DEATH — Human (review)

Album · 1991 · Technical Death Metal

4.5/5 · 2021-05-15
siLLy puPPy

As one of the pioneering forces in wresting the nascent death metal scene out of the burgeoning 1980s thrash metal world, the aptly named DEATH led by the indefatigable Chuck Schuldiner was also in the forefront of advancing the genre into what would become tagged technical death metal although bands such as Atheist, Cynic, Nocturnus and Demilich released material earlier. Throughout Schuldiner’s all too brief career, he was a force to be reckoned with although he was never content on resting on laurels along. With every subsequent album Schuldiner raised the bar ever higher and even in the current era some three decades after he crafted some of the most influential metal albums in history, his works are still utterly unique and relevant.

After two albums of thrash infused death metal, DEATH began to drop hints of more intricate technicalities on “Spiritual Healing” but beginning with DEATH’s fourth album HUMAN, Schuldiner turned up the progressive and technicalities a few notches and hit a major home run as the album was and still remains DEATH’s most popular and biggest selling album. Another feature of DEATH was a constant rotating cast of musicians with HUMAN featuring a completely new lineup with only Schuldiner (guitars, vocals) as the common denominator throughout this amazing band’s death metal reign in the 1990s. On this fourth installment of the DEATH universe, in came Cynic guitarist Paul Masvidal, Sadus and Autopsy bassist Steve DiGiorgio and Cynic drummer Sean Reinert which explains the sudden explosive leap into the world of complex progressive death metal.

The original HUMAN album was explosive but only hit the 34-minute mark with future editions featuring the KISS cover “God of Thunder” and the 2011 Relapse Records reissue featuring an entire bonus disc of instrumental studio tracks and demos. HUMAN also debuted Schuldiner’s move aware from the gore-based lyrics that became the staple of old school death metal and focused on more complex themes that were introspective and intelligent. The technical leap was not only in the tighter virtuosic playing of the band with faster guitar solos, more intense riffing and a heightened role for the drum complexities but also in the compositional fortitude which featured more hairpin turns into a more diverse palette of moods and motifs including not only tempos but atmospheres and sound effects once again thanks to the Cynic members adding their expansive visionary methodologies to the mix.

Despite the leaps in technological prowess, Schuldiner didn’t abandon his core principles of writing fairly catchy riff-based thundering powerhouses of head banging wonder. With the basic structures of his pioneering death metal idiosyncrasies in tact, the DEATH 2.0 was simply a tighter fine-tuned beast that perfected all the elements that came before and added new twists and turns that wouldn’t come to full fruition until the albums “Symbolic” and “The Sound of Perseverance” a few short years down the road came out therefore HUMAN could rightfully be thought of as the next step in that transitory period where the scant technicalities of “Spiritual Healing” were allowed off the leash a bit more, actually a whole lot more. Generally the first side of HUMAN is more conservative with tracks like “Suicide Machine” resembling the old DEATH from the “Leprosy” and “Spiritual Healing” period whereas the second half introduces newer elements that would be developed even further on subsequent albums.

The quality of DEATH albums is more a case of relativity of the albums that surround any given release due to the fact that ANY particular DEATH album was of an extraordinary caliber above and beyond what most of the competition was churning out at the same time. HUMAN is clearly a step up from the three previous albums and loses none of the feisty charm that came with those albums but also hasn’t quite reached for the stars in terms of the progressive compositions nor the technical free-for-alls but given that ole Chucky was a master at keeping composiitons whole in their perfection no matter where they ranked on the prog-o-meter, all of the albums are equally riveting despite the technical wizardry or progressive maestrohood. For me this album is just shy of perfect but that’s only in comparison to what came later. As a stand alone experience there is no doubt that this is one of those essential near masterpiece metal albums of all ages and therefore is a mandatory album in any death metal fan’s collection.