Quebec quintet The Last Felony sound so much like Through the Eyes of the Dead that if you had told me that their new album, Too Many Humans, was, in fact, Through the Eyes of the Dead, I might very well have believed it. This fact highlights Too Many Humans‘ greatest strength, as well as its greatest weakness: it rocks really hard, and it’s completely lacking in originality.

Not that we should ever overlook the ability of band to get your head bangin’; lotsa groups can’t even get do that right. The machine gun riffs on humorously titled tracks like “No One Would Notice if You Died” and “We are Future Housing Developments for Maggots” will most certainly get your booty shakin’, “Do Not Defend Me” and “Most Unclean” display just the right balance of technicality and actual songwriting skill, and the black metal flavors on songs like “Water Cooler Suicide” even provide a little variety to the proceedings. I’m sure some douche bags will call this “deathcore,” but there’s a conspicuous absence of breakdowns and rampant retardation, so those douche bags will be incorrect (as is so often the case with assertions made by douche bags).

But while there’s plenty to be said for good, solid work (especially these days, when doing a half-assed job is often more than enough to attract a substantial fan base of scene kids), I do wish that Too Many Humans had some elements that made it stand out from the pack — in other words, that there was something that would ensure that people don’t just think they’re listening to Through the Eyes of the Dead, or other bands of that ilk. But this is only The Last Felony’s second album; maybe they just need some more time to develop their own style.

In any case, while I can’t rave “OMFG U GUYZ LIKE TOTES NEED 2 HEAR THIS RIGHT NOW!!!”, I can tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed Too Many Humans. Maybe I’m just a jaded blogger, but that’s way more than I can say for most death metal releases people send us these days.

(three outta five horns)

-AR