If I had a nickel for every time I liked a deathgrind album named after Osamu Dazai‘s acclaimed and best-selling novel 人間失格1 — most famously translated as “No Longer Human”, but also translated as “Disqualified as a Human” — I’d have two nickels. In the novel, protagonist and ne’er-do-well Yozo Oba paints a self portrait of himself as a “monster” after being inspired by Van Gogh. The painting is never described, but it can be inferred that the vision of himself that Oba has is grotesque and horrifying. Abstract, grotesque figures also adorn the beautiful cover art of these fine Greek gentlemen’s third album, which promises twenty minutes of a good, grinding time. Does the album live up to the striking cover art and title?
Deathgrind is a genre that has a lot of sonic variation, despite what someone unfamiliar with it may expect. Nasum don’t really sound much like Assuck, who also sound distinctly different from Repulsion or Terrorizer. Vile Species drink from Repulsion‘s well, with audible guitars and a focus on fast, nasty riffs with just the right amount of thrash and black metal influence. No slow groove sections here (ok, there’s one but the point stands). More contemporary comparisons could be made to Anaal Nathrakh‘s Domine Non es Dignus, or France’s woefully under appreciated Bain de Sang.
Vile Species sound pissed. All their lyrics are in all-caps,2 and one listen is easy enough to hear it. The band utilize their two-vocalist approach to the fullest, with one delivering parched highs and the other providing a quite nasty growl. Call-and-response and harmonization is frequently used (most prominently on “Those Who Act Violent”), giving some much-needed variety to a sound that easily falls into the trap of vocal monotony. The drumming, while being always fast, do not always stay on blast mode, just doing enough to maintain a constant forward momentum that makes the 21 minutes even shorter than it seems.
While Vile Species‘s forward momentum is outstanding and keeps replayability high, fatigue low, one side effect is a lack of memorability in the riffs. The guitar is sharp and gets your head moving, but there aren’t any riffs that wowed me or I’d call memorable. The guitars serve the purpose of giving you a shove on the back (presumably into a subway line) and keeping the momentum going. As such, this is a good album if you need something fast, propulsive, and mean; I’m simply not sure I’ll be raving about Disqualified as a Human to other grind fans as some sort of overlooked masterpiece in a few years. Still; if you want a good, solid beating, look no further than Vile Species. It’s name-your-price on Bandcamp so there’s no real reason to not give it a go.
