Customer Reviews

Human Animal (Dig)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was sorry I missed Wolf Eyes when they came to town. After reading and hearing lots of good things about them and seeing the excellent new cover art, I had to buy this cd out of curiosity, since I don't own anything else by them yet. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed. It's not pure noise like some people would accuse them of being. In fact, this album has a very paced feel to it, and the rhythmic quality is subtle. I grew up on lots of industrial, and a low-fi, angrier Skinny Puppy comes to mind somewhat. I like the grittiness of this music--the addition of squonking, squeaking horns and the use of fat, crunchy, tough as steel drum machine rhythms and beats. The first three tracks start off slowly, and I imagine a once sleeping beast (the cover art helps with visualization here) slowly rising from its slumber, covered in sludge, lumbering through a foggy swamp, searching for its target until track four, when it pauses, sees its prey or enemy and goes ape. These guys masterfully create a mood and an atmosphere and take you somewhere with their music.

"Human Animal" is obviously a very dark album, as also indicated by its curious track titles. At only about thirty-five minutes I wish it was a little longer. But maybe the shotness is a good thing because I think many listeners might come off from this bleak, bold sound-trip somewhat exhausted by the time it ends. Not for the timid.

Wolf Eyes are one of the most important bands around. They need to be noticed by more and more people, simply so that their re-imagining of noise and music can be heard. A magazine review claimed that WE were inventing a new musical language, and I really believe this to be the case.

Certainly it will not be to everyones tastes, but that isn't the point. Like Merzbow, Jazkamer and Kevin Drumm, this album shows the possibilities that exist outside a simply musical approach to sound, and shows that anything is possible.

This album is a huge quantum leap forward from Burned Mind, and I cannot wait to hear their next emission...

This album is awesome. One of the best noise albums that I have listened to in a while. There is such a huge range of intensity and sound in this album the tracks use silence very well as well as really loud volumes. There are some heavy free form jazz and John Zorn influences on this album. The sounds created go from a wall of electronic noise to ear shattering single tones and very strong notes that drone on. This album has some really heavy arrhythmic bass with slight dub overtones, metal noise that slashes through everything, and dense atmospherics that take you on a dark and pulsating journey.

I am of course presuming that Mordor had analog synths, liked to torture guitars, and used amplifier/mic tapping overload, but this seems like a safe guess. I don't usually go for "noise music" as such, but the fact that this is structured so well, doesn't go on forever thus overtaxing the listener's ear, and even seems to have riffs of a sort present in the chaos gives this appeal for me, while throwing the claim of the cover, "Noise Not Music" into doubt. Sorry guys, this is loud, painful and disconcerting while remaining music. Very MOVING music.

Track descriptions: The first track starts quietly enough, although there are some things clunking, popping and tapping around. An Albert Ayleresque sax enters the melee at some point, then there is this horrifying sound which defies description-this is the sound Hell makes. I think we are into the second track, "Lake Of Roaches." Other favorites include the title track, freakin' loud again, but again, there is the semblance of a riff going on here. Track five, "Rusted Mange." I think the singer is saying he "hates" something...Track six is another ambient soundscape of Hell, but this one is almost soothing, relaxing at some points. This is especially nice, showing this band's capacity for loud/soft dynamics, employing them with skill. Track seven, "The Driller," is another riff-rocker, with sampled dentistry. As a third-shifter, my best recommendation for listening is waking up in complete darkness, throw the disc on, crawl back into bed and listen as you slowly wake up.

Since their last album for Sub Pop, Wolf Eyes have released something like a dozen albums (!), and that's not counting their collaboration with avant-jazz pioneer Anthony Braxton. Of course, these things were released on either tiny micro-labels or plain old CD-Rs, and finding them might be difficult even on the web. Of course, many of us weren't really looking anyway. In any event, the Wolf-men are back (semi) overground with album number two for Sub Pop. Call it an "official" release if you must, but the main question casual fans might ask is how the band has progressed in the last two years and dozen obscure releases. The answer to that is "not much" or "are you kidding?" The new album basically treads the same stylistic ground, which is basically noise, and lots of it. Usually this involves synths and other digital equipment being abused so thoroughly it sounds more effed-up than the contents of Mel Gibson's skull after a weeklong booze binge. Of course, rather than ranting about Jews killing Jesus or Buddha or Elvis, Wolf Eyes are more interested in things like "Rationed Rot" or "Lake of Roaches" (actual song titles!). The few tracks that have any vocals at all are unintelligable, said vocalist sounding like Skinny Puppy's Ogre being given a tonsilectomy with a blowtorch. Actually, about half the album doesn't even bother with any type of rhythm, instead oozing and flowing like a river of New Jersey toxic sludge being funneled through your ear canals. Still, you want progression? Okay, a couple of tracks feature some wounded elephant saxophone. Think that'll win 'em a Grammy?

