"When Machine And Man Collide" To Be Completed:Tim Aymar Speaks Out

From Empty Words (Official Death/Control Denied/Chuck Schuldiner tribute page)

Chuck and Tim Aymar

On December 13th we will once again take at least a few moments of our day to remember the "Father Of Death Metal", Chuck Schuldiner. Those who know Chuck's music from Death and Control Denied have faithfully and patiently awaited the announcement of the completion of Chuck's dying wish which is to get the final Control Denied record out to you , and along with my other band-mates, I am extremely happy to be here to fulfill the promise I made a decade ago.

When I first talked to Chuck about auditioning for a new band he was working on, an extension of his former band Death which he called Control Denied. We first talked over the telephone, and he was not at all like what I had expected him to be. My band-mate, co-writer and dear friend Jimmy Dofka from Psycho Scream had turned me on to Death a few months before, and the picture I had in my mind of Chuck, judging only by how precise and beautifully violent that music is, was of a brutal tyrant. I mean after-all, just listen to Gene Hoglan's drumming and the command of Chuck's blood soaked screaming, and you'll know what I mean. Well, I was delightfully wrong. The voice on the phone was just a guy like me, an easy going, slow talking hippie with a burning passion for metal. We both understood the seriousness of the business at hand, but neither of made it seem anything but exiting and fun, and that was awesome. That's just what professionals do.

We talked about our tastes in music and inspirations and our idols. We were definitely on the same page. He said he wanted me to audition because from what he'd heard already from Psycho Scream, my voice had all the qualities he had been looking for since he began his journey into metal. There's a bit of everyone we both liked in there, a bit of Dio, Halford, Tyler, Gillan, Bonnet, all the best screamers in the biz. With that in mind, we set a date and I flew down to meet him and do the audition. I thought maybe there was a chance he was blowing a bit of smoke up my ass, because that's just what some people do. But no, as it turns out, he was one of the few people in this biz that didn't.

I arrived at Orlando International and just grabbed my stuff at the luggage return, when Chuck, Scott, Chris and Shannon came running and screaming through the hallway like pack of wild dogs yelling "Tim Scream, Tim Scream", my new nickname which later, at the house I found inscribed on a half gallon bottle of Jim Beam. They mugged me of my luggage, lifted me up and threw me in the air like a rag doll. I knew this was gonna be a hell of a week already. Surprisingly, we jumped into the car and they had the Psycho Scream tape in the player, and they were singing along like they'd known it forever. We got to the house and there it was... the ominous bottle with the letters J and B scratched out and the rest of the letters sharpied in to spell out Tim Scream. We got to work right away...on the booze, and then we listened to a bunch of stuff from Chuck's vinyl collection.

Once we got rolling in the studio, the work went smooth as buttermilk. We knocked out 3 songs in 2 1/2 days rather than the 5 we expected, so Chuck mixed down the tunes and when he was finished he called me into the kitchen. He poured us each a shot of Tim Scream, handed me one and said "we're all very happy about this, and if you want the job, I won't even call Halford back." I could not believe what I had just heard. He not only wanted a voice like one of my all time greatest idols, he had planned on auditioning him after me. But that's how he said it. That's just what bosses do.

Tim Aymar

The police showed up at our first practice as a band. Chuck was polite, but firm in his conviction when he said " you might think you know who you came here to hassle, but you don't know I'm probably the only person on this street who's house is paid for and my taxes are paid as well, I've been all over the world with my band and that's how I bought this place and not how these people who called you tell their children who say shit to my nephew at school and send him home crying. I just paid like 10 grand to sound proof my home so these people would not hear us, and now you're telling me it's too loud? what is the law? I'll abide it". He wanted to know because that's just what good neighbors do. (...) Read the full story here.

Death TR/BR, one more time, would like to thank Yvonne and Kees Kluitman.