The drummer on this particular album is the legendary Gene Hoglan, considered by many to be one of, if not THE greatest metal drummer ever. He's been in other bands such as Testament, Strapping Young Lad, and I even saw him fill in for Opeth's drummer once.

Chuck was ahead of its time by decades. Each Death album is a study on how to put new ideas into death metal

First half of Death's work is pretty standard death metal, but back then not many other bands were doing that. Second half is more progressive and has more melodic ideas mixed in. Also has some nice acoustic sections later on as well. I guess most people don't throw Death into the melodeath camp because most people associate melodeath with bands like Insomnium, Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy, At The Gates etc. Even when Death started to incorporate more melodic elements they still sound very different from those Swedish death metal bands. Just goes to show how experimental and unique Death really was! Their cover of Painkiller on their last album still blows my mind to this day. Chuck Schuldiner was hitting whistle fry notes before anyone even knew what the hell to call it.

I think a lot of us started off hating screams, growls etc....but liked the music...then learnt to tolerate the vocals...then became indifferent...then kinda liked them....now love it!!

The thing is, there are many death metal bands with "melody" and harmony, but Melodic Death Metal is not just a characterisation, its an actual genre name.

Dude, Voice of the soul!

Yes! the 2nd half of Death's discography is fuckin great

Chuck was so beyond his time, such a legend

The genre name of death metal came from Possessed "Seven Churches" debut album that contained the "Death Metal" track, but Death the band helped solidify not only the name but also the style of the genre with their early work, later albums (like the one you listened here) expanded into what later became the basis for technical death and progressive metal, insanely influential band and even with many lineup changes always attracted mad talent when i first got into death the vocals didn't really fit with the music for me somehow, i only understood when i saw a live recording that the lead guitarist was also the vocalist and the lines fit into his guitar work, that's when it made sense timing wise, rest in peace Chuck

More DEATH please !! Anything from "Human" will do, it was such a game changer in death metal. Gene Hoglan drum style on "Symbolic" and "Individual Thought Patterns" was strongly inspired by the great Sean Reinert (R.I P.). It's basically a death metal album with a jazz drummer. I can't say enough good things about that album...

Death with band leader Chuck Schuldiner initiated death metal many years before. He also took the band into more melodic/progressive territories like this and the line-up here included the legendary drummer Gene "The atomic clock" Hoglan. Great stuff - glad you liked it!

D E A T H Let's go!! Also a cool thing to note is that Cynic's Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert were members of Death before they formed Cynic. However, the only album they appeared on was "Human."

Death is best defined as "technical death metal". Genre emerged in the early 90ies curtesy of bands like Death, Cynic and Atheist. I would recommend Charging the Void by Vektor as an example of more modern evolution of this genre. Compositionally its very interesting.

Oh yeah for your information the "Pitch pick slide" you said, that effect is called "flanger" but there is ways to make a flange sound without the pedal, like you said, pick sliding, but you can just pick randomly, and do random natural harmonics. But they used a flanger pedal effect, some Death songs always have a flanger solo, or that riff. Just like this one, Chuck used a flanger in this song for the solo, including the the part before the solo starts. Not many people who covered this song with the flanger pedal, probably they don't notice it. But glad to see you notice the flanger effect.

DEATH has so much going on in every song. The percussion is mind boggling, the riffs are pure adrenaline and the vocals / lyrics really hit you when you listen

Bryan reacting to Death - what an amazing start to my day! And there were several moments there that I KNEW it got you too, those "oooooh" moments that were great to see. Loved this analysis very much, thanks for doing it. Death was definitely at the forefront of the creation of death metal. Chuck Schuldiner (RIP), the vocalist/lead guitarist/songwriter and founding member of the band is considered to be the godfather of death metal. In fact, he's influenced the future of death metal several times - first, at the beginning of the genre that he (arguably) created. Then later, with the album Human, he set the stage for what would become the tech-death sub-genre. And then, with the album Symbolic (which Crystal Mountain comes from) he swung into a more melodic (though he always wrote melodic material) and progressive direction. Despite the fact that his music always included very similar elements, it somehow always managed to sound different and inventive. Every Death album was groundbreaking for its time, and the list of bands that he influenced is beyond count. Those people who told you that Death isn't 'Melodeath' are correct. Death is definitely melodic death metal, but it's not really the same as Melodeath. Hopefully by the end of the week you'll understand that one a bit better, when you've heard the other bands for comparison. I also love the idea that the 90's were the 70's of metal - you're absolutely right! The popularity of metal began to wane with the rise of grunge, which turned out to be a great thing. Metal in the 80's was typically charged with aggression, but in the 90's metal musicians got more of a chance to include other influences and techniques that wouldn't have been as popular in the 80's, and allowed metal to evolve into the far more complex collection of sub-genre's that we get to enjoy today. Death was at the forefront of that evolution all the way up to Chuck's eventual passing in 2001, and his music remains highly influential to this day.

