Death - Flesh and the Power It Holds

Title: Flesh and the Power It Holds

Music: Chuck Schuldiner

Band & Album: Death's The Sound of Perseverance (1998)

Sheet Music: My transcriptions

I ran across this band when I was browsing Wikipedia looking for information on the death metal genre. Death is a band that falls under the subgenre "technical death metal," which is a subgenre of heavy metal music (heavy metal >death metal > technical death metal). Technical death metal is described as a music that "focuses on complex rhythms, riffs and song structures." (Wiki entry here).

While there may be a Satanic image associated with death metal, founding member Chuck Schuldiner has expressed in interviews how he felt that religion was personal and wished to exclude it from his music. Schuldiner focuses on writing about everyday realities that his listeners can connect with.  

LYRICS

I told you once but I will say it again

When you live the flesh it is the beginning of the end

It will take you in, it will spit you out

Behold the flesh and the power it holds

Passion is a poison laced with pleasure bitter sweet

One of many faces that hide deep beneath

[Verse 2]

Touch, taste, breathe, consumed

Deja-vu. already knew from the first encounter

But know I know to let go of words to speak no more

Like a wind upon your face you can't see it but you know it's there,

When beauty shows its ugly face, just be prepared.

[Guitar Solo]

Passion burns like fire carried by the wind

The end of a time, a time to begin

[Verse 2]

It builds you up one way and tears you right back down,

A time to begin the end of a time.

[Verse 5]

[Verse 6]

[Verse 7]

FORM

The form, or song structure, of "Flesh and the Power It Holds" is not so complex, but has a total of ten sections which include an introduction, two interludes, a solo, and three episodes:

1. Instrumental Introduction
2. Episode A — verses 1,2,3,2
3. Episode B — verse 5
4. Episode C — verses 6,7
5. Instrumental Interlude (1)
6. Schuldiner's Guitar Solo
7. Instrumental Interlude (2)
8. Episode A — verses 8,2,10,8,2
9. Episode B — verse 5 
10. Episode C — verse 6, 7

KEY SCHEME

I did not find any significant tonic-dominant relationships throughout the song. However, each section clearly has a tonal section, and I have indicated them in the illustration above. Although the song starts in G and ends on F, there is a departure and arrival of D that occurs twice: D-F#-F-D & D-E-Eb-D (grouped by brackets above). 

INTRODUCTION

The most striking interval in this section is the tritone A-Eb found in the electric guitars and bass guitar. The tritone appears in several episodes throughout the song, making it a key element of the work. The main melody is made of a series of perfect fourth intervals, giving it a unique modern sound. Below is a reworking of the fourth bar above. The regrouping of notes notes will clarify how there is a 6+6+4/16 feel in this bar.

The opening 4/4's tempo is quarter note = 120, and this is followed by a 3/4 starting at 0:32 in the YouTube video above (I will not post my tran-scription to save space). The 3/4 section establishes a G minor-feel because of the power chords in the bass (G & D).

At 1:05 we go back to 4/4, this time at a faster tempo (quarter = 120). It is followed by the next episode's riff and tempo at 1:18 (quarter note = 184).What fascinates me about the song's tempos are that they occur abruptly without any preparation or a compo-sitional device such as metric modulation.

EPISODE A

A significant feature is this episode is the augmentation of the Bb-A / Eb-D figure, colored in blue and red, respectively. The bass is playing an ostinato on the tonal center D, while the electric guitars play neighboring tones.


EPISODE B

Episode B starts at the end of verse 4 before 'holds'. The guitars play together three melodic tritones at the same time (Db-Abb, Gb-C, C-Gb, each notated in red, blue, and green). The words Touch/taste/breathe/consumed are interjected between the guitar ostinatos in the following manner:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


There is so much more I would like to write about this week, but I'm afraid I don't have time to complete this post right now. I spent much of my time transcribing the song. I will be returning to this post throughout the week to finish up my work.


In the meantime, if there are any viewers reading my entries, I would love to hear from you! Please comment on anything you like and please send me requests!


TO BE CONTINUED...