the Spirit Crusher i see around me is addiction. it's tough out there for a lot of people but i just want to let everyone know it's not impossible, they can still win the fight. RIP Chuck

He was such a nice guy. He taught me how to play Crystal Mountain. Forever grateful.

The way I've always seen it: Spirit Crusher is Chuck talking to the listener. Chuck has battled with the Spirit Crusher himself (I agree with your depiction of the Spirit Crusher) and is now giving his advice to people who are currently battling with it. He is trying to guide but also cheer the listener up as they fight their own Spirit Crusher themselves.

Chuck is one of the most underrated lyricists.

Very elegant the way you explain the theory behind chucks writing. Not many people have the skill to understand and explain music in such a beautiful way!! Kudos!

I love this song and the record! There's no "filler" album by them. Death was one those bands that just got better and better every album. And they peaked at Sound Of Perseverance. Such a shame that we lost Chuck so soon. He had a lot give to the music world.

Please continue these analyses. I am obsessed with this format!

When you put it like that, I can definitely relate. I've always struggled with anxiety and self doubt because of trauma earlier in life.

I am progressively falling in love with this album, and its your fault mate

Rest in peace chuck. Could you do a vid on a moment of clarity next? (Or scavenger of human sorrow

I love these videos so much, they remind me of why they’re a favorite band of mine and Chuck has always been inspiring to me. This and Voice of the Soul were the two songs most responsible for me making the jump into death metal a while back

As an enormous death and chuck fan, this video gave me goosebumps. I love how much you really pay attention to the relation between the music and the lyrics and the story they tell. This is by no means an attempt at advertising, i just think you would genuinely enjoy it with the depth you listen, but i think you would really love this song i just put out on my youtube. I do a lot of things in my songwriting that i learned directly from diving into chucks music and i think you would really enjoy it. Let me know if you wanna check it out and thank you for this awesome video. Ill be watching the rest for sure.

Human at sight, monster at heart.

I've listened to all of your Death videos. And it made me think of the first Death song I heard, 1000 Eyes. And how blown away I was with the VERY relevant and profound lyrics. If your going to do a video on the song let me know, because I can point to countless real world examples of the song being relevant each and every second, of every single day for everyone of us.

Chuck is my guitar hero, and as a guitar player myself I’ve never heard a breakdown like this. WOW. Thank you 🙏🤘

I remember watching the video for The Philosopher on Headbanger's Ball (actually it was on its Brazilian version - Furia Metal) and being completely awestruck with Death's sound and Chuck's voice. Not only his vocals, but his voice, what was he singing and writing about. Spirit Crusher is a masterpiece and, having dealt with depression myself and in a constant fight with it, your video essay was beautifully written. And, in my book, spot on. Thank you for your analysis. Just subscribed to the channel.

One of my favorite albums just because of the sick riffs and arrangements. I didn’t think I could possibly like it more, then this video and how it made the thematic connections took it to another level.

Thank you KZfaq algorithm god!!! You’ve explained brilliantly how genius Chuck was as a lyricist. I can’t wait for Perennial Quest!

This type of analysis is what makes metalheads misunderstood.

Exactly how I always pictured this song. The key and tempo shifts does feel like a monster chasing you down. Voice of the Soul does a similar thing! The way the song ends reminds me of someone whos life was cut short by a tragic accident. The pinch harmonic reminds me of a cars tyres squeeling right before a crash. Chucks music takes us on a journey.

Dude you rock these videos are hella sick

I was feeling like total shit this morning and wondering what the fuck is wrong with me since ive had relatively long good episode going and depression hasnt really crushed me like that in a while. Then i saw this video and clicked instantly and got power to do some shit to make myself feel better!! Thanks dude and cheers from Finland!

personal favorite The Flesh and the Power it Holds

love the death song analysis' you do

A nice cool Sunday morning, bacon and eggs, and watching a deep dive into Death. A perfect morning!

This is incredible! It almost felt like a Rick Beato’s "What Makes This Song Great?" episode, but viewed through an artistic lens! Thank you for bringing this perspective to life!

