About this time last year, I reviewed the 3rd album from Malaysia war mongering, death metal stalwarts Humiliation, From Strength to Strength, and it was a pretty damn solid affair of Bolt Thrower-y and Jungle Rot styled barbaric simplicity (I still rock the heck out of “Preposition of Violence” on my ipod). Well, the band subsequently signed to Deepsend Records (I’m sure based on my fine journalism alone), who happen to be fine purveyors of no nonsense death metal and release the band’s 4th effort to international masses, and while the formula and theme is the same, so is the musical result.

The exact same tone, lyrics and pace are still in play as Humiliation trundle their way through 11 Bolt Thrower paced numbers about war and more war. Double bass rumbles, steady, powerful riffs, punishing grooves, gravelly growls and of course samples of bombs, submarines, and machine guns fill the entire album, and as with most death metal of this style it won’t wow you or blow you away, but it is a base-level enjoyment of what death metal really was and is.

There isn’t much else to really expand on. You know exactly what you are getting here and Humilation knows what they are giving you. From the opening battle sample of “No Return” up until the surprising, delicate outro of “Submerged at the Seabed” the album is tank tracks on concrete. The majority of the tracks are beefy mid-paced numbers like “Phosphorous Shell”, “Home Front”, “Order of Battle” and the foot tapping “Sea Denial”, with a few spurts of gunfire like “Bachok’s Invasion” and a couple of slower lumbering tracks like “Calibrated Chaos” and “Deadly Double”. Basically, if you heard any of Bolt Thrower‘s ’90s and ’00s war themed albums, (Mercenary, For Victory, Honor Valor Pride) you have heard Humiliation. They even try to add a moody Bolt Thrower like solo in “Total War” that is a bit off, but a nice effort nonetheless. But in the case of Humiliation that’s a good thing, and in this instance the band’s international flavor and wide-eyed obsession with a simpler time and style gives them a innate likeable charm despite the lack of originality.

As with the last album (“Bukit Kepong”), there is a more personal, historically themed number in “Bachok’s Invasion” detailing Japan’s invasion of Malaysia during WWII so these guys aren’t just giving the subject matter lip service, but adding a little of themselves to the tested and true themes and style. I’d like to see these guys do a whole concept album on their country’s fairly brutal history or a single conflict in the country’s past and set it to the solid no bullshit death metal they have mastered.

[Visit the band's website]

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