Death was an American death metal band formed in Altamonte Springs, Florida, in 1983 by guitarist Chuck Schuldiner (who later became the band's sole vocalist), drummer/vocalist Kam Lee, and guitarist Rick Rozz. Formed out of what would become the Florida death metal scene, Death is considered a pioneering death metal band. The band's 1987 debut album, Scream Bloody Gore, is regarded as one of the first death metal records, alongside the first records from Possessed and Necrophagia.
Death had a fluctuating lineup, with Schuldiner, aside from a European tour, the sole consistent member. The group's style progressed from the raw sound on its first two albums to a more complex one in its later stage. The band disbanded after Schuldiner died of glioma and pneumonia in December 2001, but remains an enduring influence on death metal.
History
Early history (1983–1985) Chuck Schuldiner co-founded Mantas with Rick Rozz and Kam Lee in either 1983 or 1984 in Altamonte Springs, Florida. Death was among the more widely known pioneers of the death metal sound, along with California's Possessed.
Schuldiner, Rozz and Lee composed songs that were released on several rehearsal tapes in 1984. These tapes, along with the Death by Metal demo, circulated through the tape-trader world, establishing the band's name. In 1984, Schuldiner dissolved Mantas and started a band named Death with the same members. In an article written in December 2010, Tim Aymar stated that Schuldiner renamed the band Death to turn the death of his brother Frank years earlier into "something positive". Inspired by Nasty Savage, Death was among the first bands in the Florida death metal scene. Another demo was released, Reign of Terror.
In 1985, the Infernal Death tape was recorded and released. Rick Rozz was out of the band by early 1985. Schuldiner and Lee played with Scott Carlson and Matt Olivo, bassist and guitarist, respectively, of the band Genocide (later renamed Repulsion) for a short time. Lee had "personal problems" that caused him to be ejected from the band. Combat Records had offered the band a deal if they recorded another demo; the band could not convince Lee to rejoin. Olivo and Carlson left soon after. Schuldiner moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and recruited former Dirty Rotten Imbeciles drummer Eric Brecht, in addition to guitarist Erik Meade, who learned bass guitar. The band recorded the Back from the Dead demo and played shows at Ruthies Inn. Schuldiner was unhappy with this incarnation of Death, partly because he felt that Brecht, who had incorporated blast beats, was playing too fast, and moved back to Florida without a band. In 1986, Canadian thrash metal band Slaughter invited Schuldiner to play on their album. He accepted and moved to Canada. This only lasted two weeks, and he returned to the States. He returned to Florida, then moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area again, where he joined 17-year-old drummer Chris Reifert.
Record deal and Scream Bloody Gore (1986–1987)
Schuldiner and Reifert recorded the Mutilation demo in April 1986, which led to a deal with Combat Records. That summer, they began recording their first album, which was abandoned and written off as a mistake after Combat was unsatisfied with the recording, which Reifert blamed on the studio engineers. In November 1986, the band was sent to Los Angeles to re-record the album at The Music Grinder with Randy Burns, which the band felt optimistic about due to his work on Possessed's Seven Churches. The basic tracks were recorded in a couple of days, while Schuldiner recorded the bass, lead guitars and vocals at Rock Steady Studios, also in L.A.
Scream Bloody Gore was released in 1987 and is considered a genre template for death metal. The band briefly had a second guitar player, John Hand, but he did not appear on the album (though his photo did). Schuldiner and Reifert recruited Steve Di Giorgio of Sadus and rehearsed in Concord for live shows, which never took place as Schuldiner moved back to Florida. Reifert remained in California, where he formed Autopsy. Back in Florida, Schuldiner teamed up with former bandmate Rick Rozz and two members of Rozz's band Massacre, Terry Butler and Bill Andrews.
Mid-era: Leprosy, Spiritual Healing and Human (1988–1992) In 1988, that line-up recorded Leprosy. After much touring in support of the album, including a quick and ill-planned tour of Europe, Rozz was fired in 1989. After a tour of Mexico featuring guitarist Paul Masvidal (later to re-emerge in the Death lineup), a replacement was found in James Murphy, with whom they recorded their third album, Spiritual Healing, in Tampa in the summer of 1989. Murphy left the band relatively quickly. By this time, Schuldiner abandoned the "gore" lyrical theme for more social critique. Melody was added to the band's sound.
In 1990, on the eve of a European tour, Schuldiner decided against traveling, claiming at the last minute that he felt the tour was not adequately organized (and citing the group's previous disorganized European tour in 1988) as well as having personal problems. Andrews and Butler continued with the tour of Europe as Death to fulfill the band's contractual obligations, and recruited roadies Walter Trachsler and Louie Carrisalez to replace Schuldiner on guitar and vocals, respectively. Schuldiner was shocked and disgusted, and pursued legal action against Butler and Andrews.
