Inhuman Nature – Under The Boot | EP Review

In an age where everyone is frantically hybridising genres for supremacy on the streaming services, sometimes all you need to is revert to the basics. Enter Inhuman Nature and their new three-pronged EP Under The Boot.

Spanning a meagre 12 minutes, whilst some freshly faced bands would struggle to even begin to establish themselves in such a short amount of time, Inhuman Nature hammer home their sound and intent with the subtle grace of a leather boot to the base of the skull. Channeling evident inspirations of the likes of Slayer, Morbid Angel, Obituary and the rest of their ilk, Under The Boot is crossover thrash in it’s most barbarically primitive yet uncompromising form. It’s a callback to those halcyon days when thrash and NWOBHM reigned supreme, where shows by bands of this nature actually where mortally perilous and when this genre was seen as thrilling, and quite frankly, threatening.

‘City Of The Dead’ establishes all of this essentially immediately. Following on from a melodic albeit nefarious opening, the track erupts. Here, Inhuman Nature thrashing through a multitude of lacerating riffs that bend around time signatures being warped by the sheer breakneck speed of the track. The title track follows in similar suit, with the band revelling in the trash metal obnoxiousness easily reminiscent of the likes of Nuclear Assault, Exodus and Toxic Holocaust. But behind the beer-guzzling, barked vocals and violent demeanour there is a surprising amount of depth and technicality present. Despite it’s transparent adoration of the old-school trash aesthetic, Inhuman Nature step into other areas here, with D-beat riffs optimised for two-stepping making appearances amidst the chaos.

The third track ‘Ride The Apocalypse’ is where this variation is most evident. Instead of pure acceleration and squealing licks, the track focuses on churring, pummelling groove comparable to the likes of Enforcer, Dead Heat and others spearheading the new wave of crossover thrash. But even with the brakes being slightly tapped, the inherent frothing anger that fuels this record is still evident; potentially even more so. The inherent bonafide rage is further bought out of the mix with the space that such groove-laden leads allow and one can only imagine the sheer level of bedlam this will soundtrack when it’s played to audience equally sick of the authoritarian powers this record rebels against.

This EP could have sounded tragically dated in the way it takes direct influence from the trash metal pioneers, but instead it’s something clearly of this modern age. It’s the kind of metal your Slayer loving, alopecia stricken father would describe as “propa’” yet being the kind of metal that simultaneously sounds fresh with hidden intricacies, a relatable sense of fury and welcome embracement of modern hardcore stylings. In all, it’s what modern thrash should be – furious, dynamic and utterly, utterly pissed off.