Death (metal band)

Name	Death
Landscape	yes
Background	group_or_band
Origin	Orlando, Florida, United States
Genre	Death metal, technical death metal, progressive metal
Years active	1983–2001
Label	Combat, Relativity, Roadrunner, Nuclear Blast, Relapse Records
Url	www.emptywords.org
Past members	Last known lineup:Chuck SchuldinerShannon HammScott ClendeninRichard Christy (See: full listing)

Death was an American metal band founded in 1983. The band's founder, Chuck Schuldiner, is considered "a pioneering force in death metal and grindcore". The band ceased to exist after Schuldiner died of brain cancer in 2001, though remains an enduring heavy metal brand.

Death is considered one of the most influential bands in metal. The band's debut, Scream Bloody Gore, has been described as "death metal's first archetypal document" and "the first true death metal record". One music biographer has referred to Schuldiner as the "Father of Death Metal" Music biographer Garry Sharpe-Young considered Death "a genre-breaking band...centered upon frontman Chuck Schuldiner" and that the band "would become one of the prime instigators of the death metal movement". However, Schuldiner dismissed such attributions by stating, in an interview with Metal-Rules.com, "I don’t think I should take the credits for this death metal stuff. I’m just a guy from a band, and I think Death is a metal band".

As of 2008, Death had sold over 2 million albums worldwide, with over 500,000 copies sold by December 2009 in the U.S. alone (excluding the numerous sales before the SoundScan era) making them the top-selling death metal band worldwide, and only topped in the U.S. by Cannibal Corpse.

Biography

Early history (1983–1987)

Founded in 1983 by Chuck Schuldiner under the original name of Mantas in Orlando, Death was among the more widely known, early pioneers of the death metal sound along with California's Possessed. In the late 80s, the band was both a part of and integral in defining the death metal scene which gained international recognition with the release of albums by a number of area acts.

Together with Kam Lee (Barney Kamalani Lee), and Rick Rozz (Frederick DeLillo), Schuldiner started to compose songs that were released on several rehearsal tapes in 1984. Tim Aymar, in an article written in December 2010, states that Chuck Schuldiner renamed the band Death in order to turn the death of his brother Frank into "something positive". Its members included the same Rick Rozz and Kam Lee. Another demo was released, called Reign of Terror. Although there were at least two lawsuits between Greif and Schuldiner, Schuldiner was characteristically mellow in an interview with Thrash 'n Burn about what the writer referred to as his "gruesome collaboration" with Greif: "We just came to the conclusion that it was stupid just fighting all the time, taking each other to court and all that stupid shit." "Fate has an interesting way of working these things out...Yes, we had a falling out, but we're working together again and it takes a lot of worries off my mind knowing Eric is the man for us", Schuldiner told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The final years (1993–2001)

In 1993, Reinert and Masvidal left the group to continue with Cynic, Schuldiner being unable to persuade them otherwise. Schuldiner replaced them with drummer Gene Hoglan of the recently dissolved thrash metal band Dark Angel, and worked with guitarist Andy LaRocque from King Diamond for Individual Thought Patterns. LaRocque being obligated to his band, Schuldiner hired a then-unknown Ralph Santolla as touring guitarist. Death was arguably at the peak of their commercial and popular culture success, and the video for the track The Philosopher even made it on to an episode of Beavis & Butt-head in 1994 (Beavis also parodies Schuldiner's vocals in a mock 'drive-thru' order of 'tacos, to go!' in death-metal style). Also in 1994, Death abandoned its eight year relationship with Relativity and signed with Roadrunner Records, their European distributor. For 1995's Symbolic, Santolla and DiGiorgio were exchanged for underground Florida musicians Kelly Conlon and Bobby Koelble. For the Symbolic tour Brian Benson was brought in on bass (Conlon having left the band prior to the tour due to conflicts with Schuldiner).

