Search - Circle of Dead Children :: Human Harvest

Best 2003 extreme metal album

Christopher Krause | Long Island, New York | 06/20/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Human Harvest is the diary of a desperate man very much at odds with every aspect of society. Departing from the archtypal lyrics common to most death and deathgrind bands which mainly focus on depictions of gore, murder, drug use, rape and other forms of violence and sexual depravity - Circle of Dead Children presents some profoundly philosophic and insightful lyrics in Human Harvest. The lyrics are presented in a neo-transcendtalist poetic prose that manages to convey great disillusionment, frustration and rage.



Central lyrical motifs include: humanity's unnatural rise to the "peak of evolution's tower" and the peversion that brings, the eradication of "tumor mankind", governmental sophistry and thought opression in "flawless domination," humanity's destructive greed, impulse and tendency to instantly gratify and remain bovine, the role that drugs has to do with keeping the people pacified, apathethic and idiotic, automation, fear and mediocrity in society, the ongoing charade of normalcy and achievment that masquerades on top of a rotten foundation (think of Hamlet, King Claudius' speech in Act II, Scene II in which he mourns for King Hamlet's death but celebrates in the same breath after the marrying of his wife and the crowning of a new king, himself) and the destruction of nature and natural logic.



"My Supernatural (Bells Ring Slowly)"



This wound cannot be patched

as my blood runs gelatinous, sweet and black

Only to be tasted by the chafed lips of the inflictor, a mirror

The heavy-handed swift punishing judge

whose sentence is lifelong and indifferent

as puddles of stagnant water

You cannot stop the bleeding with patches alone,

as saturation will reject all but infliction

Reparations all slide off into oblivion

The hunter and the hunted have become one

I was borne for self-destruction

Borne to bleed and freeze

Tears used to jimmy dried scabs of blood from these sheets

Pills to control, to redirect, to attempt to unlearn

Unsatisfied with what this world has had to offer

Satisfaction when the heart stiffens and succumbs

to the hunter's hands, gelatinous, sweet and black

No more pills, no more adjournment

The higher the walls around

the more I will jerk them down upon me

It has become easier to bury the bodies

than to bury the memories and impulsive thoughts

that serve only to confuse and burden

One hand on the shovel, the other around my throat

Borne to bleed and freeze

I have broken all the warm hands that heal

Bones snap and shatter

Muscle tissue around the eyes stretch

and quiver like a fish skinned alive

The only honest satisfaction

Cold and weak, I hope none remember

I will be happy to forget



Circle of Dead Children is technically an extremely brutal band.



Josama Bin Horvath offers some of the best vocals in extreme metal - with inhuman curdles, piercing and demonic shrieks, and toxic, wet lows unlike any band you will ever hear. Amazingly Joe manages to perform these vocals with no distortion. The instrumentation perfectly accompanies Joe's vocals and the overall mood of the lyrics - the vocals never sound disconnected as is the case with many death metal bands.



There isn't any band that comes to mind that sounds like Circle of Dead Children technically. Although you're going to hear some classic deathgrind conventions the implementation of these conventions along with heavy influences from necrodeath black metal, hardcore and extreme death metal promises a unique, addictive sound. The album has a droning, dark, organic guitar track that seems designed to mainly support the vocals - which it does perfectly. Rarely at times in this album the guitars sound Darkthrone-esque for a few moments (usually during blast beats) but then return to support the vocals. The drums are hardcore influenced and provide a perfect, dynamic tempo for the entire album which often brings the action into a slow, vicious interlude only to explode once more into the extreme grinding that dominates most of the album. Unlike other death metal pieces, Human Harvest has a varied tempo that shifts many times throughout one song, making it easily listenable and rememberable. Circle of Dead Children makes use of some terrifying industrial and electronic samples on this album as well. Although its pretty difficult to describe Circle's sound in this review - rest assured that it is refreshing and unlike anything you have heard. The coming together of three very innovative tracks - guitar, drum and vocals, all individually offering something progressive to the table in their own right, make Circle of Dead Children one of the best extreme metal bands around.



Overall Human Harvest is a huge landmark in the evolution of the deathgrind genre and extreme metal in general - it offers insightful, philosophic lyrics and a progresive, unique, evolutionary sound that proves that its OK to be influenced by other types of music. Human Harvest is THE 2003 extreme metal album of the year, and if you havn't heard it yet, you're doing yourself a disservice."