Death By Metal: The History of Chuck Schuldiner

By Rino Gissi

United States, mid-80s. Following the rise of thrash metal, another revolution disturbs the heavy metal scene: the birth of a major monster, death metal. And right in the heart of this storm, one group stands out to the point of practically naming the genre as a whole – Death, guided by the tenacity and perseverance of a boy who would not give up on his dreams easily.

His name is Chuck Schuldiner. Thanks to Chuck, over the years Death became a complex war machine. Far from the stereotypes and clichés of the musical currents that the band helped create, the group elevated the idea of ​​heavy metal to a level that few dared to play.

Tracing the most important events in Chuck's life and career, extracting details from those who knew him closely, and examining all his albums from a musical and lyrical point of view, this book celebrates the life and work of a great artist, whose contribution is seminal to the history of heavy metal. A boy who always liked to think independently and who lived for the music, whose dream was prematurely interrupted, at the age of thirty-four, by a cruel illness that took his life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Editora Estética Torta
• Release date: Jan 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9786589087915

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Death By Metal: The History of Chuck Schuldiner

Rino Gissi

First published in Italy by Tsunami Edizioni © 2013

English edition copyright by Estética Torta © 2021

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher.

Editor: Lívia Martins

Translator: Tavos Mata Machado

Proofreader: Amanda Pavani

Interiors: Ale Santos

Cover Ilustration: Alejandro Ariza Rosales

Cover Design: Ale Santos

ISBN: 9786589087915

A very limited edition of this book has been printed in hardback.

If you are interested in a copy, email us the publisher at [e-mail].

We ship worldwide from Brazil.

www.esteticatorta.com.br

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NOTE ON THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Death by Metal is the result of an extensive labor of research and dedication by Italian author and metalhead Rino Gissi.

It was originally published in Italy in 2013, filling a gap in the existing bibliography on extreme metal and offering a thorough and passionate account on the life and times of one Chuck Schuldiner, singer, guitarist, leader and mastermind behind the death metal behemoth Death. That book was initially translated from Italian into Portuguese by Guilherme Maionchi and published in Brazil in 2020. The English translation we offer here is based on the Brazilian edition, and not on the original Italian text (though the original was consulted on occasion). This was an editorial decision taken by common agreement between the publisher and the author; we trust the final text we present to you now is up to standard and to the quality of the original Italian edition. However, since this is a translation of a translation, there will be no escaping minor incongruencies, inevitable consequences of the very act of translation. Particularly notable, here, are the quotes: several statements included in this book were uttered by American people, in English, during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, and then translated into Italian to be included in the original edition of this book. The translation team for that American edition did not have access to the original quotes – therefore, we had to rely mainly on Brazilian translations from the Italian edition in order to convey the meaning of these utterances. Whenever the original quote in English could be found on the internet, it was transcribed verbatim – unfortunately, that was not the case for most quotes. We believe the spirit and intention of the original utterances were preserved in this text, but there might be some variation in wording – we apologize for that, but we are certain it will not hinder the reading experience or the enjoyment of this very fine metal biography.

The translator would like to thank Dan Levy and Clayton Lovett for several suggestions on phrasing and vocabulary, Ron Ouwehand for his help on vinyl-collecting-related lexicon, and an anonymous internet benefactor who kindly provided us with copies of the album’s booklets.

Tavos Mata Machado

PREFACE

By Angelo Mora

Life is also made up of remorse and regret. There’s still an open debate about which of these feelings is less bad. Some people claim to have no regrets in life. Lucky them.

As a rock’n’roll enthusiast, the person who now writes to you holds an enormous remorse: in 1996, some friends from school hit the road to watch the Ramones concert in Milan during their farewell tour. I didn’t think too much of the opportunity then: short on cash and intimately convinced that those New York dudes would eventually return to the stage, I decided not to go. That was an ill-fated decision.

When speaking of regrets, the image of Death’s Chuck Schuldiner is the first that comes to my mind. It was 1998, and my obsession over heavy metal, hard rock, and punk had become somewhat of a profession to me. At the same time I fulfilled my duties towards the State, I was starting my career in journalism. Truth is I breathed, ate, and defecated heavy music. Goddamn!

