Symbolic - A Deep Dive - Do You Remember When Heroes Seemed So Real?

[@jonathanrynjah]

Death is what got me into Death Metal, especially this Album.

[@CursedRaichu]

SAME! I was quite late because I’m rather young compared to these OGs, but Christmas 2011 I got Symbolic by Death, and Skyrim for the PS3. Safe to say that was an epic winter.

[@PoorManPerformance]

As a fellow “Chuck/Death/Control Denied glazer” it warms my soul to know you got us covered with great content. Most metal KZbinrs have no idea who Chuck is. And that’s alarming. Keep it up bro

[@VARVIS_]

Thanks fellow glazer! Will Do!

[@GraphiteBlimp27]

Just researching a Solar A2.6C to play Death on and I need a D standard guitar (I love Chuck’s Stealth but I don’t like how X types feel to me and just love strat shapes) and I came back to KZbin looking for Death content and a new Varvis video dropped. Not only that, more Death/Schuldiner deep dives- Symbolic no less! Love it.

[@VARVIS_]

Ayyyy love to hear it man. Bless up 🙏🏻 Solar guitars are sick. I almost bought one when they had that deal back a few months ago.

[@GraphiteBlimp27]

@@VARVIS_ Awe man now I know I missed a deal! Oh well this guitar seems to be worth more than the asking price. Watching the video now good shit 🤘

[@dawsonwoolford9660]

I relate to this song a lot. Because my mother passed due to cancer at age 11. I’m 19, turning 20 now, and this song is “Symbolic” of my mother passing at that age of time. And thank you Varvis, for introducing me to Death, because of this song especially. I relate to losing my innocence to the loss of my mom, from this song and was able to express the loss through the rest of Death’s albums, like “Pull the Plug” from Leprosy, and “Bite the Pain” from Sound of Perseverance.

[@toksic424]

The song that got me into death metal 🤘

[@whatsinameme5258]

I appreciate the subject matter. I have had these types of reflections a lot in the last few years. Its easy to fall into the trap of nostalgia and getting fixated on reliving your childhood, but its also easy to fall into the trap of belittling what you grew up with and holding a false sense of maturity that you are "above all that stuff". The former is being stuck in childhood and the latter is being an eternal teenager. The best of both worlds is appreciating the value that pivotal moments had while maintaining some distance from them. Not trying to recreate that high of innocence, nor devaluing these moments as stupid or meaningless. Good video. Also I didn't really think of Symbolic as Melodic Death, but it really is. Amazing record regardless.

[@VARVIS_]

Great comment man. I also have had similar reflections. Symbolic and TSOP are both over looked as Melodeath albums

[@Toxicband89]

New death video💪 Love these types of videos. Keep em coming! These videos have helped my writing tremendously. Thanks so much!🤘

[@LuigiGuarino]

Steve, Chuck and Gene is THE dream team. You should make a video about Control Denied, it's really interesting how Control Denied and last Death album are interconnected.

[@TinoGodzilla]

3:40 "Crystal Mountain Clear" you should say.

[@Bpm_2300]

Not only one of the greatest metal albums of all time but one of the greatest pieces of music ever recorded. Everything every song has the perfect mix of heaviness, melody, groove and nothing feels out of place it all melds together so well

[@CHAOS_ASMR]

Setup is looking CRISP man

[@FACEL1FT]

true bro, digging the new upgraded varvs

[@DogeDelecto]

Thank you for this series on Death, especially the songs from Symbolic. These are excellent analyses/explanations of Chucks reasoning. It's rare to have the talent and ability to analyze and infer meaning in music from the theoretical level ( as in rudiments like notes, timing, etc) to the lyrical level.

[@VARVIS_]

Thank you fam 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@DogeDelecto]

@@VARVIS_ Anytime, Homie.

[@__supreme7]

Without Judgement, Symbolic, and Crystal Mountain are some of the greatest metal songs. Period.

[@HarbingerOfDeath10-67]

I'm in my late 40's. Death is my absolute favorite band. Chuck was a revolutionary writer. His lyrics are extremely deep on every song he wrote. 🤘 Edit: Do the song (See Through Dreams) by Death. It's fantastic how he put it together.

[@man-ham-city]

Just recently I have been listening to symbolic the most out of anything. Probably at least 3-4 times a day these past couple days.

