Album Rating: 5.0

I mean 4/5 of the track were written for control denied.

Album Rating: 5.0

Yeah should've clarified. It's probably the death album I listen to the least along with SBG

Album Rating: 4.5

"Of course it resembles cynic with half of cynic in this line up but its Chuck who reached out to them to join and to go a different route rather than the other sterotypical death metal bands around at the time."



Are you saying that Chuck convinced Cynic to go down their progressive route? That's odd considering that they seemed to make more progress in that a year or two before Chuck ever thought to take it. If anything, it was the other way around. Calling the 1990 demo "generic death metal" is tone-deaf bullshit, especially when one considers that Thinking Being and Lifeless Irony could have just as easily been on this album.

Album Rating: 5.0

'Are you saying that Chuck convinced Cynic to go down their progressive route? '



Erm...no but Nice paragraph there to whine about everything I didn't say. Well done.

Clearly Chuck wanted to go more down the progressive route so he reached out to Cynic who were the perfect musicians to fill out his ideas he believed his other bandmates could not, since they were already playing that type of stuff and he was also a fan. I said CHUCK wanted to move away from generic death metal and thats why he brought Masvidal and Reinert in. To try and discredit what Death accomplished simply because he brought them two in is to belittle Chucks own vision in what he wanted the band to evolve into when he could have just written another SH with the same members. Its was the combinations of all of them and Di giorigio. So to say the importance of them coming together and Deaths importance as overstated simply wrong. They were already a well established band at this point it took balls to go in that direction. But the 'Importance' of them as a band didnt start just adding the Cynic dudes. They helped birth a sound and a genre before those 2 where even in it.

Album Rating: 4.5

This album owns.



The only Death I don’t love are Spiritual Healing and TSOP; they are still at least pretty good.

Album Rating: 4.8

TSOP is way better than pretty good bro.

Album Rating: 4.5

Pretty good, imo. Feels homogenous to me, idk. It’s about time to give both those records another spin anyway.

Album Rating: 4.5

You have to keep in mind that I mentioned this in a thread for Human because I tend to speak more in regard to Death's prog/tech era than anything else. Being an incredibly early pioneer in death metal as a subgenre is undeniable for this band but it starts becoming pretty exasperating in regards to the extent to which Death influenced prog and tech death when bands like Cynic, Sadus, Nocturnus and Atheist were largely on the cutting edge already. This becomes important to ask when one considers the somewhat boneless nature of Symbolic and the overly long and disjointed nature of The Sound of Perseverance.

Album Rating: 4.5

Sir, this is a McDonald’s drive thru.

I can't believe that I learnt about this band by watching a hot chick doing a guitar cover of a death song

Album Rating: 5.0

Well that's one way of finding out haha.

Album Rating: 5.0

Agree with that Casavir apart from Symoblic being boneless.

Also agree with D re: TSOP but Spiritual healing is great.





'I can't believe that I learnt about this band by watching a hot chick doing a guitar cover of a death song'



That chick is hot af but I swear shes got no face muscles.

Album Rating: 5.0

"I can't believe that I learnt about this band by watching a hot chick doing a guitar cover of a death song"

Josh Middleton of Sylosis named Death as one of his biggest influences so that's how I found out about them. Big mistake on his part tho because now i dont listen to them in favor of Death and others ha

Album Rating: 5.0

"when bands like Cynic, Sadus, Nocturnus and Atheist were largely on the cutting edge already. This becomes important to ask when one considers the somewhat boneless nature of Symbolic and the overly long and disjointed nature of The Sound of Perseverance."



Those bands don't really sound like Death though. And nobody is saying Death is solely responsible for starting tech death. Hell, even Atrocity had Hallucinations out in 1990, which was a year before this and Unquestionable Presence, and three years before Focus. And while all of those bands can be labelled "tech death", they all played different styles of it, and all of them had a strong influence on the scene as a whole. There's still (tech) bands today who are influenced by Death, some by Atheist and/or the others.



And I definitely disagree about Symbolic being "boneless" but that's just subjective -- either way, I think Individual Thought Patterns is the best album to bring up as far as Death's tech-era because that album is more technical than either Symbolic or TSoP. Also I think it was pretty clear even on Leprosy but especially on Spiritual Healing that Death was moving towards a more progressive/technical sound.

Album Rating: 4.0

I don’t understand the ‘boneless’ thing, what does it mean in this context?



Simply put the beauty in Death’s music is they evolved with every album & managed to create consistently engaging material that was technically impressive, yet relatively accessible. That doesn’t mean they were the first to try absolutely every style/form of DM imaginable, or that other artists didn’t ever create anything as notable.

Album Rating: 4.5

"I think Individual Thought Patterns is the best album to bring up as far as Death's tech-era because that album is more technical than either Symbolic or TSoP."



A MAN OF CULTURE, I SEE.

Album Rating: 4.5

"I don’t understand the ‘boneless’ thing, what does it mean in this context?"



Symbolic has always sounded like a comparatively unambitious album and is generally nowhere near as tightly written as the preceding album. It's still good (even great) but it's not anywhere close to the heights of ITP or Human.

Album Rating: 4.0

Symbolic brought together the best elements of the two preceeding albums & delivered them in one neat package. I love ITP but it isn’t necessarily superior just because it’s more technical.

Album Rating: 4.5

I don't find Symbolic unambitious per se, but its more direct approach to songwriting is actually one of its biggest strengths for me.

Album Rating: 5.0

"A MAN OF CULTURE, I SEE."

Yeah that went right over my head lol



I don't think anyone was implying that ITP was a better album just because it's more technical. If you were referencing what I said, I just meant it was a better album to compare to other early tech death bands -- not that it was better musically.

ITP actually is my favorite Death record though-- just nothing to do with how technical it is. Symbolic is a close second.