Death: The Sound of Perseverance (2LP, splatter vinyl) [RELAPSE]

Why you'll love it

This Relapse reissue is a remastered 2LP set on splatter vinyl in a gatefold jacket with silver foil laminated finish. AllMusic's Jason Hundey called the album one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Splatter vinyl
• Remastered
• Gatefold jacket
• Silver foil laminated jacket
• Stereo mix

About the album

Chuck Schuldiner had actually stepped away from Death to focus on his new band, Control Denied, when Nuclear Blast made him an offer: one more Death album first. He took it, recruited his Control Denied bandmates Shannon Hamm and Scott Clendenin plus drummer Richard Christy, and recorded the whole thing in three weeks at Morrisound in Tampa.

Several songs began life as Control Denied material, which helps explain the album's soaring, melodic reach, and Richard Christy's drumming pushes every song harder. "Scavenger of Human Sorrow" opens with a barrage of riffs, "Spirit Crusher" is one of the band's most loved songs, "Bite the Pain" and "Story to Tell" twist through progressive turns, and "Voice of the Soul" is a gorgeous instrumental Schuldiner wrote during the Symbolic sessions. The record ends with a high-pitched, full-throttle cover of Judas Priest's "Painkiller."

It turned out to be Death's final studio album, and its mix of technical death metal and progressive ambition has shaped two generations of bands since. It was meant to buy time for Control Denied, which makes it quite possibly the most influential favour in metal.

Also at Kops: more Death on vinyl · browse Metal

Tracklist

Listen

On Relapse (cat# RR7154), a reissue of the 1998 album.