Ah, nice choice, Brian...but you have to listen to "Flattening of Emotions" or "Lack of Comprehension" from the Death "Human" (1991) album ! (probably their best, with for instance legendary bass player Steve Di Giorgio), I'm sure you'll be interested...Besides Death Metal genre started around 1985, often derived from Thrash Metal subgenre, while others came from Grindcore (but Death did "explode" success wise rather around 1990/1991, as often first albums of each were not necessarily the more representative of the genre yet & too raw) with main bands like Death (1987), Obituary (1989), Morbid Angel (1989), Possessed (1985), Bolt Thrower (1988), Carcass (1988), Immolation (1991), Suffocation (1991), Autopsy (1989), Nocturnus (1990), but also Sinister, Brutality, Benediction, Entombed, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Dismember, Massacre, Monstrosity, Malevolent Creation, Cancer, etc..."Melodeath" came later & often from Scandinavia, and Sweden in particular, with bands like At the Gates (though starting in 1992), Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, Dissection, Edge of Sanity, Omnium Gatherum, Insomnium, etc...

Glad you liked it ! I would say last 3-4 Death albums were more Prog Death than Melo Death but has elements of both ofc ... my fav is their last album sound of Perseverance... Death is one of those bands that has like no bad album/songs , their entire discography is flawless ! From the theashy death metal from their first albums to the progressive and melodic style in their last ones. So sad that Chuck passed away so early , he was a legend and an unbelievable musician and person! Looking forward for more Death in the future

When I was just but a 16 year old Junior in High School, in 1990, DEATH released their 3rd album "Spiritual Healing" and a fellow metalhead buddy in my Spanish class had this album upon its release and let me listen to it on his Walkman, and I was instantly hooked on the crazy tempo changes and everything else in DEATH's music. While I was never a huge Death Metal fan, bands that introduced a lot of tempo changes and melodic parts I could tolerate and yet into more. Bands like DEATH, Dimmu Borgir, Amon Amarth, Children of Bodom, Dark Tranquillity, and Norther were some that I have collected over the years. I tried getting into the 90s Florida Death Metal scene with bands like Deicide, Morbid Angel, Obituary, and Cannibal Corpse, and honestly, they were just too blast beat-ish and guttural for me. Obituary wasn't bad, and I could listen to them regularly, but the others were just noise to me. But you can't beat Chuck and DEATH. Despite not putting out a new album since 1999 because Chuck died in 2001, their music still sounds great today, especially if you can get the most recent remasters. Even their raw 1987 debut, "Scream Bloody Gore" sounds pretty good.

Death probably have one of the most unique music throughout history.. to literally put your name in front of an entire music genre is no small feat.

R.i.p. Chuck Schuldiner You are missed. For me Death is Death Metal not Melodic Death Metal sometimes they touch the progressive.

If you are willing to do another one from them, check out: Death - Sound of Perseverance - Flesh and the Power it Holds ..I feel like not doing something from that album would be missing out on where they evolved to.

If you want Death with clean vocals check out control denied which was chucks other band. It's literally this with clean vocals.

Their album "Sound of Perseverance" is incredible as is the second band Chuck started "Control Denied". They only made one album before Chuck died, but that album is incredible. Chuck doesn't sing in Control Denied.

Finally!!! Btw, death would be great on 'old VS new' week haha. And one more thing, Control Denied the last project that Chuck was envolved and it is basically a death without harsh vocals, so i think you should check it out.

