Human

Ah, Human by Death. The ultimate transitional album. Despite being their shortest effort, it could possibly be Death's most technical and ambitious album, and most of the songs on here are memorable classics. There is a clear change in musical aspects on this record, as the newly-obtained lineup consisting of Sean Reinert on drums, Steve DiGiorgio on bass and Paul Masdival on guitars definitely brought some jazz influences to Death, which would permanently alter the band's style; gone were the days of brutal riffing with blast beats and lyrics about raping zombies and shitting on their excised guts, Chuck ultimately ushered in a new signature sound for Death, a progressive, complex, intricate and musically fervent sound. This change was hugely controversial, and some fans even stopped following Death because of it (their loss). However, as time has passed, along with Chuck, this album has gained massive amounts of respect pretty much universally, and with good reason.

Straight from the first track, flattening of emotions, which is one of the fastest and heaviest Death songs, you'll notice that the production has completely shifted, allowing for a more dynamic and layered approach to the songs, the drum intro is clean and serves as a nice tension-builder for the perfect transition into the crazy, rapid verse. The song then slows down during the chorus and the chorus riff is given variations, becoming lower every time, which is sonically effective, and really gives the song a lot of memorable qualities, but that can be said for the whole album. Every song has these complicated, unorthodox sections that are hard to explain, but they stick in your mind like Semtex, exploding into an array of unique musical components. This memorability is one of the main reasons as to why this album gets so much praise, especially in songs like Secret Face and See Through Dreams, where the riffs are morbid and relentless, but a technical touch is given to them, and virtually all of the songs have these wild middle sections filled with jazzy soloing and unpredictable time changes. For the most part, I'm not that keen on wankery, I have to be in the mood to listen to bands like Atheist and Watchtower, and full-on prog like Dream Theater is just the cure for sleep deprivation in my opinion, but these progressive twists during Human are far from boring, the solos carry so much emotion, nothing goes on for too long, it's like Opeth doubled their speed, quartered their song lengths and took an axe to the acoustic sections, that's the best way I can describe it to you without you listening to it for yourself.

Cosmic Sea is a weird track, it's a quiet instrumental, but much more atmospheric and ambient than Voice of the Soul in comparison, it starts with a keyboard intro and droning guitars, which sound melancholic, but deeply eerie at the same time. The entire runtime is doused with shredding, but in the first half it's accompanied by mellow background synths, and in the second half the heavy riffing starts. It's a bit of an unnecessary track, but that doesn't mean there isn't a lot to enjoy in it. Vacant Planets is an appropriate closer, it is filled to the brim with frantic melodies and multiple haunting riffs, which bring the album to its extremely sudden end.

Suicide Machine is an absolute classic, it's probably the best example of what I mean when I say this album has a "progressive nature", most of the riffs are half-heaviness and half-melody, but the pre-chorus riffs are just amazing and climactic, the unexpected time changes just blow you away every time, and it's all pretty stably put together, considering just how extreme they got with varying the sections of the songs, and the chorus is probably one of the most famous Death hooks, with the iconic lyric "A request to die with dignity, is that too much to ask? Suicide machine,". However, my favourite song from this record is definitely Lack of Comprehension, with its beautiful intro that merges perfectly with the rest of the song, which is a brutal, galloping behemoth, every second is memorable, and the middle section is the most convoluted of the lot.

The lyrics also relate much more to human behaviour and philosophy compared to early Death material, which I believe was a necessary change, and to quickly sum up the lyrics of this album: they're all awesome, and Chuck's vocal delivery is possibly at its undisputed peak here, and I'm pretty sure it's a tie between this album and Spiritual Healing for Chuck's lowest vocal register, his primal howl is recognisable by almost every metalhead. I think it should go without saying that this album is essential, it's the most famous Death album for a reason.