Death metal fans....favorite Death album

god Leprosy is so fucking great. Chuck's voice was really one of a kind. I loved his vox even in the later days but he just outright didn't care about shredding his throat on the early stuff.

you can totally hear the Rozz influence on this album too. I mean I love SBG and all but it's small potatoes compared to Leprosy.

Human 1
Spiritual Healing 1

what in the goddamn hell

It's likely that I voted for Spiritual Healing. It was my intro to Death (and death metal) and will always have a special place in my heart.

put on Symbolic for the first time in a while. god this shit is just like perfect. great balance of melodicism, rawkin', and meedly-meedly leads.

When I was in 9th grade, I was walking the halls between classes. I noticed there was a wide open locker with nothing in it except the cassette of Scream Bloody Gore.

I took it home and listened to "Regurgitated Guts" and "Zombie Ritual" over and over.

I keep thinking of this forlorn guy who spent years trying to get his tape back

I feel like at their peak (IMO, between Human - Symbolic), they might just have been the best progressive death band alive.

listening to Symbolic again now and still gives me chills....

also insane to me this is the 15th anniversary of his death in a few weeks. :(

I feel like at their peak (IMO, between Human - Symbolic), they might just have been the best progressive death band alive.

I think Individual Thought Patterns might have been like.....the fourth death metal album I bought? I think after Six Feet Under's horrible Warpath, Cannibal Corpse's Gallery of Suicide, and Carcass's Heartwork. was enamored with the fluidity of the leads, as well as Chuck's vocals, and yet it still wasn't afraid to be heavy, which is my #1 problem with a lot of tech/progressive death.

I loved that Death to All tour a few years ago as well.

Symbolic I didn't acquire until 2007 but it was practically the soundtrack to my summer that year.

yeah what a legacy. all the albums still sound good. always reward a revisit. an all-time band.

i love this band more than almost any other band

i'd include sound of perserverance in the peak. it was the third metal record i ever bought (after leviathan and in the nightside eclipse) and it still surprises me

it's a great album. jsut doesn't quite hit the same peaks for me, but it holds up nicely.

I don't like the production on Perserverance. Not enough oomph, vocals too high in the mix.

I can never find this damn thread, lol

I love that on Individual Thought Patterns, as catchy and techy as the album is, there are some pummeling Leprosy-esque riffs lurking around the corner periodically.

Chuck never really lost that Death were a metal band, even when he get all proggy.

On the opposite end of the spectrum of Death, I am listening to Scream Bloody Gore and it is still faaaaantastic.

fuck yessssssss

I listened to Symbolic while jogging a few times in the last few months. lol @ me but also it ruled.

When I was in 9th grade, I was walking the halls between classes. I noticed there was a wide open locker with nothing in it except the cassette of Scream Bloody Gore.

I took it home and listened to "Regurgitated Guts" and "Zombie Ritual" over and over.

That album was meant to come into my life that day, and it has never left (though I seem to listen to it exclusively on vinyl now).

― Nate Carson, Sunday, July 27, 2008 5:56 PM (ten years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is like a scene in a rpg, i love it

would prob be between human and symbolic for me now

couldn't choose between them though. every riff on human is the best riff i've ever heard, especially if it's a riff in the song "secret face"

all those relapse remasters of the catalog sound phenomenal

Just happened to see the Death By Metal documentary on amazon prime, pretty good, pretty much what you'd expect, amazing how much confidence Chuck's mother had in him from the beginning.
Maybe I'm misinterpreting things but it seemed like there was a possibility that he was going to do clean vocals later on but he seemed to be fed up with singing and maybe his vocals would have become a rarity if he had lived.
Looks like he blew some things out of proportion, like being sold as a death metal band when he was feeling restricted by those expectations.

Then bookmarked a bunch of documentaries I'd never heard of (Pentagram, L7, female metal vocalists doc, Barclay James Harvest)

Enjoyed the documentary. Also, I've spent three decades mispronouncing Chuck Schuldiner's last name. Anyone else?

I spent most of the running time listening for a mention of his surname but didn't hear one! I've always pronounced it Shooldinner (Schooldinners lol) - is that wrong?

I thought the documentary was fine if kinda plodding. I was wondering why I'd not seen Death back in the day as I saw most of the big hitters at the time. So now I know. Were his mental health issues that well known at the time?

If I'd wanted anything from the documentary, I'd have liked a bit more focus on the music. A little musicology goes a long way but something a bit more on how he constructed the music, how he transitioned from the bludgeon of the early records to the more technical stuff, how they managed that in the studio etc etc.

Yeah, I would have enjoyed hearing some more about that too, but as music documentaries go, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It doesn't insult the intelligence of the average death metal fan. Paul Masvidal conspicuously absent from the interviews. I assumed there was some beef, but Paul did those tribute shows, so who knows.

