Death

Chuck Schuldiner

 Through my time in the metal community, there has never been a more revered and well-known band, especially in the death metal sub-genre than Death. Death gained its start-up in early 1983 as a small garage band named Manta with sixteen-year-old Chuck Schuldiner. As years pass the band would small demo tapes that would be traded around with other bands in the local area. Chuck would release his first album widely regarded by some fans as the start of the death metal genre Scream Bloody Gore in 1987 (Figure 1). This would be a project done just by Chuck himself and one other person a drummer na
med Chris Reifert. Chuck doing lead vocals, bass, and guitar duties (Wikipedia, 2022). This album would be the building block for Death's career and Chuck Schuldiner as an artist. He transitioned from an angry kid who only wanted to make the most brutal and gory-filled lyrics to changing his views to more philosophical and broader viewpoints in his later albums and songs. Fans like to make videos documenting Chuck's solos and his interviews and even about the history of his albums. Here is a video describing his albums and how they transition to The timeline of Death.

First album cover

Start-up: To talk about why Death is so prolific, we need to explain metal a little bit. This band like many others started up a larger genre from other metal genres at the time making things more aggressive and faster than from its predecessor genres like thrash metal (a style of metal where the guitar is played at a much quicker rate and aggressive shrieks are used) and heavy metal (very melodic vocals and very stylish riffs that are catchy). Some examples of thrash are early Metallica Hit the Lights and Megadeth. Examples of heavy metal would be Iron Maiden The Trooper and Judas Priest. When talking about these bands fans use these bands as building blocks for how death metal would eventually be formed.  Death's Scream Bloody Gore is regarded as the template for death metal's crea
tion and how the sound would be created Scream Bloody gore solos. Truly most fans know during this time none of these bands knew what they were doing and while they were prolific with the instruments they played they were a bunch of angry kids who wanted to make music. Death would be the influencer for many bands that came along. Fans talk about this Death as one of the big four metal bands in the Florida Death metal formation which contains the band's Deicide, Obituary, and Morbid Angel during the late 80s and early '90s perfecting this style of music (Wikipedia, 2022). 

Getting into Death: Death is an influential band for me especially getting into metal this was the band that started my journey into the subgenre of Death metal. The first album I listened to by them was Scream Bloody Gore, which is still my favorite death metal record. I have a shirt with the album cover and plan to add more to my collection. They are one of my top 5 bands I listen to constantly on music streaming services like Spotify. I would go to a concert if Chuck had not passed away in 2001. There are cover bands out there that still perform his music and his style. If I can find a cover band to go see I will be seeing them. 

Merchandise: Death uses multiple media platforms to help sell CDs shirts and other items. Through Instagram, Facebook, the Relapse Records website.The band has been disbanded since Chucks passing so there is not a lot of places that Death is on anymore. Fan accounts on Instagram and the official Instagram page is a commeration to Chuck and his time with Death. I was one of the first 23,000 people to follow the official page before they really made it official. 

Death's wide influence: As I mentioned many bands were influenced or created because of Death and even fans credit Chuck with getting into guitar. Even influencing me to pick up a guitar at some point in my life. From the words of Gene Hoglan from Fear Factory during his interview with NPR where he talks about his favorite song. ""Flattening of Emotions" from Human is an absolute masterpiece. From the "Hot for Teacher"-esque drum intro to the progressive approach of the opening bars of the song to the blistering salvos of double bass that pervade the entire composition, this tune achieves greatness as well as lays down the foundation for every Death song to have followed it". Bands go to Death for a huge influence in their own lives. 

Videos and other ways of contribution: Fans will make videos to help praise this iconic band and the contributions that Chuck made during his life as show in the videos I have linked. Fans talk about the theory of who started death metal Death or Possessed. This topic is still debated to this day and even debated my friends. Some videos show Chucks solos and what made him a great guitarist and the many interviews that Chuck has done fans talk about constantly. 

Conclusion: Chuck was given the nickname of god father of metal for his contribution to the metal community and impacting the lives of many like myself with his music. With him being one of the most influential figures in modern metal. Long live Chuck Schuldiner "The Father of Death metal".

Work cited:

 Angle, B., & December 13, 2021. (2022, May 13). After death: Chuck Schuldiner's life and legacy. Revolver. Retrieved December 4, 2022, from https://www.revolvermag.com/music/after-death-chuck-schuldiners-life-and-legacy

Fandom . (n.d.). Chuck Schuldiner. Metal Wiki. Retrieved December 4, 2022, from https://metal.fandom.com/wiki/Chuck_Schuldiner

Gotrich, L. (2011, December 12). Death is never finished: Remembering death metal pioneer Chuck Schuldiner. NPR. Retrieved December 4, 2022, from https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2011/12/12/143518038/death-is-never-finished-remembering-death-metal-pioneer-chuck-schuldiner

Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, December 2). Chuck Schuldiner. Wikipedia. Retrieved December 4, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Schuldiner

Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, December 3). Scream Bloody Gore. Wikipedia. Retrieved December 4, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scream_Bloody_Gore

Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, June 18). Florida Death Metal. Wikipedia. Retrieved December 4, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_death_metal