The Sound of Perseverance

This is probably my favorite album of all time. It has everything you could want in a metal album, speed, heaviness, melody, aggression, variety, and fantastic musicianship. This was the third Death album I had ever listened too, and this one totally blew me away.

The guitar is probably the highlight of the album, it's just fucking fantastic. From the incredible mid-paced riffs in the opener to the fast and thrashy speed of "To Forgive is to Suffer" to the incredible instrumental "Voice of the Soul", this album has mind blowing riffs throughout. I will say that every song on this album has catchy and memorable riffs. It's full of those riffs where you can't just have it as background noise, it commands your attention while you sit there in awe of the orgasmic sounds pumping through your speakers. The rest of the album is great, but you can really tell just how amazing of a guitar player Schuldiner really was. The highlight of this album as far as the guitar goes is for sure Voice of the Soul, a slow ballad that's utterly amazing. The drumming simply it's well done and interesting, very atypical for death metal. It's very progressive and uses techniques that aren't common in death metal. It's almost jazzy, it's hard to describe. The same goes for the song structure of this whole album, it's varied and constantly changing, you've definitely got some of the standard death metal beats in it, but for the most part it's very original. There are a few very nice drum solos scattered around the album that keep things interesting.

"Scavenger of Human Sorrow" starts off with Christy beating the piss out of his drums. Then turns into some complex riffing, and then you know it's death due to Chuck's vocals, that have improved on this disc. The drumming is spectacular and the guitars are accurate as hell. This song will pump up any metalhead. One of the best songs. "Bite the Pain" gives me the fucking chills. Such a great song I can't explain it in mere words. Chucks lyrics are genuine as per usual on this song, speaking of wounds inside someone soul. "Flesh and The Power It Holds", for some reason this song reminds me of how sad Chucks death was for his fans. It feels like a very sorrowful song, and whenever I heard this one I can't help but think that Chuck wrote this song for someone he cared for dearly. “Painkiller” is a Judas Priest cover that takes off right away with a nice drum intro. They do a great job with the cover although it's hard to duplicate Halford's vocals, Chucks gives it his all.

Chuck's vocals are fucking sweet. At some point Chuck decided to change his style a bit, he moves from the guttural vocals to a more high-pitched, shrieking. It's still great though, perfect for this albums style. The lyrics are about spiritual things though, unlike Death's early albums, they don't talk about violence and gore. That can be a bad thing for some people I guess, but again, I think it really fits the music on the album. Going on about gore and death just wouldn't work with the overall mood of the album. It's too deep and thoughtful.

I love this album, other than the bass being too low I can't find anything wrong with it at all. It is full of memorable riffs, and eargasms are plentiful. There is not one dry spot or boring moment in the entire album. People may be turned off by Chuck's different vocal style, but trust me on this you will grow to accept and love it. I would buy this album again in a heartbeat and I've bought it for a few friends. It's just that fucking good. It isn't one of albums you buy to have on in the background, it's one that you listen to with full attention.