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Gene Hoglan | Steve
DiGiorgio | Richard Christy | Travis
Smith | Martyr Music | Hammerheart
| Nuclear Blast
Metal Maniacs | Aardschok
| Rock Hard | Brave
Words & Bloody Knuckles | Terrorizer
| Metal Nightmare
Metal Review | Kerrang
| Chronicles of Chaos | Rock
Station | Orlando Metal Awards
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From the Nuclear
Blast website
Here's what Steve
DiGiorgio, band mate and bass player of Control Denied,
wrote:
"Saddened...
This is the first time since I've heard the news that I've been
on the computer. I can see that news travels fast. Everyone
knows by now. Also I want to thank all of you for your kind
words of caring and support. So what do I have to add? We have
lost an icon in the metal music world. More importantly, I have
lost a good friend of many many years. He was born the same
year as me and we had a lot in common. It's obvious that I played
my best around him, somehow he brought out the sickest bass
lines in me. He always pushed me to do more, think of more,
pushing the boundaries and find the most innovative things...but
to still keep it within the formula. I have lost an inspiration
to my own personal musical quest, I will miss him forever. We
were in the middle of doing the next record, and it's sad beyond
belief that he never saw it to it's completion. We will try
our best to finish it in his honor, but will never know if it
lives up to his standards. That's the least we can do for someone
who gave so much and cared so much about what he did and how
it effected those who belived as well. Though I am glad in some
small way the the suffering is over for him...that he would
not be able to play his guitar again, reorganize his massive
vinyl collection, work around the house, go to the beach, go
to concerts...the things he loved to do. He didn't deserve a
life without those things that made him who he was. Because
he was, what he loved. He very much loved his family, never
being too far away from his mother, father, his sister and his
nephew. He loved animals and his pets were his family too. He
loved the outdoors, barbeques, beaches, hikes, and canoeing
took up a lot of time when we weren't writing new tunes. Of
course he loved music, he made it his life...and we made it
ours. It's true he had something very serious, and possibly
something that would ultimately take him. But I want you to
ignore all the rumors, all the hearsay, all the bullshit...and
know that he never accepted his fate. He never gave up trying
to overcome it. He went down swinging and was a true fighter
until the end. He was told by his first doctor he didn't have
long to live, so he went to another. When those doctors told
him the same thing, he did it again - he went to find the answer
he wanted, not the answer he was given. He traveled all over
the country looking for someone to help in his fight. He wouldn't
take no for an answer. His will to live was strengthened by
the resolve of those around him. His family most of all who
didn't hesitate to do what was neccessary for him. His friends
who tried to pitch in whatever possible. And the fans and supporters
all over the world, who's words and contributions kept the spark
alive when things seemed the darkest. Be proud of his work,
his heart still beats for us every time we listen to his songs,
because his heart is in his work. Goodbye for a while Metal
Brother, I'll miss you more than words can say.
Sunday, December 16, 2001 at 12:25:29 (EST)"
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From Seempieces
Travis Smith
12.17.01 Well it
looks like the word is out and I guess everyone knows by now.
The music world has lost a tremendous force, and the world has
lost a great person. The irony of posting these thoughts on
the "evilnet" is not lost on me, but I needed to get
the thoughts out and posting them felt a little more like i
was actually talking to someone.
Chuck, Thank you man. For
your encouragement and friendship, bringing me into your "family",
and making me a part of your quest and vision. We had some good
talks and shared some good thoughts, and quite often, you made
me think things differently and let me see a lot of things in
a different light. You gave me a lot of perspective and always
made me feel welcome and appreciated. My time with you seems
quite short now but affected me quite a bit. You and the things
you gave will be greatly missed. You never gave up. You never
accepted this and you were strong and positive the whole time,
which gave me the hope that made this so hard to accept.
So i just wanted to say
goodbye for now.
You will always be heard.
And hopefully we will get the chance to make you proud once
again.
Find Peace, Brother. I'll
miss you.
Also thoughts to Steve,
Maria, and Jane, Who each in someway shared with me a part of
Chuck, His music, and themselves. For a moment or for years.
And who fought the fight with him.
Travis
December Seventeenth, Two Thousand and One
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Aardschok
I.M. Chuck Schuldiner
1967-2001
The very first time
that I spoke with Chuck Schuldiner is forever etched in my memory.
