Human Wreckage

The English scene introduced quite a few late-comers (Hydra Vein, Detritus, Slammer, Sabbat, Xentrix, Acid Reign, etc.) who swarmed the thrash metal circuit in the late-80’s, and managed to leave a trace despite the short duration of their careers. The band under scrutiny here should by all means be added to this list although they are the shortest-lived outfit of the lot. For an act who were looking to inflict as much destruction and mayhem (the name) as possible, they should have accumulated more stuff, and should have lasted longer, but two full-lengths and a split with Candlemass and Dark Angel between those was all they left behind as a legacy.

This “human wreckage” here is a decent beginning if nothing else, the band going for the not very eventful mid-paced approach (the livelier “Death Warmed Up”, “KiIling Time”) initially, a somewhat monotonous start with crossover and thrash tossed in the air in a more rudimentary, not very spectacular fashion. “Infernal Torment” is an improvement on this cumbersome formula, an effective dark atmospheric piece, its not very vociferous thunder stolen by the vivid semi-technical Bay-Area winker “Prophets of Doom”. Occurrences of the kind never become the norm, sadly, if we exclude the short bursting closer “F.O.D.”, a 2-min blistering blend of aggression and technicality, the guys settling for their solid but not very exuberant mid-tempo excursions, the title-track betraying the chosen course with the mellower power metal-ish clout and the memorable chorus.

This isn’t as bad as the other reviews posted here have tried to make it look; it’s adequately performed, a standard old school thrash fare without any particular highs, the steady semi-clean/semi-declamatory vocals a relevant accompaniment if not exactly a desirable booster. The crisp sound quality also shows a more serious intention, one that surely materialized in a more full-blooded manner on the second instalment, a reverential nod at the Bay-Area fraternity, shades of which were present the first time around, but not as overly. With a more tangible example to follow, the band hit the mark alright but were done very shortly after. The destruction and mayhem they caused with their repertoire was easily reparable, especially when the reunion stint from 2012 produced nothing… well, they’re pretty much the only English thrash veterans that are still goofing around, without resurfacing in any way. It doesn’t have to be something destructive; just a sniff of the good old thrash should suffice, to keep England in the metal game.

Perhaps one of the least distinctive bands on the entire Noise Records roster (along with Grinder), Morecambe's D.A.M. was snapped up near the tail end of the thrash craze of the 80s. But to be fair to these Englishmen, sticking out amidst a stable that included Coroner, Voivod, Helloween, Celtic Frost, Kreator, Sabbat, Tankard, Destruction, and a dozen other legacy acts of their caliber would be difficult for anyone to accomplish, so one can hardly count this among their faults...but fear not, because they've got plenty of others, beginning and ending with the fact that their songwriting and overall style were so painfully average that their acronym is about the only thing I could remember about them unless you were shoving this record directly into my face. And that's the problem, here, because by the time their debut Human Wreckage arrived, the medium had already been kicked into the stratosphere both commercially ('the Big Four') and artistically (Coroner, Artillery, and others either had released their brilliant showstoppers or were on the verge of doing so).

So...what was left of the pie for D.A.M. ('Destruction and Mayhem') to gnaw upon? Just a few chunks of apple or peach at the bottom, scraped up with a dull and rusted fork and swallowed with a stale pint. Now, I'm not trying to make the case that these gentlemen were incompetent by any means: Human Wreckage is comprised of the standard, serviceable sort of thrash you'd find in many urban/suburban neighborhoods in both the States and Europe throughout the 80s. Most of us had a handful of local bands on this level in either the demo stage or getting their first label break before the wave broke with The Black Album and grunge, but D.A.M.'s own bit opportunity placed them among giants, or rather, giants-in-the-making. So I guess I must state up front that some of my unfavorable reaction to this record was colored by expectations I held for what was easily my favorite label of the time. There was a particular standard of quality I imagined for all efforts under the Noise banner, with the possible exception of some of the borderline hard rock/metal light releases. Yeah, there were disappointments, like Cold Lake, but these were 'after the fact', poor decisions made by the artists and their management that had the misfortune to follow masterpieces.

But with a band like this, it seems like Karl-Ulrich Walterbach and crew might have just randomly chosen a tape out of the slushpile (sheer speculation, for all I know they were the object of a bidding war). Human Wreckage is composed of incredibly bland 'street enforcer' thrash with a distinctly New York feel highly reminiscent of not only Anthrax (Among the Living, State of Euphoria) but occasionally some of the hardcore/thrash crossovers like Cro-Mags or Leeway. The standard practice here is mid-paced, palm muted rhythm guitar progressions configured into 90% completely predictable patterns, with only the rare exception to appreciate. Everyman thrash in redux. Fist pumping, 'plain Jane' riffs that have almost no inspirational qualities which are often accelerated into basic tremolo picked speed/thrash sequences which are just as dry of compelling notation as the mosh parts. No superb melodies inherent within the rhythm guitar riffs, and almost no capacity to incorporate wicked sounding minor riffs to create anything despotic, threatening or evil. So it's 'street thrash' without the meanness. About the best you could say for the writing is that they're pretty good at tacking on a little atmospheric lead here or there to spare the listener from utter boredom...

