Once Human - Scar Reaver

Once Human is Logan Mader’s current – since 2014 to be precise – band. The guitarist whose career includes stints in Machine Head and Soulfly, gave most of his time in the 00s to producing, but lately he’s made a stage comeback with Once Human but also with Machine Head, as he participated in the anniversary tour for ‘Burn My Eyes’, a tour that was supposed to come to Greece before that became impossible for reasons that are well known. In the meantime both Mader and Robb Flynn returned to their respective projects – however the reunion paved the way for Flynn to collaborate on a Once Human song.

‘Scar Weaver’ is a melodic death metal record, focused on groove rather than speed. You could say it is female fronted as well, since vocals are handled by Lauren Hart, but we’re talking about death metal vocals, so that label pretty much loses its significance. The album is very well produced, which is to be expected given Mader’s background; his name is featured on the credits of some genre-defining albums – ‘The Way of All Flesh’ being a good example. In terms of songwriting though, there’s nothing on here that will take Once Human to the next level or make them acquire a following that is not derived from Mader’s past. “Deadlock” makes sense for the Flynn duet, it does have a catchy chorus, but that’s about it.