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Joined: Sep 17 2007 Location: The Opium Trail Posts: 3475

Discuss the evolving greatness that was Chuck Schuldiner.

Best LP- Symbolic
Best songs- Left To Die, Suicide Machine, Infernal Death, Spirit Crusher, Symbolic

Posted: Dec 08 2009 05:38 pm

Death was an amazing band that was instrumental in getting me into death metal. Plus, they had Steve DiGiorgio, who is an absolute beast of a bassist. I believe the 13th will be the 8th anniversary of Chuck Schuldiner's death. What a tragedy, losing him to cancer. Sad

Best LP-Can't decide between SBG, ITP, and TSOP
Best songs-The Philosopher, Spirit Crusher, Sacrificial, Zombie Ritual, Voice of the Soul

Joined: Sep 17 2007 Location: The Opium Trail Posts: 3475

enshinkarateman wrote:

Best LP-Can't decide between SBG, ITP, and TSOP

From that bunch, I'd pick SBG, despite the fact that some of the riffs repeat themselves.

Posted: Dec 08 2009 05:54 pm

Scream Bloody Gore is my favorite, but Human and Individual Thought Patterns are very close.

Posted: Dec 08 2009 07:38 pm

Live in LA Death / Raw is one of my all time favorite live DVDs. I like how it's a tiny ass show and they have to have a crouching at the front of the stage to keep the stage diving under control. Laughing

Joined: Sep 17 2007 Location: The Opium Trail Posts: 3475

This was actually an album by album review I posted on another site: Enjoy!

None of these, mind you, are "bad albums." In fact I'd recommend all of them, but some are just better than others. So here is my ranking from least favorite to absolute favorite.

7. Leprosy

In comparison to the early days, I never liked this one as much as I liked SBG and for the longest time I could never figure out why. Today I finally realized the reason, this album is sprinkled with boring instrumental passages that don't really go anywhere. I realize riffs are a subjected matter, but there are certain sections meant to highlight a riff in its fast groove, and it just doesn't work because the riff seems boring or just "there." You would think I would like this album better than SBG, considering there's less songs and thus it's easier to get through, but no, this album stretches a little longer than it should. Of course there are some moments of brilliance, like Left To Die, Pull the Plug and the title track, but that brilliance just doesn't quite encompass the whole album.

6. The Sound of Perseverance

Do you hate Dream Theater? Then you'll probably hate this. It was weird, the previous Death album was a perfect blend of brilliant technical ability and brilliant songwriting, but this album an edge of favorability is given to technical ability. I mean Spirit Crusher and Scavenger of Human Sorrow are classics, but this is one of those albums where you remember the playing more than the songs. That being said if you have a boner for technical ability, then you will absolutely love this, as each members playing is at their absolute peak!

5. Individual Thought Patterns

Has some moments that absolutely slay, and some moments that are just there. The drumming is absolutely lethal with none other than Gene Hoglan going his first of two albums with Death! Though really, who else could follow Sean Reinert? Like Perseverance, the previous album to ITP blended songwriting and technical ability equally, whereas here songwriting takes an oh-so-marginal backseat to playing ability.

4. Spiritual Healing

Aside from the title track and maybe Living Monstrosity, there aren't really any popular classics or live staples here, which is a shame, because a lot of these songs are quite fun. It's absolutely a step up from it's predecessor, and it's just about as good SBG. And hey, Chuck gets political on our asses! My guess as to why this album is seen as the weakest is because it came out in 1990, a year where damn near all of the top tier bands were at the top of the game, and if you didn't deliver something just as good, you were going to be relegated to "forgotten" status. Of course Spiritual Healing isn't better than Coma of Souls or Painkiller, but that certainly doesn't mean it's terrible!

3. Scream Bloody Gore

Of course has some classic songs like Zombie Ritual and Evil Dead, and it's ludicrous to repeat (but you do it anyways just to be safe) that this album was the first of it's kind. However, the first wheel was kinda squarish. Some of the songs bleed together, and what doesn't help as that some songs start off the same way (see Mutilation and the title track). There's also the fact that unless you're an obsessed fan who has listened to this album a million times, or you are paying the strictest attention to the tracklisting (especially if you're the person who plays an album or playlist on shuffle), certain riffs will pop up and you won't know which songs they belong too. I found myself wondering "is this Torn To Pieces or Sacrificial" quite a few times on repeated listens.

2. Human

I used to hate this album because after 2 months of listening to it straight, I couldn't remember any of the riffs, but I could remember the choruses, and I used to think this was metal blasphemy. yea...ass backwards thinking. If there is any flaw with this album, it's that they use the same fast section over and over again, but this just might be the one time in my book when this is forgivable.

Plain and simple the finest collection of songs Chuck ever put out. Even the weakest songs on here (a tie between two songs) have something excellent in store, and they are merely "great" instead of "fucking excellent" the whole way through. A lot of fans complain that "this isn't death metal" and they're right! This is so called "traditional/power/heavy/old-school" metal being throwndown just as good, if not better than the NWOBHM did. If Chuck merely adjusted his vocal style to actual singing, this would have been hailed as an absolute masterpiece of metal. Something that was certainly needed in 1995, where everybody else either just sucked or was following a trend. This isn't just a brilliant album musically, but lyrically as well. Chuck touches on ideas of intolerance, nostalgia, personal struggles and so much more in ways that capture the heart. So often in music does lyrics take a backseat to music, or vice versa, but when both are executed with equal and majestic power, it becomes crystal clear why we do this shit as a culture. Plain and simple, this was Chuck's mission statement to the metal world, and it's a good goddamn thing he didn't die of cancer in 1994, or else we never would have heard this masterpiece. This is my favorite Death album.