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Rating: The first step towards techno-death. With this simple phrase, we can define another great work by Schuldiner.
Released in 1991, the year of the genre's explosion, "Human" is the first Death album that goes beyond the classic death-metal sounds. This record, together with "Unquestionable Presence" by Atheist and "Testimony of the Ancients" by Pestilence, marks the beginning of prog/death, more commonly called techno death.
Techno stands for "technical," indicating a genre contaminated by jazz, fusion, and prog influences. The band, originating from Florida, does not try to change its sound but enriches it, evolving its technique. Chuck Schuldiner leads his band into a tangle of melodies and complex, technically prohibitive rhythms. Aside from the usual "frontal attack" that Death unleashes in previous records, there’s a noticeable and very complicated musical elaboration. Indeed, the absurd technique and "cerebral" sounds make listening to the album fascinating.
Especially in the rhythmic base, bass - drums, the changes are evident. It's no coincidence that the presence of the legendary Steve DiGiorgio, who executes extraordinary bass lines. The drums, led by Sean Reinert, smash everything in their path, forcefully entering each piece and thus devastating our excited eardrums! The riffs created by Schuldiner and Masvidal are always furious and lightning-fast. Chuck, in addition to performing electrifying solos, explodes with his purely destructive voice. Songs like “Lack Of Comprehension” or “Together As One,” are the "living" proof of the album's ferocity! The lyrics are extremely heavy, with content concerning the deepest interiors of the soul and the human mind.
Fast, powerful, melancholic, angry, elaborate, technical, psychopathic, and devastating! On an emotional level, the best death metal album ever. Wonderful to listen to but difficult to interpret without good concentration.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Flattening of Emotions (04:29)
Where is the person that could have been
Who, what took over, when did the end begin
Should we not prepare for the uncertain
Mysteries of our life, of our destiny
See things that are not there
Intruding voices
What went wrong to their picture perfect life
They once knew - Flattening of emotions
A mind shared by an uninvited stranger
Which comes and goes as choose to appear
Should we not prepare for the uncertain
Mysteries of our life, of our destiny
See things that are not there
Intruding voices
What went wrong to their picture perfect life
They once knew - Flattening of emotions
02 Suicide Machine (04:22)
Controlling their lives
Deciding when and how they will die
A victim of someone else's choice
The ones who suffer have no voice
Manipulating destiny
When it comes to living, No one seems to care
But when it comes to wanting out
Those with power, Will be there
Prolong the pain
How long will it last?
Suicide machine
A request to die with dignity
Is that too much to ask?
Suicide machine
How easy it is to deny the pain
Of someone else's suffering
Robbed of natural abilities
In death they now seek tranquility
In a confused state of mind
Extending agony, They must be blind
Manipulating destiny
When it comes to living, No one seems to care
But when it comes to wanting out
Those with power, Will be there
Prolong the pain
How long will it last?
Suicide machine
A request to die with dignity
Is that too much to ask?
Suicide machine
03 Together as One (04:08)
Labelled a creation of evil
Ridiculed for their shocking appearance
Sharing both please and pain
Two minds, Two hearts, One soul
Separating mentally
An illusion of privacy
Together - They absorb each other's lives
As One - They will live and they will die
A living hell has begun
Displayed as a nightmare
Criticized through words and eyes
As they stare
To the normal it seems grotesque
Connected by a bond of flesh
Two minds, Two hearts, One soul
Separating mentally
An illusion of privacy
Together - They absorb each other's lives
As One - They will live and they will die
A living hell has begun
05 Lack of Comprehension (03:43)
A condeming fear strikes down
Things they cannot understand
An excuse to cover up weaknesses that lie within
Lies
Laying your guilt and pain
On people that had no part in the molding of a life
That creates its destruction
Lies
Right before your very eyes
A reflection of the mistakes
To the end you will deny
Your part in the demise of a life
Lack of comprehension
Thriving on your cliche
Compelled by self-resentment
Reaching into the minds of those that created
The depression in which they
In which they drowned their flesh and blood
Lies
So easy to blame the
Everlasting fear on a pathetic attempt
To justify the ending of life
Lies
Right before your very eyes
A reflection of the mistakes
To the end you will deny
Your part in the demise of a life
Lack of comprehension
Thriving on your cliche
Compelled by self-resentment
08 Vacant Planets (03:48)
Mysterious object of flight on a voyage
To correct what they have done, What we are doing
Perhaps submerged, Living in the inner most
Recesses of the planet - No choice but
To adapt to an underground world
Limiting our passages of thought
Are they the examples of regression
A life form's abusive progression
In a realm so vast, We sit among the Vacant Planets
So many worlds yet to be seen that once have shared
The same effects that come from greed, Mass production
Perhaps submerged, Living in the inner most
Recesses of the planet - No choice but
To adapt to an underground world
Limiting our passages of thought
Are they the examples of regression
A life form's abusive progression
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By ElectricOne
"'Human' is the last album by our guys that still has all the intrinsic characteristics of the genre, therefore passionate executional ferocity, power and guttural timbre of the sounds."
"The true strength of 'Human' is to make such an amalgam of technical abilities listenable, offering vivid human sound emotions, despite the refined individual technique and intricate rhythmic solutions."
