Review Summary: Experimental and fairly generic effort pulled by Human Improvement Process, with few disengaging formulas unnecessary to be covered.
On my first thought, Human Improvement Process is quite an interesting yet a very cheesy name for a band, to which this reason alone is enough to heighten my curiosity of what these Italian metalheads could offer. On another note, these guys are well-praised as a highly experimental death metal band - meaning they could really mean some serious hard-hitting technical business, or some sort. But what really makes
Deafening Dissonant Millennium so special? Let’s find out.
To describe the record as a whole,
Deafening Dissonant Millennium is quite a technically-infused death metal storm with resemblance to its larger contemporaries but overshadowed by many death metal clichés back and forth that the album feels cloudy and suffocated. To be honest,
Deafening Dissonant Millennium is a raw arsenal of anything called "technical" in its respective territory. It just serves an honest experimental listening experience with quite a few exciting gimmicks here and there. The record starts very promising with "Jenova," containing some faux-industrialized electronic passage, but ends up abruptly, quickly shifting to the album-titled track, "Deafening Dissonant Millennium." The track is a decent one, with some fairly interesting riffs and above-average drumming, only to be rendered ineffective by treacherous breakdowns and poor vocal delivery.
Pick from these instances: the energetic intro of "Empty Eyes" and the action-packed delivery on the first half of "Artificial Savior;" or the mysteriousness of solemn acoustic guitar interlude "Materioscura." (Pretty cool track title I must say) It just proves that only the few enjoyable moments dissipated on
Deafening Dissonant Millennium saved Human Improvement Process from failing miserably. But still, the disability to forge every track without always relentlessly depending on derogative aspects and weak clichés tends to disorganize the album in a rough fashion. The lack of consistency aggravates the aforementioned effort; it feels like all nifty sub-elements are being forced inappropriately into each and every songs that the grandiose of ideas Human Improvement Process carelessly planned is shattered and in the end, becomes hardly attractive at all.
The clean, rock-esque vocals established here are just frustrating and obviously not welcome on
Deafening Dissonant Millennium. Experimental doesn’t always mean that you fully-alter the formula, and it doesn’t always mean that you sacrifice the sense of musical proficiency and demerit one’s potential at the cost of something new and heavy. Of course, guitars never failed to deliver interesting chord and riff utilization, in fact it is the most exhilarating part of the record. The drumming is also energetic and album’s industrial theme keeps it interesting every now and then.
At this point, Human Improvement Process needs to learn that sense of unity and self-fulfillment on what they do must be developed for the listeners to appreciate their skills as a musician. Now, it’s either accepting their failed attempts to perfectly abandon their massive flaws as a death metal neophyte and head towards matured songwriting, or keeping their lousy gimmicks and staying as a stagnant, full-force mainstream band- with no subsequent potential to be found.
