Review Summary: Symbolic is legend
Death's sixth album, released in 1995 by Roadrunner Records, is thought by many listeners to be one of the band's strongest efforts. Now, almost 20 years later it can be easily verified that this album is a true legend and continues to delight metal & music fans again and again.
First thing you notice about this album is that it's HUGE. The opening riff is a tower in itself and the production of this album completely supports this. Everything is so clear and open. Symbolic was apparently recorded with the help of a bigger studio budget and this led to the album being so beautifully uncluttered. This being mentioned one might think that Symbolic would be less heavy or badass than earlier Death efforts – friends of honest metal be not afraid! In fact the album is as heavy as a ***ing huge thing from unknown dimensions that opens it's gaping maw not to devour our planet but to scream some sense at us in a godlike monster voice.
When on the first track Mr. Schuldiner yells those now legendary starting words ”I don't mean to dwell” you'll most likely be either floored by his urgency and sincerity or run for cover behind your stack of force-fed corporate ***e albums. I mean his voice truly comes from the balls and even deeper, from the soul. On ”Zero Tolerance” he tries to tell us that a serpent spews out fantasy while we reside in darkness (ignorance) with the sources of light (knowledge) compeletely under control of and abused by these said greedy, soulless liars - serpents. He was correct and it seems he had a terrible drive to stop the sleep we're in. We are kept in perfect control and we know only and exactly what we should know. Zero tolerance for that bull***! This kind of anger and disgust comes through in the vocals department and the riffs and the music are the perfect backdrop.
Mr. Schuldiner keeps this urgency and feeling of importance all through the album. What many, many bands lack is a truly soulful vocalist who seems to be able to just go at it with full force not binding the performance to unnecessary rules of genre or expectations. Just listen to Perennial Quest, wrap your mind around the lyrics and tell me it's not amazing and unique in the world of metal and music in general too.
This album has many of Death's biggest tracks but the great thing about Symbolic is that it's a truly strong album in a whole and every song carries the album further. There's a decent amount of technicality and interesting arrangement choises in these songs and it seems there's always a cool solo or a kick ass riff around the corner. The bass work on this album was provided by Kelly Conlon and it pretty much follows the guitars in a quite standard way and it could be a bit less tame but there's more than enough awesomeness in the drum performance to make up for it. Behind the kit is technical drum god legend Gene Hoglan who also performed on the Death album Individual Thought Patterns. Some very stylish guitar soloing for Symbolic was provided by Bobby Koelble. His leads have a different approach from Mr. Schuldiner's and this adds a nice dimension to the album.
As for any closing superlatives - Death's Symbolic is royalty and elite and a fine example of an album made with all the necessary components in balance. Spirit, inspiration, balls and professionalism. Symbolic is strong and oozes this strength towards the listener to grasp and help expand the mind. If I went too deep into third-eye yin-yang bull*** for you and you just want to mosh to ***ing awesome riffs and catchy choruses, then that's just fine and you can't go wrong with Symbolic either way! As a final note: it has been said many times that this album is a good starting point for new fans interested in Death and Chuck Schuldiner's work and I too, being part of that group, deeply endorse this suggestion.
