Wolf Eyes: Human Animal

★★★★★★★★★★★

Be warned, this is primal noise metal, and it is scary.  One needs to know before listening that Wolf Eyes’ Human Animal isn’t remotely close to your leather clad teased hair metal from days of lore, this is the psychopathic soundscape that hides in the heads of serial killers spilled out onto CD.  A director could take this disk, and literally use the whole thing in order as a musical score to create a cringe inducing fright fest.

“A Million Years” opens with clangs and vibrations, the instruments are hard to decipher, but technical prowess or even known chords and rhythms are not the point.  The music sets a scene; it builds with killers lurking around every corner, the perfect haunted house theme and the worst home-alone-on-a-dark-night background music.  Sax fills sub for voices along with feedback before a ghostly monotone materializes on “Rationed Rot”.  The climax screeching and gunshot percussion in “Rusted Mange” is nightmare/headache inducing.  Of course what horror movie would be complete without the killer returning for the pure evil “The Driller” and the epilogue burning of “Noise Not Music”, some would argue the perfect title. 

I would argue that in its element the Human Animal wins, although I am not sure how often listeners will reach for this audile terror, but when you do, just remember, you’ve been warned.