Great song and really interesting explanation, I never realised how good lyrics Chuck wrote. But music as always is amazing here, "chorus" riff with these harmonics, Chuck screams and sick groove is perfect.

Man, this was like watching a professionally narrated documentary. Nice job elaborating and explaining the thought process behind Chucks writing here. Rip Metal Godfather

"Let the metal flow..."

This is actually a wonderful way to look at song construction and story telling. Thank you for the thorough breakdown

I'm glad, that someone doing such content about Chuck's heritage

I just found out about this channel and... wow, simply amazing. Please continue with these analysis bro, I have never subscribed to a channel so fast.

I love every note of every song he played, this band gives me emotions that I can't explain. It's so real, everything he sang about was just real. As a new born Death fan I can't say how mutch this band is helping me in this horrible period of my life. As someone who's fighting his own spirit crusher, thank you Chuck, you'll live forever in the words you sang and the memory of your fans. Thank you once again and I hope you have found the peace that everybody deserves in the afterlife, if there's one.

thank you. Fantastic work

Some excellent insights, thanks for the informative take on the song!!

Dude another excellent break down bro !!!! I watched your video on breaking down how chuck written his music and you couldn't have nailed it any more on the head by delivering specifically this song ! And how you made sense fits exactly how I been dealing with my spirit crusher in last 3 years with almost unbreakable depression. Almost no breaks and the deepest hardest and longest I've ever experienced. So real how I called it that years ago before I seen this video just today !

Keep the good content you deliver in haumage to Chuck ,you keep his memory alive, the spirit crusher lives inside all of us , a dark passager with an unnamed temptation...thumb 👍

What a great review! Thank you!

Such a good video and some truly phenomenal musicianship on this song in particular.

Should do all of death explanation man. The lyrics are god tier

Heavy metal story telling I dig it!

You're so underrated ,great video🤘🏻

Amazing analysis sir. I love this album so much and i was so excited to see your interpretation. It was very vivid and smart, so thank you for making this and putting so much work, youve done well and it has paid off

Awesome video!! Spirit crusher was my first death song too and was forever hooked, rip chuck 🤘🏻🤘🏻

When I heard this song for the first time I immediately recall this from Carlos Castaneda book: We have a predator that came from the depths of the cosmos and took over the rule of our lives. Human beings are its prisoners. The Predator is our lord and master. It has rendered us docile, helpless. If we want to protest, it suppresses our protest. If we want to act independently, it demands that we don't do so... I have been beating around the bush all this time, insinuating to you that something is holding us prisoner. Indeed we are held prisoner! "This was an energetic fact for the sorcerers of ancient Mexico ... They took us over because we are food for them, and they squeeze us mercilessly because we are their sustenance. just as we rear chickens in chicken coops, the predators rear us in human coops, humaneros. Therefore, their food is always available to them." "No, no, no, no," [Carlos replies] "This is absurd don Juan. What you're saying is something monstrous. It simply can't be true, for sorcerers or for average men, or for anyone." "Why not?" don Juan asked calmly. "Why not? Because it infuriates you? ... You haven't heard all the claims yet. I want to appeal to your analytical mind. Think for a moment, and tell me how you would explain the contradictions between the intelligence of man the engineer and the stupidity of his systems of beliefs, or the stupidity of his contradictory behaviour. Sorcerers believe that the predators have given us our systems of belief, our ideas of good and evil, our social mores. They are the ones who set up our hopes and expectations and dreams of success or failure. They have given us covetousness, greed, and cowardice. It is the predators who make us complacent, routinary, and egomaniacal." "'But how can they do this, don Juan? [Carlos] asked, somehow angered further by what [don Juan] was saying. "'Do they whisper all that in our ears while we are asleep?" "'No, they don't do it that way. That's idiotic!" don Juan said, smiling. "They are infinitely more efficient and organized than that. In order to keep us obedient and meek and weak, the predators engaged themselves in a stupendous manoeuvre stupendous, of course, from the point of view of a fighting strategist. A horrendous manoeuvre from the point of view of those who suffer it. They gave us their mind! Do you hear me? The predators give us their mind, which becomes our mind. The predators' mind is baroque, contradictory, morose, filled with the fear of being discovered any minute now." "I know that even though you have never suffered hunger... you have food anxiety, which is none other than the anxiety of the predator who fears that any moment now its manoeuvre is going to be uncovered and food is going to be denied. Through the mind, which, after all, is their mind, the predators inject into the lives of human beings whatever is convenient for them. And they ensure, in this manner, a degree of security to act as a buffer against their fear." "The sorcerers of ancient Mexico were quite ill at ease with the idea of when [the predator] made its appearance on Earth. They reasoned that man must have been a complete being at one point, with stupendous insights, feats of awareness that are mythological legends nowadays. And then, everything seems to disappear, and we have now a sedated man. What I'm saying is that what we have against us is not a simple predator. It is very smart, and organized. It follows a methodical system to render us useless. Man, the magical being that he is destined to be, is no longer magical. He's an average piece of meat." "There are no more dreams for man but the dreams of an animal who is being raised to become a piece of meat: trite, conventional, imbecilic.