During that summer, I received a promotional CD preview edition of The Sound of Perseverance. I felt feverish apprehension: aside from the sacred beasts of Black Sabbath, Death was then my favorite band, and Schuldiner my idol. The editor-in-chief for Psycho! assigned me the task of writing an album review and doing an interview with the guy. On a September evening at the scheduled hour, I waited a long time for Chuck’s call. I gave up after three hours because I had an important appointment that night: a Moonspell and Therion concert.

On the next day, my roommate told me, An American guy called last night looking for you… Holy shit! There had obviously been some scheduling miscommunication between the Italian agency and the German label – a classic situation in that line of work, as I’d come to find out in the future. Tough luck for me, who missed my chance to talk to Schuldiner. The opportunity never came again: not a month later, when Death played in Italy, not in the following years, much less after Chuck’s disease was diagnosed.

On October 20th, 1998, it was a warm afternoon in Milan. The internet was rapidly gaining popularity; almost everyone had a cellphone, and metal was serious business. People still used to show up for the concert hours and hours early, before lunch, to perform the rather manly ritual of metallic brotherhood. It was a simple and delicious recipe: talking about music to exhaustion, drinking cheap beer, maybe eating radioactive French fries and nasty snacks, laughing, and talking shit. Those most fearless would smoke a joint and mock bystanders, either on foot or in cars. As it was somewhat unfavorably located in a rundown neighborhood, to my capital-dwelling eyes, the Rainbow Club on Besenzanica Street was the ideal venue for that sort of harmless pastime. The place no longer exists; with its demolition, the spirit of those times also broke down. Maybe today’s 2.0 metalheads are prettier, cleaner, politically correct, and only do stuff on their computers between videogame matches and something on Facebook. Or, who knows, maybe not.

Either way, the atmosphere at the Rainbow on that Tuesday was more electric than usual, despite its typical equatorial weather. Saying that Death was eagerly expected, three years after their last concert at that venue, was an understatement. Chuck had split the band and then put it back together for The Sound of Perseverance.

The American group had become the flagbearers for a very specific type of heavy metal: violent on one side; driven and very intense on the other; bright and sophisticated as few others.

I keep many memories of that day, big and small folkloric memories that go way beyond Death’s concert itself, which was good, but hindered by the terrible acoustics of the venue. For example: there were those two dudes who, even though they’d never met before, after a few minutes were singing Flattening of Emotions together with the same ease your barber whistles Fly Me To The Moon by Frank Sinatra.¹

The concert had finished, but the cult of the true fanatics was only beginning. The full liturgy entailed a peaceful assault on the tour bus in an attempt to take pictures, exchange a few words, or get autographs. When it was my turn, I handed Schuldiner the CD booklets so he could sign them. When he gave them back, I thanked him in my shaky English: Let the metal flow!, a slogan coined by Death’s leader a few years before. I thought those words, in their own way, summed up the overflowing energy released by those albums.

Chuck looked at me in slight surprise and gave me a thumbs up with his left hand. That’s how I was blessed by the pope of death metal.

That is the exact image of Schuldiner I remember: smiling, grateful, unaware of his disease, a disease that would defeat him about three years later. It was the same expression of serenity we see in his face on the cover of this book – the commitment of the author is exemplary. Rino Gissi is way too young to have lived Death’s odyssey in real time. However, Schuldiner’s work was sewn onto him like a second skin, compelling him to write a piece that, by thoroughly reconstructing the group’s complex history, fills a gap in the bibliography of worldwide hard’n’heavy.

Who was Chuck, really? Was he the neurotic despot who constantly fired and replaced musicians in his band, cancelled concerts and tours at his own whim and was constantly struggling against the music business and the specialized press? Or was he the genius paladin of metal, perfectionist and fearless, the naïve long-haired man who loved his family, his pets, barbecue, donuts, and nature?

Chuck was, and forgive my platitude, one of us. He loved heavy metal to his core, even before he was that musician of extraordinary talent and considerable ambition. He was a simple kid, friendly and kind, sensible, and often vulnerable. At the same time, he was an upstanding professional, uninterested in fleeting fame, determined and steadfast to the point of arguing with anyone who interfered with his vision. He was someone who demanded a lot, maybe too much, of himself and of others in the name of artistic evolution, with almost ascetic undertones. He was a complex and fascinating personality, unique in many aspects, who also had a dark side, with obsessive nuance. Human, all too human: unsurprisingly, Human is the name of one of his masterpieces.

