If you’re a real metal fan, few events were sadder than the death of Chuck Shuldiner in 2001. The singer, guitarist and main songwriter of Death, he is responsible, among others, for 1998’s The Sound of Perseverance, an album I bought that year, and which I simply can’t get tired of. An album that has helped me through some pretty bad times in my life, too - its themes, lyrics, intensity and sheer passion have a way of doing that.
How to describe this album? Well, it’s death metal (in fact, why do you think that genre has that name? Death, the band, existed since 1983!), sure. But not “regular” death metal, to be sure. It has a lot of progressive influences, great vocals (watch out for the greatest cover everof Judas Priest’s “Painkiller”), tempo changes… and quite a lot of melody, too. The songs are incredibly complex - and I don’t mean “complex for death metal”, but “Dream Theater-like”. You won’t believe how many times they change speed, riffs, melody in each song, and, yet, they are songs, they make sense as a whole. It’s something that has to be heard to be believed.
As I mentioned at the beginning, this album also affects me in other ways; for some reason, even at the worst times in my life, listening to it - especially alone, and at a high volume - always makes me feel better. After a couple of minutes, you simply forget your problems and start to listen to the music, being completely absorbed by it. More than possibly any other album, Death’s last and best album demands your full attention. You simply can’t ignore songs like this, or use them as a background sound. And maybe life isn’t that bad when you can get so much joy from music.
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This album absolutely destroys, if you are a fan of metal this is a must. Favorite song on this album is A Moment of Clarity.
This is an astounding album, second only to “Symbolic” in my opinion. I think that Chuck’s work has resonance in a lot of peoples’ lives - his sheer creativity, power, and innovation are inspiring.