Human Error [Original recording remastered]

Unseen Terror | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 2, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Earache Records
• ASIN: B00005O7TH
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #377,581 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Unseen Terror

2. Oblivion Descends

3. Divisions

4. Death Sentence (Of the Innocent)

5. Ignorant Scene

6. Uninformed

7. Expulsion of Wrath

8. Garfield for President

9. Burned Beyond Recognition

10. Winds of Pestilence

11. Hysteria

12. In a Shallow Grave

13. Deliverance

14. The End Product

15. To Live and Learn

16. Charred Remains

17. Beyond Eternity

18. Garfield Strikes Again

19. Expulsion of Wrath [*]

20. Beyond Eternity [*]

See all 24 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This solitary album by Britain's Unseen Terror documents the moment when underground metal became greatly impressed by the speed and political outrage of hardcore punk. Originally released in 1987 by the then-fledgling Earache label, Human Error is a classic experiment in melding technical Slayer-like guitar licks with a straight-ahead bashing inspired by American punk bands like Minor Threat. Hundreds of other groups copped the same concept at that time, but Unseen Terror were one of the few that did more than just plug-and-play the formula. The same could be said of neighboring Birmingham-area group Napalm Death, and in 1988 Unseen Terror's drummer Shane Embury joined Napalm for a long-running stint as bass player. Thus the crushing confusion of "Divisions" and other pieces will sound awfully familiar to fans. Everyone from Carcass to Morbid Angel picked up and intensified pieces of this action, carrying forward the charnel house worldview of "Death Sentence of the Innocent" and "Oblivion Descends." Though rife with blast beats and swervy guitar rhythms by Mitch Dickinson, Human Error may be less intense than similar outings by Righteous Pigs, Terrorizer, Cryptic Slaughter, and Repulsion, due to a crisp professional recording that tidies up the mania. Lovely, smudgy rehearsal tapes tacked on as six extra tracks here offer a dirtier perspective, and hint where the band was going before its premature dissolution. Amidst all the blistering riffs and collapsing cacophony, the band's adolescent awkwardness is revealed in no less than four songs based on the "Garfield" comic strip. Arne Babb lives! --Ian Christe

Product Description

Another Earache reissue and available for the first time on CD with 6 bonus tracks, completely remastered with new booklet, unreleased photos and liner notes from Mitch Dickinson (Heresy). 'Human Error' features the first recordings of Shane Embury (Napal

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Overlooked and highly influential Brit grindcore, November 27, 2009

By 

Tom P. the Underground Navigator (Park Forest, IL USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Human Error (Audio CD)

The fastest and most extreme music in the early '80s underground scene arguably fell within the realm of U.S. hardcore punk, and in particular bands such as Boston's Deep Wound and Siege. As the mid-'80s approached though and that scene slowly faded away, it was the Brits who would prove to carry the torch on into a new era in the late '80s.

Enter Broseley, Shropshire tape traders Mitch Dickinson and Shane Embury, both big fans of Flint, Michigan blasting pioneers Repulsion. The latter band never saw an official release of its music until years later, but in the late '80s England's Earache Records, then a vinyl-only label, was the catalyst and main anchor of this burgeoning new scene, as they would release records by then demo-only bands like Napalm Death for the first time.

Dickinson and Embury formed Unseen Terror around this time and after much rehearsing Earache head Digby Pearson soon petitioned them to record their debut LP, even though the lads were at this time still without a bass player. By the time the photos to adorn the soon to be recorded opus were taken in the summer of 1987 though, they had enlisted a bassist by the name of Pete Giles, who appears in said photos.

The problem is, Giles lived some 200 miles away from Shropshire and hence the pairing never gelled. By the time the band entered Birmingham's infamous Rich Bitch studio in September of 1987 to record, they were forced to complete the project as a two piece.

Listening to the resultant "Human Error," you would never know this was in fact the work of only two guys. When one mentions late '80s grindcore, bands like Napalm Death and Terrorizer always come to mind but it was Unseen Terror who were arguably the first to play this light speed material with a precision unheard up to that point. From the moment one puts the needle on the record, you are literally assaulted with a nonstop 35 minute cacophony of Dickinson's bloodcurdling riff patterns and Embury's precise and devastating blastbeats.

In this era the sound was just as much influenced by traditional hardcore punk as it was speed metal and the LP's lyrics reflect this. "Divisions" is a sincere and heartfelt call for unity in a divided scene: "People should stop and think about the feelings of others/There is no second class/We are all the same." But the remnant of the splatter filled tomes of Repulsion are present as well in songs like "Charred Remains": "Carbon covered smoldered corpse diminishes/Embers die to leave the gutted charred remains/Within seconds annihilation/A funeral pyre of radiation."

Shortly after the LP's release Embury would take on bass duties in Napalm Death, but I think that the precision of his drumming in Unseen Terror was a big influence on later, more well known drummers in the field like Pete Sandoval of Terrorizer/Morbid Angel, and thus the man should be remembered first for his contributions as a drummer. Furthermore, to paraphrase Dickinson in the 2001 reissue's liner notes, the buzzsaw guitar sound he achieved on "Human Error," which Dickinson relates was almost accidental and due to Rich Bitch's faulty engineering, would turn up in the later works of noted Swedish death metal bands like Entombed and Carnage.

All in all, "Human Error" is an underrated and highly influential piece of extreme music history and best encapsulates the evolution of the sound in the late '80s. Highly recommended.