Dystopia - Human = Garbage - Album Review

They say Black Metal is the most hate-driven genre is music. They're wrong, and Dystopia is the reason why. Crust/Sludge giants Dystopia have released numerous EPs and Splits and one full-length throughout their career, but their 1994 compilation is the high point.

Human = Garbage consists of 12 hateful Crust Punk tracks taken from 2 of their earlier splits and the EP titled the same. The amount of misanthropy and hate filled in this release is evident from the first track itself, with an intro in which the vocalist recites his disgust with the modern society in a frustrated voice, and a straight-forward crust song follows. The band doesn't stick to the usual punk formula of writing a single riff and playing it through a 1-minute track, but instead varies the riffs and speed, occasionally slowing down and becoming sludgy. There are samples scattered throughout the songs, and used very well and fit the mood of the songs, especially songs like Sanctity and Love/Hate.

 

After track 6, the band gets into a full Crust Punk mode and all songs after that are much faster and aggressive, sometimes as brutal as Grindcore with blast-beats and super-fast riffs in Slaved Chain and Ruptured Silence. These songs explore the less sludgy sound of the band. Throughout the compilation, the vocals are the main feature of interest, as all 3 members of the band handle the vocals, and each one of them has a different vocal style, so there's a good amount of variety to them. The frustrated high-pitched vocals, and hardcore screams and angry growling, all perfectly suit the lyrical themes of the band. There is a slight drop in aggression level with like Green Destroyed and Weed of Wisdom have a catchy groove to them despite some grind parts while Broken Shell is a slower, sludgier song but still has a catchy sound to it. The relentless crust assault keeps going with the song Sleep, which is taken from their split with the Sludge band Grief, and work very well as a closing song due to the memorable acoustic passage accompanied by sludge riffs near the end of the song after 2 and half minutes of destructive crust punk assault.

The compilation is recommended for Metal and Punk fans alike, and Dystopia is undoubtedly one of the most hateful and aggressive band one would ever come across.