DEATH — Human (review)

DEATH — Human album cover Album · 1991 · Technical Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
topofsm
After three albums of pioneering albums, you would think that Chuck Schuldiner would be content with creating an entire subgenre branch in metal. Most would, however, such is not the case with Death. Instead of continuing with his straightforward (albeit high-quality and somewhat technical) death metal, Chuck brought together prog metal virtuosos Paul Masdival and Sean Rienert and laid the foundation for technical and progressive death metal for years to come.

Human isn't entirely prog-metal, as some would lead to believe. It is still primarily a death metal record. However, melody and technicality takes the forefront, and shifting song structures become the norm. Inventive drum patterns by Reinert and quick sweeping melodic fills by Schuldiner replace what used to be straightforward pounding and vanilla-death chugs.

This is apparent from the first track, "Flattening of Emotions", which fades in with a tribal double bass pattern, but eventually changes moods, feel, tempo, and eventually leads to an instrumental tradeoff section not unlike so many prog bands of today. The death metal with unusual-structure songs is the prominent style in the first four songs of the album.

The second half is decidedly more progressive, starting with the popular and frantic "Lack of Comprehension", where the phrygian modal solo becomes the prototype for the Middle-Eastern solos that become prominent in Death's later work. "See Through Dreams", another more proggy track, leads into "Cosmic Sea", a proggy instrumental with a technical instrument tradeoff section and space noises surrounding them. The album ends with "Vacant Planets", beginning with a proggy riff and developing further until it ends the album on an abrupt stop, as so many death metal albums do.

Overall, Human was one of the more important albums in the development of progressive and technical death metal. It contains progressive and melodic riffs surrounded by a brutal death metal atmosphere, and contains most of the elements tech bands today use. It is definitely a landmark album and deserves a spot in every death metal collection.
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