Hunter Martinez is a scene vet, playing drums and/or guitar with Decent Criminal, Dwarves, and Slaughterboys, among others. In Human Issue, Martinez takes the lead. That’s not to say this is some dude-with-an-acoustic vanity project. Human Issue is a full-on punk band, with Martinez joined by a wide cast of collaborators on the 6-song EP: Rikk Agnew (Adolescents, Christian Death), Crow Jane (Egrets of Ergot, Prissy Whip), Bryan Lothian (A Global Threat), and Raul and Riff Cuellar (Corrupted Youth, and album co-producers).
So what is human issue? It’s raw, angry punk with a lot of frustration that’s starting to boil over. It’s upfront and aggressive. I won’t pretend to know who does what among the Dwarves’ 20-whatever members, but in listening to this, I get shades of those modern hardcore songs on the last few Dwarves records. The ones that scream and bellow in contrast to their more prevalent poppy side. Human Issue plays hoarse, sore throat hardcore with lots of shouting, pummeling drums, and then some gang vocals that give an element of control to the chaos. While there are artsy elements like spoken word vocals and acoustic guitar textures, this is heavy hardcore through and through.
At just 10 minutes long, there’s a sense of personal longing and urgency to it. The shouted vocals are in the same key: a wall of emotion screams while the rhythm section steers through a dust storm. This is almost like a black metal take on punk: it’s painful and raw, more mood than catharsis, with everything in the mix turned up to the max. Because of the production, it blurs together into a singular, harsh sound with emotion bleeding through the noise, but never overtaking that heavy beat at its center. There aren’t catchy choruses or memorable hooks that pull you into the Human Issue experience: it’s an onslaught.