His name was pronounced in the doc when someone--I think it was Steve Digiorgio--refers to Chuck's mom as "Mrs. Schuldiner." I've always said "SHULL-dinn-ur" but I guess it's pronounced "shul-DEEN-ur?"

It does seem he gave plenty of people the right to be permanently pissed off with him. Sean Reinert still seems pretty raw about things. Gene Hoglan seems more sanguine but it's clearly there.

Yep. I was actually impressed by how diplomatic Reinert came off in the interview in light of Chuck's seemingly passive aggressive way of dealing with band personnel. But I'm a Cynic fanboy, so of course I'd think that.

Best thing about the doc is that the filmmakers realized they didn't need to explain the entire history of death metal. Clearly, this film was made for people who were already fans, which I appreciated, despite the fact that it probably limited the appeal of the film somewhat. There's nothing worse, to me, in music documentaries, when they begin with 25 minutes of, say, "bebop is an offshoot of the American art form know as jazz..."

I don't recall if I gave this the one vote for Spiritual Healing or not.

I was assuming it was me, to be honest. That was my first Death album so I've always stood behind it, even though they have other albums that are arguably better.

Sound of Perseverance is such a high note that they went out on. I know some folk don't like it as much. my only qualm with it is Chuck's voice, which was usually this powerful, throaty, death-rattle, seems more like Sebastian Bach shrieks at times.

"Painkiller" vocals are pretty amazing.

yeah it was interesting hearing him attempt clean vocals for the first time.

at the time I got TSOP I had only gotten Painkiller a year earlier so I was mega excited about the cover.

I do find it interesting that (for me at least), the more progressive they got, the easier the individual riffs got to play.

holy fuck, listening to the Painkiller cover for the first time in decades, I forgot how good his falsetto sounded

also cool that they didn't recreate the Priest solos but added their own

Rest in peace Sean Reinert

Cynic - "Nunc Stans"

Hey comrade,
What will it be like,
On the day we face our mortal lives?
We're all given,
The misfortune of loss,
But that's a gift we call impermanence,
We don't own our work,
We don't own the earth,
At all
We're eternal Nunc Stans soldiers,
The eternal warriors.
We're accountants,
In the firm of life,
Entrusted with a body, heart and mind.
Hey comrade,
Did I love well?
Have I learned to live moment to moment?
We don't own our work,
We don't own the earth,
We don't own our minds,
We don't own anything,
At all.
We're eternal Nunc Stans soldiers,
The eternal warriors.
We're eternal Nunc Stans soldiers,
The eternal warriors.
It was not death,
It was not life,
It was love.

RIP

human the greatest album of all time, still devastated by this news

Damn, I loved that Cynic album in high school, really unique & great drummer.

On the opposite end of the spectrum of Death, I am listening to Scream Bloody Gore and it is still faaaaantastic.

― The Man Who Saw The Midwife (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Sunday, August 6, 2017 5:54 AM bookmarkflaglink

playin this on vinyl rn. it's helping with my down mood.

ZOMBIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
RITUAL

few things....

so these all got reissued...again, except Symbolic...again. in 2010, the same thing happened- the explanation given was that Roadrunner wouldn't give permission to Relapse to reissue that one. is there some unknown reason they don't want that one to be re-issued? I mean I know it's been reissued before, but it was not part of the last two major reissues.

also, anybody wanna change their vote? my order goes:

1) Human (this one took years to grow on me, now it's the first one I want to play - bridged the gap between proggy and face-punchy, just great writing all over this thing, all-star lineup)
2) Symbolic (the "thoughtful" Death album. some of the best lyrics Chuck wrote, and the riffs are less about sanding faces off and more good, poignant songwriting. the ideas are simple throughout, probably the simplest on a Death album ever - but are ever so atmospheric and ear catchy.
3) Leprosy (my favorite of their early gonzo balls to the wall shit. It's everything SBG was, ratcheted up by 1000)
4) Individual Thought Patterns (the first one I bought, age 16. loved the fluidity of the guitar leads and the creative, melodic riff-writing, and the production ,which still had bite, with Chuck's zombie-ish vocals. "Overactive Imagination" is an all-time favorite)
5) Sound of Perseverance (I was ambivalent to this one when it came out, though it was the second one I owned. time's been kinder to it. it's proggy af, but it has a lot of what made Human good throughout it as well. "Bite the Pain" is a classic)
6) Scream Bloody Gore (this entire album rips start to finish. i can't imagine what this sounded to metal fans at the time....alas I was an elementary school kid)
7) Spiritual Healing (I only acquired this one about 7 or 8 years ago, and it didn't grab me as much as the others, though it's not "bad" whatsoever.)