This was a Harris Johns production, so the guitars are going to rule the roost, but obviously not one of the better records he worked on. Clean, but at the same time, sterile. The drums have dreadfully little power, generally just slim snare-driven beats over the mid-speed stuff and then occasionally a clumsy and ineffective semi-blast when they speed up, the kick having all the character of a plastic bucket. Bass guitars thump along with all the presence of a salaryman passing you on the subway, effortless echoes of the rhythm guitar, almost like a pale shadow of Frank Bello without the muscle and personality. Attempts to 'dress us' Human Wreckage with classical guitar intros ("M.A.D.") and interludes ("Vendetta") fall flat on their faces since the material they setup is just so drastically uninspired, and a whole lot of weight is left on the vocalist's shoulders to entertain us. And the guy tries, using a bitter layman inflection which shifts between a mid and higher range, spinning a bit of acid and vitriol in there that reminds me of a lot of second tier Teutonic thrashers' accents, with a bit of Bobby 'Blitz' Ellsworth influence for good measure, and some gang shouts to back him. Definitely a loose cannon, and a lot of his lines outright suck, but one gets the impression that with better music he would have become much more unhinged and entertaining.

Most of the lyrics are far from terrible (though the chorus of the title track tries hard), but just combing over the song titles seems like they just lifted them from other bands' names or song titles, and it only adds to the generic quality that has plagued Human Wreckage for going on 25 years. A drooling teenage Noise fanboy, I picked this up for the label association alone, and it was one of those tapes I put on my headphones and then quickly shelved, thinking that perhaps I just wasn't 'getting it' and I could go back to it later. Turns out that wasn't the case, this is just really banal thrash that might give Sabbat's Mourning Has Broken a run for its money as a sleeping aid. A few tolerable tunes like "Terror Squad" and "Aliens", but even those lack the big hooks and choruses that I did then and do now continue to demand of this genre. D.A.M. obviously enjoys performing thrash metal (otherwise they would not still be at it), but sadly Human Wreckage was straight-to-the-bargain-bin shovelware. The surplus of a beyond-saturated signing spree.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Okay, it's thrash, so that's some instant pointage there... unfortunately, it's really generic, and poor in the execution. It sounds at times like it's trying to be And Justice for All. Mercifully, the production isn't nearly as muffled, but the songwriting is just as unwieldy at times.

At best, the album is fun and punchy in that Agent Orange sense... sometimes it out tiredandreds even Tired and Red, with that "let's milk the shit out of this one riff" trick that sometimes just works really well, despite the fact that it seems like it wouldn't. See, for example, "Left to Rot", which pretty much IS the Tired and Red riff. Good midpaced thrash... a bit uninspired, when all is said and done, but worth a listen or two.

The absolute highlight, however, is the second track. Death Woke Up/Killing Time is theoretically one song, though you can figure out EXACTLY where the split is. Both halves are very fun. However, like most mediocre thrash albums, this one runs out of gas very quickly. Sometimes the riffs sound like Atrophy - not just the riffs, but the guitar and vocal performance combined. See "Total Destruction", which is a complete ripoff of an Atrophy song - I forget which one offhand, because Atrophy are also so generic that it's hard to remember the individual songs.

The album's really far too long. There isn't material here to cover the 50 minutes or howevermany there are. When they're thrashing, they're doing okay for a bit before hitting the wall. Meliah Rage (masters of milking one riff and staying interesting), this band is not.

Then, at times they have the slower, more "atmospheric" songs that are pretty much the complete antithesis of songs like Seasons in the Abyss. They plod, they suck, they make far too much use of simplistic three note riffs, and put on top of that some incredibly boring vocals. See "Infernal Torment" for an example of this. The guy's just... talking. Most of the time, though, he's got the Brit-punk vocals thing going on, which is at times a bit over-the-top, but usually nothing to complain about.

There's two punkish songs to be found here. One is Vendetta, which is complete shit. It's sort of a speedcore and it's fast for the sake of being fast. The second is FOD, which is more fun and more midpaced and has better-defined riffs. It's a borderline instrumental (the entire lyrical content is two yells of "F! O! D!").

Ehhh. There's nothing really to be said about this album. At times, a few cool moments, but the only thing really worth going out of your way to hear is Death Warmed Up/Killing Time. Otherwise pretty much expendable.