Scotty W
Banned
Before I tell you anything about this album and why you should care, I want to put one image in your mind.
Chuck Schuldiner was treated for cancer in 98/99, the cancer abated somewhat in 2000, before returning and ultimately killing him in on December 13, 2001. Of that year of health his mother had this to say:
“He drove himself unmercifully that last year with the last Control Denied album. We worried so much about him and begged him to rest, that it was good enough. As the perfectionist he is, he said it was just okay and that wasn’t good enough for him or his fans. And he would go on until he couldn’t anymore, and he really mourned that he couldn’t finish it.”
To this day, that second Control Denied album is unreleased. So who was Chuck Schuldiner and why should you care?
Chuck is famous as the singer guitarist of a Death metal band named…Death, which was active from approximately 1984-1998. After ending Death, he started a progressive metal band named Control Denied, which released one album in 1999.
My first exposure to Death was on the Canadian equivalent of Headbanger’s Ball, a show called Loud. I would force myself to try to watch, but I could rarely make it through the evil and screaming, innocent as I was at the time. A video for the Death song “The Philosopher” came on, and I rolled my eyes at the fact that anyone would have the gall to name their band Death.
I did not change the channel. The opening arpeggios were beautiful, but I did not like the vocals throughout the rest of the song. I did notice one thing though, there was nothing ugly or morbid about the video, nothing negative, and none of the typical heavy metal affectation.
I won’t link that video here because while popular, I actually think it is one of their worst songs. Instead I will link the song that got me into them, Crystal Mountain. Just listen to that repeated solo/riff in the middle and end, it is divine.
Chuck is regarded as sacred in the metal community. This is undoubtedly a mistake. He could be a jerk. But he deserves respect. If you watch an interview with him he is just a cool and humble guy without affectation. It is in his growth and development that we see what is special.
There are essentially two eras: 84-90, and 91-98. The first era begins with shitty guitar playing and gore themed lyrics. The guitars improve quickly and the lyrics abandon the horror movie imagery by their third album. This era is straight ahead death metal, but it produced one of unquestioned anthems of the genre, Pull the Plug.
The second era is what I prefer. The music stays just as heavy but becomes much more complex. These 4 albums can be compared with Metallica’s 80’s output, in that it is nearly impossible to say which is best. Here is where you see what is special about his development: he was pursuing his musical ideal and abilities with the intensity of someone like Dante or Milton, and expanding the boundaries of his genre. And the lyrics became even somewhat… intelligent.
The development of the band’s logo showcases this development well. It begins as as horror film potpourri with blood, spiders and an inverted cross, and ending stark and dignified.
The reason the band was named Death was actually because Chuck’s older brother died in a car accident. He wanted to turn a negative into a positive. There is something very hard, impossible and uncompromising about death. To face it squarely is hard. I think when metal bands turn death into some kind of morbid comic book phenomenon they are deluding themselves, thinking that by facing a caricature they have faced the real thing. In any case, with Death, I see the LOGIC OF DEATH working its way through their music, improving and purifying it.
Following Death’s final album, The Sound of Perseverance, the band dissolved, and a new band with a new vocalist was formed. I found this gem from what may be the final Chuck Schuldiner interview:
Int: I liked Death, but the vocals got too grating for me. (The gall to say that to his face!)
Chuck: "Me too, seriously. Yeah, it takes away. I've always thought the vocals were the missing link with Death, especially the past two or three albums. But I didn't want to screw up.”
(…)
“I started worrying (note: this is after the first bout of cancer treatment) that screaming like that for so many years is not a real good thing to be doing to your brain, period! But the vocal style of Death is very over-the-top. For the hour-and-a-half, two hours on stage ever night, I've never thought of it as a very healthy vocal style. It's one I'd never recommend to people. Who knows?”
“With Death, I always felt like a lot of people like the music, but they didn't like the vocals, which I could totally relate to. I was the first to say, "Yeah, I know what you mean," to those people. So in the big picture, when it came time to write for this record, I just knew that it was going to be great to finally hear proper vocals(.)”
My own opinion: I love Chuck’s vocals. Without a doubt the best death metal vocals and good lyrics.
