Bassist Steve DiGiorgio left after the recording of the album (though he would later return to record Individual Thought Patterns). He was replaced by Scott Carino, who toured with the band in 1991 and 1992. Carino also recorded additional bass overdub on "Cosmic Sea" after a couple of issues were discovered during the mixing stage. The rest of the song (including the bass solo) was recorded by DiGiorgio.[citation needed]
In 2011, Relapse Records and Perseverance Holdings Ltd. re-issued the album to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the original release. This edition was remixed by Jim Morris of Morrisound Recording Studios, includes bonus tracks,[3] and was authorized by Schuldiner intellectual property lawyer Eric Greif.[4] The reissue of Human was remixed, as Sony had lost the master tapes of Scott Burns' original mixes.[5]
Style
The album marked the beginning of a major stylistic change for Death, being more technically complex and progressive than the band's previous efforts. Shaun Lindsley of Metal Hammer said Human was an "exponential leap forward in innovation" for the band.[6] Steve Huey of AllMusic described Chuck Schuldiner's harmonized guitar riffs as "strange" and "dissonant", and argued the album's back side is "actually almost subdued by death metal standards."[7] Marcus Jervis of About.com assessed, "Although firmly rooted in death metal, by this stage of its career, Death had little in common with the gore drenched grind of Cannibal Corpse or the satanic blast beats of Deicide, instead choosing to explore increasingly progressive avenues, expanding the boundaries of what was considered possible in death metal."[8]
Human was released to critical acclaim from music publications, and has since been commended as a "masterpiece" in death metal. Additionally, it is considered to be a highly influential release in the development of the technical death metal subgenre, and on extreme metal in general. In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine placed the album as the 70th greatest metal album of all time.[15] According to Matt Mills of WhatCulture, Human "singlehandedly gave credence to the “technical death metal” niche, while also signalling that Death had fully spread their wings beyond what was first thought possible".[16][17] Gregg Pratt of Exclaim! said "the one-two opening punch of "Flattening of Emotions" and "Suicide Machine" is easily one of the best double-hitter openings of a death metal album [in 1991], and the competition was stiff."[1] According to Marcus Jervis at About.com, Human "was undeniable proof that extreme metal was capable of being about something more than angry kids pretending to worship the devil. It was crushing but cerebral and the precursor to an era where technicality is seen as a given in extreme metal."[8]
Human is a highly influential extreme metal album, according to Jeff Wagner in his 2010 text on progressive metal, Mean Deviation. It is Death's best-selling album, having sold 100,000 copies in the United States by 1995.[18] It was ranked number 82 on the October 2006 issue of Guitar World magazine's list of the greatest 100 guitar albums of all time. The track "Lack of Comprehension" has an accompanying music video, which received airplay on MTV and helped boost the sales of the album.[19][better source needed] As of April 2024, the music video has over 8.3 million views of YouTube.[20]
As of 2008, Human had sold 95,000 copies with the U.S., according to Soundscan.[3]
The band paid homage in the liner notes to Atheist bassist Roger Patterson, who was killed in a car accident in February 1991.
The band's logo presents a change; compared to the logo on the three preceding albums, it loses the drops of blood that flow downwards and the spider web on the letter "D".
Schuldiner has stated that the song "Lack of Comprehension" is based on the scandal regarding metal band Judas Priest, where it was accused of causing a fan to commit suicide.[25]