Enough for now. Before I bore you with my excessive and superfluous writing, I can only bid you goodbye in the end credits and wish you a good read of this book that REALLY supports (metal) music, not rumors.

CHAPTER 1

A tragic and fatal accident: there was nothing that could be done for Frank Schuldiner. There was the young man’s deceased corpse, leaving behind a soul-crushing void in his family.² Later, standing by his coffin, Malcolm and Jane Schuldiner called their other two kids to come closer; Bethann, and their youngest child, Charles, whom they called Chuck. Mr. Schuldiner, who came from an Austrian family of Jewish background, was a teacher, as was his wife. Her maiden name was Burnette. After losing their sixteen-year-old son, their eldest, the Schuldiners had to comfort their two remaining children while hiding their own sorrow at the same time.

At the age of nine, Charles Michael Schuldiner had to understand his situation, grow up, and face the harsh reality of life. His beloved big brother, with whom he had been playing in the backyard the day before, up in the tree house or in the woods with his sister Beth, was no longer there. His lifeline would become rock and roll music, hard rock and heavy metal in particular. A while later, his mother, trying ease her son’s pain, went to a thrift store and got him an electric guitar (she forgot the amp, which she picked up later on the same day).³ Chuck began familiarizing himself with the instrument while trying to cope with the loss as reasonably as he could. Chuck was a good boy, loving and sweet. He played baseball and soccer at school, his favorite sports; his grades were good, and he was very well-behaved. I always tried to caution him, because he was innocent and thought everyone was friends with him, Mrs. Jane said. His parents did all they could to make Chuck’s Beth’s lives as peaceful as possible. He loved walking in nature and fishing. He was an active kid with a positive attitude, curious and always interested in discovering new things.

About eight years after Frank’s death, the Schuldiners moved to Altamore Springs, a suburban neighborhood surrounded by trees in Orlando, Florida, leaving behind their house in Long Island, New York, where Chuck had been born on May 13th, 1967. "I had visited the Orlando area a few years prior and I’ve never forgotten all its beauty. The warm weather they get around the year was something else that weighed in our decision to move there. Malcolm loved playing tennis and sailing, so it wasn’t hard to talk him into it. That’s how we moved to Florida: seeking warmer climates, cheaper houses, and better opportunities overall. Chuck’s childhood was peaceful and filled with love, like in Leave it to Beaver", his mother would say.

The kid spent his early teens going to school and enjoying his free time with outdoor activities and practicing music. Chuck had taken lessons before he got his guitar, during which the teacher tried to teach him Mary Had a Little Lamb. However, the boy’s strong aversion to written rules and external guidance soon became evident. Chuck had always preferred to learn by himself – a sign of a strong personality, self-confidence and a will to grow, regardless of the world and the people around him. That attitude would shape his entire life. Jane says, We can safely say he was self-taught. Kiss was his favorite band for years, and they were a huge influence. Chuck was also amazed by Jimi Hendrix and loved The Doors. When he was thirteen, I took him to his first Kiss concert. As evidence of his love for the New York group, there are photos of a young Chuck wearing Starchild’s clothes and makeup, the character played by Kiss’s singer and guitar player Paul Stanley (though it was clear his main influence was the other guitarist, Ace Frehley).

Chuck did not approach hard rock and heavy metal as a mere listener, and soon the family’s mailbox was crammed full of things he would order from all around the world through newspapers, fanzines, catalogues, etc., not to mention letters he exchanged, first as a fan and later as a musician himself. Thanks to a natural predisposition, he first attempted to copy his heroes.⁴ From there, the next logical step was to put songs by other people aside and start writing new ones. As Chuck later said, "I tried learning the riffs in Exciter’s Heavy Metal Maniac, but they didn’t sound right, so I started writing my own songs."

Meanwhile, Chuck’s mother never, not even for a moment, tried to get in the way of her son’s passion. Jane Schuldiner is certainly not intolerant. Chuck was never a problematic child; I accepted his music because I didn’t see anything wrong with it. His father and I always listened to contemporary music, but we also listened to a lot of Elvis Presley (who Chuck also liked). He also loved animals and cooking; once he told me that, if he hadn’t become a musician, he’d have been a cook or a vet.