I don't quite remember how I ever stumbled upon Wolf Eyes, or why I decided on "Human Animal" as my first album from this wild group of entropic sound blasters, but I know for sure that my interest in their offerings is starting to grow at an exponential rate now that I've had a taste of their work!

My ears were glued to this album from start to finish, with unexpected surprises and psychedelic entities lurking around every mangled corner. I had no idea that their sound was so full-bodied until I had it spinning in my record player. The samples I had heard online didn't really do proper justice to the full range of tones that Wolf Eyes has packed into this album. Before hearing it, the only real exposure I had to the noise scene was Sonic Youth, so I really hadn't anticipated the depth of rumbling bass tones, high-end hisses, and mid-range snarls that awaited me throughout. When you've got such brash noise being conveyed with such exceptional tonal clarity and fullness, it all makes for an extremely psychedelic listening experience. This is, without a doubt, my new favorite "dark psychedelic" album.

As an aside, it's worth noting that the bonus track entitled "Noise Not Music" does not exist anywhere on the vinyl release, despite Amazon's product description. Other than that, this record is a serious masterpiece of brilliant tones and cacophonous revelry. If a hint of bravery finds you, find this album!

Wolf eyes seem to have veered away from the harsh digital industrial machine poundings of burnt mind and slicer and instead moved toward a more crushing and epic form of ambience on this album. All of the tracks are echoing and cavernous, creating a feeling of the listener being lost in a large dark and cold space where your breathing is amplified in jet black tunnels. the terror you feel is your own, this music is a rorschach test asking you" what do you fear? . does it sound like THIS??????"

I realize this is the noise/experimental genre, but geez do you have to absolutely destroy the dynamics in mastering? There is probably 4dB difference from the rms (average) volume to peak volume, which means virtually everything is at one volume. This robs the music of any power. Would Cobain's screams on In Utero have had any power if everything was one constant volume? No. On this cd, when some guy starts scream and the volume of the song changes not one iota. Yeah, real powerful. When a whisper is as loud as a shout, there are no powerful parts. It's pathetically hilarious.

For all the interesting and potentially potent sounds, nothing stands out. It just hammers at a single volume. Imagine actors yelling all of their lines at one volume for an entire play. Boring as all get out.

I won't mention the distortion introduced by the mastering, as maybe thats what the band wanted. It would be really interesting to hear what the master tapes sound like, assuming the compression didn't occur during recording/mixing.

For more info see "loudness war" at wikipedia.

This is an incredible album (with non sub-pop releases aside) that picks up right at the end of the epic Burned Mind.

Fans of Village Oblivia and Black Vomit will only be impressed at the structured doom they unleash in Human Animal and The Driller.

The album opens with a song I remember seeing titled differently before album release called A Million Years - and optionally titled, A Million Years of Graveyards. Either way, its excellent and the entire album keeps the pace of a lion hunting a gazelle. They revisit old styles reminiscent of Dread tracks with Leper War and Rationed Rot.

This is an incredible album. Anyone who owns any Wolf Eyes should already own this, but for you new folk -start with this album and Burned Mind.

I own 26 albums and you can't go wrong with this one- EVER.

Wolf Eyes, yet again, have made one of the most drug-induced seizures of a album ever recorded with their 2nd album for Sub Pop, Human Animal. With the addition of Mike Connelly of Hair Police, the band has increased the sonic torture and hellish noise of their previous work and turned it up 10 notches. Screeching high frequencies, echoed syntheziser, screamed buried vocals, and avant-garde saxaphone...the norm for these guys.

What is really great is how the album slowly and surely builds to a climax of noise at the end with "Noise Not Music." By this time, all hell breaks loose, and we are left with gorillas trying to play punk rock. It's incredible, cathartic, and highly euphoric. Fans of truly "out there" music will love this.