[@VARVIS_]

Same man. Just gets caught in my head. Once I hear that opening riff I cannot skip the rest of the song lol

[@reaper_guardian_8214]

What a fantastic interpretation, every lyric and every note analysed. Great job dude

[@VARVIS_]

Thanks my man

[@zandig666]

Hell ŸÀAAAAAAAAA !!!!! What a great band man !!!!!!!! Bud i saw a valvestate in calgary on kijiji just a few days ago🤟🤟🤟🤟

[@sleepinthemorningcalm]

Hell yeah dude. This is well timed for me since I’m on an OSDM kick after a long break from it

[@lukejams]

this song introduced me to a style of metal music i had never heard before, chuck's music is kinda the sound of that entire era for me, very nostalgia inducing and emotive (reeks of the 90s). Plus this song talks about the death of good things we admired as kids, makes it one of the most unique lyrics in death metal music i had heard. It was more about philosophy rather than painting a violent/scary picture like most other death metal bands did.

[@Rostraa]

Thank you for this video! A great analysis of what is probably my favorite song of all time.

[@vitodigiovanni4020]

NEW VID HYPE

[@VARVIS_]

AYYYY 😩😩🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@Brando-Lee3725]

I would like you to do Misanthrope or Crystal Mountain if you have not already as I just found your channel a few days ago and I love it by the way ! Thanks and cheers my Death head brethren !

[@VARVIS_]

I have done Crystal Mountain man! Check it out! Also done a lot off of tsop

[@enchilada93]

Great video man, love the breakdown of everything and how you tie it all together. My friend in my masters econ program in 2015 lent me his Symbolic CD. He was a guitar player that also didn't really like harsh vocals, but loved tech death style instrumentals like Blotted Science. Bands like Trivium, Periphery, Tesseract, etc. had gotten me to appreciate the mix of harsh and cleans, but death/black/extreme metal vocals were always a bit too much. I remember trying to listen to bands like Fallujah or NeO and just feeling overwhelmed even with the instrumentals too lmao. Listening to Symbolic though, Chuck's vocals were obviously pretty grating, but their delivery and the music behind them (the groove of it as you pointed out) is when things started to click. Eventually bands like Fallujah, NeO, RoN, Beyond Creation, Slugdge, Vektor, Revocation, and many more became some of my favorites haha. Death was really big in my musical journey and reinforced the idea to keep an open mind to stuff you don't like at first listen.

[@DarrynGrills]

"Do you remember when, things seemed so eternal? Heroes were so real... Their magic frozen in time!" Dude this is awesome. Keep making some of the best metal comment on KZbin!

[@nikitakorytin9121]

What a profound and professional analysis, dude! I studied philology and profiled in west European poetry of early XX century. What an excellent reading of Schuldiner. Metal started for me with DEATH “HUMAN” and Chuck @Co istayed most influential and symbolic group of musicians till now in spite of immense diversity of tech death metal today. Bravo, I am your fan.

[@VARVIS_]

Thank you sir. It means a lot. Not a lot of people take a look at metal lyrics as poetry, but Chuck's output especially the last 4 or so albums are all fantastic poetry 👍👍👍

[@pythonicband]

This album is just front to back bangers. I've probably listened to it well over a few thousand times being one of the only CDs I had in my car for a while.

[@pliskenx51mm83]

I absolutely love your break down of this song. Death is one of my favorite bands. I subbed!

[@diamond20able]

I saw death 95 Symbolic tour London. One the best gigs ever. Fav band🤘

[@VARVIS_]

Damn so jealous! I was one year old in 1995 LOL

[@davidatyson]

Dude Were has your channel been hiding? So cool!

[@VARVIS_]

We have been slumming it in the trenches. Welcome to the party

[@Dannythedrummer_NY]

First death metal song I heard, and I was hooked

[@RandomAnything-su5wf]

just saw Death to All in Berkley play this. fantastic show

[@rogercastilho19]

This is a timeless classic. Good analysis.

[@fededipi6688]

Awesome insight, man!

[@thelegionary07]

Great vid, dude.. I wish my music was big enough to be dissected lol.. I think a lot of people don’t understand the detail us metal musicians put into our music…. As far as Death goes.. I was a huge fan of Chuck, especially the “prog era” (Human-TSOP).. I think the only weakness Chuck had as a writer, was how his song structures 99% of the time, were all the same, which I think made the songs a tad predictable.. Fortunately, his riffing was 11/10 level, so it never really brought any of his songs down…. Also, regarding Gene.. My band covered “1,000 Eyes” from Symbolic, and it was not easy.. In fact, I had to change a lot of what Gene did because he has such a chaotic controlled style of playing.. His fills are very wild, and almost don’t seem to have any rhyme or reason lol.. And of course, I don’t use double rides, so it was hard to imitate those parts as well.. “1,000 Eyes” is definitely my favorite track off of Symbolic

[@VARVIS_]

1000 eyes is so good. Definitely on my list of songs to dissect. Thanks for watching man

[@Brando-Lee3725]

I love Death's rendition of Painkiller by Judas Priest !!! If any cover topped the original , this would be it !!!! I'm not sure why that sprang to mind here as it is off Perseverance but it did so I threw out there just in case nobody here has heard it . But I am sure most watching this have .

