Dystopia’s classic “Human = Garbage” LP is a tempest of life’s worst frustrations incarnate: a living, breathing storm fueled by societal oppression and futility. This album paints for its listeners an all-too-familiar image of day-to-day misery, and touches on themes of poverty, hopelessness, and suicide. The introductory monologue of “Stress Builds Character” sets up the rest of this hellish album as the soft-spoken narration gradually degenerates into frustrated shrieking, and what follows is absolute bitter misery, as sludge-laden riffage and chaotic drums pound listeners’ already lowered-expectations of life into a coarse dust.
The tracks that follow “Stress Builds Character” are no less dismal, and continue to inundate listeners with caustic, feral aggression, until the album’s climax, “Sleep” wherein the eerily narrated lyrics “sleep, my dream come true, my life will be over soon” are repeated over fittingly lethargic riffs, finally fading out to mind-erasing oblivion.
A furious, noxious effort, “Human = Garbage” will make you quit your day job and kill yourself (strictly a business decision).
Towers of Rust 