Search - Human Remains :: Where Were You When

Ah, the perfume of detritus.

idvego | Alabama | 06/02/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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."