25 Things About DEATH's Symbolic You May Not Know | Metal Injection

Death was one of the few metal bands with no bad or even mediocre album

Crazy to think a musician that's had such a profound impact on my life had died before I was even born.

Such a criminally underrated band. Should be in the same conversations as Slayer, Metallica, etc.

Symbolic and The Sound of Perseverance are two of the greatest metal albums ever released.

It's 2020 now and Symbolic is still the best metal album ever.

A god among gods… to me he will always be the greatest. No music has ever touched my soul as his. I won't forget you, Chuck! Thanks for every tone, every word you've written.

There are some emotions you can't really explain and I get this feeling about this band. So brutal, so melodic, so technical, so humble, I just cant love them enough. It bums me up almost everyday that this legend of a guy had to be taken so early.....

#19: Death actually featured acoustic guitar before Symbolic, in the song "Destiny", from "Individual thought Patterns"!

I teared up a bit for this video. Met Chuck and Richard on the Sound of Perseverance tour. They were so friendly and happy to talk to an award 17 year old (me). Being in the presence of greatness for only a little bit of time can make someone better.

Steve DiGiorgio didn't left because of a creative departure or something, her daughter was born that same year, and he couldn't manage to find the time to work on the upcoming Death album.

Quite simply, the most underrated, and underappreciated, metal musician and writer of all time. The second wave of thrash, death metal, technical death, melodic death, technical metal, and progressive metal, all influenced and growing out of what he, and the musicians he worked with, created. Lyrically, his graphic, violent early stuff definitely built on what was going on at the time, but his progression to just writing honestly from his heart, and writing lyrics reflecting his observations and thoughts, was not common in that genre, and to many, like myself, was a refreshing change. I think the input of a creative and versatile drummer like Gene Hoglan (also underrated), who was a multi-instrumentalist, wrote music on guitar, bass, and drums, and a lyricist, gave Chuck a sounding board, an experienced opinion, and a drummer with some really fucking good taste (simple parts can be cool, too). I really wish the world could have heard the musical direction Chuck was going. I met him once after a show and was just a good human being, from what I could tell, and a fellow devout metalist with whom I could have an intelligent conversation. Cancer sucks!

I count myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to see Death perform twice. Once on the Human tour, the other time on the Symbolic tour, 2 best shows I've ever seen, period. Hurts to wonder what Chuck might have done this last 20 years if not for f'ing cancer. Just gone way too soon.

I love all DEATH albums, but Symbolic came out the year I was born, and it's songs hold the most weight for me at this time in my life. RIP Chuck, we miss you.

My favorite death album

Chuck and Death are a true legend, I wonder if they were active these days, how many masterpieces would have made this wonderful band.

I really started thinking about Chuck's playing style from his riffs to his solos especially, and began to realize Chuck definitely played more for emotion and feel than just outright chaotic fast solos I mean sometimes they were, but I noticed the difference between him from most other DM musicians and singers is he goes for not only a badass sounding solo n riff but to give it feeling and atmosphere to take you off someplace like your riding a ride through Chuck's mind....but also what amazes me about Chuck was not only how skilled and unique he was with having such a strong vision that he set out to do no matter what because he lived his music it wasn't just to make money it was something he lived and breathe!! Or how in the earlier days how he came up with their signature sound and to be as young as he was with a voice sounding the way his does from just normal talking to sounding like a demon from hell and he did it effortlessly from the looks of it....like how did he not choke by singing/screaming like he did?!? To this day I don't understand it!! But what also always amazed me about Chuck was his knack for no matter what turmoil and fallouts he went through ever since the inception of the band there had always been personel changes with the band members like a chameleon changing after each album he would set out for a new and different vision with other musicians for his next project and I think it gave him a bad name in the "industry" that he was "difficult" to work with but I think a big part was Chuck was definitely a "Homebody" like I am myself......which dosent fare very well when your the frontman of a band that you created tho and was starting to gain recognition overseas but I think Chuck would just get fed up being away from home getting homesick and constantly being on the road on a tour bus or a hotel room when I'm sure Chuck truly only loved the performing side of touring but probably wasn't a big fan of constantly traveling which honestly I can understand because I'm very similar in that way and of course I have friends who don't understand why I would rather be at home sometimes to myself rather than running the streets hanging out at different places staying the night at different spots, but that's just the way I am and I think Chuck had that about him too so he got a bad rep but he was such a talented guy he always manage to keep his band together (although with different members each time) and recording and releasing albums that were and is quality music and the general consensus is Death hasnt put out one bad album ever!! And I agree with that!! Originally I was definitely way more into the first 3 earlier albums of theirs compared to the latter stuff because it was more prog DM and Chuck's voice started to change I didn't think it was as hard with the riffs as Scream Bloody Gore, Leprosy, and Spiritual Healing but I've grown to love all their albums now and there may be slower tracks on the later albums but then I started realizing the more I listened to those albums they still had some premo riffage on all those later albums their just hidden more in the middle of the tracks but just as hard!! So I've def grown to appreciate everything the band has done with each member each lineup was great in their own way!! And what I meant to say earlier the way Chuck manage to gravitate no matter how deep of shit he gotten into with his old bandmates or Manager he always could manage to gather up a really solid group of other musicians each time he would have a fallen out with former bandmates but would somehow always come out ontop and no matter all the bad press in Europe or in America great music is great music and people still wanted to hear what Chuck and whoever was in the band (at that time) was doing because they knew it was quality shit!!

All of Death's albums are masterpieces in their own way. Even the less-perfect of the others, Spiritual Healing, still destroys 99.9% of all other DM albums.

Death was basically a badass super group most of it's career. Some of the best Musicians played for Death. Awesome.

I went to Allan Holdsworth’s last show in Florida and I look to my side and there was Bobby Keoble sitting in the front row...

I remember buying "Live in L.A" as a teen. After a few songs, i knew the guy was my new hero. Now i know every line-up and every album by heart...