I highly recommend checking out TesseracT - Concealing Fate suite. It pretty much scratches that itch of having the heaviness mixed with clean/aggressive vocals.

(old) In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, At the Gates, Hypocrisy, Insomnium, Be'lakor.. Those are great MDM bands to check

For more Death songs like this, check out stuff from their last 2 albums. I recommend Flesh and the Power It Holds; Spirit Crusher (the chorus of which /might/ sell you on Chuck Schuldiner's harsh vox); Symbolic (lyrics

I still remember the day I heard this album for the first time, at my friends house back in -95. The intro to Symbolic stuck with me and I bought the CD the day after. I still listen to them regularly.

Chuck Schuldiner, the frontman of Death, also formed a band with clean vocals called Control Denied

Hey Bryan! I just finished binging a ton of your videos the last few days. This album was my introduction to Death! Crystal Mountain is by far one of my favorites by them. The part that really sticks out to me is the drum work in the more spacey passages on the verses. To me, it really evokes the imagery of a mountain encased in crystal. I wouldn't *super* consider this melodeath but it certainly is death metal with melodic elements. Usually melodeath isn't as progressive as later Death is. For other melodeath bands, I would love to see you react to Dark Tranquillity - The Gallery or Kalmah - Hades, which was my introduction to the genre. If you are interested in something more progressive but stays true to the ideas of melodeath, I'd recommend Iapetus - The Star of Collapse.

Chuck started Death in 1983 as Mantas changing it to Death in 1984. Scream Bloody Gore album came up in 1987.

As soon as you said. "if this is what melo death---" I was like, Be'lakor, Be'lakor!!

I'd say this is more akin to progressive death metal, to find more straight death metal you'd have to go further back into Death's catalouge (like Spiritual Healing or Pull the plug, from their earlier albums). From this album Perennial quest is a must!

ESTA CANCION ES UNA OBRA MAESTRA!!!!!!!!! Greetings From Chile dude!!🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Death has always been a breed apart, I remember as a ten year hearing this album was like a revelation.

Similar music, but with a clean vocalist, is Control Denied. Chuck Schuldiner wrote the music and played on it, but hired TIm Aymar to sing. Same bassist as on this track (Steve DiGiorgio) plus later-era Death members Richard Christy (drums) and Shannon Hamm (guitar).

Another great song by them is "Voice of the soul". It's an instrumental and small in duration I think you would love it

The first death metal album is Possessed's Seven Churches featuring Larry Lalonde

Control Denied. Chuck (songwriter/vocalist/guitarist) didn't like doing vocals towards the end of Death and created Control Denied. If you want the same songwriting but with clean, strong vocals, check out that band. The first track on the album 'Consumed' would be a good choice. They only made one album, but it's one of my favorites of all time.

RIP CHUCK

Like I said on Patreon, this song is both melodic and death metal but not melodic death metal. This is way proggier than regular melodeath. I would say bands like (early) In Flames, At The Gates and Dark Tranquillity are the pioneers of melodeath, and bands like Omnium Gatherum, In Mourning and Be'lakor are good examples of modern melodeath. The genre has evolved a lot over the years. I also think you've heard a few melodeath bands on this channel... Children Of Bodom, Amon Amarth, Persefone and The Agonist are some that I remember.

My favourite Death song. For other "melodeath" that leans more towards the technical side, I would recommend the song Arsis - Diamond for Disease (especially if you liked the guitar sections here). That one is a bit different from their other songs, with an almost classical structure at times and some really strong recurring melodies and transitions. (At 12 minutes it's also their longest song)

The Touch Tunes jukebox in bars used to have this song, not sure if it still does, but I used to play it all the time and the patrons usually did not react well. Absolute legends. But not melo-death. At The Gates is one of the OGs of that sub-subgenre (microgenre?). Also, someone else mentioned Control Denied -- That is this band's composer but with power metal singing.