I told him that if someone would have predicted a phone interview
with the key figure behind Death, I would have declared that
person totally crazy. "You never know what life brings!",
Chuck replied on the other side of the phone."
Indeed, life is full of surprises. Positive, but very negative
ones as well. In May1999 Chuck was diagnosed with a malignant
brain tumor. What followed was a huge life and death struggle.
A year later Chuck seemed to be on the road to recovery and
he even was, despite the vague rumors of a bad motor system
of his arm- capable of writing a second Control Denied CD. The
recordings of this album were stopped somewhere in the middle,
because Chuck had a setback. Meanwhile several benefit concerts
were organised worldwide to make the medical treatment possible.
December 13th 2001 Chuck passed away of the side effects of
the chemotherapy.
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The interview I did
gave me a clear impression of Chuck Schuldiner: he was an enthusiastic
musician and a fierce advocate of trendfree metal. According to
some sources he should have already started his carreer by age
15. He founded Mantas, a band that later would be baptized into
Death. After a few very famous demo's and a not very fertile cooperation
with the Canadian Slaughter, the legendary 1987 debut was released:
"Scream Bloody Gore." The vocalist/guitarist took the
technical aspect within the death metal to a higher level with
each recording. This led to the coming and going of relatively
well known musicians and a discography filled with countless milestones
like "Leprosy" (1988), "Human" (1991) and
"Symbolic" (1995). Death came to an end in 1998 and
Chuck focused completely on his new band Control Denied. From
then on he could concentrate on the technical guitarplay. "The
Fragile Art Of Existence" (1999) was the clever debut of
the band. A successor should have been released this year, "When
Man & Machine Collide", but will be postponed for that
one very sad reason. As bassist Steve DiGiorgio states on the
Nuclear Blast website: " We will try our best to finish it
in his honor, but we will never know if it lives up to his standards".
Aardschok mourns this sad
news and we give our deep condolences to his family, friends and
fellow bandmates.
"You never know what life brings!" The words of Chuck
Schuldiner will always be etched in my mind. They no longer apply
to the man who was one of my heros. Passing at age 34 is far too
early.
Dennis Verboven
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Rock Hard-Germany
February 2002
On December 13th,
CHUCK SCHULDINER, the "Godfather" of death metal,
died. Unfortunately all the group efforts, the benefit concerts
and fundraisers, couldn't prevent him succumbing to cancer.
Schuldiner's musical career
started in 1983 in Orlando, Florida, where he formed the band
Mantas with Rick Rozz and Kam Lee. Soon the name was changed
into Death, which according to Chuck, has its origins in a review
of Slayer's "Show No Mercy".
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After three demos
the first line-up split up. Chuck moved in the autumn of 1985
to San Francisco, where he met D.R.I. drummer Bert Brecht, and
recorded the "Back From The Dead" rehearsal tape. During
his short instructive "Slaughter" trip to Toronto, Chuck
met drummer Chris Reifert in San Francisco, with whom he produced
the legendary "Mutilation" demo. This brought him the
long overdue record deal. For
the Death album "Scream Bloody Gore" ('86) they could
pour out of the well-filled demo-stock, which contributed as much
to the cult status of the disk as the engagement of star producer
Randy Burns (Megadeth, Dark Angel). The collaboration with Reifert
came to an end because Chuck returned to Florida and Reifert didn't
want to move there.
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Schuldiner contacted
his old friend Rick Rozz, who meanwhile formed Massacre with Kam
Lee. Together, Rozz as well as, the Massacre rhythm section (Terry
Butler and Bill Andrews) joined Death as well. With this line-up
Chuck recorded "Leprosy" ('88) and "Spiritual Healing"
('90). For the last album the young James Murphy came into the
band as the second guitar player. The (too) short solo duel on
the title track showed the unbelievable potential of the two,
who unfortunately went their own ways for the following tour.
Murphy probably suspected that this tour was bewitched. After
just a few European shows Chuck returned home because of health
problems. It didn't keep his colleagues from touring on without
him though, using the hurtful words "Fuck Chuck!".
In 1991 Chuck made
a new start with "Human," assisted by the both Cynic
members Sean Reinert and Paul Masvidal, and monster bass player
Steve DiGiorgio. With "Human" the mere guitar attacks
were in the past forever. Death integrated even fusion-elements
into their death metal based sound, even two years before the
progressive-death-metal wave started with Cynic, Atheist and Pestilence.
