Today is the day Charles Michael Schuldiner, better known as the founder, guitarrist, vocalist, compositor and soul of extreme metal band Death, owuld be celebrating his 44th birthday.
But this just a thought, 'cause Chuck leaved this realm on Decembre 13th, 2001, loosing the fight against brain cancer.
Born on May 13th, 1967 on Long Island New York. He started playing guitar at the age of 9, just after his 16 year old brother died. His parent thought it would be a way to help with his grief. His teacher taught him "Mary had a little lamb" that didn't like him much. He almost stopped playning until his parents bought him a electric guitar, he spend a lot of time in the garage playing with his guitar, teaching himself and writing.
He cited Sortilège as his favorite metal band. Slayer, Possessed, Mrcyful Fate/King Diamond and Metallica were late influences he apply more to his own band.
He released his first Death studio album "Scream Bloody Gore" in 1987, then came "Leprosy" in 1988, "Spiritual Healing" in 1990, "Human" in 1991, "Individual Thought Patterns" in 1993, "symbolic" in 1995 and "The Sound of Perseverance" in 1998.
He experimented with heavy, thrash and progressive metal, but he gave the bases for what death metal would be. He was to modest about this situation ""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 his 32nd birthday he was diagnosed with a high-grade pontine glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer. He went under radiation therapy. After all the tumor was neutralized but Schuldiner and his family had a great problem, total costs of the operations came to $70,000, a price the Schuldiner family could not afford, but metal community sended money when they knew Schuldiner's life was in danger, people saved his life.
He continued working with his music with the band Control Denied, but about two years after his original diagnosis, in May 2001 and fell again. Schuldiner recieved a lot of monetary help from bands as Korn, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Trivium and Kid Rock.
Schuldiner died on December 13, 2001, at approximately 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
He left a big legacy for all of us, and he never gave up.
R.I.P.
Charles Michael Schuldiner
May 13, 1967 - Dec 13, 2001
