This album, Human Breed's latest, makes me wonder why I don't check out more bands from Quebec. It's an overall heavy CD, with many clean bits throughout. Not heavy fast-paced mosh music, but a slower, power driven emotion. There are some quick guitar parts, but the drum beats don't really get very fast. That's not to say the drums are simple, because they change up constantly, and they sound excellent. The screams are also great sounding, and there's a lot of screaming. The singing isn't as great. It sounds a little uneven and unpracticed in places, or maybe that's just because of the emotion, because it is definitely emotional.

The first song is an intro called, well, Intro. It starts with a bassy beginning with drums and feedback, and is joined with guitar and sung words as well as screamed ones. It flows right into Angel Scars, so smoothly that if you're not careful to catch it you might completely miss the change. They fit together like one seven minute long song. Number five, Searching For The Truth is short and full of screams. It's balanced out by No9, which has more singing and less screaming than most of the rest of the songs. The CD ends with The End, which is five minutes of guitar and effects with no voices until a line from Twelve Monkeys. Only the words "You might say we're the next endangered species, human beings," and then no more. Like the first two tracks go together it flows right off of Submissive.

Each piece of the music is pretty clear. It's actually very well balanced. The bass, drums and guitar are all easy to pick out and don't drown each other out. The vocals don't completely take over. At first I thought they were too faded, but the way they are you can still hear them while being able to listen to the other elements of the music. It allows all parts to stand out, including the bass, which is especially hard to hear in many other songs. The album has some really good guitar melodies, from distorted to clean to acoustic. The lyrics I can't really say anything about, because there are none in the CD booklet or anywhere I've looked. I can only guess. They may be all English or they may be bilingual like the province the band comes from. Either way, this album is proof that Quebec can make more than just good poutine.

Originally posted on PunkCANADA.net.