I was browsing around the site one day, and I came across our
\nfearless leader’s review of this album. It would be an
\nunderstatement to say I was surprised. I always thought Death to be
\none of the more underground bands in the death metal scene. After
\nfinishing reading his opinions on the album, I was happy to see
\nthat the Vault had paid respect to the greatest death metal band of
\nall time. However, I felt compelled to throw in my own two cents,
\nif only to reinforce Mr. Thelen’s views.<\/p>\n
Once again, Chuck Schuldiner completely recreated the band from
\nscratch. Unlike previous efforts, his new crew weren’t the renowned
\nmetal musicians that had been featured on the previous releases,
\nSymbolic<\/i> and
\nIndividual Thought Patterns<\/i> (which hosted such famous men as
\nSteve Digiorgio and Gene Hoglan), but this doesn’t mean they were
\nany less competent. Personally, I found drummer Richard Christy to
\nbe one of the most proficient players I’ve ever heard, and that can
\nbe noted by the blistering intros on “Scavenger Of Human Sorrow”
\nand the Judas Priest cover “Painkiller”.<\/p>\n
There is a great divide between musical technicality, and sonic
\nbrutality. For Death, they were able to effortlessly merge the two
\ntogether. Each song on this album is crushing in its raw power,
\nand, at the same time extremely melodic. A good example would be
\ntrack two, “Story To Tell”. Schuldiner’s hoarse rasp devastates the
\nlistener, and also wows them with the melodic passages weaved in
\nbetween the smashing, lightning-fast riffs.<\/p>\n
The one surprise on this album (other than the Priest cover at
\nthe end) would be track six, “Voice Of The Soul”. It is an
\nall-instrumental, mostly acoustic passage. It’s quite a surprise to
\nhear a death metal band play such a song, but it’s nonetheless
\nawe-inspiring. The guitars are as powerful as words, speaking to
\nthe listener. This song is sheer beauty, and one of the best
\ninstrumental songs ever written.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Death, this would prove to be their swansong.
\nA year after the record’s release, the mastermind of Death, lead
\nguitarist\/vocalist Chuck Schuldiner, then with his new project,
\ncalled Control Denied, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour.
\nAfter a brave battle, he passed away on December 13, 2001. When I
\nfirst heard this, I was absolutely shocked. It seemed unfair for
\nsuch a brilliant mind to be taken away, but it seems to happen
\nquite frequently in the musical scene (John Lennon; Warren Zevon;
\nLayne Staley, to name a few). Sometimes, it’s hard to listen to
\ntracks like “Voice Of The Soul”, “Story To Tell”, or even more
\nthrashy songs like “Spirit Crusher”, knowing that the man who
\ninvented such genius music will not be doing so anymore.<\/p>\n
I cannot adequately describe how awe-astounding this album is.
\nFrom the opening drum beat, to the last guitar riff, everything is
\nperfection. While some of the hardcore Death fans claim that this
\nalbum isn’t their best, it is still worth everyone’s time. In an
\nage where disturbingly bad Nu-Metal and crappy Gothenburg acts fill
\nthe scene, Death is a breath of fresh air.<\/p>\n
Rest in peace, Chuck Schuldiner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":24898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6039],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37953","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-death","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37953"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}