Chuck Schuldiner

Charles Michael Schuldiner (May 13, 1967 – December 13, 2001) was an American musician.

Charles Michael Schuldiner was born on May 13, 1967, on Long Island, New York.

His father Mal Schuldiner was Jewish and the son of Austrian immigrants, and his mother Jane Schuldiner was from the American South and had converted to Judaism.

In 1968, his family moved to Florida.

He started playing guitar at the age of nine.

Schuldiner was originally inspired by Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Kiss and classical jazz, among others.

He was particularly interested in the metal movement known as NWOBHM – New Wave of British Heavy Metal – and cited bands of that genre among his favorites.

He frequently cited French band Sortilège as his personal favorite metal group.

Slayer, Celtic Frost, Possessed, Mercyful Fate/King Diamond and Metallica were later influences he would apply more to his own songwriting.

Later in his career, Schuldiner frequently cited progressive metal bands such as Watchtower, Coroner and Queensrÿche as influences.

The official Schuldiner website, Empty Words, quotes Schuldiner's mother making the claim that he enjoyed all forms of music except country and rap.

Schuldiner performed well in school before becoming bored with education and eventually dropping out.

He later regretted this decision.

He has stated that if he had not become a musician, he would have liked to have become a veterinarian or a cook.

He founded the pioneering death metal band Death in 1983, in which he was the lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter and only continuous member until his death in 2001.

Taking inspiration from Nasty Savage, Schuldiner formed Death as Mantas in 1983 when he was just 16 years old.

Original members were Schuldiner (guitar), Rick Rozz (guitar) and Kam Lee (drums and vocals).

In January 1986, Schuldiner moved to Toronto and temporarily joined the Canadian band Slaughter.

However, he quickly returned to continue the formation of Death.

Death underwent many lineup changes.

In 1987, Schuldiner founded the publishing company Mutilation Music, affiliated with performance rights organization BMI.

With Chris Reifert, Schuldiner eventually released the first Death album, titled Scream Bloody Gore, in 1987.

He continued with 1988's Leprosy with the line-up of former Mantas guitarist Rick Rozz and rhythm section Terry Butler on bass and Bill Andrews on drums, and 1990's Spiritual Healing, where guitarist James Murphy had replaced the fired Rozz in 1989.

After Spiritual Healing, Schuldiner stopped working with full-time band members, preferring to work with studio and live venue musicians, due to bad relationships with Death's previous rhythm section and guitarists.

This earned Schuldiner something of a 'perfectionist' reputation in the metal community.

Schuldiner had also fired his manager Eric Greif but settled and re-hired him before the recording of his next, influential release.

Death's breakthrough album, Human saw the band evolving to a more technical and progressive style, in which Schuldiner displayed his guitar skills more than ever.

He continued in this style (and continued the success of the band) with 1993's Individual Thought Patterns, 1995's Symbolic. He announced the following year that he had broken up Death and would focus on his new progressive metal band, Control Denied.

Schuldiner also played guitar in the "supergroup" Voodoocult on the album Jesus Killing Machine in 1994 and played a guest solo on Naphobia's 1995 release, Of Hell on the track "As Ancients Evolve" as a favor to the band's bassist at the time who was a friend of Schuldiner's. Schuldiner played lead guitar on a tribute track to Randy Rhoads called Hardly A Day Goes By with his Control Denied bandmates Chris Williams on drums, and Scott Clendenin on bass, as well as Craig Sease on vocals.

He secured a record deal with Nuclear Blast in 1997, but the label required that he release another Death album before Control Denied.

As a result, The Sound of Perseverance was released in 1998, followed by the Control Denied album The Fragile Art of Existence the next year.

Control Denied also had other players from the latest Death album but featured Tim Aymar, a melodic metal vocalist.

In a 1999 interview, Schuldiner spoke about why he didn't sing on the Control Denied album The Fragile Art of Existence "...these vocals are all I ever wanted to do in Death but couldn't. I've had this dream of recording like that for years, and it seems like a dream come true. Tim Aymar is an amazing singer and this is the main difference. I think people will be surprised at the violence and strength of the album. Many people are expecting something like Iron Maiden, but, despite being one of my favorite bands, I didn't want to make an Iron Maiden-like album. I wanted to make an unpredictable album, just like I did in Death, I guess. I don't like to make predictable albums."

Schuldiner had experienced "extreme neck pain" in 1999 and was diagnosed with pontine glioma that May, on his 32nd birthday.

Schuldiner died in 2001 of a brain tumor.

Schuldiner is often referred to as "The Godfather of death metal", though he was not fond of the nickname, remarking that "I don't think I should take the credits for this death metal stuff. I'm just a guy from a band, and I think Death is a metal band."

Schuldiner was also asked to be one of the many guest vocalists on Dave Grohl's 2001 Probot.

Grohl, Napalm Death, Ozzy Osbourne, and Anthrax all increased efforts to raise funds for Schuldiner's medical bills.

His obituary in the January 5, 2002, issue of Kerrang! described him as "one of the most significant figures in the history of metal."

Schuldiner was ranked No. 10 in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists in 2009 and No. 20 in March 2004 Guitar World's "The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists".