It’s Monday and Mondays suck, so let’s grind it out with The Human Race is Filth’s Human Exposed.
As we further crawl out of the holidays and further into the cold wastelands of winter, it’s easy to feel like the sharp winds and shivers will never end. In reality, winter is a crawl, but personally, I’ll take it over the scorching summer. Something about the desolation and stripped trees is preferable to burning up. And speaking of desolation, let’s talk about The Human Race is Filth (or THRIF).
Hailing from York, PA, the sludgy grinders bring hence an excellent EP to brave the cold months. Walking a tight rope between heinous blasts and thick, pissed dredging, THRIF encapsulates their name well. Spewing disgust and mayhem that sounds like a fitting soundtrack to the extermination of humanity.
“Fence Walker” kicks things off with a blast that slows and drops into a build and gets back to blasting. The unpolished, roughness of the recording sets the mood just right: grim and gray. “Fence Walker” is just the taste. A grinder you’d expect, and it does its job well. However, the fuzzy nature of this EP, and how heavy it stays, make it a real crusher.
“Uncivilized Pigs” is the four-minute follow-up that solidifies the album’s murk. A slow, sludgy beat works its way under the skin but doesn’t pick up too quickly. It takes almost two-minutes for the track to start really kicking up some dust. And even then, pissed as the piece is, it sticks to a sludgier trudge. The punk aspect remains though.
“Sufferage is Reality” gets things back into the grind, but not before spending some more time in moody sludge territory. Meanwhile, “Race Waste” is a full-on crust banger. It’s grinding, punk and pissed as hell. Both tracks remain on the shorter side, and like this paragraph, are here and gone.
“Culture of Guilt” closes the EP on fuzzy, heavy note. The track never reaches a grinding stage, never even really picks up much. It’s a pure spoilage of misery and sludge. It’s also the best track on the album. The anger of this EP reaches its apex and holds here until the song fades out. It’s disgusting and heavy, and a perfect send off.
THRIF have hit the ground running with Human Exposed. It’s a bleak introduction, but with a name like The Human Race is Filth, I don’t suppose too many of us expected them to turn out into a secret cover band of The Chordettes*. But now that I consider that, it’d be kinda awesome. But until the day we get a sludge/grind/crust band doing those covers, go forth and muck through your Monday with some THIRF.
*I know Blind Guardian covered "Mr. Sandman". But you're going to tell me they covered "Mr. Sandman" anyway, aren't you?
