Human Cull
Stillborn Nation
01. Teeth For Revenge
02. The Sentence Is Death
03. Jackals
04. Bomb Gripper
05. Global Furnace
06. Stillborn Nation
07. Unwelcome Methods
08. Death Rituals
09. Superstitious Disease
10. Barely Hominid
11. Sick With Hate
12. Entombed By Progress
13. Point Of No Return
14. Grey Planet
15. Chemical Lobotomy
16. Obliterated
17. Free To Suffer
18. Apathy Advocate
19. You Can’t Disappear
20. Anger Inferno
21. Unwilling Martyrs
22. Only Ashes
23. Echoing Silence
[03/31/14]
[WOOAAARGH]
It’s been said a thousand times before, but the artwork is a huge part of what makes an album so memorable. Great music will always be great music, but if you can consolidate and represent it all together under a single image then you’re pushing that album from being just ‘great’ to ‘iconic’. Human Cull‘s Stillborn Nation may seem fairly unassuming with it’s sparse, monochromatic imagery of a single cropduster flying low over crops, but it’s once you see the full extended artwork that you start to get a better idea of the dense, dystopian future they’re invoking here on Stillborn Nation.
‘Teeth For Revenge‘ opens with the shrill and piercing sound of feedback as an omen of things to come, before giving way to muddied and thick guitar tone that powers forward through gruff barks and harsh shrieks, all sitting on a solid foundation of frantic blastbeats. It’s the kind of opening that defines exactly why the genre is so compelling in the first place—everything feels loose and ready to just fall apart at a moments notice, but instead it simply barges on, tearing up ear drums it meets on the way.
Throughout Stillborn Nation, you’re constantly bombarded with riff after ruthless riff—tracks come and go like one savage beating after another and while it maintains this solid intensity through, the lack of dynamics actually works in their favour. Because as the punk-infused blastings of early Napalm Death ‘Global Furnace‘ and the muddy Brutal Truth-isms of ‘The Sentence Is Death‘ make way for the apocalyptic finale of ‘Echoing Silence‘, the fact you’re struggling to keep your head above water for the majority of it’s running times means that this sudden change in pace makes the track one huge and monolithic highlight.
In all, it’s Stillborn Nation’s complete and rigid stance on making uncompromising music that makes it such a mind-melting listen. It’s pure, unadulterated grindcore filth from start to finish — an album that won’t win anyone over that has already made their mind up about the genre, but a real rough and cut treat for those that adhere to a steady diet of distortion and blastbeats.
Human Cull’s Stillborn Nation gets…
4/5
-DL