HUMAN TRACES is back. This extreme metal act released their first EP, "Chastise Mankind", in 2017 – fast forward six years, and "Human Traces" are back with a new EP release, "Akt I: Life To Die For," a three-course menu with the fruits of their labour. "Akt I: Life to die for" will be the first of three EPs resulting in an entire album.

"Akt I: Life To Die For" welcomes the listener's ears with a release consisting of four songs, well, three songs, with the last song being more of an outro – so I would like to discuss this as a whole piece and not individually. From the moment of pressing that play button, "Akt I: Life To Die For" provides and dishes out this pure and petrifying depression, spiced with rage, grief, and a hint of aggression upon the listener's ears of fourteen minutes of the pure extreme musical spectrum -a musical spectrum that mixes progressive metal, avant-garde and death metal elements/influences -which is fuelled with an injection of anger-driven instrumental and vocal work consisting of a mixture of clean vocals and furious death metal growls transports a variety of experimental prog metal riffs, and hard-hitting drum strikes. At the same time, the vocals have a hint of classic heavy metal screams and clean vocal/hardcore punk shouty vocals that inject venomous words into the music -lyrics that explore the inner cosmos' anxiety in endless self-reflection.

In my opinion, "Akt I: Life To Die For" is a short and sweet full-on aggression battering of emotions and depression. At the same time, I would love to see the four songs on a full-length release; there is so much anger and emotions that still need to be unleashed by the three members on a full-length release, not an EP. Simultaneously the songs don't seem to hang around in your mind or conjure any satisfaction. Only time will tell what the next plate the band will dish out for us!