Our Common Sense – Mankind’s Worst to Know

[schema type=”review” name=”Our Common Sense – Mankind’s Worst to Know” description=”Label: Self-released” author=”Sarp Esin” pubdate=”2018-03-24″ ]

Oh what, were you expecting positivity from a band that identifies itself as post/stoner metal? You certainly won’t find any of that touchy-feely crap here, but what you will find is some tasty, tasty slabs of fuzz.

Our Common Sense is a young Belgian band that play something that they call post/stoner metal and Mankind’s Worst to Know is their debut.  The music in this five-track EP is more stoner than post.  It’s fuzzed out guitars set to driving, churning stoner grooves to impacting drums and shouting vocals.  This is pretty much the norm throughout the album, with Our Common Sense displaying their capacity to deliver something different near the end.

Far as the “stoner” goes, Mankind’s Worst to Know offers some heavy grooves and bravado.  Apart from the adrenaline rush moment of Take the Shot, the album consists mostly of mid-tempo pieces.  There are doom and sludge influences peppered into the songs, like the opener Inhale and its logical counterpart Exhale.  However, Our Common Sense does take a progressive approach when it comes to songwriting: rather than using a single groove to drive us down, they transition between softer and harder parts, often building up to different sections altogether.  This doesn’t always work, as the softer passages often break up otherwise well-flowing passages and as such, can work to the detriment of the EP.

Now, the “post” part comes to the fore in the closer, Sorrow.  This track diverges from the rest of the EP hard, dwelling instead in an emotionally engaging place and busying itself with pummeling the listener with its weight.  Although not as deep as I might have made it sound, it is still a very nice, moody track that outshines its predecessors by a large margin.  In this regard, Sorrow shows that the EP could have been far better if it was more post and less stoner.

The one major complaint I’ve had with the album is Thomas De Wispelaere.  He is not an incompetent singer by any means, but his vocal style just doesn’t mesh with the music.  It doesn’t help that he sounds like he’s struggling to get through vocal sessions and does not deliver lyrics with any variety.  Mankind’s Worst to Know could have benefited from a different style of vocals altogether.  Also, that triple-drum kicks in the hollow transition of Exhale are out of place and its latter half, somewhat akin to Apostle of Solitude’s This Dustbowl Earth doesn’t help its case, either.

Mankind’s Worst to Know may not offer anything new, but the focus doesn’t seem to be on innovation, but instead doing it well.  That’s certainly the case here.  I don’t think genre enthusiasts will be disappointed and as for the rest, they might serve as one of the many examples of the styles mentioned here.  I’d say check it out.

Line-Up:
Thomas ‘Wispas’ De Wispelaere – vocals
Seppe ‘Seppemits’ Beatslé – lead gutiar
Stijn ‘The Rat King’ Beeckman – rhythm guitar
Jelle ‘Lucifer’ Beatslé – bass
Glenn ‘Engelmolski’ Thienpont – drums

Tracklist: 01. Medusa 02. Inhale 03. Take the Shot 04. Exhale 05. Sorrow

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