Symbolic

The band Death were truly unique and amazing. No other metal band, I don't care who you think it was, was as brutal, evil, or metal as Death were back in their death metal days. However, after "Spiritual Healing" (only Death album I haven't heard), they matured on, introducing progressive influence into their sound. Their lyrics changed from extremly gore-y stories about zombies and the occult to being more spiritual and philosophical, giving the band the distinction of being the first band to use more intelligent themes in death metal. Over time, the band matured so much that almost no elements of their former selves remained, and Death was almost completly unrecognizeable.

But guess what? While most of the time, change means selling out, a few times, bands do it for their own musical needs, and this maturing is usually just as good if not better than the previous output. "Symbolic" is an example of this if there ever was one. It's not a pretentious "hey look at me" type of album, and the shredding, while still amazing, is far more humble than would be expected by this normally bland genre. Instead of "shriffs" (a portmanteau of shredding and riffs) typically used in this genre, the riffs show more emotion and purpose. A perfect example is the riff at 0:44 of the title track. Hands down, hearing this single riff on the 30 second iTunes sample made me obsess over this ablum until I finally purchased it. There is also the bridge of "Without Judgement", and the classical acoustic solo that closes the masterpiece that is "Crystal Mountain" which are good points of reference for the true materwork that is on here.

The vocals are performed, as always, by the legendary Chuck Schuldiner. On this album, his original guttural death growls have been replaced by a more growl/scream vocal style. It's like "Human"'s death grunted vocals fused with the thrash shreik he later used on "The Sound of Perseverance". Admittingly, he has never been a great growler, and I would take David Vincent over him anyday. However, what David Vincent doesn't have that Chuck does is raw emotion. There is so much emotion behind his vocals that you truly believe that "inside crystal mountain, evil takes his form" or that "wherever we go, whatever we do, your shadow is not far behind our steps, and our breath". Especially with lines like "without judgement what would we do? we would be forced to look at ourselves emerged in lost time, assuming what may be..." you can really feel Chuck's sorrow and at the same time his anger. It is for this reason that I respect Chuck as a vocalist just as much as a guitarist.

Drummer Gene Hoglan, a thrasher, brings in a few new things to the table as well. While the drums on "Individual Thought Patterns" gave the music a more death metal feel, on this album he has stopped using so many blast beats, replacing them with more thrash-like beats. However, this is still worlds away from thrash metal. I've never been too big on Gene, but I'll admit that he does a very good job on here. On a separate note, his drum mix is very good, although I'd like it a little better if he was quieter, so we could here Kelly's bass better. That's on of the few unfortunate things about this album. Whereas all of the bands albums previously have had loud ass bass, this one is instead more of a guitar album. The bass is still very audible, just not to the extent of the previous albums.

The production is an interesting factor. It was the only album they ever released that ever had even remotly "good" production, and is in turn the easiest to listen to. It always annoyed me how they always suffered from shit production on every album up until this one. However, the mix is interesting as well, as the guitar, drums, and vocals are all at equal odds in the mix. The bass is not quiet, but rather tends to get overpowered by the other instruments. You can still easily hear the bass however, and it's not any less technical than on previous albums!

So, I suppose Death's "Symbolic" is one of my personal favourite metal band's best albums. Not the very best, mind you, but it's a classic if there ever was one. If you don't own this album, you aren't metal. Enough said.

10/10