[@matheusmoraes847]

if you stop to think, this song is so but so symbolic that, death metal and fast riffs dosen't even care is just so sad to remember the innoncence of past, i love this lyrics so MUCH

[@matteosesar289]

Great vid. Keep it up

[@MrOctober44]

Love the song. Love the album. It's a big underrated in the Death discography.

[@theignitednightmare9894]

Now I am waiting for the Onset of Putrefaction deep dive

[@VARVIS_]

Necrophagist soon enough bro

[@Theguy0011]

The first time I listened to death I hated chucks voice so much and I don’t understand how cuz now damn I love this band

[@huhbooh]

Best metal album fr

[@claytonwhalen7872]

16:39 There is no such thing as a flattened 4th interval.Its called a major third it is the defining note of a major chord.

[@VARVIS_]

Good point

[@drakejohnson6891]

i dont know if you talked about it in the video but it would be cool if you made a video about deaths album covers. i saw the sketch that chuck made for symbolic but dont understand what the eye and the paths represent

[@drakejohnson6891]

also was wondering what crystal mountain is. i understand all the other lines and that it’s about religion

[@VARVIS_]

That is a great idea for a video man 👍👍 thanks!

[@brandontadday6288]

I don’t know why Marshall hasn’t considered doing a production rerun of the Marshall Valvestate 8100 in a similar way to what BOSS have done with the Waza Craft HM-2 pedals. I mean, I know it’s kind of a niche market but I feel like it would sell pretty well if they marketed it properly and offered it in an affordable package as a combo amp with some upgraded tech and modelling capabilities.

[@VARVIS_]

@@brandontadday6288 I totally agree man. I have a valvstate 8100 amp sim clone and It gets my pretty close but I would love an actual amp

[@brandontadday6288]

@@VARVIS_ Nice! Is that the Audiority one? I tried the demo once and loved it (just couldn’t really justify spending money on it at the time). Might have to check it out again!

[@VARVIS_]

@@brandontadday6288 yeah thats the one, I just found some video of a guy playing on his 8100 the symbolic tone and copied it to the sim lol. Played with the IRs and it sounds great 👍 you can hear it on the crystal mountain vid although my guitar was out of tune lol

[@dissected731]

Thanks for heartwork mention

[@VARVIS_]

Of course man Album is a banger

[@MetalKid69]

​@@VARVIS_ I'd love an analysis on the song Heartwork, absolute banger

[@Chicago_Podcast_Authority]

🤘🏻❤

[@aaronfoley8421]

Back in the old days when God was a boy and dinosaurs ruled the earth, I frequented the local music shops, perusing the discount and used CD's. One fateful day, at a Wherehouse Music in southern California, 16 year old me picked Death's Symbolic album out of "WTF is this shit?" bin at the store with all of the other sort of non-mainstream stuff that didn't sell. I believe the copy was still new, and I paid a whole $1.99 for it because the cover looked cool. The same week I stumbled upon Suffocation's Effigy of the Forgotten, and hence my metal horizons finally started to expand from the thrash/groove that I was so accustomed to at the time.

[@VARVIS_]

What did you think when you first put the CD in?

[@aaronfoley8421]

@@VARVIS_ Musically, I was super impressed right out of the gate, but the vocals took time to grow on me. That was the story with anything that wasn't thrash or heavy metal at the time though. At the time I was working with Suffocation's Effigy of the Forgotten and Pierced from Within, Morbid Angel's Covenent, Macabre's Sinister Slaughter, and Sentenced - North From Here. At the time I think I loved Macabre the most because of the insane drums and the silliness of it, but all of these albums, especially Symbolic, are still very dear to me all these years later.

[@Beastlango]

Someone made a synth wave cover album of Symbolic and it’s the greatest Halloween album ever

[@VARVIS_]

Damn have not heard of this It bangs!

[@Beastlango]

@@VARVIS_ the artist is called nitelight

[@garfield1987]

damn, i wish this song was 30 minutes long

[@Kamil_Srnka]

This album wouldn't be it without Hoglan. The chorus double bass does it

[@VARVIS_]

1000% His drumming gives all the songs their intensity, If a mere mortal drummed on these songs it wouldnt be even close

[@alisamacrilla778]

I love Death, but the lyrics on some of his albums are pure, pseudo-philosophical wankery.

[@hectorescobar9450]

Hmm generally haters refer to things they lack knowledge on as wankery.. don’t think that’s what you are doing, but would be great to see some introspection as to why you feel that’s the case and examples of it.

[@alisamacrilla778]

@@hectorescobar9450 That's a fair enough comment, I am not sure if I have the time to break down the lyrics.