The MASSACRA fans ignored it, because it lacks the sheer excitment from the brutal and fast riffing the older albums had (even "Sick" on a more Thrash Metal basis). They should have renamed the band and took another vocalist. From MASSACRA we expect another kind of music. With another singer this could have been a very good album. It's some kind of atmospheric Rock and Metal hybrid with some influences from eastern folklore. When it was released this sound was innovative. It is a "modern" Heavy Metal album - or at least it tries really hard to sound modern. The music on the other hand is really good as soon as you make sure that you don't expect a "typical" MASSACRA album. When the vocals are whispered the music is quite good, but as soon as the shouting starts the songs become an instant crap. And unluckily they are the weak point of this album. The vocals may be the only thing which remained from MASSACRA's past. The Death Metal past is allowed to shine through on occasion. There are the vocals which are Thrash Metal influenced and smoother than on "Sick". "Humanize Human" has definetly nothing in common with Death Metal or its trademarks.Įven if you expect a successor to "Sick" you'll be unsatisfied because "Humanize Human" maybe a modern Metal album but it's not a Neo Thrash album either. If you expect a follow up to their first three albums you will be shocked. Giving this album some kind of fair rating is really hard. Get this album any way you can, its as good as death metal gets. I would put 'Enjoy The Violence' amongst the top 20 all time death metal albums, ever. I find it odd that they capitalized on the death/thrash metal craze of the mid 80's to early 90's, perhaps bands from france didn't get as much exposure as the US, UK or Scandinavia did. But I doubt the band could capture the magic of the early 90's like they used to and so many countless other death metal bands from that same era as well. It's a shame that the singer died of cancer in '97. They're really a tight unit and perform so well together, they all seem to be on the same page and nothing sounds out of place with the instruments. They fit the perfect description of a true death/thrash metal band. The music is dominated by heavy rhythms, alot of riffs (some thrashy), excellent drumming and awesome death metal vocals. Man, how these went through history without much notice or word of mouth just completely baffles me.
It warranted at least a download to hear them out without blowing my cash. I didn't know a thing about these guys so I was wary even with the good reviews. I'm not much of a death metal guy but I do enjoy the good and prolific bands of the late 80's, early 90's like Death, Possessed, Morbid Angel, Deicide, Entombed and Suffocation. I got into this band by a couple of reviews from here on metal archives and on /metal just giving these guys all sorts of praise. Either way the other two deserve as much praise but for another time. I chose this one since I have listened to it the most. It was hard for me to decide which Massacra album to review first since I absolutely love the first three albums (Final Holocaust, Enjoy The Violence and Signs Of The Decline) so much. After recording three demos : *Legion Of Turture '87, **Final Holocaust '88, ***Nearer From Death '89, in 1990 they signed a deal with "shark" records in germany and released their three first albums under this label, they also realesed two other albums untill 1995, in 1997 they planned to do some gigs but never happened and finaly band split up due to death of Fred 'death' dual by the cancer in 1997. Death/thrash/groove metal from France, one demo and all 5 full-length albums released 1989-1995.