There are some great moments on the first Control Denied cd. It is far from perfect. Chuck wrote the lyrics while the singer Tim Aymar sang them. The problem is that screaming is different than a song with a melody, which means that some of the vocal lines are a bit flat. The music, however, continues to astonish.
Somewhere around the end of the production cycle on the first Control Denied album, Chuck began having problems with a pinched nerve in his neck, which after some investigation was found to actually be a brain tumor. Since he did not have medical insurance, he was forced to buy very expensive medical treatments. This bought him a year.
This brings us back to the image we opened with, of a man feverishly trying to work faster than death. This quote, from the above interview has always amazed me:
“So I came home and I wrote a song in one day--I just sat down and wrote music and wrote lyrics.” If you know how complex this music is, you will understand that is quite a feat. To get some perspective, check out a very rough demo for one of the songs for the album.
Chuck Schuldiner died December 13, 2001. His funeral was attended by all his present and former (there were a lot) bandmates.
On December 26, 2001 we find this press release:
“Despite the recent passing of CONTROL DENIED mainman Chuck Schuldiner, the remaining members of the groupbassist Steve DiGiorgio, vocalist Tim Aymar, guitarist Shannon Hamm, and drummer Richard Christyappear determined to complete work on the band's long-awaited sophomore effort, entitled When Machine and Man Collide, for a late 2002 release through Hammerheart Records. According to reports, the drums and most of the guitar parts have already been laid down (Hamm is said to have only a few touch-ups left to do),and DiGiorgio and Aymar are waiting to record their parts, after which the album will be mixed and mastered. As Steve himself indicated in his touching tribute to Chuck (originally posted here on December 20th),it's sad beyond belief that [Chuck] never saw [the album] to its completion. We will try our best to finish it in his honor, but will never know if it lives up to his standards. That's the least we can do for someone who gave so much and cared so much about what he did and how it affected those who believed as well.”
That was 2001. In 2023, the last word was given by their manager Eric Greif:
“There isn’t a completed (…) album, too many years have gone by. This takes the pressure of any musicians or people involved by us saying ‘that’s it, no need to keep waiting. Let the idea rest.”
What an incredible deflation! How could it come to this? I decided to find out.
Chuck Schuldiner was treated for cancer in 98/99, the cancer abated somewhat in 2000, before returning and ultimately killing him in on December 13, 2001. Of that year of health his mother had this to say:
“He drove himself unmercifully that last year with the last Control Denied album. We worried so much about him and begged him to rest, that it was good enough. As the perfectionist he is, he said it was just okay and that wasn’t good enough for him or his fans. And he would go on until he couldn’t anymore, and he really mourned that he couldn’t finish it.”
To this day, that second Control Denied album is unreleased. So who was Chuck Schuldiner and why should you care?
Chuck is famous as the singer guitarist of a Death metal band named…Death, which was active from approximately 1984-1998. After ending Death, he started a progressive metal band named Control Denied, which released one album in 1999.
My first exposure to Death was on the Canadian equivalent of Headbanger’s Ball, a show called Loud. I would force myself to try to watch, but I could rarely make it through the evil and screaming, innocent as I was at the time. A video for the Death song “The Philosopher” came on, and I rolled my eyes at the fact that anyone would have the gall to name their band Death.
I did not change the channel. The opening arpeggios were beautiful, but I did not like the vocals throughout the rest of the song. I did notice one thing though, there was nothing ugly or morbid about the video, nothing negative, and none of the typical heavy metal affectation.
I won’t link that video here because while popular, I actually think it is one of their worst songs. Instead I will link the song that got me into them, Crystal Mountain. Just listen to that repeated solo/riff in the middle and end, it is divine.
Chuck is regarded as sacred in the metal community. This is undoubtedly a mistake. He could be a jerk. But he deserves respect. If you watch an interview with him he is just a cool and humble guy without affectation. It is in his growth and development that we see what is special.
There are essentially two eras: 84-90, and 91-98. The first era begins with shitty guitar playing and gore themed lyrics. The guitars improve quickly and the lyrics abandon the horror movie imagery by their third album. This era is straight ahead death metal, but it produced one of unquestioned anthems of the genre, Pull the Plug.
