Human

To me, “Human” officially marks the death of the old Death. It’s when Chuck decided to step out of the death and gore stuff and move on to different subjects such as the human mind, spiritualism, and society issues.

This album progresses musically and lyrically but this is still an old school death metal album.
Chuck really began to step up the technicality of his riffs. Not just fast all the time like most of the older stuff. He changes it up a lot on this album; although a lot of it is still fast. His solos have gotten better but they were amazing even on “Spiritual Healing”, so he can’t really improve on something that is already near perfection.

I’m so glad Chuck finally got rid of Terry Butler and Bill Andrews. Terry Butler literally did nothing with the bass when he was in the band. The legendary Steve DiGiorgio replaced Terry and thank God he did. Steve actually does something with the bass! I just wish he was louder in the mix on this album. He does have a few standouts like the beginning of “Lack of Comprehension”. Now for the drums, I’ve noticed on almost every single “Leprosy” review someone mentioned how terrible the drummer was. I thought he did good for true old school death metal with little or no progression in the mix. Now with the natural progression happening on this album, I’m glad Bill was let go. Sean Reinert does an excellent job. His double bass is fast, his fills are amazing, and he is just an all around good death metal drummer.

The songs have progressed but still qualify as old school death metal in my opinion. They are fast and they are extremely heavy. Also, Chuck sounds almost as evil as he did on the previous albums so that just adds to death metal feel. “Lack of Comprehension” starts with an awesome almost elevator music type intro and then goes into a masterpiece. It also probably has the most headbangable part in history. “Together as One” starts out extremely fast and is pretty fast throughout and has a pretty awesome chorus. “Cosmic Sea” is the instrumental on this album and is very atmospheric. It has some pretty sweet bass playing and just has a very eerie feel to it. Every song on here delivers good death metal. My least favorite would have to be “See Through Dreams” because it just doesn’t stick with me after I listen to it.

Production is near perfect. The guitars are insanely heavy. The drums sound amazing. The only complaint I have is the bass. With Steve now playing bass for them, one would think they would have turned it up to put a spotlight on how talented this guy was but no, he kind of sits in the background with a few exceptions.

“Human” is a very good death metal album and every song on here is good; some much better than others. It just doesn’t measure up to “Leprosy” or Spiritual Healing”. Those two albums pretty much put everything else to shame. I would highly recommend this album if you like the old Death or the newer Death.

Best tracks – “Lack of Comprehension”, “Suicide Machine”, and “Together as One”