Thoughts Words Action review Oh The Humanity's 'Ground To Dust' LP

"Ground To Dust" is a brand new release by Oh The Humanity, an excellent quintet known for delivering some of the finest music for years.

It's their first piece of work this year, arriving after "Oh The Humanity" and "Carry Me Home," two critically acclaimed full-length albums released in 2014 and 2021 that you should also check out as soon as possible. Heavily promoted with four singles, "Ground To Dust" carries eleven incredible songs that will not only appeal to punk rock fans but also those picky music enthusiasts looking for cleverly assembled and expertly performed music. Lyrically, the band covers different sentiments, moods, situations, and circumstances, so it's a highly relatable material that will immediately resonate with the broader auditorium. Their lyrics range from personal to socio-political, covering a wide range of different topics.

Sonically, Oh The Humanity combines everything you dearly love about modern punk rock music. Perhaps their tracks mostly resonate with fundamental elements of skate punk music, but you'll notice how melodic hardcore, hardcore punk, melodic punk rock, pop-punk, and metal found their way into this sonic equation. They use all these additional elements as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, decorations, and other details to elevate their music to new heights while remaining loyal to the primary sonic direction.

Maybe "Ground To Dust" dominantly explores modern aesthetics but you'll notice some nods to nostalgia, especially the late nineties and early noughties era, when skate punk ruled the airwaves the most. These different approaches and an entire amalgam of complementary genres resulted in catchy, memorable, engaging material that will satisfy die-hard punk rock fans and beyond.

The guitars reign supreme here. As soon as you press play, you'll notice how much time and effort these folks invested in all those interplays between rhythm and lead guitars. The excellent, powerful riffs and chord progressions resonate on one side while the other shines with incredible leads, themes, melodies, harmonies, accentuations, and other sonic delicacies. Besides contributing an immense amount of melody and harmony, these guitar works also shape a perfect backdrop for all the vocals to shine upon. It's nearly mind-blowing how the guitars resonate throughout the entire album, making "Ground To Dust" such a progressive and intricate album worth spinning over and over again. Of course, the excellent vocal performance elevates everything to an entirely new level, commands attention, and guides listeners from scratch to finish. The impressive vocal range seamlessly balances low, mid, and high notes with such precision and finesse, emphasizing everything Oh The Humanity intended to achieve with this material. Besides decorating each segment and instrumentation, these vocal harmonies contribute emotional depth and add more complexity over profoundly detailed song structures. You'll also hear occasional shouts and screams, adding a touch of rawness, grittiness, and aggression over the dominantly melodic compositions. There are also additional back vocals and singalongs, providing more anthemic vibes to the album. Also, it's nearly mind-blowing how the guitar work suits all the vocal arrangements harmoniously, making "Ground To Dust" such a pleasant listening experience worth repeating over and over again.

This album wouldn't sound this powerful and energetic without a rock-solid rhythm section. You'll hear how all those intricate, vividly hearable, warm-sounding basslines rumble beneath guitar layers, providing more than necessary heaviness, clarity, and depth while binding all the instrumentations with rhythmic patterns. These low-ends are luxuriant, deep, dense, and heavy, contributing more power, groove, and detail to the entire material. In the meantime, the exceptional drumming performance based upon a comprehensive collection of wisely arranged, flawlessly performed, well-accentuated, dynamic beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics keeps the remainder of the band in the line while dictating groove and pace. You'll notice how each hit of the snare, kick of the bass drum, and splash over the cymbals provide more complexity and detail to these songs. Oh The Humanity thought about everything while writing, composing, arranging, recording, and producing this excellent full-length album. The sound quality meets all the trends of contemporary music production, thanks to Trevor Reilly of A Wilhelm Scream, who did an incredible job.

You should immediately place "Ground To Dust" on your music radar if you're looking for a perfect modern skate punk record. This style doesn't get better than this honestly. These highly skilled musicians have poured heart and soul into this material, resulting in a memorable listening experience worth repeating over again.

Head here for more information about ordering this gem on vinyl.