By Eóin Boylan
Letterkenny’s HumanShield stormed onto the scene last year with their debut effort, Money On The Streets, Medals In The Dojo, three monster cuts that smashed together genres, sounding like a hard rock hybrid of Dublin’s Bats with a generous helping of prog. Needless to say, I was quite excited to hear what they did next, and was surprised to discover a slight shift in direction, away from the strange, kooky aggression they previously displayed and into more anthemic territory, and it starts with a bang.
The eardrums are greeted with a pulsating, driving rollercoaster of an opener, with an intriguingly intertwined bass and guitar lead leaping around each other before skipping arm and arm away into the sunset. There is a definite Irish quality to this record, a distinctive Celtic influence throughout, but nowhere more so than in the second track: ‘From The Slip To The Sliabh’. In homage to their homeland, HumanShield display an impressive blend of traditional Irish influence and some Torche-esque fuzzy riffage.
It’s like the heaviest ceilidh imaginable and I’m not sure whether to jig or circle-pit but, regardless, I can’t wait to get stuck into it live. The energy doesn’t stop there either, with finale ‘Swan Meat/Neck Death/Ball Bearing’ throwing itself around inside the brain like the guy at a gig who’s far too drunk to care anymore. A song of three parts, the middle section lives up to it’s name, throwing a pure head banger into the works while the tail end is the definition of a fist pumping, rip roaring conclusion. An epic way to finish.
You Make Business A Pleasure showcases a much more cohesive and controlled form of song writing, displaying a band growing into their sound and starting to figure out their primary direction. Math rock seems to be the order of the day, yet with an uplifting rock quality, like Adebisi Shank and Biffy Clyro got together and made a record with equal parts soaring guitars and chant-along accessibility.