The second era is what I prefer. The music stays just as heavy but becomes much more complex. These 4 albums can be compared with Metallica’s 80’s output, in that it is nearly impossible to say which is best. Here is where you see what is special about his development: he was pursuing his musical ideal and abilities with the intensity of someone like Dante or Milton, and expanding the boundaries of his genre. And the lyrics became even somewhat… intelligent.
The development of the band’s logo showcases this development well. It begins as as horror film potpourri with blood, spiders and an inverted cross, and ending stark and dignified.
The reason the band was named Death was actually because Chuck’s older brother died in a car accident. He wanted to turn a negative into a positive. There is something very hard, impossible and uncompromising about death. To face it squarely is hard. I think when metal bands turn death into some kind of morbid comic book phenomenon they are deluding themselves, thinking that by facing a caricature they have faced the real thing. In any case, with Death, I see the LOGIC OF DEATH working its way through their music, improving and purifying it.
Following Death’s final album, The Sound of Perseverance, the band dissolved, and a new band with a new vocalist was formed. I found this gem from what may be the final Chuck Schuldiner interview:
Int: I liked Death, but the vocals got too grating for me. (The gall to say that to his face!)
Chuck: "Me too, seriously. Yeah, it takes away. I've always thought the vocals were the missing link with Death, especially the past two or three albums. But I didn't want to screw up.”
(…)
“I started worrying (note: this is after the first bout of cancer treatment) that screaming like that for so many years is not a real good thing to be doing to your brain, period! But the vocal style of Death is very over-the-top. For the hour-and-a-half, two hours on stage ever night, I've never thought of it as a very healthy vocal style. It's one I'd never recommend to people. Who knows?”
“With Death, I always felt like a lot of people like the music, but they didn't like the vocals, which I could totally relate to. I was the first to say, "Yeah, I know what you mean," to those people. So in the big picture, when it came time to write for this record, I just knew that it was going to be great to finally hear proper vocals(.)”
My own opinion: I love Chuck’s vocals. Without a doubt the best death metal vocals and good lyrics.
There are some great moments on the first Control Denied cd. It is far from perfect. Chuck wrote the lyrics while the singer Tim Aymar sang them. The problem is that screaming is different than a song with a melody, which means that some of the vocal lines are a bit flat. The music, however, continues to astonish.
Somewhere around the end of the production cycle on the first Control Denied album, Chuck began having problems with a pinched nerve in his neck, which after some investigation was found to actually be a brain tumor. Since he did not have medical insurance, he was forced to buy very expensive medical treatments. This bought him a year.
This brings us back to the image we opened with, of a man feverishly trying to work faster than death. This quote, from the above interview has always amazed me:
“So I came home and I wrote a song in one day--I just sat down and wrote music and wrote lyrics.” If you know how complex this music is, you will understand that is quite a feat. To get some perspective, check out a very rough demo for one of the songs for the album.
Chuck Schuldiner died December 13, 2001. His funeral was attended by all his present and former (there were a lot) bandmates.
On December 26, 2001 we find this press release:
“Despite the recent passing of CONTROL DENIED mainman Chuck Schuldiner, the remaining members of the groupbassist Steve DiGiorgio, vocalist Tim Aymar, guitarist Shannon Hamm, and drummer Richard Christyappear determined to complete work on the band's long-awaited sophomore effort, entitled When Machine and Man Collide, for a late 2002 release through Hammerheart Records. According to reports, the drums and most of the guitar parts have already been laid down (Hamm is said to have only a few touch-ups left to do),and DiGiorgio and Aymar are waiting to record their parts, after which the album will be mixed and mastered. As Steve himself indicated in his touching tribute to Chuck (originally posted here on December 20th),it's sad beyond belief that [Chuck] never saw [the album] to its completion. We will try our best to finish it in his honor, but will never know if it lives up to his standards. That's the least we can do for someone who gave so much and cared so much about what he did and how it affected those who believed as well.”
That was 2001. In 2023, the last word was given by their manager Eric Greif:
“There isn’t a completed (…) album, too many years have gone by. This takes the pressure of any musicians or people involved by us saying ‘that’s it, no need to keep waiting. Let the idea rest.”
What an incredible deflation! How could it come to this? I decided to find out.
