The Sound of Perseverance is the seventh and final album by American
death metal band
Death. The album was released on September 15, 1998 through
Nuclear Blast.
Overview
The album, in particular, employs a style more akin to
progressive metal than the earliest Death releases, although since
Human and the albums following it, the band had been developing more toward this style. The average song length on this album is around six minutes. Also, it was a breakthrough album for drummer and later radio star
Richard Christy, in the tradition of previous drummers like
Gene Hoglan and
Sean Reinert.
The album features "Voice of the Soul", an instrumental track that contrasts with every other work of the band in its inclusion of softer guitars and lack of percussion. In an interview done in March 1999, Chuck Schuldiner stated that Voice of the Soul was actually written during the Symbolic sessions. Death has produced only two instrumentals (the other being the considerably heavier "Cosmic Sea" from
Human). The album also featured a cover of
Judas Priest's "
Painkiller", which shows Schuldiner attempting a different, high-pitched style of
death growl more reminiscent of
Rob Halford's original vocals and also singing for the first time with a clean voice through the end of the song.
Some of the song names and music on
The Sound of Perseverance were originally...
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