obviously talking about very familiar sounds for those who feed on Napalm Death, Wolfbrigade, Doom, Extreme Noise Terror and Company, listeners who perhaps go more deeply with names such as disrupts or Dystopia and a thousand others.
The ingredients of the recipe are well known: quick times, short pieces (with obviously the exceptions of the midtempls that traditionally become dark, obsessive and elongated), very screamed item (although in this case it also alternates with Growl), political and social issues and black and white collage cover as in the best DIY tradition. The newly made list describes completely “perpetual unbeaten” in its twenty -eight minutes of duration but we do not consider it a limit, on the contrary.
Supported by a practically perfect production, capable of highlighting the most metal side of their sound and an executive technique higher than average, the fourteen songs move very well, providing a version of the Grind/Crust certainly not original but always very enjoyable. Almost all the pieces of the album are to be remembered in terms of writing, involvement and attention to detail: a refrain, a part of drums or a riff – which become a skeleton of a song – always keep attention high. It is already felt from the one-two of the initials “Prelude to Failure” and “Man is overrated”, in the sampling of voice included in “Heavy Burden” or “Endless Nightmare” or in the grindcore fury of the shorter episodes such as “Scorn” or “Famine”.
We have already mentioned average times: the best in our opinion is “Nowhere to Hide”, but in several moments the Horrid Human Condition demonstrate a truly remarkable versatility and at the end of the accounts, they use a remarkable credibility.
Of course, it is difficult to speak of originality, but this vein of extreme music that attracts a composite audience of punk and metallars has always been deliberately and proudly stopped. As for the Horrid Human Condition we are happy to listen to them as they are, but a pinch of more personalities would not spoil, even if only to see them grow and emerge, because the merit is there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0aavkjxwi08