Customer Reviews

Where Were You When

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For all you late-coming grind and "metalcore" fans, it's finally here, a catalogue of your godfathers' works. This release includes a handful of the Human Remains's tracks spanning 1990(?)-1995. Records included are:

1)Happy Days 7"
2)Relapse CDEP ("Using Sickness as a Hero")
3)a track from the "With Your Teeth" comp
4)Admirations Most Deep and Foul 7"
5)the 1990 demo
6)the 1992 demo
7)the "Metal Blade" demo
8)the original "Using Sickness as a Hero" recording. (It was later rerecorded because the band wasn't happy with it.)
And one short, unnecessary unreleased electronic preview track from post-band The Skies Denied.

It's a good release and makes available dozens of out-of-print songs you'd pay too much for on ebay, but has a few shortcomings. One being the lack of information on the releases, (i.e. years, labels) of which I'm not sure are even completely represented. The original "Using Sickness..." recording, for instance, only has five tracks whereas the later recording that Relapse released in '95 had seven. The liners are pretty weak, also. There is virtually no information on the band, only who the members were and when their first and last shows were played. One can only guess, I suppose...

Additionally, several of the tracks are EXTREMELY lo-fi. The 1990 demo, for instance, sounds like it was ripped from an old audio cassette. The "Metal Blade Demo" clips at every grind part and even has a skip at the beginning of the first track where it sounds like some one accidentally hit record when trying to play a cassette. This is to be expected of 10 year old demos, however, so no hard feelings.

On the positive side, we see a nice collective perspective on the band that forsees their development from gritty, indistinguishable grind to fast, technical grind/metalcore. Of course, a number of OOP releases are included as well as the demos that you most likely would never see in actual form.

If you still haven't heard HR, you're missing out. They feature the blistering Dave Witte on drums, (Exit 13, Discordance Axis, Black Army Jacket, Burnt by the Sun...) which should be enough to convince you. The music contains the speed and brutality of Discordance Axis, but with the technique and complexity close to the Dillinger Escape Plan (ok, maybe not THAT complex) or Burnt by the Sun. They do a lot of on/off tremolo (that stuff Rage Against the Machine used to always do where the guitars mute on and off in patterns) and are extremely based around odd time signatures and beat patterns. If you like the stuff Relapse releases these days, you'll love this CD.

Before you had the technical/progressive era of Death & Gorguts, Cynic, and early Dillinger Escape Plan, there was Human Remains. From their earliest releases, they were experimental, not just some grind or death metal band. Unlike most extreme bands which just started more death metal-like then really became more experimental, such as Cynic and Death. Not to mention HR was full of extremely talented musicians, such as the drummer, Dave Witte, who is one of metal's greatest drummers. Plus HR had Discordance Axis's guitarists and Gridlink's Bassist (both bands being one of grindcore's & extreme metal's best bands to date), and most members went to join/make Burnt by the Sun. The first disc is the main disc which you should listen too, since the second is just demos. Disc one is absolutely phenomenal and intense. It's pure experimental grindcore with technical death metal and noise influences. Everything about the music is amazing, the vocals are a perfect blend of classic hardcore and death metal, the guitars & bass are just totally out of this world and insane, and the drumming, beyond sick. The song which stands out of the most is Spoiling of Beauty. It's the most well produced track on the album and it shows the band in it's full potential and what could have came down the road for the band. Everything else on the first disk is so worth checking out, all of it was well ahead of it's time.

What can I say... you either love or hate this type of sound.

But if you are a fan of the Human Remains only commercial release
Using Sickness as a Hero (later Burnt by the Sun and Dead Guy)
then you owe yourself a listen to this collection.

Some of the best versions of their songs are only available as demos.
And this is the only place to get these...and their whole catalog.

Human remains's music is like a brick hitting you while some one else cuts your feet very slowly.Like how that sound ?Good!Brutal andin your face! Own this !