Review Summary: Scavenger of musical genius
Death were a groundbreaking band in many ways, paving the way for death metal, then going on to help pioneer tech death and prog death. This album is considered by many to be Chuck Schuldiner's progressive death metal opus. Wait, death metal? But these vocals are screamed at a high pitch, not growled or grunted! A lot of the riffs don't really bring death metal to mind, either. But would you call this thrash metal? Classify this album as whatever you want, but make sure a word like "astonishing" or "perfect" is somewhere in there, because The Sound of Perseverance is the ***. I personally say we classify this album as orgasmic metal, because if you listen to it, you're gonna cum. No exceptions.
So what components mix together to make this album so amazing? Well, for one thing, there's the riffs. Riffs are the bread and butter to a ton of great metal albums. Rest assured that for this record, Chuck burrowed deep into the Aztec mountains to discover a treasure trove of insane godly riffs. Pretty much every riff on this album is gold. Seriously, just skip to any random section of any random song. How about 2:22 in
Spirit Crusher? *** yeah, that riff is awesome. It's pretty memorable and has this cool heroic vibe to it. That riff is fine on its own, but then it transitions perfectly into another great riff that's kind of built off the one before it. The guitar work on this album conveys a lot of moods. There's the heroic/epic type stuff, like the first 40 or so seconds of
To Forgive is to Suffer. Then there's the more aggressive riffs that you'd expect to hear from a band called Death, like the opening to
Scavenger of Human Sorrow (following that super cool mini-solo, of course) or the one at the fast double bass parts of
Bite the Pain (First heard when Chuck shouts "ASSUME!"), or that ***ing CRUSHING one in
Flesh and the Power It Holds before the little interlude with the clean guitars. Then there's
Voice of the Soul, which goes in a completely different direction. The only word I can think of to sum that song up is "emotional". Well, probably a few others, like "amazing" or "masterpiece", but you get my point. Riffs alone don't account for terrific guitar playing or songwriting for that matter (we'll get to that later), but our axemen Shannon Hamm and "Evil" Chuck Schuldiner provide us with a
bevy of fantastic solos. Tell me with a straight face that those solos in
To Forgive is to Suffer aren't absolutely phenomenal. They even manage to make Judas Priest's
Painkiller their own, though the original can't truly be topped.
Chuck and Shannon shred their way through stellar leads and solos, rip through one awesome riff after another, and bring forth some very effective harmonies. (It should be noted that Death were delivering great guitar harmonies as far back as track number 2 on Scream Bloody Gore, though the band began to get particularly impressive in this department following their monumental fourth album Human.) Masterful performances are fired from all cylinders for this album. Richard Christy's drumming is super technical, often very fast, and is the best the band has ever had. This is the band that had Gene Hoglan on two albums. Let that sink in for a minute. (For those who don't know, he's been in a gorillion metal bands, and has nicknames like "the human drum machine" and "the atomic clock", with his first major band Dark Angel being nicknamed "The L.A. Caffeine Machine".) Scott Clendenin gets a few cool bass moments in, like in the intro to Spirit Crusher or that part in
Scavenger of Human Sorrow that's like the calm before the storm. Unlike certain other fantastic metal albums that have long songs, are considered an end of an era, and were released in years starting in 19 and ending in 8, this album's bass is actually fairy audible. Subtle, but complimenting the guitars perfectly. Listen to it and you'll definitely notice that it's there. A stumbling block for many might be Chuck Schuldiner's vocal style. People who don't listen to extreme metal might be put off by how abrasive the vox are, and people who liked Death's prior albums or prefer more guttural harsh vocals may be disappointed to hear Chuck's apparent newfound love of high-pitched screaming, but believe me, you will get used to them in time. While Chuck has arguably sounded more badass on other albums (Spiritual Healing, anyone?), this is his most dynamic performance. He even pulls off some cleans in the incredibly badass cover of Judas Priest's
Painkiller. Plus, he can still be menacing in a different way on this album. "FEED OFF THE PAIN!"
