Review by Rexorcist for Death - The Sound of Perseverance (1998)

Death's boy Chuck never stopped trying to rewrite the game.  It even went so far as to being less heavy so that Chuck could get his fanbase to focus on different concepts.  That's why he formed Control Denied, which is really pretty much Death under a different name.  But this is the album where the human emotion that Chuck wanted to connect with drives the album do fiercely that it bleeds.  It overshadows the heaviness and yet pairs with it so beautifully through every song, even to the ending cover of Judas Priest's Painkiller.  When I think about it, this must be the easiest Death album to really connect to, due to the understanding of sorrow as well as general death metal anger.  The decision to be less of a death metal act and more of a prog metal act seems to be what allows the human condition and the highly personal tones of the album to really shine, especially with that lead guitar tone of choice pulled right from Symbolic.  Not only that, these melodies are the most intriguing that Death has ever been, progressing like a freaking movie.  I imagine this is a very fun album to play on guitar.  So to put it even lightly, this swansong of the band Death is a nearly perfect one.