Review Summary: 5 years wasn't long enough...
Critics of bands like Protest the Hero or even Death Cab Cutie have been known to cite repulsive vocals as a reason for their displeasure. Those opinions have always bothered me because they deal less with the songwriting and musicianship of the band, and more with a variable the band themselves really couldn’t change. So, when I say Matt Mazzali’s vocals are utterly loathsome and simultaneously stick this record with a poor rating, know I’m not crutching my entire opinion on that one intangible factor.
Let’s start by listening to “The Creation Ruin”. Immediately the band strikes you with their combination of jerky chaos and musical harmoniousness, and throughout all of it you have Mazzali choking out his angry lines. An actual criticism I would give Mazzali is his syllable usage. When you pay attention to his pacing it is pretty typical. Perhaps with some creative vocal rhythms he could really contribute more to the music.
Five years in the making, the record actually begins with “Venomspreader”, an explosive opener. Just 1:45 in length, it is a jarring listen. Wackier then it brutal, it ebbs and flows like water in a pool directly above an earthquake. "Venomspreader" also blatantly displays the band's punk influence, most apparent in Andrew Gormley’s drum work. The title track begins smoother and more melodically. The drumming is fast, but the music moves slowly which is a cool effect. Mazzali’s shouting leads as usual, and the track suffers a bit under it. Still more detrimental is the song’s structure. “Misanthropy Pure” weaves in and out of sections haphazardly, and the result is a forgettable and ineffective track. Also, several times the song sets up for a breakdown or a really heavy section, and they instead choose to resolve with some melodic, measured progression. Choices like that irk me. Being a metalcore band they combine hardcore-punk with heavy and sometimes melodic metal; possessing more of the hardcore-punk side then typical contemporary metalcore bands, the result of that lopsided amalgamation is just awkward.
“We Who Finish Last” suffers in the same way that “Misanthropy Pure” does; the song’s movement is clumsy. Both melodically and rhythmically there is no clear sense of direction or focus. Guitarists Chad Kishick and Matt Fox leap from riff to progression in a dizzying and annoying way. Not to say that I don’t enjoy any of the riffs or progressions, but their holistic effect is unpleasant.
On “Chorus of the Dissimilar” we are submitted to more misanthropic (ho!) lyrics, like
all embattled we cynics and outcasts / raze and reshape the accepted social ordered for total rehumanization. “In the Mind and Marrow” features atonal guitar harmonies resulting in a really dissonant tone. When Mazzali croaks
brother, you are in error, it could be a really chilling moment, yet with the lack of flow in the song it awkwardly backhands you in a gauche manner. The track ends as harshly as ever, but the final time that phrase is repeated it does hit you deep, and that alone makes it a standout track on the album. The tempo picks up on “To Bear the Brunt of Many Blades”. With some of the most disquieting lyrics on the album, it packs some real power. Musically it is one of most cohesive songs, and that adds to its poignancy. Palm-muted guitar bursts propel the song early on, and when Mazzali shouts
out from the shadows, well-wisher / the gleam of your blade gives you away / drawn from me, my smiling assassin it is truly affecting. This song especially is stuffed with killer phrases, but after the song ends you’re left off balance in a bad way. The flow is just really poor, and the end is way too sudden. That is my main problem with the album. It kills potential energy and causes the album to really drag. So while I express satisfaction with parts like the aforementioned one in "To Bear the Brunt of Many Blades", the track fails as a whole. It is too disjointed.
I do have some compliments for the group. Their lyrics are genuinely thought-provoking and intelligent. That’s not something metal is typically commended for, though of course there are exceptions. Also, they avoid using filler breakdowns like you find in ever-so-imaginative groups like the Devil Wears Prada. At the same time, I wouldn’t have minded hearing more then just the few short ones like in “Set Your Body Ablaze”. Also notable is the good production on the album. My other real compliment goes to “To Bear the Brunt of Many Blades”, for being as epic as it was in the midst of my confusion.
But then I listen to a song like “Cold Lord Quietus” and return to my state of exasperation. It’s just so jagged in its progression; there is hardly any musical fulfillment at any point. Perhaps someone with more tolerable ears will love this, as apparently so many people do. By calling my ear intolerable I don’t mean to imply that I struggle to stomach Shai Hulud’s brutality or heaviness. In no way are they very brutal at all, and I could name a wealth of bands heavier (this is only metalcore after all) that I really appreciate and enjoy. What I fail to tolerate is the lack of sensibility with regards to aesthetic direction. I applaud their melodic and sometimes even anti-melodic atonal passages which sound largely inspired. The problem lies in their piecing together and structuring of such passages with regards to some harmonic or even discordant goal. There are even more chaotic bands that I dig for a lack of cohesion in their music, but here Shai Hulud hover between that and accessible, melodic metalcore. An issue as deeply rooted as that is enough to destroy a potentially ‘superb’ album for me. Pile the vocals on top of that, and
Misanthropy Pure is an album I’ll have no trouble forgetting.