The change can best be heard on the spacy-experimental instrumental
"Cosmic Sea."
For "Individual
Thought Patterns" ('93) Chuck could win giant double bass
drummer Gene Hoglan and King Diamond guitarist Andy LaRocque.
The main changes took place in the lyrics, where philosophical
lines overtook the gore.
The most accessible
Death album "Symbolic" ('95) was a big commercial flop.
Yet songs such as "Crystal Mountain" and "Empty
Words" surpassed the boundaries of death metal and became
real classics. Disappointed about the restrained opinions on "Symbolic",
Chuck put Death on ice and started his side project Control Denied,
with which he concentrated completely on the guitar and left the
singing to Tim Aymar. Surprisingly he reformed Death in 1998 for
the "The Sound Of Perseverance" album. In 1999 the technically
perfect Control Denied disk "The Fragile Art Of Existence"
followed.
Shortly after the
release of this album Chuck was diagnosed with a brainstem tumor.
Which in retrospect made the album title almost an evil prediction.
After the first operation Chuck recovered quite well, so that
he quickly returned to work on the new Control Denied album. Chuck
could not beat the setback he got last year though. His inimitable
kind of singing will stay as unforgettable as his masterly guitarplay.
With him a great metal pioneer has gone from us, yet he will live
on through his music! Rest in Peace Chuck!
Robert Pöpperl
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Terrorizer
CHUCK SCHULDINER:
THE PASSING OF A LEGEND
It's been said that
death is the great leveller, and yet to believe that is to accept
that it's the bringer of some ultimate force of justice, something
that none of us can feel right now, and perhaps never will.
Chuck Schuldiner passed away on Thursday December 13 after a
determined fight against cancer. The suddenness with which it
took him, just when his recovery was such a distinct possibility,
is a gratuitous cruelty that only casts his resolve and his
nobility into sharper relief.
Those qualities
were deeply rooted in Chuck Schuldiner's music, which in turn
is deeply rooted in all of us. That past Death slogan, 'The
first word in death metal' was no joke. At once visionary and
definitive, Death were the standard by which all future acts
would be judged, and yet to match the expressive, technical
brilliance that ran from 'Scream Bloody Gore', through to 'Leprosy',
'Symbolic' and beyond would always be the hardest of acts. To
listen to them now isn't just to bring memories flooding back,
it's to lose yourself in a complexity so beautifully structured
that they still feels like a template for new possibilities,
an ever-renewable source. The death that took Chuck Schuldiner
has cheated all of us, and yet his spirit will be reborn again
and again, as a long as all of us continue to inherit his defiance
and his fire. Our deepest condolences go out to Chuck's family,
friends and colleagues, and for all those who wish to pass on
their own, a book of condolences can be found at www.emptywords.org.
Jonathan Selzer
Terrorizer Magazine
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Metal Nightmare fanzine
A Eulogy for Chuck Schuldiner
The year 2001 will probably be remembered as a year that saw
the release of many great albums. OPETH's "Blackwater Park"
for one, ZYKLON's"World ov Worms" another. But 2001
will also be remembered as a very costly year. For it was on
December 13th that we lost one of our own. Chuck Schuldiner
of DEATH and CONTROL DENIED is no longer with us.
For me, Chuck is and
will always be the Godfather of Death Metal. Many will point to
POSSESSED as the band that started the genre, and such an opinion
is a valid one. But while POSSESSED was the band that got the
ball rolling, Chuck and his bands MANTAS and then DEATH were the
ones that picked it up and hurled it through the neighbor's window.
The fact is that Chuck
Schuldiner never did consider himself to be the creator of death
metal. In an interview I did with him back in 1998, he told me
that he was just playing metal. He never thought that he was in
a "death metal" band, whatever that was back in 1985.
As he told me, he thought it was pretty wild to be called death
metal. Personally, I think he was right. At that time, there really
wasn't any death metal as we know it today, or even as we knew
it back in 1991. DEATH was simply one hell of a heavy band. POSSESSED
took thrash metal a step further, but it was DEATH that truly
spawned what would become death metal. Chuck's vocals were the
most brutal thing out there at the time. Many have come and gone
since, but Chuck was the original.
