Vim Fuego
Many death metal bands have a habit of taking themselves too seriously, acting like they have a broomstick up their ass. Not Human.
Human are the sort of band which would yank that broomstick out, snap it in half, draw a Dirty Sanchez moustache on your grandmother with the shitty end and beat your dog to death with the other. Yep, you get a good dose of grind, gore and laughs with Human.
You know you are in for a good laugh as soon as you check the track listing. First song? "Easter Basket Full Of Carnage". Further down the list, "Hoopsciously Drangled", "Bright Green Body In A Big Black Coffin", "Wave Goodbye To Both Your Hands"… It is almost like Lawnmower Deth reimagined as a death metal band.
Often bands will resort to silliness to cover musical inadequacies (can anyone say Anal Cunt?) — not so here. You have everything needed for great death metal: guitars tuned to kill, blast beats, slower crunching heavy passages, dual vocals a shade easier to understand than Carcass, and a great grasp of dynamics. And then just when you think you've got your head around what's happening, Human throw in a curve ball. There is a definite taste of something non–deathly running through this album. At times, it touches on Kiss–like glam rock influences, and at other times, there is a hint of classic rock.
"Moonshine Highway" stands out like a dog's bollocks on this album. It is Southern fried death rock, which even the dead members of Lynyrd Skynyrd would boogie down to. It will be very popular in the banjo picking, cousin–marrying back blocks of New Zealand, just as soon as they get electricity.
Three tracks from the 1993 demo 'Vomit Discreetly' have been added to the end of the album. The tracks at least equal, if not outclass, much of the output of international bands of the time. It is punchy and would have generated many a brutal moshpit. If this had found the ears of the right A&R man…
It has been said before that some music should stay underground. This is too damn far underground. Do your ears a favour and go digging for it.