Chuck was and is one of the best guitarists/songwriters to ever grace the detah metal genre. Having almost single-handedly created the genre from within back in the 80's, his influence is endless within the genre. This album somehow goes above and beyond the utterly astounding Symbolic, which in its time was simply genre-defining. This album does even more to bring metal to the next level, more even than probably Chuck could have envisioned. It won album of the year in almost every metal publication around at the time and that alone should tell its worth.

As one of the reviewers said, this album is full of wacky tempo changes, incredible cymbal work on the part of Cristy, double-bass beats that I have still never heard splashed beneath the rest of the kit as they are on this cd, and every piece of it drives the songs straight into your gut. His work on this album is as beautiful as death metal drumming can get and certainly on par with the stuff from Symbolic.

The guitar work is endlessly creative and fresh, completelly driven by Chuck's dynamic guitar whine and tone that near pierces your skull at points(during possibly the best acoustic metal song I've ever heard on this album, I swear you can feel him playing and it literally gives me chills every single time I hear that song to this day as it almost stands as a tribute to a person who died much too young). His forward-thinking approach to melodies and meter/tempo is something I've still not heard done all that well since its release. His love for Judas Priest gleans true at least 3 times on the album as well as he churns out some perfect melodic thrash riffs that make me want to hit the gas pedal and punch it every time I hear them.

Even the basswork is something to behold at points as Chuck acutally makes it part of the foreground in many of the compositions. If this album is prog, then the bass is surelly the keys of this album as it almost always drive the time changes and odd sounding riffage.

There is so much to say about this album, especially seeing as how it was a mere glimpse into the mind of a man who really sought to drive metal into a new place in the hearts of music fans. He successfully blended melody, technicality, brutality, and accessibility with this album, if the listener gives it enough chance. It has speed, finesse, and flash and doesn't comform to metal trends. Every note has its place, even if it sounds out of place. Many bands have tried to do this again, and I've read time and time again in cd reviews "The new successor to Death has finaly arrived!" or "The Sound of Perserverance part II!" and it is never even close to the real deal. This album should honestly go down in the annals of musical history as one of the top 5 metal albums of all-time. Personally, I place both it and Symbolic at either #2 or #3 all-time.

The saddest part is that such a great person in Chuck Schuldiner had to leave this earth so soon and take with him the potential of an entire musical genre. He was someone people probably wouldn't associate with death metal if they ever spoke to him as he was a truelly remarkable and intelligent person, which so plays into how the music was created. If he were here today, I would thank him for music that will go with me until the end. This cd is simply the culmination of a man's dream, and a damn fine one at that. R.I.P Chuck, wherever you are.

One of my favorite metal CDs of all time. So many bands owe it to Schuldiner and the boys for creating this masterpiece.

Disclaimer: My original review was one star. It was also an April Fool's Joke. The Five star rating is not a joke. This is the real review.

Too often, Progessive metal, just like progressive rock, carries a negative connotation, for me at least. Garbage bands like Queensryche are more akin to Iron Maiden with the cheesiness and added wankery (I'll admit that Iron Maiden do try to go somewhere, though) cranked up to the top. Death, however, especially on this album, use progressive elements just like some of those bands, but with bad@$$ riffs and beats, and real progression and degression. It's the elastic songwriting that makes progressive rock, progressive.

Death is progressive metal without any of awful falsettos or wankery. Instead, the drums, the guitars, all meld together and create one bad @$$ passage after another. And Chuck's lyrics never disappoint. Chuck was never a fan of gore in metal (I find gore soaked metal to be pointless with splatter films these days, though there are plenty of exceptions). Instead he writes mostly about the human spirit and all of it's many sides, it's pretty interesting what this guy has to say. And his falsetto is really cool, too.

The instrumentation is the real star. Death packs a huge, sprawling joyride of jazzy rhythms, crushing riffs, great solos with a tone of neo-classical shred guitar(I always thought the shred tone was cool, but it's lost in suffocating guitars with no interesting aspects), and more.
Describing the whole songs are pretty much a waste of time, well you should listen to it because I sure as heck ain't going to explain it all. Just expect a bucketfull of awesome rhythms for drummer Richard Christy, this guy's _________ good. Pulverizing and grateful, he floats like a butterfly, and devours like Godzilla. At least that's the best description, but he's freakin good.

There's tons of copies that include DVD's, so keep your eye on them if you don't have them. It includes a killer performance. I wasn't crazy about the Judas Priest, though the drums at the beginning are the best drums on the whole disc. Death rules, and deserves all the hype.

9.5/10

Death is an extremely technical, heavy, extreme metal band. Did they invent the genre of death metal? It's likely. Did they prefect the music known as death metal? Yes. Chuck is (was, RIP) an amazing musician and great with ideas and created things nobody else thought of before. Death was a legendary band for a reason, they defined an era. Richard Christy, the drummer on this album, is amazing. Maybe the best metal drummer next to Dave Lombardo from Slayer. This is an essential CD for anyone interested in death metal or any fan of "very" heavy metal. I don't listen to a lot of death metal really, I'm more into faster thrashy stuff like Slayer and Megadeth or older metal like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest or punk stuff like Minor Threat and Dead Kennedys. But I have the utmost respect for Death, the musicianship just can't be denied and the brute force of The Sound of Perservance, I can't help but be in awe. Really the only "death metal" bands I like are Death and Morbid Angel, and Death is the top of the genre for sure, and The Sound of Perservance is one heck of a CD.

Thats My opinion...no other album has the insane riffs, emotional feelings throughout, Technical out of this world drumming, chuck makes his solos weep, so beautiful...And to top it off the LYRICS are phenominal.

R.I.P CHuck