After Symbolic, Schuldiner and Roadrunner mutually agreed not to pursue an album option and he began writing songs for his progressive metal band Control Denied. Schuldiner entered into a licensing agreement with Nuclear Blast for both Death and Control Denied, and subsequently started writing material for the seventh Death release, The Sound of Perseverance. The new roster for Death included Florida musicians Richard Christy, Shannon Hamm and Scott Clendenin, and The Sound of Perseverance was completed at Morrisound Recording in Tampa and released on Nuclear Blast in 1998.

After the album and two supporting tours, Schuldiner put Death aside to pursue Control Denied with Christy and Hamm. Clendenin was dropped in favor of Steve DiGiorgio, who was once again available, and an underground power metal singer named Tim Aymar. Though the line-up and writing style was largely the same, Schuldiner created Control Denied in large part because he was displeased with the harsher vocals for Death. However, rather than betray what the band Death meant and sounded like to the fans, he opted to create a new band: “For me, it is just a matter of evolving, doing it the right way. I didn't put out a Death record with this stuff on it. I made the right choice and changed the name of the band. I tried to do everything the right way.” As Schuldiner finished Control Denied's debut album, he was diagnosed with brain cancer, forcing the band to scrap plans for a U.S. and Canadian tour. As he worked on the second release, Schuldiner's condition improved, but the tumor left him in a weakened, vulnerable state. He contracted pneumonia and was placed in the hospital. On December 13, 2001, Schuldiner was released and returned home where, one hour later, he died.

The aftermath (2001 onwards)

The second Control Denied release has yet to be completed and was mired in legal problems involving its Dutch label, the musicians and Schuldiner's sister Beth, the former of whom have publicly stated their desire to complete the album, and former manager Eric Greif representing the Estate. In 2004, Hammerheart Records released a two-part bootleg made up of old, pre-Scream Bloody Gore demos, along with partial demos of the unfinished album and live Death recordings from 1990. This was issued under the name Chuck Schuldiner, not Death or Control Denied, but its markedly unfinished state and lack of vocals led to the release not being successful, aided by Schuldiner's mother Jane's pleas for fans to stay away from it. In October 2009, Greif litigated against Hammerheart, representing Schuldiner's Estate, and all matters were settled by December, theoretically allowing for the Control Denied album to be completed by the other musicians.

Members of Death have since stayed active as musicians. Gene Hoglan from Dark Angel and Andy LaRocque from King Diamond had already made a name for themselves, with LaRocque continuing to work with King Diamond while Hoglan has done stints with a wide variety of bands including Strapping Young Lad and Fear Factory. Paul Masvidal found success with Cynic alongside fellow Death member Sean Reinert, who continue to release albums and tour in the present. Richard Christy went on to gigs with Acheron and Iced Earth before joining The Howard Stern Show, though he has recently resurfaced on the metal scene with Charred Walls of the Damned. Ralph Santolla has also played with Iced Earth, as well as Sebastian Bach, both of which were also bands Steve DiGiorgio played in as well. While Santolla is now in Obituary, he was previously in Deicide. DiGiorgio also played for Testament and is still active with his original band Sadus. Bobby Koelble founded the Orlando rock-funk-Latin fusion group JunkieRush in 2000. James Murphy was also in Testament, formed projects such as Disincarnate, as well as having stints with death metal bands Obituary and Cancer. Murphy was also stricken with cancer, for which he received treatment, and, along with Deron Miller of CKY, attempted to organize a Death tribute album. Kam Lee formed the band Denial Fiend with Terry Butler, who has also found success in Six Feet Under. Scott Clendenin resides in Central Florida and works in production.

On May 10, 2010, it was announced that Perseverance Holdings Ltd. and the Schuldiner family had partnered with Relapse Records to re-master and re-issue the Death and Control Denied releases. On December 13 of the same year, it was announced that The Sound of Perseverance would be the first Death album to receive this treatment, and was released February 2011 in a 2-CD and 3-CD format.The Human album has been remixed, with Schuldiner's intellectual property lawyer Eric Greif stating that Sony had lost the tapes of the original mixes, and will be reissued in 2-CD and 3-CD formats as well as a digital release. The planned release date is June 21st, 2011 in North America and June 27th in the rest of the world.