DEATH was a band that
truly evolved over time. "Scream Bloody Gore" was an
exercise in primitive extreme music. Lyrically it was never one
of the more insightful albums, but the overall feel makes it one
of the true classics, and an album that may well have the most
influence on the scene even today. Out of all of DEATH's songs,
I believe that "Evil Dead" is the most covered one.
"Leprosy" and "Spiritual Healing were far more
refined, and it was with these two releases that DEATH truly became
a force to be reckoned with. Something that's important to note
is that while Chuck used was would come to be called "death
metal vocals," he did them in a way that the words were still
understandable. This is something that has been lost on most of
today's vocalists. Starting with "Human," DEATH began
to go through a major change. Chuck's abilities as a technical
guitarist began to show through, and the music became more complex.
This continued on through the remaining albums of "Individual
Thought Patterns," "Symbolic," and finally "The
Sound of Perseverance." When it came to wizardly complicated
riffs, Chuck was clearly one of the masters. But because the genre
he played in was not popular among the mainstream, I don't believe
he ever received the same kinds of accolades as the likes of George
Lynch, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, or Joe Satriani. Still, I feel
that Chuck Schuldiner could have easily held his own against the
likes of them, and perhaps even surpassed them. When it came to
music, Chuck was never one to just play it safe.
The tumor in Chuck's
brain may have finally taken him from us, but it cannot erase
his works or his legacy. We will always have the seven DEATH studio
albums, as well as the two official live albums and probably countless
bootlegs. We will also have the sole CONTROL DENIED release, but
it is CONTROL DENIED where the cancer has also robbed us. We will
never know what would have been if the band had been able to continue.
The second album remains unfinished at this time. We also will
never know if DEATH would have been resurrected again. At one
point, Chuck stated that DEATH was over. But he was also one to
say never say never.
Chuck is gone, but
he will always be with us. He lives on in each and every one of
the metal faithful. He was always a strong supporter of metal
in general. I don't think there is a single metal band out there
today that does not count the music of Chuck Schuldiner as an
influence. Chuck lives through us in the metal songs that we hear.
And of course he lives each and every time that we listen to one
of his albums.
I'd like to think
that Chuck is in a place now where he is free of the pain and
of the limitations of this mortal coil. As cheesy as it may sound,
maybe even now he is hard at work, jamming with other fallen heroes
of ours. Maybe in the afterlife we will find Chuck Schuldiner
again, and will find him writing and jamming with the likes of
Jimi Hendrix, Bon Scott, Randy Rhoads, John Bonham, Euronymous,
Ingo Schwichtenburg, Theo Loomans, Gar Samuelson, Eric Carr, Wendy
Williams, or Joshua Heatley.
Rest in peace, Chuck
Schuldiner. We will miss you, we will mourn you, but we will never
forget you.
Tom Wren
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Metalreview.com
Where exactly the core of ones soul derives could be speculated,
but the actual make-up is not an exact science. What factors
create ones being, ones personality, ones values, and ones expectations.
Will forever be a mystery. Precisely how it should be. Therefore
creating individualism, uniqueness, and the acute qualities
that decipher your own personality from every other fuck out
there. Who you are and what you stand for had to come from somewhere.
Where exactly, who can fucking tell. To actually step back and
contemplate your own internal make-up. Is to quite possibly
evaluate your own heroes/influences. It has to be a combination
of what you respect, who you respect and what kind of person
you want to be. The roads you have traveled and the faces you
have encountered. Ultimately after all these factors are taken
into consideration the actual, "born-to" ideals along
with those influences could be the final philosophy in which
you live your life.
As I found myself sorting through my own emotions of Chuck's
death, I knew that it would be no easy task to describe the
impact that his music actually had on me. I will openly admit
these feeling were amplified ten fold upon his death. If I were
to explain Chuck's music if he were still alive things would
be different. The intensity of his constitution would still
be the same but not analyzed as tenaciously as they are now.
It comes down to the age-old saying "you don't know how
good you have it until it is gone". After a full week of
contemplation, my explanation of what Chuck Schuldiner's music
meant to me comes down to this. A part of who I am is accredited
to a one, Chuck Schuldiner and the music he created. I in no
way state that his virtue is what I am completely made of. But
a fraction of Chuck Schuldiner is inscribed in my ultimate make-up.
I could explain every nuance in great detail of why this came
to be. Every incredible moment that I have had at the hands
of a genius.
