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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cold. Harsh. Realistic., April 16, 2004
By A Customer
The statement above (the title) describes the lyrics of the album, which involve Chuck's views on various social issues such as the death penalty, cloning, and vigilante justice among other things. Due to this the lyrics are a step forward from the clichéd gore lyrics that were present on the first two albums. Along with the lyrics, the music took a change in direction on this album, beginning to go in a more technical direction with less focus on brutality, (a style which would later be explored further in Human and the future albums to a much greater extent) and although most of the past brutality remained, there was a step up in the quality of the song writing, along with improved musicianship, which was complemented with more complex riffing, many (meaningful) tempo changes throughout the album, and better guitar solos. And the addition of James Murphy as a second guitarist didn't hurt, either. The production gets the job done, but is somewhat flawed. The good aspects are that it's relatively clear, but not so too clean for a death metal album, nor does it sound sterile, the bass is too low in the mix, though. The main problem in the production is with the drums which are pushed too far back resulting in some of the potential power of the album being lost.
Personally, I find this album to be highly under-rated; even though it was a landmark for Death it lives in the shadow of the next album, Human. However it's also a great album.
The album starts off with Living Monstrosity, which is a great opening track. A very aggressive, high speed intro leading into Chuck's unique growling vocals, and then switches between mid and high speed riffing, leading into dueling solos by James and Chuck about half-way through the song, before reverting back to the pattern that the song started in, and all of this is topped off with socially conscious lyrics about drug addiction.
Altering The Future is next, one of the highlights of the album musically and lyrically, this song relies primarily on mid-paced riffs, up until Chuck comes out with a solo, which is followed with a faster one by James, then once again reverts back to the riffing style that was in the beginning of the song. It's hard to say exactly what makes it a stand out, so the best thing I can say is to listen for yourself.
Next up is Defensive Personalities, one of the weaker songs on the album, although it's not a bad song, it simply doesn`t stand out, it has good drumming, riffs, and solos, but it just doesn't have anything that makes it stand out from the rest of the album.
Within The Mind is similar, however, somewhat more memorable.
Next up is the center piece of the album, the epic title track, and the highlight of the album: Spiritual Healing. A slow, epic sounding riff opens up the song, which shifts up into a higher tempo, more aggressive riffing, and vocals come in. From this point the song continues on at the same pace, until settling back down into the slower riff, and then two solos emerge around the four minute mark. Afterwards, the song reverts back to a very slow paced riffing, until another tempo change, which leads back into the faster riffs from earlier, which the nearly eight minute long epic ends on.
Low Life, is the next track, and is a very aggressive and angry song with more great riffing and six solos in a row, plus some clichéd but well written lyrics, making it another highlight of the album.
And now, as the album nears a close Genetic Reconstruction is up, with a very interesting mid tempo riff leading into the song, until another tempo change comes along, while Chuck spews out lyrics about cloning and it's affects on a fantasy. This, like every other song on the album (they tend to follow a pattern), leads into some good guitar solos by both James and Chuck, and then going back into the riffing, the bass coming through yet again, until the song ends with a mid-paced riff.
The final song is Killing Spree, with lyrics dealing with school shootings. The song employs very aggressive riffing, although it slows down into mid-tempo as a set up for the two solos, which then reverts back to the aggressive ending before, until the end of the song, which bookends the album nicely.
If you're looking for an under-appreciated classic in early death metal, give this album a try.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
as good as it gets, November 6, 1999
By A Customer
Yes, I agree that every album of Death is special, except unsuccessful, weak debut album. But Spiritual Healing, in my opinion, is the best work that Chuck Schuldiner and his companions ever produced. Spiritual Healing contains my favorite songs of this band: "altering the future" and "within the mind", and by the way, simply, due to this album I started to listen death-metal music [long time ago]. Playing with James Murphy, Death sound with more consonance than before. Believe me, killing riffs with awesome solos bring you the peak of unearthly pleasure. This album is full of intellectual music and just of beautiful melodies. Lyrics performed in smooth verse, which are very attractive. Schuldiner showed to the whole world how pretty death-metal music sounds, think that none of the bands have the same high-level album in this style.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Underrated, June 5, 2006
Spiritual Healing is oftentimes seen as the black sheep of the Death catalogue. It doesn't seem to have it's place anywhere. There are the first two Death albums, Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy which show the original, raw and heavy side of Death. Then there are Symbolic, Human, Individual Thought Patterns and The Sound of Perseverence which display a very heavy and technical side to death.
In between these two phases of Death lies Spiritual Healing, Death's third offerening. It's rather a transition album. Instead of Chuck writing about horror and gore, he starts talking about more wordly and political issues. The musicianship also starts to change a bit. Chucks voice becomes a little bit higher as displayed in the latter generation of Death albums and everything becomes more technical.
This album is a great album and it is seemingly ignored by most. The fact is that the musicianship has improved since Leprosy and all of the songs are Killer tracks.
Basically, Spiritual Healing is a cross between Leprosy and Human, and it is great. This is probably the hardest to find of all Death albums, so get it if you come across it.
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