Just found your channel and i love it! Looking forward to whatever you post next!

Great video, man! Keep doing these deep dives!

Hell yeah. I've been waiting all day 🤘

This was a fascinating take on these lyrics, one that I'd never even considered. Your way of thinking is quite refreshing. But I also see it as a case of confirmation bias - you're looking for themes & meanings within the lyrics to prove your narritive. There's nothing wrong with that...we all do it from time to time. If you really peel the layers back, Chuck was simply writing riffs, then piecing them together in ways that worked for him. It wasn't so much about how it felt, but how cool & exciting it sounded to him. Later on he added the lyrics to the already-written music. In my opinion, he's the greatest lyricist in Metal - but his words weren't as intensely metaphoric/overtly pre-planned as you make them out to be (most of the time). Just cool vocal patterns, with themes about betrayal, and the power of chasing your dreams no matter what the outside world thought.

I don’t know if your explanations are accurate but I love hearing your take.

İts ironic that when you say it may seem like an victory but the war is not over and the spirit crusher comes back. İt reminded me of the chucks tumor,because at first he thought he won his tumor but the tumor came back for him but this time he couldn't win.

just found this, and a songwriter myself, your analysis is on point. You earned a new subscriber, sir.

Spirit Crusher is one of the greatest achievements of Chuck. Both musically and lyrically this is an embodiment and ultimate manifestation of it's stated theme: CRUSHER of SPIRIT. This is as simple and at the same time as transcendent as you could get: when you erase layer by layer all the forms and reaches the very essence of things and being. You are but a consciousness, an eternal, everliving and everlasting SPIRITthat could take any form thou want, There is no end nor Death, only the everflowing strem of energy that forms all the things and phenomenons you could imagine. And the only harm you could do is to harm yourself. To CRUSH your SPIRIT. This is as far as words could get. Beyond them lies an everbeing eternity. And what could you feel when you realize it except a transcendental ecstasy?!

I really enjoy your in depth look at the songs. I'm very bad for reading lyrics... Been a fan of Death since the early days and they have succeeded to have a discography I love from A to Z. I saw them at the show at Dynamo Open Air, met Chuck briefly after this gig and we took a photo. Precious moment.

Chuck is the reason I started playing guitar. Awesome videos !

Really enjoying this, Death being my favorite band. I'm also currently reading the book death by metal: the history of Chuck Schuldiner. Written by Rino Gissi

cuando leí la letra de la canción me pareció que hablaba de algo muy importante pero no entendí quien era exactamente el spirit crusher, agradezco mucho el video porque ahora si que amo mucha mas esta canción ya que he estado peleando con el triturador de espiritus muchas veces la letra me inspira para hacer comics tambien, de igual forma agradezco el analisis de la composicion musical, es un tema que me abre la puerta a una filosofia y de una manera muy hermosa

Great video!!

