The vocals, rhythms, lyrics, leads, and production are all solid on this release. It falls more on the death metal genre not progressive even though Chuck Schuldiner said that Death would always be a growing band. That they were, but during this era death metal was pretty much invented by the man. Death's first 3 albums are the heaviest. 'Scream Bloody Gore' and 'Leprosy' (from 1987 and 1988 respectively) were the heaviest, but the production quality wasn't as good. 'Spiritual Healing' is definitely a vintage album way ahead of it's time.

I'd say that even though a lot of the guitar construction was really basic with guitar chords thick with heavy distortion, Chuck created riffs that were tremolo picked heavily, chords fitting the vocal as well as their content, and solos by the man plus James Murphy in the lead department brilliantly executes his efforts. The lyrical content were more well thought out than the first 2 Death albums. But 'Leprosy' has some songs with really good lyrics especially the song 'Pull the Plug'.

Chuck was still developing on his leads while James Murphy was more melodic during his solos featuring tremolo picking galore, sweeps amazingly played out, and arpeggios fluent entirely. I think that it was a wise move to have this album remastered to really get the most out of it and recognizing that way back in 1990, the production quality wasn't as good obviously and Death was still getting established with their sound just different lineups with each succeeding album.

Chuck worked with some really amazing guitar players and James Murphy here on 'Spiritual Healing' is an example of a man that was wicked in the lead department. He's also suffered with brain cancer like Chuck and that is why there is Sweet Relief for musicians that are without medical insurance. Back on the topic of 'Spiritual Healing' as an album, Chuck had really deep throat vocals which fit the guitar chords and progressions quite well. A lot of people feel that this is Death's best release ever. To me 'Human' (1991) is, but it's still debatable.

Way ahead of his time, Chuck started focusing heavily on lyrics that make people think like say "I've never thought of this, or you know, maybe he's right about this" as being an open topic to words that are well thought out. 'Scream Bloody Gore' didn't have that mentality because Chuck was still trying to develop as a musician. I think that he really hit top notch on this album. The riffs are so well constructed and Death's sound was getting recognized by the death metal community.

Bands like Deicide, Obituary, et al did not have lyrics nearly as good as on 'Spiritual Healing'. Deicide of course had such nonsense with Satanic words, which are not hard to write about. 'Spiritual Healing' I'd say crushed Deicide's debut because the rhythms, leads, vocals, and overall musicianship was not lacking at all because of Chuck's genius. He really wanted death metal to feature music and lyrics that take time to construct and be unforgettable.

'Living Monsrosity' is probably my favorite track on the whole album but all of the songs are noteworthy and amazingly well put together. There are many instances of melodic riffs alongside the thick chord progressions. Tempos always changing, scales/finger tapping as a part of a lot of songs with the deep throat Chuck used which fit so well with the music. Lead trade offs by Chuck and James were also a highlight. James focused on more melodic leads while Chuck initiated more fast tremolo picking and whizzing through the fretboard.

Rating: 9½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
01/14/2013 14:41