Symbolic

... A step up!? In every single aspect from the last one! Symbolic is surprising like that. I still wouldn't call it a good album, but most of the particularly obnoxious elements that plagued Death's 1993 release aren't present here. In short, while Evil Chuck kept his former levels of Buttcephaly intact, he managed to at least focus them on better songwriting methods, which in turn ended up creating a less technical, more accessible album. Taking Death's later career into account, this is actually a good thing - an improvement. Not to say the album is without flaws, but at the very least, it's less pretentious and self-centered than its two predecessors. In fact, aside from Gene Hoglan's drumming, the album isn't very progressive or technical in the least bit, especially when comparing it to its contemporaries. Instead of prog death, I would call it pop death instead, as comparisons to works such as Heartwork wouldn't look too out of place when referring to it. It's completely inoffensive in every possible way. In any case, there are a couple of strong individual moments during some songs, and one or two actually really entirely enjoyable compositions. The production job is Death's best, as it is clear but doesn't have an overall sterile sound. However, in the end there are still a number of issues with it, which come into conflict with the album becoming a pleasant experience all the way through.

Let us start with the guitar work! The guitar tone is the best of Death's later era, as it is crunchy yet not too thin, and thankfully not the scooped mess that was Human's. But how does the tone match up to the riffs? Not very well, really. This is later era Death, and therefore Chuck was still too busy talking about his personal cosmological views instead of writing crushing riffs, so there are way more power chords and melodies than actual riffage all through the album. They're not bad per se, but what they give you in the end is closer to pedestrian melodic death metal than anything else. I know what I hate, and I don't hate this - but I don't like it either. The guitar work resembles a death metal/rock weird type of hybrid at times, which is one of the reasons it's so accessible in the first place. Once again, it's not something that could be called bad, but it's neither the technical masterpiece that some fans claim it is, nor a particularly exciting rockin' performance.

The average track length in Symbolic is around five and a half minutes. This is both a good and a bad thing. It's good because it allows individual ideas to develop and build-up the momentum of the compositions instead of just starting and stopping abruptly like they did on Individual Thought Patterns. At the same time, it means bad ideas get to stick around for a longer time, and it also means Schuldiner's hit-to-miss ratio became lower. It also means that, up to this point in time, it's the longest Death album, so you have to listen to Death for a longer time - and that is just mean! It also contains that horrible "Perennial Quest" song at the end, which is just an agglomeration of overlong ideas that just meander on and on and never really go anywhere. Anyhow, the overall songwriting prowess is indeed superior to the '91 and '93 albums, because it's simpler and more restrained. The opening seconds of the title track are some of Death's most entertaining material, in my opinion. But then the song devolves into a myriad of bad riffs and ideas that don't really work together, just to come back for a genuinely enjoyable solo in the middle. That's kind of the deal with Symbolic; it teases you, like a woman making advances on you for the sake of feeling desired, yet she would never leave her significant other for you. Its songs are full of good moments that make you believe everything will turn out okay in the end, but it doesn't - what a hussy.

The strongest points on the album, performance wise, are the guitar solos and the drumming. Gene Hoglan sounds amazing here, both in his playing and in his general sound. The drums sound big and powerful, and gone is that plastic snare that he used on Individual Thought Patterns, so he's actually the best thing in here! The leads are good, albeit a complete cheese-fest. I have no idea who Billy Koelble is, but he's a fantastic shredder, going for a very over the top style instead of the more restrained jazzy soloing of earlier Chuck guitarists. Evil Chuck himself actually plays a couple of cool leads here and there, when he goes for slow melodies instead of shred, which he's pretty decent at. In spite of that, most of the riffs under the solos are extremely weak, usually opting for single power chord sections to give them a spacey feeling, but that just ends up sounding lazy and under-cooked, if you will. It's a funny thing with this album, I like to jam to it, to play riffs and solos off it, but I don't take pleasure in listening to most of them. All of these later-era Death solos make me think they would've been much better off had they just stuck with Rick Rozz all the way through and let him dive bomb and do weedly diddly doos all over the place; those are pretty fun to listen to, though not as fun to jam to.

Nevertheless, even with all of these shortcomings, there are still some tracks that I like almost all the way through! "1000 Eyes" has that nice guitar melody under the chorus, even if the 'riffing' under it is just a held out chord, that little part alone is pretty memorable by itself at least, and there are a bunch of small tapping sections all over the place that are also nice. That one's followed by "Without Judgement" that has that awesome riff at 1:12 which is followed by an echoey lead on top, and then the riffset after that is simply straight out good; even the stupid space rock silliness that follows the solo can be forgiven on those two minutes alone. The trifecta is completed by "Crystal Mountain" which is a catchy pop rock song with a bunch of memorable leads that are closer to power metal than anything else. Hell, even Chuck's voice works over here. Yes, he's still doing the "I'm not changing my vocal style during the duration of the album even though I can clearly do so between albums!" shtick he likes to do so much when singing, but it's easily his best vocal performance on the later-era albums. It's just a small high pitched growl, but it works for most of the album, even if there's absolutely no variation to it. He's tolerable, and that's about it.

Symbolic is not a great album. It's not a good album either. It's a decent album that is, quite simply, not enjoyable in the end. That's probably the best way I can describe it; decent, yet not satisfying. It's completely inoffensive, and not bad enough to require a very aggressive emotional response. At best, it's a harmless melodic death metal album. At worst, it's merely forgettable, instead of all-out annoying. To continue with my 'falling down' Death metaphors, if Individual Thought Patterns was a cascade-like vertical fall towards infinity, Symbolic fell over a small futuristic elevator going up before it could reach top speed, which kept it alive, if with internal injuries, and slowly moved it upwards. However, Death were too hurt by this point, and in their squirming, they moved towards the edge of said elevator. Dangerously close to the edge. After that, it would not be a happy ending for anyone involved.