Human Cull / Homolka – Split CS/DD 2012

Considering they started under the name Gran Toucher, it’s a relief to see how Human Cull have developed into a more serious proposition than that terrible name would have initially suggested their brief life span thus far. Like most other grindcore bands worth their salt, theirs has been a path strewn with demos and split releases, each of which I’m pleased to see has exhibited a consistent rate of growth in quality.

Here, on this new split tape with Canadians Homolka, we get their magnum opus – by which I mean this is Human Cull ticking off the “let’s do a big long slow song instead of a bunch of short fast ones” box on the to-do list. Their one track here “Cities Become Graves” opens with a more rapid fire section that introduces things nicely before the decrease in speed begins gradually from a mid paced riff before the band settle into hammering a simple, bleak chord progression home for the bulk of the 12 minute duration, picking up the pace only briefly towards the end. Overall their track is pretty reminiscent of The Endless Blockade’s experiments at the slower end of the spectrum, though Human Cull aren’t quite as exciting (or tight) as that band were. Yet.

On the flip, Homolka deliver some fairly pedestrian grind that isn’t 100 miles away from what Human Cull themselves would normally do.. There’s brief injections of noise (which is a plus), and an utterly baffling lyrical stance where one minute they seem to be railing against the religious right and conservatism, and the next are going on about how they want some some “spineless fucking whore” to “choke on his cock”. Am I mentioning this because I’m a “spineless PC fuck”? Possibly, but also because quite frankly, trying to work out if they’re being sarcastic or not was more entertaining than listening to their music.

Final score: UK – 1, Canada – 0.

Label: Goatprayer Records
Human Cull: www.facebook.com/humancull
Homolka: www.facebook.com/pages/Homolka/331745880181203

Scribed by: Jamie Grimes