Death are one of the most important and enduring influential death metal bands of all time. Orchestrated by Chuck Schuldiner, the band would be founded in 1984 as 'Mantas' and would be a pioneer of the more extreme death metal sound. Initially, the bands debut album 'scream bloody gore' would be a homage to horror and featured lyricism similar to the violence and happenings seen in horror films. However as the bands technical ability improved over time, they would start releasing more focused work with lyrics centred around problems we face in the World today. Death would not only pioneer the more brutal sound; they would also
influence the technical death metal world with their 1991 release, 'Human.'
One of Death's many appeals is Chuck Schuldiner himself and his approach to making music. As the frontman of Death, he would work with different musicians to achieve the sound he wanted exactly. This caused a revolving roster that would work to create Chuck's visions. His humble nature and sheer genius in song writing cements him as one of the all time greats.
'The Philosopher' was a single released for the up and coming release of 1993's 'Individual Thought Patterns.' As Chuck evolved as a lyricist, he started writing songs about what seems to be flaws within the human psyche or behaviours. The album injects humanity into such an extreme and violent genre and this is what separates Death from the rest. 'Individual Thought Patterns' was released through relativity records in 1993, however was remixed and reissued by relapse records in 2011.
'The Philosopher' was one of the two music videos released by the band and featured both narrative and performance conventions. The band performs on what seems like a small stage, while a loose narrative plays throughout.
This narrative quite literally involves a philosopher figure at a higher ground as opposed to the child on the ground whilst he feeds the boy lies that plague his mind. Thematically, Chuck criticises modern philosophy and why philosophers in general can not be trusted. This becomes more clear as it seems after each stanza, an element of modern philosophy is
discarded. One reason why this music video has stuck with me for a while is through the use of uncanny set design and editing techniques. For example, the setting of an overcrowded exotic forest that feels so isolated alongside the canted fast angles of the 'philosopher' and the child. The video is very atmospheric and dream like, the temporal blur effect on different shots give it that effect. The mixture of reverse and non reverse shots compliment the uncanny, uneasy nature of the video.
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