Under the sunny skies of Florida, seasons went by peacefully. Chuck loved to lock himself up in the garage alone with his guitar, to rehearse and write music. Every day, for about three hours, he continually practiced notes, riffs, and chords, dedicating his whole weekend to the manic activity. At fifteen, he played his first live concert with a friend in a park not far from his home, while Jane proudly watched from the audience.

School soon became an obstacle for his plans, so Schuldiner quit his studies in 1983 to dedicate himself full-time to the seven notes, alongside his friend Frederick DeLillo, whom he had met at an outdoor party in late 1982. His parents believed in him and, though they did not agree with his choice (which Chuck himself would later regret), they backed him up. His dad and I were very strict: we explained to him that school came first and then the guitar, but there was nothing we could do, so we talked to the school principal and the staff; we told them we reckoned that Chuck took music seriously and decided he had the right to pursue his dreams. He wasn’t even eighteen yet when we gave him an ultimatum: he had one year to get a record deal, otherwise he’d have to go back to school and finish his education. In the following year he got a contract and then he never stopped, says Jane.

The wound of Frank’s loss still ached, but in the early 1980s Chuck found his outlet in the budding extreme metal phenomenon, a subgenre that attracted him through its morbidly infused lyrics; it was a sort of therapy through which he could exorcize his brother’s death.

In the international heavy metal scene, the line between black and thrash metal was still very thin when compared to the way these labels would be perceived in the future: the founding fathers of black metal, the British guys from Venom, played a kind of raw thrash inspired by Motörhead, but were labeled black mainly for their blasphemous lyrics and the satanic image they projected. Likewise, the Californian band Slayer was sometimes labeled black (and, later on, even death). Schuldiner, who later made his aversion to any cut and dry labels very clear, didn’t see an issue there: he loved Venom and Slayer indiscriminately and was inspired by these bands to write increasingly brutal riffs – by the Newcastle trio in particular, who had just pioneered a new approach to metal, raw and impetuous, in which technique and melody only held a minor role. They played their songs mercilessly and barely in tempo, chanting brutal hymns to Satan and mocking moralists. They looked like dumbasses, but they were in fact trailblazers: their cruelty paved the way for extreme metal, prefiguring thrash, death and, rightly so, the black metal that would come to be.

Almost immediately, thrash became the most popular manifestation of extreme metal, thanks to, above all else, spectacular mainstay acts like Metallica and Slayer, who recaptured the tradition of classic heavy metal and, at times, dosed it with the fierceness of punk and hardcore as well as the impetuosity of Venom themselves. Albums such as Kill ‘Em All and Show No Mercy, in their turn, were pioneers that found their counterparts in the American East Coast with acts such as Anthrax and Overkill. Venom’s sound also appealed to followers in continental Europe, where German acts such as Kreator, Sodom, and Destruction reclaimed the crusade against melody and became spokespeople for an even harsher and more extreme thrash than that of their American predecessors. Among other important European pioneers were the Swedish band Bathory and the Swiss groups Hellhammer and Celtic Frost (both led by Tom Gabriel Warrior).

By the end of 1983, at the age of sixteen, Evil Chuck Schuldiner decided it was time for him to start his own band, one that would be stylistically in tune with his two main influences, Venom and Slayer. He then joined forces with guitarist Rick Rozz⁵ DeLillo and drummer/singer Barney Kamalani Kam Lee, who played in the punk rock band Invaders From Hell. Both went to the same school and had met when DeLillo/Rozz went to Lee’s classroom to ask if he could draw Eddie, Iron Maiden’s mascot (Rozz also says that he showed up to the first day of school with his face painted in the likeness of Hellhammer/Slayer; he was then advised by the principal to never do that again). The new lineup was named Mantas: it was not a coincidence that this was also the stage name used by Jeffrey Dunn, Venom’s guitarist.

Apart from a truly short stint with a guy called Dave Tett, Mantas went on without a bass player; after a couple of Slayer, Metallica, Savatage and Mötley Crüe covers, the trio soon began working on creating new music, with Schuldiner as their main songwriter. These sessions brought some unofficial recordings to life – the first of those, dubbed Emotional, features Tett’s only photo with the band, though he is not credited in the liner notes. Emotional features savage and aggressive material, in which Lee’s outrageous vocal ability is a highlight, somewhat of a precursor for the death metal growl.

In the summer of 1984, using Rozz’s Panasonic tape recorder, the group recorded five tracks