Question about -Chuck Schuldiner- to mighty Swano forum posters...

[Naglfar]

I just wanted to let you forum cats know I purchased the "Zero Tolerance" release under the Chuck Schuldiner name, and it's a very strange piece of work. It contains some nice unreleased Control Denied tracks that were never finished and some old school Death bootlegs. It's a 2 CD thing, I got it for about 14 US dollars in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I suggest you pick it up if you liked Death or Control Denied. If you're an Edge of Sanity or Bloodbath fan and you haven't heard of Death, I suggest you purchase their entire discography immediately, as you'll love it (particularly Death's final two albums).

The album also contained a poorly written, rambling story in the CD booklet of how Chuck's family is supposedly preventing the surviving members of Control Denied from completing the last album Chuck played on. Do any of you know what happened in this mess? I'm not sure how much influence Death had on Dan (although those of us who listen to Edge of Sanity undoubtedly are familiar with Death), but since this is possibly the best metal forum out there, and the only one I frequent, I thought I'd take a shot and ask one of you guys if you've heard anything concrete about Chuck's last recordings.

 

[istari]

The Zero Tolerance albums (think there are two) was released against the will of Chuck's familly... there has been a feud between the familly and the record company regarding the unreleased Control Denied and Death material.

 

[Naglfar]

The Zero Tolerance albums (think there are two) was released against the will of Chuck's familly... there has been a feud between the familly and the record company regarding the unreleased Control Denied and Death material.

There's a second one? I'll look it up. It's a shame that the second Control Denied album isn't available. I thought the first was pretty good, even though it took me a couple of listens to get a feel for it. I hope they sort that out soon (I imagine the release of albums against the will of Chuck's family isn't helping, though).

 

[Jim LotFP]

The Zero Tolerance albums (think there are two) was released against the will of Chuck's familly... there has been a feud between the familly and the record company regarding the unreleased Control Denied and Death material.

Schuldiner's family is wrong in this dispute.

Let's see if I can remember details correctly.

Hammerheart advanced $50,000 to Chuck for the second Control Denied album.

You'll notice Hammerheart no longer exists as an independent company, it was reorganized as a PhD subsidiary, Karmageddon Media.

Small independent companies tend to collapse when $50,000 just disappears.


Enter Momma Schuldiner, who had the gall to decide that Hammerheart had no right to any Control Denied material after Chuck died. The second album was unfinished, and Hammerheart couldn't even pay for it to be completed (one can guess where the $50,000 went, can't blame the family for that, but...) because the family wouldn't release what was already done...

... so the Schuldiners wouldn't allow the release of the album, wouldn't pay back the $50k (because it's not like Hammerheart was going to just let the Schuldiner family shop the album around without getting their money back), and got nasty in the press... just like Chuck used to do with his "support music, not rumors" talk. All the situation told me was that Chuck was a dirty rotten bastard who tried to hide from real criticism by labeling his critics as liars. Yet Chuck lied about using Control Denied songs on the Sounds of Perseverence album (and man does did he get nasty when asked about it, as if nobody ever heard the Control Denied demos he shopped around to half the world that nobody was interested in until he agreed to do another Death album), Momma Schuldiner basically tried stealing $50,000 from Hammerheart Records and conducted a smear campaign against them. What else have they lied about when complaining about all the vicious rumors spread about people that irrationally hate them for no reason, mmmmm?

So what ends up happening is that Mrs Schuldiner has a cow in interviews about how those heartless greedy record label people won't let her do anything with the recordings, and how she refuses to let them handle anything.

Talks of lawsuits pop up.

... and suddenly Schuldiner shuts the hell up, and Karmageddon releases these Zero Tolerance things that no fan wants to buy because Mrs Schuldiner has made them feel like they'll be raping Chuck's corpse if they buy the damn things.

Yeah, record companies can be fucking bastards. But not in this case.

 

[Naglfar]

... and suddenly Schuldiner shuts the hell up, and Karmageddon releases these Zero Tolerance things that no fan wants to buy because Mrs Schuldiner has made them feel like they'll be raping Chuck's corpse if they buy the damn things.

