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| The Godfather of Death Metal |
Before I start this article I would like to take this opportunity to say that the people behind sites such as Death TR and Empty Words are doing incredibly important work with the preservation /continuation of all things Chuck, Death and Control Denied. The people behind these projects should take great pride in what they have achieved and will continue to achieve in the future. Keep it up as you truly are needed.
I’m gonna come clean straight away. I cannot claim to be a Death super-fan with the ability to recite every lyric and recall every detail because I believe that would be unfair to those of you who are walking Death Encyclopedias. What I can claim is a passion for what I choose to listen to and choose to spend my free-time doing. Like anyone I have an opinion, an opinion which I’ve been given the platform to share, courtesy of Death TR and Mara Vanessa. I would like to express my gratitude to Death TR for the opportunity to share a few words with the Chuck/Death fans of the world. I in-part have this opportunity because I’ve recently created a YouTube channel called “DeathinHD” dedicated to all thing’s Chuck, Death and Control Denied. In creating this channel I have somewhat gotten myself known, howeva this is far from my main intention. With the channel I wish to openly and freely share content with anyone and everyone. I hope to consolidate as much relevant and useful information all into one place, presented to the best of my technical abilities. Let me go on and briefly explain my history with Death and How/Why the YouTube channel spawned.
To me Death are a band you can believe in. Even an untrained ear can tell that there is substance in the music. As I sit here now typing this at the age of 24 in 2011, I try and think back to around 10 years ago when I first heard Death. I was 14 at the time and just listening to some music with my friend Dale, not paying too much attention until I believe Crystal Mountain popped up and my ears pricked up and I suddenly started to show some interest. At that age everything is so simple, it is a very straight forward case of “let’s go and check out some more of this band Death”. Little did I know that Chuck would pass away in the coming months.
Around the same time I started to get into playing the drums then getting into bands. My earliest memories of particularly playing the drums and my affinity for Death, was the fact that attempting Death’s drumming was impossible. My guitar buddy Dale would always play Death riffs and I can just remember thinking how cool that was.
Over the years to this present day I would always have a steady stream of Chuck’s music in my ears. Now aware of Chuck’s passing you then get the realisation that your never going to get the chance to see Death live and this brings me to my next point. As time passes and more and more people become fans of Death they too won’t have the opportunity to witness Chuck on stage in person. So what do you do as a fan? Well you do all you can to keep the music alive. We find ourselves creating tribute pages, sharing stories and putting on remembrance gigs. The key to the continued longevity of Chuck’s legacy is for his family, friends and fans to continue to spread the word of the music he created.
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| James Anthony |
I challenge anyone regardless of musical taste to not feel deeply saddened by Chuck’s story. Wether it be the loss of his brother frank at a young age, to the loss of who he thought were close friends to the barrage of trash offered up by the press. When you end the story with pontine glioma, a type of brain cancer, we start to paint an image of a man who saw too much unjust distress come his way. One thing you have to ask yourself is would we have, what we have today with Chuck’s music had he not been fuelled by his life experiences?. Chuck was known to be fuelled by such emotions as anger, betrayal and disappointment and this undoubtedly came out in his music. But as the saying goes there cannot be smoke without fire and we have to face facts that no-one is perfect including Chuck. This takes me to my next point that I wish to talk about as regards people’s perception of Chuck.
Chuck is considered and often called “The Godfather of Death Metal” and with that mantra Chuck finds himself on somewhat of an untouchable pedestal. I for one have no problem with how the fans wish to remember Chuck. I see no harm in Chuck being considered an icon. The only people you will find turning their heads are the ones who experienced Chuck’s darker side.
With all the talk being concentrated on Chuck I would like to take this opportunity to share the spotlight with some of his ex band-mates. I turn towards Death’s 1991 release “Human” which sees the notable introduction of Cynic’s Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert. “Human” is considered by many to be Death’s most impressive release in every aspect as it sees a step up in technicality as well as song writing. My compulsion to mention Paul and Sean lies in the fact that Paul is quoted as saying “Chuck would present the songs to us in black and white and we would provide the colour”. We shouldn’t forget that Chuck was not always alone in the Death experience.
If there is one thing we can all learn from Chuck, it's his relentlessness in the vision he had. Complete conviction behind his actions, without compromise. Governed by his own rules. Many of us can only try to match such drive.
To come full circle I would like to come back to the creation of the “DeathinHD” YouTube channel aswell as the future for Chuck’s legacy.
First of all the creation of it and why it happened – well as I hope I’ve established by now I’m a Death fan and was trying to think of how I could do my bit to keep the love alive. I had already made several other random YouTube channels and one day stumbled across a woman called Beth saying she was Chuck’s sister on YouTube. Initially I like most was somewhat doubtful about the legitimacy of this woman being Chuck’s sis. I quickly came to realise she really was Chuck’s sister but not only that. Beth was going around with unbelievable generosity in her feedback to the community and I thought y’know what, I can throw something in the mix here with my own ideas. I showed Beth the channel and as they say the rest is history.
To those of you who don’t know Beth’s YouTube channel is “bethlevine1” and what she offers/shares with the fans is literally incredible. She gladly welcomes all and I have personally shared some very touching words with Beth. Beth truly is a testament to how special the Schuldiner family is.
My ongoing goal is to make a channel of a fan for the fans. If there is one thing I would wish to in-still in all of you it would be to focus on what we still have. I see many negative comments about the fact that Chuck is gone howeva try to remember that you still get to enjoy what he created. I want the community to be totally together on this one. I do my absolute best to offer up high quality content which I have spent many late nights on and will continue to do so. I don’t deserve any credits or anything like this, I just want like-minded fans to come along and enjoy the channel.
To date I’ve received support from YOU the fans, Beth, Eric Grief, Relapse Records, Jeff Kitts of Guitar World and Albert of Decibel Magazine.
For the future between the Schuldiners, Relapse and Eric Greif, I think 2011 is going to be a mind-blowing year for all things Death and Control Denied.
If this article can inspire any of you people out there to do a little something for a band you love, then my job is done.
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