Shade of Mankind - Fonograms of Terror and Violence Tape

Shade of Mankind first caught my attention a while back with a couple of demos and the EP "Songs Thou Shall Worship", which features six really great cover tracks. They then released the track "Retribution" on the striVVe IV tape I recently posted about which also caught my attention. It was only natural then that I seek out some more of their releases. My search ended up back at striVVe recordings who have just released a series of SOM demos as Fonograms of Terror and Violence.

Again this is a super limited tape, but the packaging has really been stepped up this time. As you've probably guessed, the whole package has been shipped inside a yellow biohazard waste disposal bag. It's quite fitting really, the bag contains nothing but pure filth. The good kind of filth though. I'm lucky this didn't arouse any suspicion coming through customs.

The tape comes packaged with some skull artwork, and as per usual with this label, is limited to a mere 10 copies! In a way it is neat that I am one of only 10 people who will own a copy of this music, but it is a shame that more people won't get to hear it. I mentioned above the previous musical efforts by this band, but this tape blows all that out of the water. They've taken what they had from those releases and cranked the brutality level up 1000%. There are two highlights for me, the first of which is a brand new version of "Retribution", which sounds so much brutal and nastier than it did last time. The second is a terrifyingly twisted rendition of Integrity's now classic "Judgement Day", that is almost unrecognisable in some parts, but it's really great. Some of the recording is up online, and you can kind of piece most of it together from the band and label bandcamp pages, I'll embed down below for ease.

Also inside the biohazard bag is a set of three pins. They'll go straight into my bag of pins etc., but it's great to get something extra along with the music.

But of course that's not all folks. There is also an A3 print of some Shade of Mankind artwork that has the negative of the image on the back, as well as some other stuff from other bands on striVVe recordings.

Lastly, I also received a free bonus CD, along with a note thanking em for my purchase. The CD contains some more work from rVeVV, as part of striVVe recordings #2 tape. This is exactly the kind of music I'd come to expect from rVeVV at this point; slow and droning, but full of atmosphere. rVeVV has a unique way of completely altering my mood every time I listen, and I just love it.

Overall it's a great release, I truly appreciate the originality and effort gone into it.