In a recent appearance on The Garza Podcast, hosted by Suicide Silence guitarist Chris Garza, legendary drummer Gene Hoglan reflected on his time recording Death’s landmark 1995 album Symbolic.
The record occupies a unique place in the band’s catalog, representing the point where Chuck Schuldiner blended his progressive leanings with more structured, song-driven material. Produced by Jim Morris, it also remains one of Schuldiner’s richest-sounding works.
According to Hoglan, however, the initial reception was anything but warm. He explained (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “When we released it — if Symbolic is a classic record now, it was not at all received that way in any way, shape or form. No. It was hated. Hated. Hated. Absolutely hated. One hundred percent hated. The only people who didn’t hate it were some of the journalists who reviewed it, but the fans hated it. Everybody hated it because they were, like, ‘What the hell did you do to my favorite band? Where’s Scream Bloody Gore? Where’s Leprosy? Where’s Spiritual Healing? This is musical bullshit, melodic. What is this?’ The world wasn’t ready. They weren’t used to it. They were used to hearing their death metal really, really brutal and not melodic. And so that is one thing that I will give Death, Chuck, whoever was involved in it.”
Hoglan used the conversation to place Schuldiner’s influence in a wider context.
“It’s one thing if you’re involved in a musical genre that is accepted and you come in and you play a popular style of music and you do it well, that’s one thing. Chuck, although he did not invent death metal, Death was a very important band in the overall creation of death metal. So, brutal death metal, Chuck and Death were a part of its infancy.”
He went on to explain that Death’s fingerprints are on multiple subgenres: “Then, when it came to technical metal, there were a couple of other bands, like Watchtower, and that sort of thing. Cynic was kind of doing their thing a little bit in the demo era, sort of thing. Maybe Meshuggah to some slight degree — maybe by ’91, ’90, when [Death was] tracking Human. There was Atheist doing some technical stuff. Other bands that were doing — Mekong Delta, on the more technical side of metal. But Death had a real stamp on the technical metal side. That’s two genres that they had an important part of, being a part of. And then along comes the melodic death, melodeath, melodic death metal, whatever, Death had a real part with the Individual Thought Patterns and the Symbolic releases.”
“Both of those albums had an impact on the melodic side of death metal. There wasn’t a lot of melodic death metal going on at the time. Carcass was just starting to lean towards that with the Heartwork record, leaning away from just straight blasting grind… But there you go. Those are three genres that Death had… Like I said, it’s one thing if you join a genre that is established, and yeah, you do some cool things and your band gets popular doing it, that’s one thing. But to help be the creators of three different genres, there’s something to be said for that. So, way to go, Chuck. Way to go, Death. Absolutely,” Hoglan added.
The legacy of the album has grown significantly since those difficult early days. The April 2008 remastered reissue of Symbolic via Roadrunner Records featured the original tracks alongside rare instrumental demos recorded in 1994 by Schuldiner, Hoglan, and bassist Steve DiGiorgio. The package also included new liner notes by veteran metal journalist Don Kaye, further cementing the record’s place as a cornerstone of extreme metal.
