Symbolic

"Comparison is the thief of joy."-Teddy Roosevelt

Death’s 6th album came out a couple years after its sister album “Individual Thought Patterns.” With Rene Milville doing his third album cover for the band, and Gene Hoglan behind the drums for a second go-round on the Death member spin-cycle, it looked like a great sequel to "Individual Thought Patterns" was in order. With Bobby Koelble on guitars (for this album only), and Kelly Conlon stepping in for Steve Digiorgio (also for a one album stint), Death once again looked different and sounded a bit different.

I start this album with that quote for a reason. In a vacuum, Symbolic is a mind-blowing album. Within the context of Death's wider discography, I can't help but feel it to be a step down. With songs that seem to lack that ability to always "get to the point" like they did on the previous album, and a couple members who were great, but not quite Andy LaRocque or Steve Digiorgio.I make a lot of comparisons between this album and "Individual Thought Patterns" as it represents the two Death albums with the most similar sound.

Where Scream Bloody Gore took fairly simple song structures and riffing and used that to great effect, Leprosy got a bit more complex and featured longer songs. Spiritual Healing is the second smallest step of Death's progression, as it represents a continuation of Leprosy's sound, but a little more complex. It had some better lead work on guitars, and more adventurous songwriting. Human was a massive change in sound, and Individual Thought Patterns was able to continue that change. With several effects utilized on the guitars, a more classic approach to solos courtesy of Mr. LaRocque, and incredibly active bass yet again, Individual Thought Patterns consolidated the best parts of the last two albums while making strides into a different sound that managed to get heavier and more technical. Symbolic just tries to do the same thing that Individual Thought Patterns does, and that isn't a bad formula to chase, but just doesn't feel revolutionary. It feels evolutionary at best and incremental.

So, what went wrong here? There’s something missing on this album. It’s not poorly produced, it’s not poorly executed, and it isn’t poorly written. I will say that after seeing Death to All perform some of the songs off Symbolic, that I do now appreciate them more, but this is still my least favourite Death album.

Symbolic opens with the fantastic title track. It starts at a mid-paced stomp before launching into a thrashier segment. This album also features several more melodic sections. Tracks like “Sacred Serenity,” “Empty Words,” “Zero Tolerance,” and “Perennial Quest” make good use of these, and I wish they were used a bit more, as they are the highlights of the album to me. This approach is different than the many melodic death metal bands that were taking off around this time, as the melodies and lead guitar moments generally lead into each other, while the rhythm guitar sections keep some of the chunkier riffage of albums like “Human” and “Spiritual Healing,” whereas the melodic death metal bands had a bit more of a focus on the rhythm guitar sections also playing melodic riffs.

I want to point out here that Gene Hoglan’s drumming is always mind-blowing. As mentioned earlier, I saw Death to All a while back, and seeing Gene’s drumming in person was incredible. The subtle drum work he does accentuates the riffs. Listening to “Zero Tolerance,” which starts with a drum intro before the guitars come in, it almost feels like Gene wrote these drum parts after hearing the riffs and had them serve as a counterpoint to the guitarwork.

The melodicism, drumming, and Chuck’s lyrics taking on a more thoughtful approach are all major positives for this album and make it a good listen. It's still the last Death album I reach for on my shelf. I am going to give this album a 79, as it doesn’t quite hit the A range for an album but doesn’t deserve any lower in my eyes. While I fail to see this album as the pinnacle of Death, it is one that I have recently warmed up to more after seeing Death to All live and hearing a few of these songs in person. They translate quite well live.

With a discography as great as Death's, one album has to be at the bottom. For me, this has to be the one. Given how similar this album is to my favourite Death album "Individual Thought Patterns," it needed to do something to separate itself from that landmark, not elaborate on it. No other Death album feels like it contains leftover songs from the previous album other than "Symbolic." That doesn't make those songs bad, but Death set the bar high for themselves. I'd recommend listening to this album before lIndividual Thought Patterns" so that this one feels more unique.

As a final note, I own two separate versions of this album. One is the Roadrunner slipcase deluxe CD, which features 5 bonus tracks, which are all demos, as well as an expanded booklet with some great liner notes. This album is a bit of an oddity as it was originally released on Roadrunner Records back when they still cared about death metal, and Roadrunner didn’t give the rights to this album to Relapse, unlike Combat Records, who gave Relapse the rights for them to carry out the extensive reissues of Death material. This makes Symbolic a bit of the odd one out among these reissue campaigns, but the Roadrunner 2008 deluxe pressing does what I’d imagine Relapse would have done anyway. I also have an original pressing licensed to Attic Records (a Canadian label that often acted as a distributor for other labels). This pressing has an alternate mix to the original pressing and is a bit more dynamic. If you’re reading this review, go look for the Attic Records pressing of this CD, as it’s the best sounding by far. The 2008 deluxe pressing is great for the bonus tracks and the liner notes, but the best way to listen to the original album alone is the Attic Records pressing.