It's Monday and Mondays suck, so let's grind it out with Sachiel's Human Instrumentality.
Here's an album I remember finding shortly after it came out back in 2017, probably on one of the YouTube channels I follow that constantly upload grind and death metal. And I know that anyone who loves Neon Genesis Evangelion would also immediately click on that icon. But for some reason it just didn't mesh with me then. Maybe it was a mood, maybe the timing wasn't right. But fast forward to 2019, years after Final Impact and our gooy, gooy merge with the LCL, and let's grind into this chestnut.
Human Instrumentality is Sachiel's first release, out of four. In fact, the band just dropped a brand new track called "Ryugu", which shows an incredible growth and songwriting and sound. But with Sachiel, it's seems more purtinent to start at the beginning as this just isn't a typical grind band. But, when I see a band label themselves as powerviolence, grind and black metal, great things come to mind. Specifically if Anaal Nathrakh started sampling some Infest. No, that would fucking rule, I don't care what you think.
Human Instrumentality isn't a concept album. Going into it, I figured it would be but it's only a few tracks about The End of Evangelion with quotes/ideas that the series puts up sprinkled into other songs. What Human Instrumentality is, is a beast. Over nine tracks, Sachiel burn and burn through fuzzy, buzzsaw driven songs that'll make sawdust spew from your speakers. However, it's the writing that threw me about this album at first.
Sachiel doesn't sound like a typical grindcore band. At least not at first, and I'm not sure if that has something to do with the recording aspect or the fact that the band walk a fine line between black metal, hardcore/punk, powerviolence and grindcore. There are times actually when this record can feel more like an Integrity album or old Converge. See, tracks like the opener "I'm So Fucked Up" and "N.E.R.V.". The tracks really break themselves up between grind and metallic hardcore breakdowns.
Furthermore, the powerviolence tag can kinda throw one. Those that know the genre know it's a lot more erratic and works as a bridge between grind, hardcore and sludge. Sachiel do utlizie it in tracks like "Sonozaki" but generally stick to the grindier or more hardcore side of things while keeping everything sounding blackened. And in fact, as the album progresses, it takes on a grindier approach, not unlike the aforementioned Nathrakh, but not quite at the level of pure nihilistic hatred that they can reach.
Bottom line, Human Instrumentality is a crushing, raw record. Evangelion fans that like metal, hardcore or both are going love how apocalyptic this record is. But so are people that just like crushing grind. In the world of grindcore, this is more on the breakdown side of things, but that doesn't make this record any less cutting. Get grinding on this one!
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