But why…? I
take comfort in the fact that I will always have my Death and
Control Denied discs sitting in the collection to comfort the
loss of an absolute visionary. Beyond that I really have nothing
left more to say.
After so many have written
so much pertaining to Chuck Schuldiner and his Florida based
band Death, utilizing adjective after adjective to describe
him and his music in numerous and endless ways, what more can
be said that hasn't been said already? It would probably not
be beneficial to any and all true Chuck Schuldiner fans if I
were to give a history on him or his music, due to the fact
that you're more than likely familiar with the story already.
To all of you that haven't had the opportunity to hear of either
Chuck or his music, all I have to say is you are missing out
on something special. If you've read any of my dissections in
the past you will know I have stated that Chuck pioneered the
genre of metal we know as "death". This is a fact,
and he did so by forming his band Death. This is about all of
Chuck's history that I plan on mentioning to you. I believe
the most beneficial thing for me would be to share my history
with the band Death with you. Hopefully after you have read
this piece you will have gained something from it. What I have
already gained from writing this dissection is immeasurable.
The year was 1996,
and like everyone else in the world I was going through some
rough and trying times. I don't have to tell most of you that
one of the best medications for those times is music. Music
is that bridge that leads you to places that are unimaginable
in the real world. It's an escape that allows us to be free
of the pain we all face from day to day. At that time in 96',
a long time friend and I hooked up with a couple of musicians
who later became two of my best friends and still are to this
date. We formed a metal band and it was the beginning of a time
in my life that helped heal some wounds and a time that will
never be forgotten. During that musical phase in my life, I
was really into the sounds of Pantera, Sepultura, Entombed,
Slayer and the list goes on and on. These two new friends, Russ-Ale
and Diabolic, turned me on to bands I didn't even know existed
in the metal scene. They turned me on to many great albums that
I didn't even know were available on the current metal market.
One of those albums was Symbolic by Death.
Having been introduced
to Death did for me what hearing The Beatles for the first time
must have done for my father. I received a taped copy of Symbolic
that had Coroner's Grin on the opposite side. I listened to
that tape over and over again and never in my 11 years of listening
to metal had I heard anything that moved me with such feeling.
I had heard plenty of extreme metal in my day, but I had never
heard any metal that contained a melodic/technical combination
of this caliber. What even further blew my mind was the fact
that Chuck played rhythm and lead guitar while singing at that
same time (live anyway). And the singing, I had never heard
anything so heavy yet so finely tuned, with lyrical concepts
that touch on a state of genius. Anyone who has read the written
words laid down by Chuck knows that he went to tremendous lengths
to bring out the best in his lyrics. Symbolic contains some
of the best lyrics written up to it's release in 1995 and still
to this day. Chuck made sure every Death track contained the
full package by always surrounding himself with the best musicians
he could find. It was a wise choice, always playing with topnotch
musicians that is, because every Death track does contain all
of the elements needed to be labeled as "Masterpiece Metal".
Ty Brookman/Jon Eardley
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Kerrang Magazine
UK
Death frontman Chuck Schuldiner passed away on December
13 after losing his battle with a malignant brain tumor. Three
years ago, Chuck was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that
afflicted his brain and led to extensive medical treatment.
Although Schuldiners did beat back the cancer for a short period
of time, it came back full-force last year, prompting more extensive
treatments. He finally got some national attention when, in
a critical state, he was nearly refused treatment at a Californian
hospital because he didn't have the required health insurance.
When news of Schuldiner's illness spread, Death fans around
the wordl donated their money and support, raising thousands
of dollars for his medical fund. Unfortunately, despite fighting
hard for his life, Chuck was unable to beat his illness and
has died at the young age of 34.
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Chuck Schuldiner was one of the
most significant figures in the history of metal. After developing
an unrivalled reputation among extreme metal tape-traders in the
mid-'80s, Death released their first album, the classic "Scream
Bloody Gore", in 1987. An instant hit with fans of the underground
metal scene. Death became flag-bearers for what was then known
as death metal. Since then, Schuldiner released a further six
studio albums with Death, including "Leprosy" (1988)
and "Spiritual Healing" (1989), both benchmarks for
the death metal scene. In 1999 Schuldiner released an album with
a new band, Control Denied, which showed a more progressive side
to his songwriting skills.
