Genre: Hardcore
Country: U.S.A.
Label: Relapse Records
Year: 2023 (originally 1996)
What started almost a year ago with the reissue of Integrity’s first two full length albums now continues with another gem from their early years. For those who missed it, the first two Integrity’s classic full-lengths, Those Who Fear Tomorrow & Systems Overload, are available once again and remixed, remastered & produced by Arthur Risk (Power Trip, Code Orange, Kreator, Ghostemane). Plus their debut also features newly recorded drums by Iggor Cavalera (ex-Sepultura) & Brandon Gallagher (Trace Amount). Now we are dealing with Humanity Is The Devil, the band’s fourth EP coming from 1996. This certain EP release has a kind of strange if not confusing timeline.
Originally was out as a 10″, CD, and cassette by Victory in 1996, and stayed out of print until Enigmatic gave it a cassette reissue in 2002. Magic Bullet Records and Organized Crime Records then reissued it on CD and 12″ respectively for the album’s 20th anniversary in 2016 with new artwork and a remix by Joel Grind (Toxic Holocaust). There was another reissue in 2018, this time through Knives Out Records as a 10″ picture disc with the original mix and more new artwork. Organized Crime then reissued it yet again in 2019, as a 12″ with the original mix and artwork. Now the EP is out as the highly sought first two studio full lengths including new 2023 album art by Dwid Hellion.
Whoever knows recording and even more the ones who will listen its new remixed and remastered edition by Arthur Rizk will totally loose his/her mind, by how modern, relevant and killer this EP sounds after 27 years since its original release. The excellent work by Rizk makes it a totally fresh look on a classic that will fill enthusiasm the band’s fans. The anger, the aggressive power and the added metallic events that the material has are now given with a brutal production focused on atmosphere that the reverb in the vocal lines and the equalizer on guitars tone makes the result close to Power Trip but without straying too far from the original sound of the EP or Integrity’s roots.
Even the track listing is different and now it seems that this is the right order if we speak in terms of how the band’s vision now is more reasonable to the listener. I can remember my teen- self wondering what ‘Vocal Test’ song would sound before listen to it, and realizing that it was actually an experiment on how they would sound without lyrics, based on the absence of lyrics and a catchy mid-paced tempo with howlings! Still love this song, yet my favorites are the killers ‘Trapped Under SIlence’ & ‘Jagged Visions of My True Destiny’, while the 12 minute long experimental Humanity Is The Devil song is placed now as the closer track and it’s inspired by Robert de Grimston is a British occultist who was founder of The Process Church of The Final Judgment in the 1960s. A dark soundscape full of distortion, growling, howling, sound effects and winds blowing creating an apocalyptic atmosphere. A must have even for the ones that have one of the two previous releases of the EP! One of a kind, a brilliant masterpiece of Metal/Hardcore. I can’t write metalcore it’s cause I’m afraid that this term is totally fucked and misleading.