Miracle "The Remnants Of Humanity" CD Bonustracks

Thrashing Madness presents MIRACLE from the city of Poznan and their epic The Remnants of Humanity. After almost 30 years, these thirteen death/thrash songs still hold up, still sound fresh and are immeasurably lethal. The Remnants of Humanity demo is a genre’s real classic. Remaster edition plus live bonustracks!!

At face value, “The Remnants of Humanity” is an average death metal recording (album or demo?), from an obscure Polish death metal scene during the tail-end of the genre's heyday (1993). This is an unremarkable recording in many ways, and I doubt it ever influenced anyone. That said, I cannot stop listening to it and seeking more depth, perhaps in hope of unearthing the nuggets of genius that lie within. However much Miracle frustrates me, both musically and ideologically, I am convinced that they had the potential for greatness (even if they were unable to maintain it for long).
I assume this was a Christian band (e.g., the name, the lyrics, the prominence of Creation of Death in the acknowledgements). If so, they are easily the best Christian old school death metal band I've heard. This is much better than any Mortification albums (including the overrated "Scrolls of the Megilloth"), and it beats the aforementioned Creation of Death into oblivion. Perhaps it is the fact that Miracle has a progressive and semi-technical approach (influenced by Death and Pestilence, for sure). This idiosyncrasy and musical commitment helps them avoid the affliction of many Christian metal bands (i.e., those that sound more like a faith-based recruitment campaign than a musical entity). The only overt problem with Miracle here is the shitty anti-abortion lyrics on “Dumb Cry”, though perhaps this was inevitable for a Christian death metal band representing a Catholic-majority country.
Musically, this flits between awesomeness and cluelessness. The first half (or more) is packed with exciting death metal composed with interesting riff changes and well-timed melodic solos, balanced with freewheeling, unorthodox drumming. There are moments of brilliant angularity. The aforementioned "Dumb Cry" is a great example (it is one of the best tracks here from a musical perspective), I love the part near the beginning where it crawls into a super heavy riff and pivots to a repetitive melodic-based riff while the drummer expresses himself with all kinds of syncopated madness. "Dead Souls" is equally great, launching with some similarly ambitious drumming that gradually settles into a groove in mesmerising fashion. There are several moments like this throughout.
Then there are moments where everything sounds awkward and wrong, the beats become basic, the riffs stale, and there is no dynamic interplay between these elements. This is more obvious on the last three songs (i.e., "The Other Side" through to "Eternal Oblivion"), which are bland and stilted compared to what came before. The result is an incongruous record that has plenty of depth, but never feels consistent or cohesive. Perhaps this doesn’t matter, because there is enough gold here to be worth digging into (and it is topped with good bass playing and a solid old school death metal production). I have had fun listening to this one, and you probably will too.

Sample: 

Promo Teaser video: