Human

Yes, a highlight in their career! For one, Schuldiner finally got rid off his worst rhythmsection ever and chose what afterwards can be considered his best, namely Cynic drummer Sean Reiniert and the fretless bandwhore Steve DiGiorgio on bass. On top of things he also got guitarist Paul Masvidal (Cynic as well) which was a improvement to James Murphy (and that is saying something).

Secondly the songwriting skills had improved in terms of writing shorter more logical songs with a clear structure and recognisable chorus. ‘Flattening Of Emotions’ and ‘Lack Of Comprehension’ really stand out here. These are some finetuned compositions which were so transparent of structure that there was plenty of room for the individual instrumentalist to excell within the boundaries. ‘Suicide Machine’, ‘Together As One’, ‘See Through Dreams’, ‘Vacant Planets’’ and ‘Secret Face’ are all catchy powerful death metal songs of high quality diversity and dynamics that equal the best songs from their previous record.

The production matched (topped actually) the heaviness of ‘Leprosy with the definition and tranparency of ‘Spiritual Healing’ resulting in the perfect hybrid. The sound is simply amazing and suitable.

There are however two things for me to complain about. Mostly it’s the instrumental song ‘Cosmic Sea’ which I still find to be rather dull. Even the allegedly impressive solo doesn’t ‘do it’ for me. The last complaint is the length of the album. Too short.