Beefed up by a scooped EQ but entirely organic in tone, the riff-rocking adrenaline that the guitar parts create for the backbone of “Hate Being Human,” the new single from alternative rock’s Dark Below, is the key element powering this white-hot track, and as sad as it is for me to admit, that just isn’t something that can be said about the majority of new rock songs I’ve been spinning in the last couple of months. Traditionally, the guitar has always been the centerpiece of any great rock n’ roll release, but in recent times, the evocative component that is the six-string has gone woefully underutilized by mainstream players, leaving it up to people like Dark Below’s three pragmatic musicians to pick up the slack and keep the original fire behind the genre alive.
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/DarkBelowMusic/
The lead vocal in “Hate Being Human” is equal parts Chevelle and A Perfect Circle, but I think it’s important to note that no part of this performance sounds even slightly derivative or watered-down in spirit. There’s a lot of passion in the delivery here, and aside from the singer’s ability to execute flowing verses in a spitfire style with near-surgical precision, I think that his attack complements the tonality of the instrumentation in this track particularly well. He’s putting some legit thought into how he broaches the material, which is yet another feature distinguishing his band from the litany of emerging alternative powerhouses essentially vying for the same fans that Dark Below is winning over in droves this autumn.
There’s a fantastic energy to the percussion in this single that I would love to hear replicated in upcoming releases from this act, and while minimalism has been all the rage among major label rockers in the last few years, the liberal application of big beats and thrusting riffs in “Hate Being Human” reminds us that indie rock can get a little indulgent now and again without losing its barebones integrity. This song is undeniably sporting one of the most addictive grooves of any I’ve reviewed in the year 2022 and were I not aware of its origins before giving it a listen, I probably would have assumed it was recorded by a veteran player with a lot more experience than any of these guys currently has.
SMART URL: https://onerpm.link/hatebeinghuman
Rockers with a taste for crunching swing can’t go wrong when picking up Dark Below’s “Hate Being Human” this month, and though I was only slightly familiar with who this band was prior to getting ahold of my copy of his single, I can tell you now that this definitely will not be the last occasion on which I give his work a close examination. This crew has a lot going for it, and if they can find a channel through which to combine Dark Below’s raw agility with a more streamlined style of composing, I think they’ll eventually have the opportunity to take this band to the next level– and with their ascent, they might just reignite international interest in this once-beloved genre of music.
Trace Whittaker