I slightly prefer Sound Of Perseverance to Symbolic but I still need to get the rest of them.

Re: the documentary, how do you guys feels about Chuck seemingly wanting to give up singing eventually?

Spiritual Healing was robbed

Roadrunner wouldn't give permission to Relapse to reissue that one. is there some unknown reason they don't want that one to be re-issued?

Roadrunner is a division of Atlantic Records/Warner Music Group. Major labels don't license their titles to indies to be reissued. (That's assuming Atlantic/WMG even gives a shit at all — they're pretty much 100% in the pop and hip-hop business at this point.)

Also, my ranking:

1) Human/Individual Thought Patterns (tie)
2) Symbolic/Sound of Perseverance (tie)
3-7) don't care, honestly

it is unsatisfying ranking death records they're all great

like scream bloody gore would prob be last in my ranking and that feels stupid bc it rocks my face off

Re: the documentary, how do you guys feels about Chuck seemingly wanting to give up singing eventually?

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, August 25, 2020 2:57 PM bookmarkflaglink

I mean, he kinda did with Control Denied. I honestly woulda missed his vocals if he just did the Control Denied thing and never screamed again.

And the man's beautiful guitar

https://i.ibb.co/7ysPcGS/IMG-20211212-195356.jpg

Tribute band Left to Die is doing Leprosy front to back in three Florida shows this week. Featuring Rick Rozz and Terry Butler, formerly of Death, and Matt Harvey (Exhumed frontman) and Gus Rios (Malevolent Creation).

I love Scream Bloody Gore but Leprosy is a desert island album

went from being burnt out on Human to it being my favorite again lmao. i love that there's just so much to love here.

anybody else gonna catch the Death to All tour? I cherish any chance to hear this music live with some of hte people who played on it, even without the most important one there.

forever going to regret never seeing them

On Record Store Day, Relapse is re-releasing the compilation Fate — The Best of Death, which includes tracks from each of the first four albums. I reviewed it for The Wire, which led me to listen to the first three in depth for the first time ever and holy fuck, I had been missing out.

how on earth did ITP walk this

that one's one of my favs, was the first one I owned. on cassette, listening to it on the way to my first ever voice lesson lol.

the first two are all time. even Spiritual Healing is better than its reputation indicates.

Leprosy is just about perfect though

they're all great imo. back in the day questions of whether stuff is still cool or w/e, those fade away. all his shit was good.

blows my mind that such an important piece of metal history happened p much in the area I grew up. as Kam Lee said at one of his Massacre shows last year, "Death metal didn't begin in Tampa, it began in Altamonte Springs!" (I'm sure some would protest that statement, but I digress).

a few years ago, I went to a bar, and my ex was there with a friend. I went over to say "Hello", and she told him "tell Neanderthal the story you just told me".

Her friend wasn't a metal guy at all, but he asks me if I knew the band Death. He then talked about how he went to Lake Brantley High (my high school's main rival) in the 80s, and he had a classmate named Chuck. And how he was quiet and soft-spoken, but friendly. He didn't know him real well, but he knew he was really into metal music. They weren't close friends or anything, just acquaintances, and lost touch after high school. He had no idea that Chuck was a musician himself, much less that he was in the process of inventing an entire subgenre of metal.

The friend hadn't thought of Chuck in years until the news spread among fellow alumni that he was sick, and eventually died. But it wasn't until after he passed away that he discovered that he really didn't know who his classmate eventually became. Initially, he was stunned to see the news of his random high school classmate reported on MTV news bulletins, rock and metal zines, and sprawled all over the internet. It was only when he dug further that realized the soft-spoken quiet dude that he had a few classes with was actually the Godfather of Death metal.

“bodies deformed way beyond belief” is an all time album opener lyrics

I love this band so much and would love to go see alumni from any Death era play this stuff but I can’t really hack it that night

ITP is so sick, builds wonderfully off of human. I haven’t spent enough time with the last two albums yet.

It was the second one I owned, but I didn't think all that much of Sound of Perseverance at first, other than the "Painkiller" cover, but after seeing Death to All in 2014 and hearing it live, I revisited it...and it's really good! Other than my issues with the vocals (outside of the "Painkiller" cover), it's pretty fantastic.

I really wish bands even had the time to evolve like this, I feel like the pressure to produce has bands either afraid to pivot at all, or rushing it to where they make the jump to a new sound before they had ample time to explore. nobody wants to put out 'transition' albums anymore unless you're a big established entity.

"big" being a very relative term here, of course

the end of "Perennial Quest" stirred up feelings in me I can't describe tonight. it always does.

Death fans, if you have a chance to catch the Death to All tour, please do. it was an incredible experience.

not exactly thrilled that I decided to share copious amounts of video of my drunken antics last night tho, someone should really take my phone away at these things.