Human

The best Death album is an extremely individual issue, but one thing is certain, "Human" is one of those that are the most prominent in describing it as the "best" album compared to the others. The reason is very simple (though - paradoxically - also accurate on the next albums), the music is well thought out, has a lot of changes, and at the same time there are no elements that strip the whole thing out of extremes. Anything else you need to add on such a known issue? Well, maybe "just" but for my eyesight (or rather my hearing), "Human" seems to be a model example, where Schuldiner achieved the most even proportions between technique and classic death metal patterns. But that's not the end of surprises, because "Human" is much higher surprises than my usual description above would suggest! This is because I am talking about an album that you get to know through several approaches and to which - despite my good conversion - still coming back with great pleasure.

Of course, the significantly changed composition contributed to this. There was no survivor from the previous band except Schuldiner himself, so Chuck recruited Sean Reinert and Paul Masvidal from Cynic and most of the well-known Steve DiGiorgio. In a nutshell, extremely talented musicians who presented a completely different feeling and skills from their predecessors on the discussed disc - more technical, sometimes even touching on jazz influences (although the latter is a bit of a generalization, especially in relation to Cynic's releases). In any case, Death's music has become much more complex and at the same time it has not lost its power and strength - the effect of even excellent "Vacant Planets", "Suicide Machine", "See Through Dreams" or "Flattening Of Emotions". Besides, "everything is as old as it is better". It's also worth mentioning the most catchy in this tracklist "Lack Of Comprehension" (where there is also a place for a surprisingly calm introduction) and the instrumental "Cosmic Sea" (with a great bass solo performed by Scott Carino) - i.e. songs that stand out much more above the norm even for Death.

Well, the summary can only be one in this situation. More precisely, I will remind you what I said at the beginning of the review. Well, "Human" started the best period in Death's discography, where each album deserved the maximum and each brought a big breakthrough in Schuldiner's work. "Human" is the first of them which elevated the level of Chuck's music to total heights. It's enough to listen briefly to how far the production itself has gone.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2021/01/death-human-1991.html