The first thing I noticed about this was that of the quartet that makes up Human Impact, one of them was in Unsane, a band I like. Noise rock they call it, and reading the band biography all four members with their background subscribe to that. My expectation was of no-nonsense, uncompromising, defiant, hard-hitting metal. Fittingly the album is about the state of the world, the opening song being “Collapse”. The scene is set.

The scene is initially apocalyptic, then grim and gritty as in a tone somewhere between Talking Heads and Public Image Limited the vocalist cries distantly to the accompanying dramatic sound of catastrophe. To follow “Collapse”, there is an alert and the distorted sounds of “Hold On”. The instrumentals are cleverly put together in such a disharmonious way as to strongly suggest a world of disorder. The atmosphere is one of harsh decay. This statement can be applied to “Destroy to Rebuild”, a joyless heavy piece which drives home the bleak message through music and word. “Now is the time to resist”, is the defiant call. The punkish rant goes on with “Reform”. Each of these songs has drive and intent, with strong rhythms but plenty of progression. Dark electronic sounds and a fuzz effect are used to cut away from the thought of clean lines. These are both used on the insistent “Imperative”. Again the song structure is strong, as the power builds up and the message is rammed home through the forceful chorus and sharp guitar and drum work.

‘Disconnect” sets out to destroy us amid some pretty basic dark fuzz before the hard tones of “Corruption” reinforces Chris Spencer’s loud messages and soundbites: “there is no other way …. the future is now … this corruption is real”. The echoing sound effects and faint female voice which we hear at the start of “Repeat” are no doubt designed to discomfort us. A tribal beat rocks up. Strangely this has the buzzing vibe of Front Line Assembly but this is hard rock, and Chris Spencer is there to provide the despairing vocal cheerleading and guidance. “Repeat” was my favourite song of this album with its irresistible beat and penetrating dark vibe and sound effects. “Lost All Trust” is one final piece of hard-hitting darkness.

Human Impact leave us in doubt through their music and words about their view of the sort of world we’re living in. Musically this album is more sophisticated than it may appear on the surface. The presentation is hard-edged, deliberately so. “Gone Dark” is as the title suggests: dark tunes for dark themes.

(7.5/10 Andrew Doherty)

https://www.facebook.com/humanimpactband

https://humanimpact.bandcamp.com/album/gone-dark-out-oct-4th-2024