BABIRUSA
Humanoid
SELF-RELEASED
Aussie metalcore newbies throw all their ideas into the concept basket
Brisbane’s Babirusa seem more ambitious than many of their deathcore peers, having threaded a sci-ficoncept narrative throughout their debut full-length. But these narrative elements, presented as spoken-word interludes, give the album a disjointed feel, as if Despised Icon were providing the soundtrack for a BBC Radio 4 sci-fidrama. Still, it provides Humanoid with a talking point, something it would likely not have had otherwise as, musically, it’s fairly by-numbers deathcore. There are interesting passages on Reflection and 343 that hint at a more cinematic scale, but rarely do the band deviate wildly on the meat of the songs themselves. A novel idea executed with less courage than it truly deserves.