The Sound of Perseverance

Good old Chuck Schuldiner. Someone who almost single-handedly spawned and pioneered a whole new genre, old school death metal, and took it to new and also genre-defining levels of progression and, at least in my opinion, greatness. And all that thanks to his band, Death, which became his life-long alter ego, being him the sole constant in the band's entire career (save for one trip to Europe, where Chuck could not travel due to personal reasons), its mastermind and the main creative force behind it.

And if I talk about my opinion is only because The Sound Of Perseverance, Death's final album, is also one of Chuck's most divisive works and there is no denying some people don't find this album as enjoyable as I do. But hey, look at the score this album has on a web like this! When what is supposed to be one of your worst albums (or least loved ones, more accurately) is this good, what an achievement of a career you got! I, for one, must admit that out of all Death's albums, is Human the one that I listen to the least. Human, of all of them, for god's sake! A record which is considered by many some sort of pinnacle of all things awesome within the genre, and again, you just have to take a look at what people think about it here. If that means Human is my least favourite Death album and I still love it wholeheartedly, just go figure!

Having said that, TSOP is not my favourite Death album. Such an honor has to go to Leprosy, when it comes to the band's gory phase, and maybe Spiritual Healing or Symbolic if their more progressive and philosophical stuff is what we're talking about. But there is no doubt this album owns a very special spot in Death's canon, as far as I am concerned, and not only because is very good, but also because it was the band's last one (and almost Chucky's, given that Control Denied's, The Fragile Art Of Existence, was released only one year after this one and was the last thing he put his name on, music-wise, before he passed away in 2001) and sometimes it feels like an epitaph. I know this makes no sense, for by the time this album hit the shelves, he hadn't even been diagnosed with the condition that eventually would claim his life, but listening to something like the instrumental Voice Of The Soul, with those mournful acoustic guitars (something unprecedented in Death's discography, if I'm not mistaken) seems like he knew, somehow, and wanted to say goodbye. What a wonderful song that is, by the way.

I'm not sure if the perseverance the album's title talks about, and its front cover, with a few individuals trying to climb up some ghostly mountain, are metaphors to describe Death's own musical path and / or Chuck's personal journey, but the whole package definitely leaves an enduring impression in the eye of the beholder. Be it as it may, TSOP was produced by the famed Jim Morris and Chuck himself, and features a whole new crew of musicians, with Shannon Hamm on second guitar, the late Scott Clendenin on bass guitar and, filling Gene Hoglan's humongous shoes, Richard Christy on drums. All three would also play along Chuck on the aforementioned Control Denied album (Clendenin only during its sessions, together with another drummer, Chris Williams, given it was Steve DiGiorgio who played bass on the album itself), and that, together with the fact that a couple of the songs featured on TSOP were also on some earlier Control Denied demos, has led many to consider The Fragile Art Of Existence another Death album, with another singer and under another moniker, something which I find nonsensical, for there are many differences between the two of them, besides the obvious one, which is the different singer (Tim Aymar, who unfortunately passed away recently as well, and had nothing to do with Chuck when it came to singing, even at the latter's most refined version). Because TSOP may not be Leprosy but is still firmly rooted in the death metal landscape, only with a thrashier feel to it, while TFAOE is more varied, progressive and less heavy, being some kind of power / thrash hybrid at best.

One of the first things which comes to mind when listening to this beast (leaving Voice Of The Soul aside, of course, for it has no percussion at all) is the drum work. The drums are HUGE here, with lots of fills, cymbals everywhere and non-stop double bass drumming. I've read somewhere that this is a problem for some, who find this annoying, but being a sucker for these kinds of things, mostly double bass kicks, as I am, I find the drumming here quite awesome. You can notice this from the very beginning of Scavenger Of Human Sorrow, the opening track, which begins with a few seconds of drum solo, allowing Christy to show everything that I've just mentioned. Same can be said about To Forgive Is To Suffer, with another drum intro, and speaking of which, about what many consider the be-all, end-all of all things drums in metal music, a cover of Priest's Painkiller to close the album, with its mighty intro and reworked guitar solos too.

It is also noticeable the evolution in Chuck's singing, which went from the usual death metal growl (although he used to be better than most extreme growlers) to something a tad different on every album, ending up in some kind of screech here, which is not too high-pitched and dwells far from clean singing territory though.

Almost the whole album is brimming with some weird jazz tempos, which make for a great rapport among the musicians skills, like some sections in Spirit Crusher (a serious contender for best song on the record), and give the whole thing a very technical kind of vibe. And it certainly is technical. And progressive. But brutal at the same time. And overall, the album's lenghty running time gives the musicians plenty of room to show their chops, which by no means are few, as showcased in the intro to Bite The Pain (one of the songs which were demoed for Control Denied), with its guitar tapping technique, or the instrumental sections in the long Flesh And The Power It Holds, which also features an initial, slow build up that lasts almost one minute and a half before the song speeds up and Chuck begins to sing. This song is a very good overview of the whole record.

Being Chuck one of the most revered and sadly missed phenomenons in all metal, and Death one of the biggest influences within the scene, I think that, all in all, this is a very fitting testament to his career and also Death's as a band. We'll never know what was coming next. Some people hint at Control Denied's music as the next logical step in his music, but I disagree. While is perfectly understandable that CD had gone on as a band, I think it would have only been as a side project, with no intention from Chuck to stop his main band or to play with Death the same kind of music he was penning for CD. But who knows?


Citizen Of Glass
https://citizenofglass1976.blogspot.com/