death

Death is the creation of arguably the most influential person of the death metal genre, Chuck Schuldiner. Death were formed in 1984 in Tampa Bay, FL. They didn't realease their first album, 'Scream Bloody Gore' until 87. While their lyrics and vocals didn't really appeal to me at first, I took a liking to them because they weren't just generic. They're plain awesome. Over the years, however, after lineup changes and progression in sound, Chuck had formed Death into one of the most popular underground-ish metal bands ever known. In the mid-90's, Chuck shelved Death for his more progressive/thrash side-project, Control Denied. In 1997, he put the project back on the shelf and came back with Death's last studio album, 'The Sound of Perseverance,' which turned out to be more progressive and thrashy than I had expected for it to sound. Shortly after this release, Death was shelved again and Control Denied became the true embodiment of Death. Shortly after the release of 'The Fragile Art of Existance,' Chuck was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Several bands (PanterA, KoRn(!) and Kid Rock to name a few) did some fund raisers to help with his treatment.

Sadly, however, on December 13, 2001, Chuck lost his fight with cancer and passed away and began his perennial quest into eternity..

"...won't you join me on the Perennial Quest? Reaching into the dark, retrieving light. Search for answers, on the Perennial Quest, where dreams are followed and time is a test..."

--taken from Perennial Quest on the Symbolic album

Scream Bloody Gore (Combat) 1987

1. Infernal Death
2. Zombie Ritual
3. Denial of Life
4. Sacrificial
5. Mutilation
6. Regurgitated Guts
7. Baptized in Blood
8. Torn to Pieces
9. Evil Dead
10. Scream Bloody Gore
11. Beyond the Unholy Grave
12. Land of No Return

'Scream Bloody Gore' was one of the first death metal albums, along with Possessed's 'Seven Churches.' Most Death fans don't really like this album, but I do. It's made in the 80's! It has sounds like Destruction or Sepultra, but it keeps a unique sound of it's own. The thing I like least about the album are the song titles and lyrics. They're too gory for my full liking, but they're still good to listen to. It's a good thing Chuck improved on his songwriting skills over the years or I probably wouldn't have liked Death as much as I do now. Of course, being on the Combad label didn't help this album's sound that much.

Leprosy (Combat) 1988

1. Leprosy
2. Born Dead
3. Forgotten Past
4. Left to Die
5. Pull the Plug
6. Open Casket
7. Primitive Ways
8. Choke on It

After 'Scream Bloody Gore,' Chuck canned the band members and started fresh. The sound didn't change, however, and the lyrics were about death, blood, gore and whatnot. Still, the album was much better compared to 'Scream,' at least in the way of songwriting. One thing that Death had above other bands was neat looking cover art.

Spiritual Healing (Combat) 1990

1. Living Monstrosity
2. Altering the Future
3. Defensive Personalities
4. Within the Mind
5. Spiritual Healing
6. Low Life
7. Genetic Reconstruction
8. Killing Spree

After two years, Death were at it again with 'Spiritual Healing.' The lyrics on this album are clearly Death-ish, but the music isn't, as it sounds more technical and speedier. The tempos change and the songs are very harmonic. The lyrics did change into more of Chuck's personal thoughts on a few issues (Altering the Future = abortion). James Murphy also comes into the Death picture on this album. He played with Testament and Obituary.

Human (Combat) 1991

1. Flattening of Emotions
2. Suicide Machine
3. Together as One
4. Secret Face
5. Lack of Comprehension
6. See Through Dreams
7. Cosmic Sea (instrumental)
8. Vacant Planets

After almost trashing Death before this album because Chuck wanted to play more traditional rather than death metal, Death released 'Human.' Chuck merged his power and progressive metal influences with his Death and what became of that was 'Human.' Chuck did it excellently, too, mind you. The album goes through different mood swings, like the "jugga-jugga" of Suicide Machine to the instrumental Cosmic Sea. 'Human' is probably my next favorite Death album next to Symbolic.

Two firsts on this album: One. Cosmic Sea was the first instrumental written by Chuck for Death. Two: Lack of Comprehension was the first music video for Death.

Individual Thought Patterns (Relativity) 1993

1. Overactive Imagination
2. In Human Form
3. Jealousy
4. Trapped in a Corner
5. Nothing is Everything
6. Mentally Bling
7. Individual Thought Patterns
8. Destiny
9. Out of Touch
10. The Philosopher

King Diamond guitarist Andy LaRocque joins the Death lineup along with bassist Steve Digiorgo with Dark Angel drummer Glen Hoglan to dish out this Death album. At this point in thier career, Death are no longer an above average death metal band; they have transcended into thier own new form of music--a killer combonation of death, melodic, progressive, and thrash metal. The songs that highlight this are Individual Thought Patterns (my favorite on the album), The Philosopher, Trapped in a Corner, and In Human Form. Another pointer is that the songs aren't about death and gore anymore. That's a plus. This album featured Death's second and last music video featured from the album (The Philosopher)

Symbolic (Roadrunner) 1995

1. Symbolic
2. Zero Tolerance
3. Empty Words
4. Sacred Serenity
5. 1,000 Eyes
6. Without Judgement
7. Crystal Mountain
8. Misanthrope
9. Perennial Quest

'Symbolic' turned out to be very similar to 'Individual Thought Patterns.' The songwriting quality went up 100% between the albums on this release, as well as Chuck's vocal abilities, which are my favorite of his sounds over the years. The songwriting quality is ingenious on this album; he [Chuck] goes from hard metal (Zero Tolerance) to progressive-ish (Empty Words) back to hard (Crystal Mountain) back to progressive (1,000 Eyes) and back to hard with Misanthrope. It's like the guy couldn't make up his mind and decided to do both. It worked. The highlight of this song is Perennial Quest. The lyrics, quality, and sound of the song is just stupendous. It makes you feel like you're on a quest at the end of the album instead of actually being at the end.

"...won't you join me on the Perennial Quest? Reaching into the dark, retrieving light. Search for answers on the Perennial Quest, where dreams are followed and time is a test..."

This page is dedicated to the man who started it all, Chuck Schuldiner. We all miss you. When our time is up, we will join you on that quest.

(this photo was taken from emptywords.org, the Chuck Schuldiner site; when I get more info, I will name where the photo was taken and what Chuck's kitten's name is. I'll also link the site when I get permission from Mrs. Schuldiner)

Live in L.A. (Death and Raw) (Nuclear Blast) 2001

1. Intro/The Philosopher
2. Spirit Crusher
3. Trapped in a Corner
4. Scavenger of Human Sorrow
5. Crystal Mountain
6. Flesh and the Power it Holds
7. Zero Tolerance
8. Zombie Ritual
9. Suicide Machine
10. Together as One
11. Empty Words
12. Symbolic
13. Pull the Plug

I saw the DVD before I heard the CD and I must say I am very impressed with the work. Although the remastering quality isn't good and clean, it still gives a good, live sound. I'm not a fan of the Sound of Perseverance album, but Chuck pulled a good show in mixing things from all of his albums. I would have rather heard Individual Thought Patterns (the song) and some stuff from Spiritual Healing (like Altering the Future or Spiritual Healing), Death gave Death fans a super offering of live Death. It was quite interesting to hear older Death songs in Chuck's latest vocal offering. The only thing I'm disappointed in is that the cameramen were too stationary and couldn't fit behind the drumset to give us a pan of Richard Christy's feet double bassing (like they did on Megadeth's Rude Awakening) and that the show was cut short. I would have loved to hear a longer Death offering. Still, this is a must for any Death fan. I'm in the process of finding Live in Eindhoven and will have that added as soon as I get it.

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