Chuck Schuldiner

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Chuck Schuldiner in Scotland during the InHuman Tour of the World , 1991.

Charles Michael "Chuck" Schuldiner (born May 13, 1967 in Long Island , New York ; † December 13, 2001 ) was the guitarist and singer of the death metal band Death . He is considered one of the forefathers of Death Metal and, according to Metal Hammer, revolutionized the genre. His musical development had a great influence on the development of death metal towards more progressive heavy metal.

With his band Death, Chuck Schuldiner released seven regular studio albums between 1987 and 1998. In 1998, with a slightly different musical direction, he declared his new band Control Denied, founded in 1996, to be the official successor to Death. Their debut album The Fragile Art of Existence from 1999 is the musician's last regular release during his lifetime.

In May 1999, Chuck Schuldiner was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He died of cancer on December 13, 2001. His demise was described in an obituary in Metal Hammer in February 2002 as the "death of a pioneer".

childhood

Charles Schuldiner was born on May 13, 1967 on Long Island, New York. His father was a Jew of Austrian descent, his mother comes from the American south. Both parents were teachers. Charles was the youngest of three children, he had an older brother named Frank and an older sister named Bethann. At the age of 16, the older brother died in an accident, and the parents gave the then nine-year-old Charles a guitar to distract him and help him get over the loss more easily. The following classical guitar lessons were not met with approval and were quickly ended again. His parents later bought him an electric guitar. Despite good grades, Chuck dropped out of school prematurely, which he later regretted.

Influences

Charles Schuldiner's early idols included Iron Maiden , Kiss, and Billy Idol . He was interested in the NWoBHM movement and counted some of the bands of the time among his favorites. Later influences such as Slayer , Metallica , Possessed , Mercyful Fate or King Diamond can also be found in his musical works. During his later career, Schuldiner also referred to common progressive metal bands such as Queensrÿche or Watchtower as an influence. According to his mother's tradition, he is said to have been open to all forms of music - with the exception of country and rap.

Musical career

In 1983, at the age of 16, Schuldiner and school friends formed the band Mantas. The original members were Chuck Schuldiner (guitar), Rick Rozz (guitar) and Kam Lee (drums and vocals). In 1984 the demo Death by Metal was recorded in the garage of Schuldiner's mother under this name . The band was renamed Death after Schuldiner's older brother died in his childhood. Schuldiner also took on the vocals for Death. After a total of seven demos, two of which were recorded live, Combat Records became aware of the band. In May 1987, the debut Scream Bloody Gore was released after several line-up changes with Chris Reifert on drums. Schuldiner took care of bass, vocals and guitars himself. In 1988 the second album Leprosy was released , again with Rick Rozz on guitar. Then there were Terry Butler on bass and Bill Andrews on drums. Both albums are considered early death metal milestones.

The big breakthrough came with the following album Spiritual Healing . Rick Rozz was fired and replaced by James Murphy. After this album, Chuck Schuldiner no longer worked with full band members, but with hired musicians for live performances or studio recordings. The musical path from Death away from sheer brutality to increasing technical complexity was already clearly visible on this album in Chuck's guitar playing. The lyrics turned away from the splatter and gore content common in the genre and turned to topics critical of politics, religion and society. The music became more melodic and could be described as innovative, not least due to complex riffing and melodic guitar solos.

Spiritual Healing split the discography of Death into two phases: the "old school" Death Metal of the first two albums and the modern, much more complex orientation of the later works. This can also be found in the opinion of many fans, who often prefer one phase, but rarely see both as equal. The move away from the comparatively dull Death Metal of the first two albums towards a more complex and progressive orientation in terms of content was consistently continued by Chuck Schuldiner in the later death albums Human (1991), Individual Thought Patterns (1993) and Symbolic (1995) and was characteristic for his musical development. This can also be seen in the texts, which - like the music - are increasingly distancing themselves from striking content.

In between, Chuck Schuldiner joined Voodoocult , the heavy metal project of German alternative musician Phillip Boa . On the first album Jesus Killing Machine , other well-known musicians from the international metal scene , such as Dave Lombardo , Mille Petrozza and Waldemar Sorychta , joined the Death founder .

After the tour to Symbolic , Chuck Schuldiner founded the Death follow-up band Control Denied in 1996 , because he said he was bored by the limitations of the vocal style common in Death Metal. Accordingly, he did not want to take on the position of singer himself, Warrel Dane from Nevermore was in discussion, but declined. So Chuck Schuldiner could still be heard as a singer on the first demo of the band A Moment of Clarity (1997), but after its release he won Tim Aymar (formerly Psycho Scream, currently with the American metal band Pharaoh) as a singer.

The year 1998 was dominated by The Sound of Perseverance , the last Death album according to Chuck Schuldiner. This album drove the technical perfection of Death to the climax and also differed from its predecessors by the sharper vocal style. In addition to the regular Death songs, it also contained the Judas Priest cover Painkiller . At the same time, this album should mark the final end of the band Death, Chuck Schuldiner concentrated from this point on completely on his new band Control Denied.

The title of the first and only official Control Denied album The Fragile Art of Existence from 1999 heralded the events of the next few years. The musical content differs from the Death works through the clear vocals of the singer Tim Aymar, but also the musically more technical orientation with complex melodies. The hardness of the music is a little lower compared to Death. The album is assigned to the Power Metal genre and is considered a very high-quality contribution there.

The recordings of the second Control Denied album were not completed because the band broke up.

Cancer

In May 1999, Chuck Schuldiner complained of pain in his neck, he thought it was a pinched nerve. A detailed medical examination confirmed the pinched nerve, but showed that the cause was “glioblastoma multiforme” - a glioblastoma or brain tumor . Radiation therapy was started immediately. In October 1999, the Schuldiner family announced that the tumor was regressing and Chuck was on the way to recovery. In January 2000, the remains of the tumor were surgically removed. The operation was successful, but the family found themselves in financial difficulties due to the musician's lack of health insurance as the $ 70,000 incurred could not be covered. In many countries, fans and friends ran fundraising and charity campaigns for the benefit of Chuck Schuldiner and his family.

Chuck continued to work on his music, on the second Control Denied album, when cancer came back in May 2001. He was refused treatment due to a lack of funds - health insurance was taken out after the first operation, but since the cancer had already broken out before it was completed, no funds were paid out. Schuldiner was treated with medication, but the side effects weakened him massively. He died on December 13, 2001.

Discography

With mantas / death

With Control Denied

With Voodoo Cult

As Chuck Schuldiner

swell

Some biographical data come from print magazines such as the German Rock Hard and other online sources.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Claudia Päjzderski: Chuck Schuldiner . Death of a pioneer . In: Metal Hammer , special issue No. 1/2012: History of Metal , p. 67.
  2. ↑ Jakob Kranz: Old faces and new noise . In: Metal Hammer , special issue No. 1/2012: History of Metal , p. 47.
  3. ↑ Tenth anniversary of the death of Chuck Schuldiner: Song-History - Gedenken an den Death-Musik , metal-hammer.de, accessed on December 13, 2011

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Debtor, Chuck
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chuck, Evil Chuck; Schuldiner, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American guitarist and singer in the death metal band Death
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Long Island , New York
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 2001