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Rating: I don't really like making rankings when it comes to my favorite groups or bands that have left a mark on me. However, if someone were to ask me to suggest one of the best albums I've ever listened to, I would definitely include "The Sound Of Perseverance" in my top 5. In fact, personally, I also believe it belongs in the top 5 of the best metal albums ever released.
I will use four words to briefly define it: UNIQUE in its genre! I will try to contain my enthusiasm and be concise in what I will say, even if, remembering the emotions that this record has given me, it is very difficult for me, I will leave aside the memories and truly let the late Chuck Shuldiner rest in peace, describing only the album, which we know, nonetheless, was conceived and written by one of the best metal musicians ever.
The album can be listened to in one go, beautiful, flowing, inventive and brilliant, heavy, hard and energetic as only this genre can be, a sprinkling of progressiveness, and the band’s undisputed technique combined with Chuck’s psycho-philosophical (sometimes cryptic) lyrics make this an extraordinary album. For those who have never listened to it but are familiar with death metal, don't expect the usual wild album to mosh to, but much more, especially in terms of musical depth, and to be precise it is also a bit reductive to define it as just death metal.
"Scavenger Of Human Sorrow", "The Flesh And The Power It Holds", and all the other songs on the album (there's no need to list them) each shine with their own light. Each of them knows how to inspire you with strength, power, creativity, and also emotional charm, as in the case of the acoustic "Voice Of The Soul". And as if that wasn't enough, an (yet another) cover of "Painkiller" by Judas Priest, truly impeccably redone.
Musically superb and masterful, there is much to learn from an album like this, even if you are a musician. Finally, the cover design of the album is also beautiful. In short, an album dedicated to lovers of great music. Can I give it a 6 as a rating?! No! What a shame! Absolutely indispensable, every metalhead who loves to call themselves such must have this album.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Scavenger of Human Sorrow (06:54)
What pain will it take
To satisfy your sick appetite
Go in for the kill
Always in sight-prey
The time always right-feast
Feed on the pain-taste
Sorrow made flesh-sweet
Live how you want
Just don't feed on me
If you doubt what I say
I will make you believe
Shallow are words from those who starve
For a dream not their own to slash and scar
Big words, Small mind
Behind the pain you will find
A scavenger of human sorrow
Scavenger
Abstract theory the weapon of choice
Used by scavenger of human sorrow
Scavenger
So you have traveled far across the sea
To spread yor written brand of misery
03 Spirit Crusher (06:44)
It comes from the depths
Of a place unknown to the
Keeper of dreams
If it could then it would steal
The sun and the moon from the sky
Beware
Human at sight, Monster at heart
Don't let it inside it could
Tear you right apart
No guilt, It feeds in plain sight
Spirit Crusher
Stay strong and hold on tight
Spirit Crusher
Speaking in killing words
The vicious kind that crush and kill
No mercy, Its pleasure to taste
The blood that it bled
When it's time to feed to fulfill
The need to consume a breath
Some will rise standing tall
Breathing out all the breath from
The voice of a soul
08 A Moment of Clarity (07:22)
I would describe it as an invisible darkness
Casting a shadow, A blinding black
Guarded by hope, My soul is kept from
The bloody claws
Look beyond, What vision lets me see
Time after time, Unneeded misery
Holding tight to my dreams
I own no price for you
I grip them tight and hope for sight
Open my eyes wide to see a moment of clarity
Confusion gone, It's in your hands
Your turn to ask why
Life is like a mystery
With many clues, But with few anwers
To tell us what it is that we can do to look
For messages that keep us from the truth
09 Painkiller (06:03)
[JUDAS PRIEST cover]
Faster than a bullet
Terrifying scream
Enraged and full of anger
He's half man and half machine
Rides the Metal Monster
Breathing smoke and fire
Closing in with vengeance soaring high
He is the Painkiller
This is the Painkiller
Planets devastated
Mankind's on its knees
A saviour comes from out the skies
In answer to their pleas
Through boiling clouds of thunder
Blasting bolts fo steel
Evils going under deadly wheels
He is the Painkiller
This is the Painkiller
Faster than a lazer bullet
Louder than an atom bomb
Chromium plated boiling metal
Brighter than a thousand suns
Flying high on rapture
Stronger free and brave
Nevermore encaptured
They've been brought back from the grave
With mankind ressurrected
Forever to survive
Returns from Armageddon to the skies
He is the Painkiller
This is the Painkiller
Wings of steel Painkiller
Deadly wheels Painkiller
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Other reviews
By cliffburton86
A huge death metal masterpiece.
The hope of everyone is that from 'up there' the great Chuck continues to play his guitar and continues to sing death metal, as only he knew how.
By sweep picking
Death... the name speaks for itself, doesn’t it?
This album is full of masterpieces... complete reverence for the best metal band that has ever existed.
By sofficino
Ladies and Gentlemen, speaking ill of Death is impossible, and the most natural thing is that these guys have churned out masterpieces.
And so, this masterpiece is concluded, and thus the career of Death... has written among the most beautiful and intriguing pages in death metal.
By Painkiller
Chuck could not have left a better tangible work of his great contribution to past, present, and future metal.
'Voice Of The Soul' is an instrumental gem... no one, not even the most extreme dance music listeners, will find ugly or unlistenable.
By emanuele
Have you ever experienced that feeling when you’re faced with something… whose grandeur takes your breath away because you realize that some people can truly be defined as giants?
Each single track manages to exude emotions from every note and especially from a voice, that of Chuck, which will remain… in the history of world heavy metal.