Thank you for this awesome awesome video! I enjoyed it very much🖤

great video about great song! i suggest you do a video about trapped in a corner, imo the best song by death

Stoked. Bravo. Love Death!

I really appreciate your work, thanks ❤

great video, very well done

Bro, you’re the hidden gem ❤️

Lmao the brain crusher yugioh card geeked me out

Title card spelling. Got your back, Jack.

I was reading the lyrics to it yesterday bro and wondering what the fuck it's about. As soon as I saw the upload I clicked.❤

I would absolutely love to see a video on sacred serenity

Holy crap, I never even thought of it in that way

Loving these videos! Definitely earned a subscribe from me!!

I think the spirit crusher is a "dark inner self", inner demon or whatever you call it.

I watched the Live in Eindhoven set like a million times. Chuck Schuldiner forever.

i'm so glad i found your channel, these last weeks i've been obsessed with this album and this song

That’s a damn fine explanation of the song & music. You get the poetry. I see a fine 2024 ahead for you & wish you success. You’re on the right path & this is the 2nd or 3rd analysis I’ve listened to from this fine est.

Love the video. But can you proof read your videos? You often repeat sections, or leave in two takes of the exact same lines of the script.

Amazing video. New Subscriber!!

I’m glad I have found your channel. Such a well put video and lovely analysis of this song! Keep it up mate

Great analysis of this song, VARVIS! I've been wondering who or what Spirit Crusher really is, and here I found this wonderful video of yours. I got this feeling that (for me) Spirit Crusher is Russia. I live in country where we share some borderline with Russia, and the tension have been rising since their insane attack to Ukraine. "Don't let it (lies, threats, propaganda) in, it could tear you right apart" And so on. It's an amazing song.

hope u'll do one for opeth, especially for still life or blackwater park

Great video, i was listening TsoP while studing for my university Exam, it gives me that certain plus, idk.

Just discovered your channel today, and I'm loving your videos. Excited for your video on Perennial Quest, it's one of my favorite Death songs

You got yourself a new subscriber

Chuck's voice compared to his vocals is hilarious. On stage he's this evil fucking Demon but in interviews he's just this really nice guy from Florida

With spirit crusher and the flesh and the power it holds I always wondered if Chuck knew he wasn’t well. It destroys me to not know what he would have done on his musical journey. Rest in power 🔥🔥

My favorite song from the album, “Scavenger of human sorrow”, always made me think of the warmongers of the military industrial complex.

I love yours song analysis

Love these analysis videos! Excited for the Perennial Quest one, and I hope you doing them for other bands as well.

Man those interpretations are insanely good. Can you do Sacred Serenity next?

Thumbnail says Spirit “Cruisher” 😅

I used to have this whole performance on DVD and some dickhead stole it at a keg party I threw back in the day . I had most stuff hidden but this was playing in my DVD player at the time for folks to enjoy in the background . But it was a wild night in general . A buddy of mine was stabbed and all kinds of shit . Happy birthday to me ! LOL !

As a huge death fan this video Is AWESOME❤

Huh, I've always assumed Spirit Crusher was about a narcissistic person. It starts with the Shark-like riff that you've mentioned and it suddenly springs the singing on you, much like when you hear your abuser circling about before closing in on you, then it starts escalating just like a shouting match, and the chorus feels a lot like the pounding in your head right after a panic attack. The disjointed rhythm before and after the chorus also reminds me of the incoherence you feel during panic attacks, which can be triggered by a narcissistic abuser. Interesting how differently people can interpret Chuck's lyrics. Reminds me of Dio.

This is great

awesome!

great video

I love these! Hard sub from me!

Chuck left this world way too soon! Interesting interpretation.

PREACH.

I always thought the spirit crusher was a psychopath because "human at sight, monster at heart"

their roadie said the song was about his (chuck's) ex girlfriend. dont know whether is true or not tho. but wouldnt be surprised - he kinda liked to diss people he had beef with through his songs.