Pretend I'm Human

Recorded in California, Pretend I'm Human was produced by Neil Perry.[8][9] The band abandoned all of its demoed songs once they were in the studio, opting instead to start over.[10] Vocalist Chaka Malik played bass on the album.[11] The lyrics to many of the songs touch on themes of societal power dynamics and class.[12]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[13]
Winnipeg Sun	[14]

Exclaim! wrote that "Touching Skies" "may be the best, if not the only, rap-metal power ballad ever."[15] The Telegram & Gazette deemed the album the band's best yet, praising the "rap-inspired grooves, sharper dynamic shifts and overall better chops."[9] The Arizona Daily Star determined that Malik's "words are racy enough to turn a sailor incarnadine, yet his rap is fantastically caustic poetry."[12]

The New York Post noted that Orange 9mm "is still their hard-core selves on this 10-song collection, which taps hip-hop, industrial and good old-fashioned Stairway-to-Hell metal."[16] The Winnipeg Sun concluded that the "NYC trio manages to weld heavy riffs and hip-hop rhythms without getting them all over each other."[14] The San Diego Union-Tribune stated that "the lurching guitars in the Fugazi-like 'Lifeless', the explosive title track and even the slow build-up in 'Touching Skies', a rather preachy song about self-determination, have a raw, punk edge to them that you won't find in other so-called new metal bands."[17]

AllMusic wrote that "even if Malik has a better lyrical flow than most rap-metal singers, the results tend to sound stiff and forced when there are no funky backing rhythms for him to play off of."[13] In 2021, Decibel called Pretend I'm Human "extraordinarily eclectic," noting that the reissue "brings the guitars to the fore [to] make it a perfect ahead-of-its-time candidate for reevaluation."[18]