Death - The Sound Of Perseverance [USA Reissued] (2009)

The Sound of Perseverance is the seventh and final album by American death metal band Death. The album was released on September 15, 1998 through Nuclear Blast.

The album, in particular, employs a style more akin to progressive metal than the earliest Death releases, although since Human and the albums following it, the band had been developing more toward this style. The average song length on this album is around six minutes. Also, it was a breakthrough album for drummer and later radio star Richard Christy, a fan favorite, in the tradition of previous drummers like Gene Hoglan and Sean Reinert.

The album features the rare "Voice of the Soul", an extremely melancholic instrumental track that contrasts with every other work of the band. Death has produced only two instrumentals (the other being the considerably heavier "Cosmic Sea" from Human). The album also featured an acclaimed cover of Judas Priest's "Painkiller", which shows Schuldiner pushing the boundaries of his voice with a mix of his own vocals and Rob Halford's, also singing for the first time with a clean voice through the end of the song.

It is rumored that some of the song names and music on The Sound of Perseverance were originally going to appear on the first Control Denied album. Schuldiner himself denied this in an interview with Metal Maniacs in 1998 by saying that none of his compositions for Control Denied had been used to fill space for a Death album. When Death was signed on to Nuclear Blast, Schuldiner agreed to make one last Death album before moving forward with Control Denied.

"Spirit Crusher" was the single from this album. It featured a music video that was shot live.