The Priceless Ones – I : Chuck Schuldiner.

Chuck Schuldiner formed Death under the name of  Mantas in 1983. He was just 16 years old at that time. Original members of the band comprised of Schuldiner (guitar), Rick Rozz (guitar) and Kam Lee (drums and vocals).  In January of 1986, Schuldiner had to move to Toronto for some reason. But even there he never left playing death metal. In Canada, Chuck temporarily joined a Canadian band named, Slaughter. But he quickly returned to America to continue the formation of his original band, Death.

Death saw many lineup changes throughout the years. But ultimately in 1987 Chuck released the first Death album with Chris Reifert. The album was named  Scream Bloody Gore.In 1988 Death’s next album was released titled, Leprosy. During this album the band consisted of former Mantas guitarist, Rick Rozz on rhythm section, Terry Butler on bass and Bill Andrews on drums. Later on Rick Rozz was fired from the band by Chuck. Rick was replaced by very well known death metal guitarist, James Murphy. And in 1990 Death released Spiritual Healing with James Murphy.

Death’s next album, Human was more filled with a technical and progressive style, in which Chuck had displayed his guitaring skills at the utmost level one could have imagined at that time. Chuck continued to increase the technicality and the brutality in the music of Death in the band’s further releases. 1993′s Individual Thought Patterns, 1995′s Symbolic, and finally The Sound of Perseverance in 1998 were a sheer example of pure death metal which are today considered as the foundation of this whole genre known as death metal.

He dissolved Death after this and went on to from a new band called Control Denied, and released The Fragile Art of Existence in 1999. But 1999 held many other things for Chuck which were not really good for him, for his fans and for the metal community around the world.

When Chuck woke up on the morning of his 32nd birthday i.e. May 13, 1999 what he had in mind was a cheerful day of celebration with his friends and family. But instead of that he got the biggest blow he could have received in his whole life, that this birthday may be the last one to be celebrated. On this day Chuck was diagnosed of a cancerous tumor at the bottom of his brain.

The origin of all this started when he was recording the album for Control Denied. He felt severe pains in his neck and which spread further to his arms too. As soon as he finished the recording the album he went for many healing methods which included various massage therapies and acupuncture techniques. But these were not helping much. After this he went in for an MRI and this was where his tumor was found. During the next few months all Chuck was doing was flying across the country, meeting some of the best doctors and even went through severely painful sessions of chemotherapy. But it was obvious that finally he had to be operated otherwise he is dead for sure.

At this time Chuck started to panic because he knew his financial strength and he wasn’t even a insured musician. But somehow his family and friends arranged a team of five surgeons who had agreed to do his operation for free. But the dark clouds of difficulties again over covered his hopes. New York University Medical Centre’s Tisch Hospital still demanded a hefty amount, somewhere between $ 70,000 and $ 1,00,000 for hosting Chuck’s operation.

In spite of Chuck being so ill and in serious conditions of ill health, the hospital stood strong at their condition. In desperation, Chuck’s sister Beth called Guitar World Magazine if they could be of some help. They further contacted publicists, media persons and music channels to come together for help of this priceless musician. The media covered the case deeply and it was shown how a hospital was denying from saving a life because the musician could not meet their financial demands. The hospital had to respond to the widespread negative publicity they were getting and they ultimately had to allow the surgery to take place. The operation only lasted for four hours, much less than that was assumed and was a successful one. Chuck still needed some more radiation therapy to get rid of it completely.

Nearly  two years after he was diagnosed, the cancer returned and Schuldiner fell ill again around May, 2001. He was again denied surgery due to lack of funds. Schuldiner had gotten medical insurance after his first surgery, but the insurer refused to pay because the tumor existed before he had gotten the insurance. Schuldiner received a chemotherapy drug called vincristine to help with his healing. Like most drugs that are used in the treatment of cancer, the side effects were harsh and weakened Schuldiner largely. In early November Schuldiner became ill with pneumonia worsening his condition.

Chuck died on December 13, 2001, at approximately 4 p.m. He was buried in Tampa, Florida on December 18, 2001 and many famed musicians including Mike Patton, Dimebag Darrell, Glen Benton, King Diamond, Ville Valo, Trey Azagthoth and Max Cavalera, along with all of the former and active members of Death, attended his funeral.

A legal battle began from the time of Chuck’s death on the settlement of the rights to the partially completed second Control Denied album, When Man and Machine Collide. Demos of these unreleased Control Denied songs, as well as early Death demos and live Death recordings from 1990, were released in the Zero Tolerance two-part compilation bootlegs by the Dutch Hammerheart Holdings company and the Schuldiners and Greif asserted rights on behalf of Chuck’s estate. The matter was settled in November 2009, anticipating the project being finished and released in 2010.