Chuck Schuldiner's lyrics have come a long way since Scream Bloody Gore. Lines like "I *** onto your guts", "Vomit for a mind/Maggots for a cock", or "Decapitated head licking your cunt" are lovably cheesy, but in the end just amount to cheap shock value. Since then, the band has gone on to tackle growing up and the loss of innocence inherent to that in
Symbolic, metal bands trading quality for cheap shock value and attempting to be "extreme" in
Out of Touch, and Kam Lee in
Low Life. The lyrical evolution of Death reaches its apex on this album. There are different interpretations to be drawn from the interesting lyrics found on this album.
Flesh and the Power It Holds could be on the danger of passion, or it could be about the dangers of lust.
Spirit Crusher is about the truly evil people that should be distrusted and avoided, while
Scavenger of Human Sorrow is similarly about petty dickheads who hide behind insults and start *** for no reason.
To Forgive is to Suffer seems to be about how you shouldn't submit to abusive people and should just tell them to *** off when you've had enough. Those are just what I got from the lyrics, though; I'm sure other people could derive other meanings from them as well. No matter how you look at it, though, human nature seems to be a recurring theme on this album, and Chuck's somewhat ambiguous lyrics convey that well. If they seem a little too ambiguous for you, though, then you at least have to admit that they lead to some super cool song titles.
Spirit Crusher?
Flesh and the Power It Holds?
Bite the Pain? Who knew that introspective studies of human interaction could be so damn badass?
So we have great riffs supported by great performances with great lyrics shouted over them. Those things individually don't automatically make a totally killer album like this, though; they have to be supported by great songwriting to match. Believe me, they are. Way earlier, I mentioned that one cool riff that goes perfectly well with that other cool riff in
Spirit Crusher. The whole album flows that well. In an album filled with long songs, tempo changes, time changes, and stop-start moments not unlike those of prog metal godfathers Watchtower, that's a pretty hard thing to accomplish. But it works. The standard verse/chorus structure of the band's earliest works is, like on their previous few albums, shoved aside in favor of a more progressive approach. You try to map out the structure of
Flesh and the Power It Holds, for example. There are clear-cut, memorable choruses ("SPIIIIRIIIIT! CRUSHEEEEER!", "FEED ON THE PAIN!", "BEHOLD THE FLESH...AND THE POWER IT HOLDS!", just off the top of my head), and all the album's songs do sort of share a certain conventional structure to an extent, but this is definitely far beyond tracks like the more basic
Evil Dead. Then, there's the dynamic approach taken that helps to convey the moods and lyrical themes discussed earlier. Hell, the beautiful
Voice of the Soul has no lyrics, but many people could probably interpret something from the combination of the mysterious title and powerful music, which is devoid of bass or percussion, but is layered with incredible leads and very effective acoustic guitars. The frantic pace of
A Moment of Clarity seems to indicate, in a way, that the song was written to cap off an album. Of course, the
Painkiller cover is the actual last song, but the one before it the last "original" track. Even though I keep mentioning how this album conveys different moods and features some interesting unifying themes, there's still plenty of razor-sharp, fast low-end riffage to headbang to. Would it really be a Death album without sufficient aggression?
Memorable moments galore, cool lyrics about human nature, and great performances are all topped off by excellent production. Each instrument is crisp and clear, and it's not too over-produced. This is exactly how the album should sound. This whole thing is exactly the album Death should've gone out with, a fitting end to a magnificent, pioneering career. The 4.4 average this album has (as of today) is definitely evident to its greatness. The remainder of mankind's feeble existence on Earth should be dedicated to how masterpieces of this magnitude could ever be released. Worldwide, governments should be convening together, contemplating what an amazing metal masterwork produced from Chuck Schuldiner's genius in 1998 this was. I'm confident that this album is the key to peace in the Middle East. Oh, and the
Painkiller cover is cool too. In short: this album rules. 5/5.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS:
The whole damn thing.
