1. Living Monstrosity
2. Altering the Future
3. Defensive Personalities
4. Within the Mind
5. Spiritual Healing
6. Low Life
7. Genetic Reconstruction
8. Killing Spree
(total playing time 43:20)

Death has always been moving away from the technically simplified (but no less worthy) kind of death metal to pursue a more 'sophisticated' direction. Each album was yet another step from brutality and toward technicality. By most bands this results in pretentiousness and boring albums, Death however pull it off almost every time (excepting 'Symbolic', which despite it's technical prowess contains very simple and at times predictable songs), as they did on their third album 'Spiritual Healing'. By that time, Rick Rozz had been dropped by virulent guitar player, vocalist and ultimate band leader Chuck Schuldiner, and replaced by James Murphy who was back then of Agent Steel and Hallows Eve fame.

On this album, Death play semi-technical death metal with a few intelligent breaks, tempo shifts, strumming followed by churning out heavy power-chords. The drummer is doing some cool highhat and cymbal things and Chuck sounds *extremely* pissed-off, furiously blasting out all the air in his lungs. All this is already pretty cool, but there is lead guitar work here that may not be missed; emotive, abstract and wandering throughout the songs it grabs you by the throat.

Thus, quite a mandatory release if you ask me, and if you're not into the direction Death took, either try to get into it, or stop at Leprosy: it only gets worse from here.

© 2000 dwaallicht