"Chuck was never the easiest person to know or get along
with, but that was due to his unwavering and uncompormising dedication
to his music," writes K! scribe Don Kaye. "Chuck deservedly
achieved legendary status in his lifetime as a true original.
He will be greatly missed, but his impact on the metal music he
loved will remain forever."
"I'm very sad about it all," Soulfly's Max Cavalera
tells Kerrang!. "Death were very influential at the start
of Sepultura's career. We used to trade letters when I lived in
Brazil. He made me a cassette copy of the first album and sent
it to me before it came out."
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"All of us were big fans of Death back in the really early
days," says Napalm Death frontman Barney Greenway. "Early
Death was just a bastion of brutality. Those first three albums
were every bit as important as "Reign In Blood"."
"I knew he was having health problems but to finally hear that
he has passed is very sad," says Fear Factory drummer Raymond
Herrera. "I was a huge fan of the band and collected all of
his works when I was a kid. He'll be missed."
"The death of Chuck is very sad indeed," states Cathedral
frontman Lee Dorrian. "His influence on the world of extreme
music is massive, almost beyond words. he was also a very intelligent
and polite gentleman who will be greatly missed."
"His death is a truly sad loss," says Stampin' Ground
guitarist Scott Atkins. "I'm sure his talent reached far beyond
the boundaries of extreme music." |
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Chronicles of
Chaos
We end this editorial on a sombre note, as I include the thoughts
of two CoC writers on this tragedy. I would like to dedicate this,
one of the greatest issues in Chronicles of Chaos' six and a half
year history, to Chuck Schuldiner, master of metal.
Perseverance sadly grew silent. Chuck has been one of my utmost
favourite songwriters and musicians for about a decade. He will
be greatly missed. Let the metal flow! Support music, not rumors.
-- Chris Flaaten
While I was never a huge fan of Chuck Schuldiner's pioneering
metal outfit Death, I was still a fan. His passing on December
13th, 2001 has left me saddened and upset. Moreso than some might
think. You see, a few years back I had the opportunity to talk
to Schuldiner about his then new project Control Denied and the
album _The Fragile Art of Existence_ . Sure it was one of the
hundred interviews I had done that year, but this interview
would be one of the most rewarding interview opportunities I would
encounter in my music journalism career. At the time of the interview,
my 27-year-old twin brother Winston (now 30 and in good health)
was diagnosed with a pelvic tumor and had been going through several
months of treatment, while at the same time Schuldiner was in
the midst of treatment and in-between hospital stays. We talked
about the new album, of course, but before we got into all that,
we talked for a while about how a life-threatening illness affects
family and friends. He said, "With what has happened to me,
it has really opened up my eyes and drawn me closer to my family
and friends. It makes you realize a lot of different things. The
outpouring of letters from around the world from people I don't
even know has meant a lot to me. I am deeply touched by the response
from all of this. A lot of personal stories have been told to
me, like the one of your brother, and that makes me feel good
that people are willing to open up, and it shows me I shouldn't
keep this all in.It's a very emotional experience to read all
of this stuff that people send me. It really shows you just how
things really are and how simple things can mean so much to you."
I pulled out that interview a few days after I had heard of his
passing and couldn't believe that such a brave fighter like Chuck
had lost his battle. His fight had come to an end, but no doubt
his fans will keep his work alive and well within the metal realms
for years to come. God bless you Chuck! Rest in peace. Please
visit the official Death site http://www.emptywords.org and sign
the book
of condolence.-- Adrian Bromley
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Rock Station
Magazine Turkey
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"Some just
listen to music…
Some make music…
However there are some…. Who create music.."
13 December 2001… at 16.00 PM… a time that thousands
of people feel sad about. His presence brought about a revolution,
raising the standards of metal, guiding a generation of
musicians and influencing them in a way that cannot be defined.