I think Death is the only band that always doing killer songs. All their album work. If you want to listen to clear voice just look out for Control Denied,the last project of Chuck before he die😢

Perhaps someone already suggested it here in the comments, but Chuck (guitarist/vocalist/songwriter) of Death had a separate project called Control Denied. It is essentially all the progressive elements found in the track you reacted to here, with the difference being all clean vocals. They released one proper album, The Fragile Art Of Existence, before Chuck left this earth. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aZidY92bmdHFgp8.html

What I love of this track (and pretty much most tracks from them) is that the drums are not quantized. If you hear the double bass, you realize he's not a machine and goes off and on tempo, that what I love about these recordings. They're human

Late comment, but Death music with clean vocals is Control Denied, the final project and album recorded by Schuldiner. The album is called The Fragile Art of Existence.

if you dig deeper you find out that chucks screams are still melodic/dynamic in a way. later on its more noticable on their 1998 record.

I wish I could hear the intricacies of music like you do

Another classic under your belt :)

As far as I know Chuck Schuldiner gravitated more towards clean vocals himself later in his life. I think with Control Denied he did more like Power Metal Vocals...such a shame he died so young. I listen to Death since I'm 16....I'm almost 40 now, it never gets old.

Woohoo, love this record!

You MUST listen to Chuck's last creation Control Denied, it has clean vocals and, in my opinion, one of the strongest albums he ever wrote

Death and Opeth singlehandedly got me into growls when before I hated.

More Death please, you would love their late albums.

Voice of the Soul!

Would love to see more Death!

Bands that gives both punches and melodies are Kalmah, Carcass and Hypocrisy, and there are the good old swedish brand, with band like Dark Tranquility, In Flames and At the Gates.

You should listen the whole album .you will be amazed and turned into a fan

alright; i´ll bite: 6:26 Death metal of The Gothenburg Variety: Dark Tranquillity, with their song Forward Momentum. It might not be the magnum opus or anything, but as a track, it is very friendly to the ears while keeping true to their OWN core sound. Good "opener" if you will.

If you want some cleans mixed in with melodic death you need to check out some in flames, some songs from dark tranquillity, soilwork, trivium (not straight up melodic death, but many melo-death influences).

208 upvotes with 99 comments. Holy crap that ratio. This song/album is fantastic. The vocals grow on you.

If you enjoy Death then id also suggest checking out his "project band" before he passed. "Control Denied" definitely way different, but great in its own way.

I think he balances out his growl with thoughful , and inspired lyrics.

Chuck 🤘!

There are some great clean vocal demos on The Sound of Perseverance deluxe edition. Check em out!

Well this is one of the best death metal songs ever written. 👍

Chuck Schuldiner, via Death, was the creator/godfather of death metal. Some try to say Possession was the first death metal band. I completely disagree. Also, on a side note, Chuck was originally wanting to do Sound of Perseverance (the album after Symbolic, and their last album) with clean basically power metal vocals, but it didn't end up happening. Instead he created a side project called Control Denied to go that route. Not Chuck's best work though.

I don't know how Death made it into melodeath week. They're not melodeath. However, they were arguably the most important/influential OG death metal band. Here's what I wrote about them on my Top 100 Artists (where I ranked them #18): "It's rare enough that a band invents/innovates a single genre, but Death essentially did so with two. Their early work helped to define the death metal genre and are still among the genre's finest; but from Human in '91 they equally helped pioneer the burgeoning prog metal genre along with Atheist, Cynic, and Dream Theater. Though opinions differ, IMO Death is a band that got better over time with their last album being their ultimate masterpiece and one of the genre's pinnacles. Of course mastermind Chuck Schuldiner deserves all the praise he gets for his songwriting, guitar playing, and vision for the genre, but equally laudable is the cadre of outstanding musicians he played with, most of whom have become fixtures in death metal, but rarely with the same level of influence and import as here." This track was from Symbolic, their penultimate album. I have both it and their final album (The Sound of Perseverance) as among my 5/5's. I think they're both masterpieces. Crystal Mountain is a fine song to represent their later, more prog-death work, but it's actually not even one of my personal favorites. Really though, pretty much every track from their last four albums are gold though. You should also check out a track from their first 2 albums (Pull the Plug would be a good pick) just to hear how far they came from OG death metal to this. Chuck's untimely death may be the biggest tragedy in metal history. Who knows where he could've taken the band/genre after this. RE difference between melodeath vs death metal that's melodic: melodeath is an actual genre that started in Gothenburg, Sweden by Dark Tranquility, At the Gates, and In Flames. These bands would go on to have a huge influence on metalcore (metalcore is basically melodeath with hardcore vocals and breakdowns).

