Death - The Sound Of Perseverance review
Band: | Death |
Album: | The Sound Of Perseverance |
Style: | Progressive thrash metal |
Release date: | August 31, 1998 |
Guest review by: | metaniac |
Disc I
01. Scavenger Of Human Sorrow
02. Bite The Pain
03. Spirit Crusher
04. Story To Tell
05. Flesh And The Power It Holds
06. Voice Of The Soul
07. To Forgive Is To Suffer
08. A Moment Of Clarity
09. Painkiller [Judas Priest cover]
Disc II [Remastered version - CD 1] [2011 reissue bonus]
01. Spirit Crusher [No bass] ['98 demos]
02. Flesh And The Power It Holds [No bass] ['98 demos]
03. Voice Of The Soul [No bass] ['98 demos]
04. Bite The Pain ['98 demos]
05. A Moment Of Clarity ['98 demos]
06. Story To Tell ['98 demos]
07. Scavenger Of Human Sorrow ['98 demos]
08. Bite The Pain ['97 demos]
09. Story To Tell ['97 demos]
10. A Moment Of Clarity ['97 demos]
Disc III [Remastered version - CD 2] [2011 reissue bonus]
01. Bite The Pain ['96 demos]
02. Story To Tell ['96 demos]
03. A Moment Of Clarity ['96 demos]
04. Bite The Pain [Paul Payne vocals version] ['96 demos]
05. A Moment Of Clarity [Paul Payne vocals version] ['96 demos]
06. A Moment Of Clarity [Chuck vocals version] ['96 demos]
07. Story To Tell [Chuck vocals version] ['96 demos]
08. Bite The Pain [Shannon Hamm vocals version] ['96 demos]
09. A Moment Of Clarity [Instrumental] ['96 demos]
10. Bite The Pain [Instrumental] ['96 demos]
11. Story To Tell [Instrumental] ['96 demos]
12. Voice Of The Soul [Instrumental] ['96 demos]
13. A Moment Of Clarity [Instrumental] ['96 demos]
What started off from Individual Thought Patterns and continued through Symbolic as a slight progressive-thrash deviation for Death casts its full blown dominance in The Sound Of Perseverance. Just before Chuck goes out with his plans on Control Denied, this album comes out.
It is very hard to single out highlight songs from an album with so many exquisite technical creations, nevertheless, "Scavenger OF Human Sorrow", "Spirit Crusher", "Voice Of the Soul", "Bite the Pain", "A Moment Of Clarity" stand out among the tracks. Listening to the whole album from beginning to the end is a downright MUST and also a request.
Striking tempo changes within each track with a dash of thrash along with trade mark Chuck growls which have gone high pitched and with more clarity compared to other albums, also worth mentioning are the track timings reaching an average of 6 minutes, longer compared to other albums. Still at no point in the album does it feel like the songs are pulling off a drag, every note sounds fresh with many riff structure changes within each song giving the artists a lot of room for display of their technical prowess. Solos within each track are breathtakingly creative, all credits to Shannon Hamm on the guitars. Drumming patterns perfected by Richard Christ which also change continuously as seen in "Spirit Crusher" and "Bite The Pain". Similar to Symbolic the lyrics have deep meaning attached to them which might look vague. This album also holds the best ever creation ever by Death, "Spirit Crusher". The acoustic guitars on "Voice Of the Soul"(instrumental) are fantastically fresh like a continuation off the solo from "Flesh and The Power It Holds ", what a classic it turns out to be. A creation straight from Chuck's heart, no doubt a cry from his soul. Even though the Judas Priest cover "Painkiller" looks like a slight mediocre attempt, it has to be realized that Death rather paid more attention on making the song their own than something similar to original. I dare say they could have done a better job than Judas Priest themselves though matching Rob Hallford's vocal could be bit of a stand off. The production values for this album are also quite commendable. It would be unjust not to give this album maximum rating,
All in all, Charles "Chuck" Schuldiner is a legend and this progressive thrash/(death) metal masterpiece of his is going to go down into history as the very definition of prog-thrash(death) metal. As Chuck said: "For anyone with a dream, this album is for you!".
Rating breakdown
Performance: | 10 |
Songwriting: | 10 |
Originality: | 10 |
Production: | 10 |
Written by metaniac | 28.10.2010
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Rating:
9.5
9.5
Rating: 9.5 |
I'm not going to start this review with whining about how unfortunate we are for having lost Chuck Schuldiner back in 2001 and The Sound Of Perseverance being the last Death album. Chuck was a great musician indeed, but fate was too cruel to him, and he passed away. The legacy in form of his music though is with us, so let's talk about it. Read more ›› |
Rating:
9.3
9.3
Rating: 9.3 |
What better name for a metal band? Especially one concentrating so fixedly on the snuffing out of life? The sonic blood-curdling career of mainman Chuck Schuldiner is one of the most celebrated in the development of death metal as a thrash sub-genre. Death were the daddies of this hack 'n' slay brand of guitar violence, and anyone with even the vaguest wish to count themselves as practitioners of extreme noise, from Carcass to Deicide, from Obituary to Cannibal Corpse, would count Schuldiner's unholy racket as a major influence. Read more ›› |
Guest review by
Yanko
Yanko
Rating:
10
10
Rating: 10 |
This is it. Finally, after more than 10 years of waiting, we have got It. The one, the only the true thrash metal album. Death have had six releases, have made some drastic changes in their style and have achieved it finally. Despite being labeled as the fathers of death metal, only their first album is truly death metal, mainly due to vocal abilities of main-man Chuck Schuldiner, who was never really a death vocal. His singing has steadily and gradually evolved into more and more shrieking, until now on this album we hear him really screaming. Not many people came to terms with it and have accepted, but it is what thrash metal is all about. Its most distinct feature are the vocals and Chuck has shown what thrash vocals should sound like. Screaming, aggressive, full of feeling, coming right from the heart. True thrash metal that is. Read more ›› |
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