Looking back: A tour's Death and Death: Where is thy sting?

By EMPTY WORDS (official Death/Control Denied/Chuck Schuldiner website)

Leprosy Era

A tour's Death

Magazine: Metal Hammer / Italy

Article: Morte Di Un Tour

Written by: Buffo

Translated by: Vincenzo Chioccarelli

Published: May 1989

Death, an American heavy metal band, have recently played their first German concert in Dusseldorf. What we didn't know was that this concert will probably be the last, at least for the near future! The day after "Evil" Chuck Schuldiner and the rest of the gang were flying back home, what happened? The singer Chuck and the bass player Terry don't say too much about the unexpected cancellation of their tour.

(...)I heard recently that you refuse to play as supporter of any band as a matter of principle. Is it true?

Chuck - "No, it's just another rumor. Yet it's the first time we are in Europe and we thought it would have taken time before we could be back home. That's the reason why I thought it was obvious we would have played the longest possible. We got too many tunes our fans want to hear. Naturally to do a gig of Exodus would bring more people, but we didn't care at all. We meant to offer a good concert to the public, but this wouldn't be possible. We'd like to support Slayer or Kreator, but only in the right circumstances."

The production of your latest album, 'Leprosy', was to say the very least, awesome. Do you think you're still gonna work with Dan Johnson in future or you think you can do better?

Chuck - "We were very happy of Dan's production and we'll work with him again next time. I don't guess it'll be easy to do better than a record like that, but I think in some way we'll succeed. We'll have more money and this means we'll be able to spend more time in studio. The new material will definitely be better. We have already finished five songs and we will keep on writing as soon the tour with Dark Angel is over."

Read the full article here.

James Murphy, Bill Andrews, Chuck Schuldiner and Terry Butler

Death: Where is thy sting?

Magazine: Metal Hammer / UK

Article: Where is Thy Sting?

Written by: John Duke

Published: March 1990

It's the witching hour and I'm snatching information from the very jaws of death, so to speak, in the foreboding shape of Chuck Schuldiner, singer/guitarist and founder member of those Florida Fatalists, Death!

Back in 1983 these guys started pounding out a style of metal that was less fashionable or tasteful than a present day South African cricket tour! But there's nowt curiouser than extreme sub-genres, as they say up north, and a few years on the sudden emergence of bands like Obituary, Morbid Angel, Sepultura, Atheist and Pestilence, have all given death a new lease of life - if you see what I mean! Consequently there has never been a more opportune moment for the bona fide originators of the genre to come roaring back with their third, and to my mind best, album to date. With a casualty list of such ditties as 'Defensive Personality', 'Altering The Future', 'Within The Mind' and the title track itself, 'Spiritual Healing', we have a slower, more melodic, and more varied sound to contend with. It's obvious that in 1990 with a sustained European tour on the horizon, we are not talking about sudden Death, or even a violent Death, but a far more marked and lingering expiration! I asked Chuck if the mature sophistication of their third offering is a natural Death?

Chuck: 'Yes, it's how we've always wanted to sound. I have never been happier with any of our releases than with 'Spiritual Healin'g. We have achieved something that people have been saying can't be done in death metal, that it's impossible to be melodic or varied. More importantly I think we've proved a lot of people wrong who look down on death metal as a genre, who lump it all together as simply Satanic based three chord progressions. 'Spiritual Healing' is still brutal death metal but it's deliberately based on more melodic riffing, we took our time to try and make everything extremely catchy, and that accessibility crossed over to my vocals as well, they are there to be heard because the lyrics are very important on this album.'

How much of this new direction was encouraged by the second generation of death bands, most of whom are still concentrating on speed and hack and slash subjects?

Chuck: 'We've been around for quite a long time and I've always tried to keep the band from getting lumped into any trend and at the moment I'll just say that it's important to try and stick to that. We wrote about gore four years ago because it was right for us at the time. The acts you mentioned just reinforce the need to change, to still be leading the way, to do it first. That's where the trouble with Rick first started because the material I was writing for 'Spiritual Healing' was simply way over his head. He refused to improve as a player and I was forced into worrying about writing stuff that was TOO complex, and when it gets to that point something has to be done!'

Now Chuck has brought the subject of long standing guitarist Rick Rozz being ousted from the Death ranks (not for the first time) I though he might explain himself further.

Chuck: 'We fired Rick Rozz for good about eight months ago because he wasn't progressing musically. Rick basically refused to improve himself as a guitarist. It took us a month to find James Murphy (ex-Agent Steel) but it worked out great from the very beginning. To be honest it's a relief now to have someone in the band who is really into being professional.'

Read the full article here.