Death released its fourth studio album, Human, on October 22, 1991. Chuck Schuldiner had assembled a recording lineup with Cynic guitarist Paul Masvidal and drummer Sean Reinert, plus Sadus bassist Steve Di Giorgio. The songs were Schuldiner’s, but these musicians had room to reshape how they moved. “Lack of Comprehension” became the album’s music video, which Relapse revisited with remixed audio in 2011.
Schuldiner already knew the musicians he was asking to take Death into unfamiliar territory. Reinert recalled in a 2006 interview with Zero Tolerance that he and Masvidal had been friends with Schuldiner for years, making trips to watch Death rehearse and hang out. Human was Reinert’s first major recording session. He had already spent years playing with Masvidal in Cynic before they recorded with Death. He remembered an easygoing atmosphere, with Schuldiner determined to enjoy making music after earlier business problems and lineup changes.
That familiarity mattered when they got into Cynic’s rehearsal room in Miami. Masvidal told Decibel that Reinert responded to small details in the guitar parts, changing the feel of the arrangements. Di Giorgio described writing his bass parts in tandem with the drums: his notes could follow Reinert’s rolls, while Reinert could respond to a climbing bass line. They spent weeks working through the material together before recording. The complexity grew out of musicians listening closely to one another and finding ways for their parts to connect.
At Morrisound in Tampa, where they recorded with Scott Burns, Schuldiner also left Masvidal’s individual guitar voice intact. “He never gave notes on solos or tones,” Masvidal told Guitar World in 2025. Masvidal chose his own equipment and sounds while drawing on his interest in jazz and fusion. Schuldiner’s taste leaned toward melodic metal. Both approaches had room on the record.
Reinert’s preparation created an unexpected opportunity. Masvidal remembered a full week being set aside for drums, only for Reinert to finish in a day or two. With time available, the band wrote “Cosmic Sea” in the studio. Di Giorgio recalled that Schuldiner supplied riff ideas while the others offered suggestions, making the instrumental an unusually open collaboration. A fast drum session had made space for another song.
Schuldiner was widening the writing’s subject matter, too. In an October 1991 interview originally published in Horror Infernal and later archived by Voices From the Darkside, he described a gradual move away from gore. Spiritual Healing had already concentrated on real people and situations; Human continued that interest. “Death Metal can have meaning and it can have melody,” he said. He considered the new album more progressive and still brutal, and resisted the idea that improving as a musician meant abandoning his audience. He was proud of Leprosy, but said repeating it would limit him. He wanted listeners to follow the music as he improved and was prepared to lose some fans rather than keep making the same record.
The recording process eventually became part of the release itself. Relapse’s 2011 reissue paired Jim Morris’ remix with early demos and basic instrumental studio tracks, including material from “Cosmic Sea.” Listeners could hear the finished album alongside working versions of the music that Schuldiner, Masvidal, Reinert and Di Giorgio had developed together.
