Gauge16: All of Death

kgreg31
Nov 10
6 min read

I thought that for this blog, I'd share my personal ranking of all the albums of one of, if not the most influential and iconic, Death metal bands of all time. Emerging from Atlamonte Springs Florida, the band Death was formed in 1983 with their first studio album "Scream Bloody Gore" released in 1987 and their last being "Sound of Perseverance", released in 1998. I had listened to more of Death's popular songs a few years back, but it wasn't until a few weeks ago, when I was putting off studying for a few tests I had to do that following week, and I decided that instead of studying or doing anything productive, I should instead listen to their whole discography back to back. In hindsight, it wasn't the smartest decision in the world, but I'm glad that I listened to all their albums because, in my opinion, I don't think that they have made a single bad album.

The core member of Death, Chuck Schuldiner, who was a perfectionist at heart, was an unbelievably talented musician who never stopped honing his skills as a guitarist and songwriter. Even when he was later diagnosed with brain cancer, he continued to write new music until his final moments, only regretful of the fact that he couldn't finish writing and perfecting his music.

#7 Scream Bloody Gore

This is Deaths very first album and you can tell by how the guitar work doesn't have the same level of intricacy that some of the other records have and the production quality is probably the worst out of all of Deaths albums. However, that's not to say that this is a bad album at all, I think that "Scream Bloody Gore" perfectly shows the early stages of Chuck Schuldiner's guitar abilities and is lyrically rooted in the violent and gory imagery while having a raw, brutal, and thrashing sound to it. On every record, Chuck Schuldiner sings a little bit differently, and in this album, he has a deeper, more guttural sound to his vocals that sounds more like a zombie growl.

I'd say that my favorite song from Scream Bloody Gore would have to be Infernal Death or Zombie Ritual. (This is also my favorite album cover out of all the records)

#6 Sound Of Perseverance

For some of the people who are pretty big death fans they may question me putting Sound of Perseverance this low because even though it was Deaths last record and also among one of their more technical albums, I think that it just doesn't hold a candle to some of the other albums that they've made and honestly In my opinion, its largely an overrated album. However it is still a very good album and has some really good songs with ingenuity technical expertise, being more on the side of progressive death metal, which just means using unconventional time signatures and time changes. Looking at the Sound of Perseverance compared to Scream Bloody Gore shows how Chuck Schuldiners writing got more complex and intricate, which just visualizes the dedication that he had to improving his skills as a musician which I find so inspiring. Probably my favorite song from this album would be Scavenger of Human Sorrow, and If you're reading this and you don't even like death metal at all then I'd suggest listening to their song Voices of the Soul, its a beautiful instrumental track that I think anyone could appreciate.

#5 Spiritual Healing

Spiritual Healing was Deaths third album the they released after their second album Leprosy and many people consider it to be their worst album because it was an awkward transition from their raw and unpolished sound from the first album to the more technical guitar work that is found more consistently in later albums like Sound of Perseverance. Contrary to Scream Bloody Gore, where they talk about death and violence, Spiritual healing talks about various topics like abortion, substance abuse, and religious corruption and hypocrisy. Chuck said that instead of focusing on the horrors that they depict in movies, he wanted to focus on the real horrors found in human society. My favorite song from this record would have to be Defensive Personalities or Killing Spree, which has such an insane solo on it which is just mind blowing.

#4 Leprosy

Leprosy was Deaths second album that was released after Scream Bloody Gore that like Spiritual Healing, also transitions from themes of gore and violence to more real world problems. In the song Pull The Plug it talks about how prolonged suffering though medical machinery is no way to live and in their other song Left to Die depicts the gruesome reality of war. Aside from the lyrical change, I think that Leprosy refined the sound from Scram Bloody Gore and kept the raw aggressive nature of their early work, whereas Spiritual Healing was an intermittent stage between their more technical work and more grueling sound which is why I think that Leprosy is overall a better album than Spiritual Healing, but both are still very good. The intro to Pull the Plug has such a good riff and is just written so well, its one of my favorite songs from Death but another favorite of mine from this album is the title track Leprosy.

#3 Symbolic

Out of all the albums that Death has made their album Symbolic has to be objectively the most well produced and mastered album that they have which is why I'm putting this at number 3. This album was their second to last album and also has my favorite drummer out of all of Death's drummers, Gene Hoglan, who is just a beast of a drummer. The subtle or not so subtle drum fills that he adds in this record just add another level of depth to the record on top of the more melodic and haunting solos that he plays over. Contrary to their first three records, Chucks vocals seem to have changed to be less gravelly and more abrasive, ditching the deep guttural vocals and opting for a tone that is more easily understandable. My favorite songs from Symbolic are Zero Tolerance and Sacred Serenity.

#2 Human

Human was the first record that was widely considered as Progressive Death Metal and showed an array of complex riffs and time signature changes. My first time hearing this album it almost took me a few times to really listen to it to actually start to like it and appreciate it for the amount of technical work that went into making it. Its almost like odd sounding notes are being played in all the right places to create something cohesive. A lot of die hard fans consider this album to be Deaths best album because it was an influential record for the advancement of Progressive Death Metal and I see why. My favorite songs from this record have to be either Flattening of Emotions or Lack of Comprehension.

#1 Individual Thought Patterns

After listening to all of Deaths albums I've found that their best album in my opinion is their 5th album, Individual Thought Patterns because it has some of the most head turning time changes that are a staple of Prog-Death out of all the albums, along with (in my opinion) some of the most impressive and mesmerizing solos. The first song that I heard off of this record was In Human form when my sister played that song in the car while we were running errands when I was about 16 and I remember I said i didn't like it at first. Now as I listen to that song again I now get the appeal to this music and Individual Thought Patterns is now among my top favorite albums. One thing that stood out to me about this album in particular is that you can clearly hear the bass filling in the dead space that the guitar doesn't specifically in the 2023 Remaster of the album. Gene Hoglan also has a subtle but amazing drum fill on the song Overactive imagination and uses the bell on the the drum a lot which I can admit I'm a sucker for in any metal music. Since this is my fav album Ill give my top 5 songs from this album.