In their short existence, Malaysia’s Humiliation have released a ton of material. Pretty much an album every year coupled with numerous split 7″ releases on a yearly basis.  With Honourable Discharge being the 7th full length in the Humiliation  war camp you know what they bring by now. Concentrating on heavy, meaty riffs and Bolt Thrower is their main influence. This time around I’m noticing a huge influence from Bolt Thrower’s ’94 release …for Victory.  Also of note, is the limited 300 cd pressing of Bullet Storm, from Humiliation.  They did this split with Japanese death metal act-Taste and both bands recorded 2 songs for this.  If you love Humiliation, you should track this down from the band.  The 2 songs, “An Absence of Peace” and “Aviation of Doom” are pretty killer and a great precursor, of what was to come on Honourable Discharge.

Humiliation are content on releasing albums that will never be technical and will never win accolades from major magazines. For me I feel Humiliation are one of the finest death metal bands playing this style of death metal. I’ve interviewed singer Bear Bee and drummer Mudon and reviewed multiple albums from them.  I approached this review a little differently, since many of Humiliation’s albums have a lot of similarities. Honourable Discharge boasts the best production the band had achieved to date and this is not a slight on their previous releases productions since they were all well recorded. However this time around Humiliation placed more emphasis on production values. This results in a very heavy production, chunkier guitar tones, an even heavier bass guitar tone erupting in rhythms that are far heavier than past releases. The bass drums come through better, faster and the snare has  a great pop to it. Bear’s vox are throatier and raspier. This is the thick production Humiliation needs to compete with the bigger bands out there and they can easily do that now without fuckin question.

“Storm from the North” comes blazing in with more war themed lyrics and immediately that guitar production is evident. Ferociously thick and heavy. The tune rumbles along as a 10000 pound tank would normally grind bones into mere ash, within seconds. “Battle of Slim River” has more rumbling tank crushing  heaviness with some quicker paced moments that make this tune one of the best on this release. “Atrocities” is brutal and some slower moments creep in, with doomier passages and this song breathes really well. “Forgotten Soul” is another contender for one of Humiliation’s best songs ever. Heavy, fast, doomy and will knock you over the head faster than a Gatling gun can wipe out a band of enemy combatants knocking at your front door.  I cannot emphasize how this album has a big production sound to it.  As good as a Hail of Bullets album, no joke.  Such a professional sounding recording is how Humiliation will get noticed by bigger labels, but the songs also have more energy and punch.  Honestly, throw this on with your subwoofer, like I did, and your chest will collapse, into smithereens.

The album cover fits the title perfectly and booklet is well-layed out equipped with lyrics. Like their FB page, contact them to buy their albums and shirts. They put out high quality Gildan long and short sleeves. Honourable Discharge is Humiliation’s strongest album to date and one of the best death metal records for 2016. Buy or Die!

[Visit the band's website]

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