Album review: Oh The Humanity! – “Ground To Dust”

Engineer Records, Sell The Heart Records, Thousand Island Records – 24 January 2025

Its 2025, we’re angry, we’re anxious and we’re feeling Ground To Dust

Sooo… 2025 is off to a pretty shit start, huh? Nazi salutes, first ladies dressing like the hamburgler and the cost of eggs isn’t going down. Not much to be excited about… Not much at all but at least Oh The Humanity! have returned with their shred-heavy, Fest-ready nostalgia-inducing melodic hardcore brilliance on their new LP Ground To Dust. Despite the title and lyrical themes of the apocalypse, the Massachusetts maestros have not put out another melancholy sounding record. Sure, this is an album that addresses the doubts, the anxiety and the general horseshit that is swirling all around us each and everyday but throughout it all, OTH! faces its shortcomings and comes out more positive, more powerful and energetic by seeing the problems and staring those motherfuckers down.

The album bops in all the right spots, it is a banger of an opening for 2025. From start to finish, Ground To Dust is an in your face punk record in line with many of the more aggressive Fat Wreck Chords releases of the late 90s. All eleven songs come straight ahead with a lyrical delivery begging for a live crowd pile-on, pulsing drums and pure shred from their guitar lines; a testament to the band’s aptitude, ability and musical acumen. I have a feeling that 11 months from now I will still consider this one of the tops.

Before the first listen the album was already intriguing thanks to the precariously balanced and historically neglected structure adorning the cover.  The art shows off the feelings of uncertainty; the uncertainty of living on the precipice of a pre-dystopian hellscape, the uncertainty of never feeling good enough for those around you, the uncertainty of late stage capitalism… the uncertainty of life in 2025. Turns out the album art is the perfect visual interpretation of the tracks it contains, because despite the sketchy ledge they are on, OTH! isn’t falling.  

Oh The Humanity! has brought together the best elements of thrash, skate, melodic hardcore, power-punk and in your face punk to create their own style, something fresh while still familiar. This is basement-show punk the way it is meant to be, hard and fast at cursory glance, but the more rotations given, the more impressive it becomes. The production from Trevor Reilly (A Wilhelm Scream) walks a razor wire between slick and raw, clean and gritty.  This album could have easily taken a step backwards if not for the masterful manipulation of all elements creating a powerful, dynamic and hungry collection of tracks.

The guitar work here is beyond impressive.  The dual shred coming out of the speakers on Ground To Dust is striking and enough to make any rock fan enjoy their time listening a little more.  The band riffs and grinds it way into your ears with a technicality that stands out amongst their peers. But its the lyrical growth of OTH! that is definitely the lynchpin to Ground To Dust. 

No longer are we hearing the same calls to arms we’ve heard for years or shallow affirmations for better lives through PMA, instead there is an imagery and depth in the way the words tie together. The band has found a way to color in their narratives of self-doubt, apprehension and maturing in a deteriorating society. Maybe the difference is that Oh The Humanity! had been painting blurry images of what they were trying not to address. Now their growth and a sad state of affairs have created still-lifes and photographs for them to put on their musical canvas. 

The greatest strength to the album as a whole is its ability to weave and unravel itself into a layered and powerful blend of strength and melody.  From the technical prowess on instrumentation to the depth and catharsis of the lyrical output, Oh The Humanity! will keep you on your toes and help you keep your head high.

After opening with the Turnstile-esque instrumental “Imposter Syndrome” before thrusting the audience face first into an anthem of anhedonia, “Gutted.”  The track tackles the overarching theme of the record: feelings of low self-worth, and coping through them, which is followed up immediately and brilliantly on “Upper Riffspiratory Infection” where OTH struggles to escape their past before a top track on the album, the precursor to class-war “Worth Nothing.” This is the kind of song that the listener can close their eyes and hear the faint shattering of broken lights commonly caused by dog-piles and gang vocals in VFW halls of bygone eras.

The band presents a musical tug of war, showing off a wide range of influences including Long Island post-hardcore, metal-infused skate punk (a la Strung Out) and a healthy heaping of thrash. When you combine the multiple sub-genres with the unapologetic introspection it is the aural definition of resiliency Oh The Humanity deserves.

The album continues on this push-pull path of self-loathing and self-discovery. It was not unintentional that the review only covers the first third of OTH!’s latestt. This is not an album you need to hear any more about from me because this record doesn’t need a hype man. I can not imagine another album in the next twelve months resonating as hard as this one does.