We have known about Chuck's battle with cancer for some
time. We were concerned about him and praying for him. However,
the disease he was fighting was merciless and insidious,
it brought him to the end very slowly, even while giving
us a glimmer of hope for recovery. He was so young, and
had a such lovely and sensitive personality behind his great
charisma. He was so sensitive, that it even reflected in
his facial muscles as an inner smile, while singing all
those aggressive songs. An overwhelming reaction to his
presence, melodies and lyrics comes from deep inside and
cannot be described… |
A long time ago, I lost two of my best friends to the same type
of illness. One was my childhood friend Omer. He had awful headaches
all the time. He suffered from terrible pain. When he went to
the doctors, they said he needed an operation. They operated,
but he never recovered from his coma. When I was in high school,
my friend Mehmet suffered from terrible headaches. The doctors
gave him drugs to ease his suffering, but nevertheless, we lost
him to brain cancer. One might think there was a link. When I
think about Chuck's disease, having my friends and memories in
mind, I feel terrible sadness inside. This disease is so disgusting
that I am scared to talk about it. It is so difficult to beat
it. Have you ever wondered why humans are afraid of dying? Everybody
does and for lots of different reasons. I found at least two main
reasons: first, not seeing the people I love anymore; secondly
the fact of disappearing. We can do nothing about the first one,
but there are lots of things to do about the second one. When
people who are left behind say good things about yo9u when you're
gone, and pay their respects and regards, saying that you've done
great things and shouldn't have died. I suppose I've done some
good things as well, so I'm not afraid of death. When I think
and feel these things, I know that Chuck; the man who created
a revolution and a new musical style, would not be so fearful
or sad. He left us with honor and he's with the angels now. Have
you ever thought about why angels are so lucky? They are so lucky
because all the good people are with them forever…
I was in a meeting when I
heard about Chuck's death. I wanted to cry because I felt a great
pain inside. I apologized to the people I was with, and they assumed
I had lost one of my relatives. Yes, I lost a relative, a close
friend, a brother who always understood me… After a while
I remembered Omer and Mehmet and the suffering they went through.
I thought about the terrible headaches that they, and Chuck, had.
Then I relaxed a bit, thinking all the pain ended. He left the
pain and those who were making demands on him. If
he had lived, what would have happened by this time? We would
have sent him mails saying, "we want concerts and new albums…
do it! Why don't you?!" We all wanted more and more, while
Chuck was fighting with an endless abyss of pain… At that
point, I thought about how selfish we are. Nobody wants to leave
this world, but we have to accept that it's a relief when you're
in such pain… The person with whom I shared my childhood,
my memories, my love and lots of other things; Chuck, of Death,
facing the very thing he named his band after…
I'm annoyed with myself that
I haven't cried yet, but now at this moment I am crying while
writing these sentences. The only reason for my tears is being
physically so far away from such a great person. Please, have
a look at the cover of our magazine… The picture of Chuck
there… look, how innocent he is. Please, show this to somebody
who doesn't know anything about this music and doesn't accept
it. Ask his opinion without telling anything about Death and Chuck's
musical career. That person will look at this picture and will
absolutely say that he really looks like a good person. Please
tell him that he's right. Hey
Chuck, you gave us lots of great things. You expand our imaginations
with your creations. We catch so many colors with your gifts and
you are the man showing us that the world is not made up of a
single color. I want to thank you my brother. Please don't forget
that you are always in our hearts and one day you will send us
your new melodies with angels. WE LOVE YOU, YOU ARE NOW AND ALWAYS
WILL BE HERE WITH US...
Hicri BOZDAG
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The Orlando
METAL Awards 2002 are humbly dedicated to the memory of CHUCK
SCHULDINER
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Chuck
Schuldiner lost his fight against Cancer December 13th,
2001...
Considered by many in the
Metal community as the Godfather of Death Metal, he will
be remembered by most of us as a friend and colleage.
Words cannot aptly describe the loss and sadness that
so many of us have felt with his passing. After diligently
trying to conjure up words to express the loss that I
myself and you the fans have felt, I believe it would
be in vain to try and mold words worthy of Chuck's eternal
legacy and memory...
Therefore the following
quote is from Chuck's loving mother, of whom we send out
our deepest condolences and sympathies...
"Even though it was
a very tough battle at times, Chuck always stayed clear
minded and positive that he would get well, to the very
end of his life, literally. His many fans and friends
are responsible for that positive attitude because you
always gave him hope with your emails, cards and letters.
And now you are sending emails helping his family through
the most difficult time of our lives, trying to cope with
the loss of the most wonderful person I have ever known,
a much, much loved and missed son, uncle and brother.
As his sister said, life has a haze over it with Chuck
gone, and life will never be the same."
Thank you for your support.
- Jane Schuldiner (Chuck's mom)
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