Band logo

Schuldiner designed the Death logo and its various incarnations during the length of his career. In 1991, before the release of Human, he cleaned up the logo taking out more intricate details and the "T" in the logo was swapped from an inverted Cross to a more regular looking "T", one reason being to quash any implication of religion. The logo was changed again, between Symbolic and The Sound of Perseverance, with a more streamlined look and the removal of the hooded skull above the "H", among other changes.

The Book

In January 2001, a classically-trained musician named Mahyar Dean wrote Death (book), a book about Death and Chuck, and released it in Iran. The book includes bilingual lyrics and many articles about the band, and was sent through site keepers of emptywords.org to Chuck, who in his words was, "truly blown away and extremely honored by the obvious work and devotion he put into bringing the book to life". The author of the book later formed Angband.

Musicians

Final line-up

Chuck Schuldiner – lead vocals, guitar (1983–2001)

Shannon Hamm – guitar (1996–2001)

Scott Clendenin – bass (1996–2001)

Richard Christy – drums (1996–2001)

Previous musicians

Guitarists

Rick Rozz (1983–1985, 1987–1989)

Matt Olivo (1985)

John Hand (1986-1987; joined during the mastering of Scream Bloody Gore, which he was credited on, but left before recording or playing anything live.)

Paul Masvidal (1989, 1991–1992)

Albert Gonzalez (1990)

James Murphy (1989)

Andy LaRocque (1993)

Ralph Santolla (1993; never recorded with the band, but appeared in the "The Philosopher" music video)

Craig Locicero (1993)

Bobby Koelble (1995)

Bassists

Scott Carlson (1985)

Erik Meade (1985)

Terry Butler (1987–1990)

Steve DiGiorgio (1986, 1991, 1993, 1995 (only on the Symbolic demos)

Skott Carino (Human Tour)

Kelly Conlon (1995)

Brian Benson (Symbolic Tour)

Drummers

Kam Lee (1983–1985; also vocals)

Eric Brecht (1985)

Chris Reifert (1986–1987)

Bill Andrews (1987–1990)

Sean Reinert (1991–1992)

Gene Hoglan (1993–1995)

Richard Christy (1997–2001)

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

Demo albums

Death by Metal (demo as Mantas, 1984)

Live in Tampa (live-demo, 1984)

Reign of Terror (demo, 1984)

Live at Ruby's Pub (live-demo, 1985)

Infernal Death (demo, 1985)

Rigor Mortis (demo, 1985)

Back from the Dead (demo, 1985)

Infernal Live (live-demo, 1985)

Mutilation (demo, 1986)

Singles

Video albums

Live in Combat Ultimate Revenge 2 (1988)

Live in Houston (Bootleg, VHS, 04.02.1989)

Lack of Comprehension (videoclip, 1991)

The Philosopher (videoclip, 1993)

Live in Florence (VHS, 10.12.1993)

Live in Cottbus (1998, Official Bootleg)

Live in L.A. (Death & Raw) (Official Live, DVD/VHS, 05.12.1998)

Live in Music Hall (1998, Virus Cable TV)

Live in Eindhoven (Official Live, DVD), 2001, Nuclear Blast)

See also

Control Denied - The band Chuck Schuldiner performed with after the dissolution of Death.

Voodoocult - A supergroup in which Chuck played guitar

References

External links

Death/Control Denied Official Webpage

[ Death] at Allmusic

Category:1980s music groups Category:1990s music groups Category:American technical death metal musical groups Category:Musical groups established in 1983 Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2001 Category:American death metal musical groups Category:Musical groups from Orlando, Florida Category:American progressive metal musical groups Category:Heavy metal musical groups from Florida Category:Musical quartets