Schuldiner abandoned the idea of a band set-up and began working with session musicians. Schuldiner recruited Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert from underground Florida band Cynic and hired Steve Di Giorgio from California band Sadus. In 1991, Death released Human, considered a more technical and progressive album than their previous works, incorporating complex rhythms, riffs and song structures. Human was Death's best-selling album yet, receiving many accolades and some MTV play for the group's first video, directed by David Bellino, for the track "Lack of Comprehension". Due to obligations with his primary band Sadus, Di Giorgio departed after the recording of Human and new bassist Scott Carino did Death's extensive world tour, from October 1991 until April 1992, in addition to appearing in the music video for "Lack of Comprehension".
Final years: Individual Thought Patterns, Symbolic, The Sound of Perseverance and Schuldiner's death (1993–2001) Di Giorgio called Reinert and told him that he was replaced with Gene Hoglan, while Di Giorgio and Hoglan were in the studio working on the album Individual Thought Patterns. Hoglan had been playing with the recently dissolved thrash metal band Dark Angel, while Andy LaRocque from King Diamond guested on guitar. Since LaRocque was obligated to his band, Schuldiner hired Ralph Santolla as touring guitarist for a European tour in April, called Full of Hate, as well as the American release tour that started in July. Forbidden guitarist Craig Locicero was enlisted to take Santolla's place, as he was busy playing with his band Eyewitness, and played another European tour, which started in Bradford, England, that September. The video for the track "The Philosopher" made it on to an episode of Beavis & Butt-head in 1994 (Beavis also parodies Schuldiner's vocals in a mock 'drive-thru' order of 'tacos, to go!' in death metal style). Also in 1994, Death ended its eight-year relationship with Relativity and signed with Roadrunner Records, their European distributor. For 1995's Symbolic, LaRocque and Di Giorgio were exchanged for underground Florida musicians Kelly Conlon and Bobby Koelble. Conlon was let go from the band prior to the Symbolic tour and Brian Benson replaced him.
After touring for Symbolic, Schuldiner broke up Death following tension with Roadrunner Records and focused on Control Denied. Schuldiner signed with record label Nuclear Blast in late 1997, though the label required that another Death album be released before a Control Denied album could be issued. The seventh Death release, The Sound of Perseverance, was completed at Morrisound Recording in Tampa and released on Nuclear Blast in 1998. Schuldiner partnered with his Control Denied collaborators at the time, Scott Clendenin and Shannon Hamm, in addition to drummer Richard Christy. Schuldiner had hoped to play with Di Giorgio (who had recorded demos for the album), but he did not have the time.
After the album and two supporting tours, Schuldiner put Death aside to pursue Control Denied with Christy and Hamm. Clendenin was dropped in April 1999, in favor of Steve Di Giorgio, who had become available, while underground power metal singer Tim Aymar had joined the band in 1997. Although the line-up and writing style were largely the same, Schuldiner created Control Denied because he was displeased with the harsher vocals for Death. He created a new band to avoid betraying what Death meant and sounded like to fans, remarking: "For me, it is just a matter of evolving, doing it the right way. I didn't put out a Death record with this stuff on it. I made the right choice and changed the name of the band. I tried to do everything the right way."
There were plans for a Death show in June 1999 in Italy at Gods of Metal, with Metallica headlining. As Schuldiner finished Control Denied's debut album, he was diagnosed with brain cancer, forcing the band to scrap plans for a U.S. and Canadian tour. As he worked on the second release, Schuldiner's condition improved, but the tumor left him in a weakened, vulnerable state. He contracted pneumonia and was hospitalized. On December 13, 2001, Schuldiner was released and returned home. He died an hour after arriving home.
Artistry Musical style and instrumentation Death were considered pioneers of the death metal subgenre of heavy metal. According to Malcolm Dome of Metal Hammer, Death "took the thrash template and intensified it, adding guttural vocals, a style that few outside the tape trading network would have been familiar with." Music biographer Garry Sharpe-Young considered Death "a genre-breaking band centered upon frontman Chuck Schuldiner" and that the band "would become one of the prime instigators of the death metal movement". However, Schuldiner dismissed such attributions by stating, in an interview with Metal-Rules.com, "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". In Death's later output, their music became more technical and melodic, showcasing a technical death metal, progressive metal, and melodic death metal style. According to Loudwire, "With 1990s Spiritual Healing, Death started to transform into a progressive, technical death metal band, adding abrupt 90-degree rhythm shifts and multiple tempo changes without sacrificing their heavy groove." Joe DiVita of Loudwire said "along with Carcass and At the Gates, Death helped pave the way for infectious melodies and hooks to enter the genre." Complex time signatures also became a hallmark of the band's style later in their career.
Regarding percussion styles, Gene Hoglan is recognized as a percussionist using double kick drum equipment and one of a crop who "set new standards in speed and endurance". During an interview he described Sean Reinert's drumming on Human as "godly", and praised it as "the fastest double bassing around at the time" and "a template which we tried to match on Individual Thought Patterns".
Imagery and lyrics
The band's early releases were described as having taken a "gratuitous gorehound lyrical approach", exploring topics such as zombies and slasher-film style violence. Later releases dealt with topics such as religion, serial killers and substance abuse. Schuldiner said, "I got fed up with writing about crap monsters. [...] What’s horrific about that sort of thing? The real evil in this world goes on in society. I’d just reached a time in my life as a person and as a musician when I felt angry enough to write about it.”