How can I recommend tracks for you to react to? Do you react to full albums?

If you liked the drums on this one you've got to check out ANY songs off the "Human" album. PARTICULARY the song "Vacant Planets" - ive never seen anyone react to that an in my opinion the song is a masterpiece.

Nice reaction, Death is very cool... check out Atheist - unquestionable presence for some progressive death metal! That would be a perfect reaction for you! Amirite guys?

Not prog but Fear Factory might be to your liking. The vocals are a mix of growling and singing.

This is not what melodeath is. This is Death. It's completely own thing. Own genre. There can be only one Death.

Crystal Mountain is a reference to the twin towers that are no more, or as Chuck would say , this one is about a mountain built on greed, the Crystal mountain

Richard Christy did great work with Death as well.

Funny thing is, Chuck was self taught on the guitar and completely ignored music theory to compose.

yas

Melo-death week? Perfect time to do some more Arch Enemy! I recommend the song "Carry the Cross," or "My Apocalypse."

If you like music od Death but have 'problem' with vocal of Chuck Schuldinger then you need to check Control Denied, which is Death-side project with different vocal. You need to check them, you will be surprised

You should try Control Denied

You should really really really check out the Painkiller cover that Death did!!! I think you'll dig it.

Chuck was a visionary guitarist who was taken far too soon by that beast called cancer. He made sure to pick great musicians to be on the albums - Steve Di Giorgio, Gene Hoglan, as well as Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert (Cynic). Symbolic and Human are timeless death metal albums that leaned more into some melodic/prog tendencies, which set them apart from the generic "death metal" scene.

Gene Hoglan, the Atomic clock, but not just him the whole band rips

Please react to A Bid Farewell by Killswitch Engage it’s one of my favorites.

death doesn't have a bad song, you could throw a dart at their discography and have something interesting to dissect

Chuck is missed! What a master of music!

Can I recommend. In the maze of kadath-Catacombs

Something from Dissection you would probably like

Melodeath had me laughing my ass off never heard that in my life

Being a high-school student in Tampa in 1990-1993, these early Death Metal bands were both everywhere and weirdly inaccessible (most of us were scared to attend the shows). As more of an industrial music guy, I have a hazy memory of a Genitorturer's show where Morbid Angel played and being puzzled by how the two bands' fans seemed to have nothing in common, despite the music not being very far apart (I guess that's why the lead singer married the other band's bassist). So strange that both bands seemed scary and dangerous at the time, but just don't seem remotely menacing now. Maybe we're just too far from the Satanic Panic, or I'm just too old.

Best Tech Death album ever.

React to tomorrow belongs to nobody by Carcass

The 80s was the decade of evolution for metal, not the 90s. In the 70s you mostly had Sabbath and some Priest. Turn of the Decade you have NWOBHM with Maiden and Motorhead. Early 80s had Thrash leading into Death and Black Metal in the mid to late 80s. The 80s also saw the birth and death of Hair and Glam Metal. Power, Progressive, and Doom Metal also came to be in the 80s.

The closest melodic type of music like this is probably Control Denied, Chuck’s other band which was much more melodic (not death metal but really good nonetheless). Maybe you should check it out. Great video, btw!

I hated Chuck's depressive voice for a lot of time, but eventually got used to it and now I find it fits great with this band's philosophical themes.

This is the progressive death metal!

Oh man, Death, whether Chuck is the godfather of Death Metal or not, it's a great band on it's own. Look at the musicians that were a part of it! Cynic, or Gordian Knot (which is an awesome prog metal project btw). If Schuldiner didn't die, I bet we'd get a lot of prog metal from him by now. Such a shame, RIP.

not to nitpick but if 1 guitar plays a note and the other plays for, while the first guy is doing quarter notes, 4x4 is 16 my dude, so the solution to the problem is 1.guitar quarter notes or if you halve it then it's half notes and 8ths either way doesn't make sense from minute 9 to 12 or so, wasn't looking at the timestamps while writing the comment