Humanize Human

Actually, it was over a year earlier with “Sick”, truth be told, but a few casualties were still lying around once it was over whereas on the album reviewed here the only genuinely intimidating moment was the bleak, depressing cover art. This was the first Massacra album I purchased; I’d listened to every other album of theirs, but I only had 15-min from “Final Holocaust” as a completion to a 60-min cassette on which I had recorded Destruction’s “Cracked Brain”…

So I went to the music shop one day in 1995 to buy The Gathering’s “Mandylion”, which I did, and since I still had some spare cash rolling in my pockets, I looked around to see if I could add something else to the collection. I hesitated between Fear Factory’s “Demanufacture” and the album reviewed here, and as I wasn’t a big fan of Burton Bell and Co., at least not at the time, I settled for the Massacra opus. I guess another reason why I chose this cassette was the depressing mood spell I was going through after splitting up with one of the few girlfriends I really cared about a few weeks earlier… and this cover won me for its cause with all its apocalyptic, black-and-white glamour.

The Oriental motifs at the beginning of “Need for Greed” by all means have their alluring flair, but when the heavy groovy stomps settle in alongside the angry aggro-vocals, the initial enchantment will quickly fade away although the more patient will discover a doomy morose opus lasting for nearly 8-min, the furthest possible departure from the super-fast blitzkrieg rifforamas on the band's first three instalments. “Feel Unreal” has a memorable main motif which dominates the sombre groovy environment, the sparse synthesized vocal insertions adding to the modernized, mechanized drama. “My Only Friend” is a very good example of a soulful groovy ballad taking the aggro-lyricism of Pantera’s “This Love” and “Cemetery Gates” far beyond any dramatic, more intense developments; this is jarring, restless serenity disturbed by the desperate semi-shouts of the vocalist. “Mad to Be Normal” is edgier groovy rock ala Helmet with interesting balladic interludes, and “How Free Are You” finally introduces more dynamic riffage slightly recalling the delivery from “Sick”; doomy progressive undercurrents give this composition a more serious flavour, but also “kill” those cool faster-paced attempts from the beginning. The title-track livens up with jumpy, bouncy drum work, but the depressive mood is preserved all over, a nice stylish lead section “pricking” a hole into the thick groovy miasma. “Dejected” is another nod to the doom metal movement and the ballad, and this is where the sound remains for the last two pieces.

As an evolution from “Sick” this effort could be excused as it abandons the already laid-back post-death/thrash overtones from its predecessor, acquiring a more introspective vibe, seldom reaching even the mid-paced parametres. “Doom groove” would be the most fitting description for this kind of music as there’s very little, if anything at all, to relate it to the bustling at the time post-thrash movement. Just a few months after the still pretty boisterous “Sick” the band abandoned all hope coming with a very downbeat epitaph to a fairly vociferous, "noisy” career (also remember their early demos). And there was also a follow-up of some sorts, founded by the guitar player Jean Marc Trisani and the vocalist Fred Death (R.I.P., 1997), named Zero Tolerance with one album released (“Zero for All”) in 1996, a more or less logical sequel to the album reviewed here, maybe a tad more oriented towards the colder industrial sounds as exercised by Ministry and later-period Pitchshifter.

Massacra were also the first, and so far only, outfit from the Big Four (the other three No Return, Agressor, and Loudblast) of French thrash/death metal who dropped out of the scene… no attempts have been made on the side of the band members to reform regardless of the two compilations released in the new millennium. “Massacres” of innocent civilians have truly become a rarity nowadays… maybe it’s time for someone to put humanity on the top of their toes again by raising the guillotine.

Giving this album some kind of fair rating is really hard.

If you expect a follow up to their first three albums you will be shocked. "Humanize Human" has definetly nothing in common with Death Metal or its trademarks.
Even if you expect a successor to "Sick" you'll be unsatisfied because "Humanize Human" maybe a modern Metal album but it's not a Neo Thrash album either.

So what is it then?

It's hard to say. There are the vocals which are Thrash Metal influenced and smoother than on "Sick". The Death Metal past is allowed to shine through on occasion. The vocals may be the only thing which remained from MASSACRA's past. And unluckily they are the weak point of this album.
When the vocals are whispered the music is quite good, but as soon as the shouting starts the songs become an instant crap.

The music on the other hand is really good as soon as you make sure that you don't expect a "typical" MASSACRA album. It is a "modern" Heavy Metal album - or at least it tries really hard to sound modern. When it was released this sound was innovative.
It's some kind of atmospheric Rock and Metal hybrid with some influences from eastern folklore.

With another singer this could have been a very good album. But not only are the vocals bad. The whole album dosn't feel right. From MASSACRA we expect another kind of music. They should have renamed the band and took another vocalist.

So this album was for no one. The MASSACRA fans ignored it, because it lacks the sheer excitment from the brutal and fast riffing the older albums had (even "Sick" on a more Thrash Metal basis). And everybody else ignored it because the name MASSACRE let them expect brutal and fast riffing.