Retro-Review: ‘Spiritual Healing’ by Death
Death’s 1990 album Spiritual Healing is an album with a story that is more interesting than the album itself.
Recorded during a tumultuous time of transition, not only in band membership but also in music direction, the story of Spiritual Healing has enough drama to fill an episode of Behind the Music. Without going into too much detail, the band and their manager shared a single motel room for six weeks. Then, after the album was finished, two members (bassist Terry Butler and drummer Bill Andrews) toured as Death without vocalist/guitarist Chuck Schuldiner.
For you that don’t know, Schuldiner is for all intents and purposes the owner of Death. He founded the band, wrote the songs and pretty much called all the shots. It would be like Nine Inch Nails touring without Trent Reznor.
Of course, this story ends with Andrews and Butler being fired.
When it comes to the various rankings online of Death’s albums, Spiritual Healing is pretty much guaranteed to be on the bottom. That doesn’t mean that Spiritual Healing is a terrible album, but compared to its immediate predecessor, Leprosy, and successor, Human, it winds up being lost in…
