and another classic death re-press by relapse records. i missed the boat on the first two, which had been "leprosy" and "spiritual healing", by now i managed to obtain the back on black re-presses of those albums. when "scream bloody gore" got a wider press with an european edition i jumped right at the chance and since then i am in a death fever. i eagerly await the relapse re-pressings and this time it was for the band's fourth full length called "human". after a few spins i feel like "human" will become my favourite album by death, even a bit better than "the sound of perseverance" in my eyes.
for this album schuldiner came up with a whole new death line-up. the touring in support of "spiritual healing" must have been quite chaotic. i read that for personal reasons schuldiner refused to make the european tour booked for dates with kreator. the other band members wanted to do it no matter what and simply took an ex-roadie for vocal duties. the tour was played and after the band returned home schulidner threw them all out and searched for new, more technical experienced musicians to acomplish his new vision of death. with steve digiorgio, sean reinert and paul masvidal he found just the right people.
the album sounds so fresh and up to date, it is hard to believe these recordings are over twenty five years old. reinert and masvidal were actually in cynic and were still to record a milestone called "focus" two years later. together with digiorgio's outstanding bass-play and schuldiner's song writing skills they brought a jazzy edge to the sound which makes "human" so strong. the relapse version i have is the second exclusive colour out of 500 copies. the first colour being clear with multi splatter out of 300 copies was already gone after two hours. i don't mind it in this case because this blood red and black merge looks sharp! this is the re-mastered version from the 2011 deluxe cd edition with great liner notes by paul masvidal. lovely package! relapse records. 2017.