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Chuck Schuldiner, founder of the death metal group Death, died at 34 years of age following a lengthy battle with a brain tSchuldiner, a native of Florida, was just 16 years old when he formed Death in 1983. While Death didn�t release their first album, Scream Bloody Gore, until 1987, it didn�t take long for the group to become one of the leading forces on the underground scene, thanks to widely circulating homemade demo tapes and international fanzine coverage. In these early years, Schuldiner had somewhat unremarkable skills as a guitarist, but his penchant for writing razor-sharp riffs and his powerful vocal growl introduced legions of American headbangers to the grinding art of death metal, an extreme style of music already made popular in Europe by bands like Celtic Frost, Venom and Sodom. At the time of his death, Schuldiner�who in the late Nineties had also formed the group Control Denied�had grown into not only a proficient musician and expert songwriter but an underground legend as well.
Schuldiner was diagnosed with pontine glioma, a type of brain tumor more commonly associated with children, in 1999. With no health insurance, Schuldiner and his family struggled to afford consistent treatment. He underwent surgery in January 2000 and responded well to the operation, but in the months that followed, his condition worsened. By 2001, the tumor, which had continued to grow, had proved to be inoperable.
The Schuldiner family still faces the exorbitant costs associated with Chuck�s illness. Fans wishing to contribute to the Charles Schuldiner. |
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