I guess I'm Code Blue on that one, since I bought one of those Zero Tolerance things. ^^

I do recall a Metal Maniacs interview a couple of years ago where he kinda ripped on people in the media who suggested that he was dying of cancer during that first bout he had with it (which indeed, he almost did). I thought it was silly he'd complain about that because it was true. It's also duly noted that the last Death album does sound a lot like Control Denied's the Fragile Art of Existence, but to be honest I liked Sound of Perserverance better.

Only thing I don't get is whether Hammerheart went down because of the 50k that disappeared, or that the 50k disappeared because Hammerheart went down and his wife just pocketed it.

Money does stupid shit to people. :/

 

[thespectralsorrows]

Let me help clear a few things up for Jim and Naglfar. The $50,000 didn't go to someone's mother or girlfriend it went to pay the several hundred thousand dollars worth of medical bills that were keeping Chuck alive. I don't think the loss of this money is why Hammerheart changed their name, the name change has actually hurt them. There is a lawsuit in Europe currently over the rights to future use of the Control Denied name/songs. Guido (Hammerheart) already had received that 4 song demo and the live Death recordings and put these out to try and recoup some of his investment in Chuck. Before Chuck died he requested his mother not let Hammerheart release the final Control Denied CD, which is why she was so adament against it since it was her sons final wish. As for the final Control Denied release, it doesn't exist since Chuck never got past the demo stage you hear on the Zero Tolerance disc. Its a bit hard to imagine the other 4 members coming in and recording an album from scratch at this point, so its unlikely there will be another Control Denied recording.

You're right that Chucks mom did do her best to get fans to not buy the Zero Tolerance CDs, but I bought them and don't feel an ounce of guilt. I'm glad to hear the demo and rare live and old Death demo's. Death were probably the best death metal band in history, so all releases by them are welcome for me.
Let The Metal Flow!

 

[breeding death]

The album "Sound Of Perseverance" sucks, i dont find anything good with it...crappy sound to...The best album of Death is Spiritual Healing!!!

 

[thespectralsorrows]

The album "Sound Of Perseverance" sucks, i dont find anything good with it...crappy sound to...The best album of Death is Spiritual Healing!!!

Must be too clean and piercing for your tastes, it really does have alot of bite to it, kinda overprocuced perhaps but a killer with no filler!

 

[PhlegethonVeins]

Must be too clean and piercing for your tastes, it really does have alot of bite to it, kinda overprocuced perhaps but a killer with no filler!

Or maybe the horrid vocals on that record get to him.

 

[Naglfar]

Or maybe the horrid vocals on that record get to him.

I used to discriminate more about the vocals, but unless I'm listening to a band with a singer who can actually hit a note (Re: Swano, Borknagar, Sentenced), I'm pretty lenient. The other day someone described Mayhem's Chimera as an awesome album, and I went and bought it... probably the worst singing I've heard since I accidentally bought an Upper Crust album. Relative to what passes for singing nowadays, Chuck's vocals on that album aren't too bad.

 

[Md Player]

Chuck has his own vocal style and he does very different vocals.TSOP is a great album.All Death albums are fantastic but its hard to choose one.Later Death era is a little different and much technical(Symbolic,ITP,TSOP).I think Chuck Schuldiner is one of the most talented musicians who ever stepped in this world.R.I.P

 

[thespectralsorrows]

Chuck has his own vocal style and he does very different vocals.TSOP is a great album.All Death albums are fantastic but its hard to choose one.Later Death era is a little different and much technical(Symbolic,ITP,TSOP).I think Chuck Schuldiner is one of the most talented musicians who ever stepped in this world.R.I.P

Yes, Chuck was perhaps the best death metal singer out there, or at least the most understandable lyrically. He also wrote the most intelligent and thoughtful lyrics of almost any death metal band. Then as a guitarist he was also amazing not just for his songwriting ability, but also for his overall talent in playing both riffs and solo's. Some of my other favorite death metal vocalists are John Tardy, David Vincent, Dan Swano and Jeff Walker.