February 2020 Feature Release - The Horde Edition

It's now February which of course means that we'll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we're asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. Ben & I will certainly be contributing & we look forward to hearing your thoughts too.     

This month's feature release for The Horde is 1995's classic fifth album from Florida death metal legends Death entitled "Symbolic". This album is often referred to as the pinnacle of technical death metal however I tend to think it's more of a progressive death metal release than a tech death one. The musicality that Chuck Schuldiner brought to extreme metal music is likely his crowning achievement & you'll never hear a more perfect example of that than what we have in store for you here.

One of the greatest albums in metal. My review should make it clear just how much a love it!

Yeah it's an undisputed classic that came at a time when both of us were in our metal prime if you know what I mean. It says a lot about the remarkable consistency of Chuck Schuldiner that I slightly favour the previous couple of Death albums over this one. It's still an easy 4.5/5 though.

Am I the only one that finds "Crystal Mountain" to be a little bit too light-weight? It seems like that's everyone's favourite track these days but it's comfortably the LEAST impressive to my ears.

Love me some Crystal Mountain!

I don't often reach for this one off the shelf to satisfy any Death-itch that I get.  Still go to Sound... for my progressive era fix and as a result I am losing familiarity with Symbolic and Human.  I sense a revisit coming on this coming week whilst I am out on the road around Scotland for 3 days.

I'm glad I waited a year before checking this out, since I listened to Scream Bloody Gore and Spiritual Healing at the beginning of 2019. I don't think I would have appreciated Symbolic as much as I did today if I didn't have to wade through an entire year of newer Death Metal releases. Ben's review pretty much sums up my thoughts, with this album just being exciting to listen to in general. The riffs aren't necessarily super fast like modern Death Metal tends to be, but they are still super technical and the abrupt melody changes still add that Death Metal flair to an otherwise very Progressive album. I had zero problems with the vocals, since apparently that's a sticking point for some. 

I do wish that modern Death Meal, especially modern Tech Death, would look to its roots a little bit more. This album that came out 25 years ago feels more technical and virtuosic than any I've listened to in the recent Tech Death scene, and maybe that comes back to clarity. The Death Metal crunch of the guitars and the overall aggression and chaos is still there, but everything is perfectly clear and set up in a way that highlights the actual notes of the riffs rather than just the muddy, dark rhythms and chug that modern Death Metal tends to lean towards. 

4.5/5 for me, I'll be going back to this one for sure. 

(Also I'm with Daniel, Crystal Mountain wasn't as impressive as I was led to believe)