Whether Death can be called the actual founder of the genre we'll leave in the middle. For sure is that Schuldiner and associates were very influential and were at the base of lots of developments in the genre.

Death had an important contribution on institutionalizing a genre that is dividing at the moment. Although their bruteness has been surpassed by long, a new Death album still is something special. "Evil" Chuck and his (ever-changing) fellow musicians may not have developed as much as Obituary or Napalm Death, their super technical variant, on a by some certified dead genre, still is worth the effort.

Symbolic is number six in the Death series, and gives you the feeling of meeting an old acquaintance as listening. In the beginning something to get used to, but pretty soon it's as of old. Chuck's grunt still is coming out of his toes and his guitar play still is virtuoso. Gene Hoglan plays very strong and fanatic with his big body and the new ones, Bobby Koelble (guitar) and Kelly Conlon (bass) aren't second to their illustrious predecessors.

Symbolic hardly surprises but it's always good to know that old acquaintances are still doing great.

Jurgen van den Brand

Rating: 4 out of 5