SYMBOLIC

I am a Death Metal fan and have great respect for the late Chuck Schuldiner for basically inventing the genre, but Death's discography has always been hit-or-miss for me. I enjoy Death's two previous albums (especially the excellent 'Human') but I feel like they lost the plot here.

The music is very well played but is rather bland and unimaginative... and things would become even worse on their next album 'The Sound of Perseverance' which is a complete bore-fest. This album sounds like straight-ahead Death Metal to me, and there is very little of a Proggy nature here.

'Zero Tolerance' is the best song here; featuring an excellent heavy riff and one of Chuck's best recorded vocal performances. There is a slower part in the middle with an icy clean guitar arpeggio which is very simple but effective and chilling. There are some very good guitar solos here as well.

'Crystal Mountain' is probably the most Prog-related track and features some very technical parts and complex time changes, but overall the song has little emotional impact on me and seems too focused on technique over substance.... and that's the story for the rest of the album as well.

I would only recommend this to hardcore Death fans... but every Death fan already owns this album anyway. 2 stars.