Chuck Schuldiner: Legend or Ideological Disaster?

Abstract: Chuck Schuldiner, who founded the band Death in the middle 1980s, contributed to early death metal (but did not invent it). While his musical contributions were great, at some point in his later career -- works deemed unfit for review on anus.com for musical reasons -- he became a Christian, and the cadre of metalheads and metal sellers who have rushed to capitalize on his death have very complacently begun preaching that same Christianity to the rest of us. Metal is a genre founded outside of the principles of Christianity or Judaism, and it is our opinion that lauding Chuck or celebrating his death is destructive to metal as it brings these outside elements further into the genre through the weakness of a dying member.

It was with some sadness, and relief, that I read of Chuck Schuldiner's death and passage from this world into not another world, but a total lack of being, where no "God" watches over him and no judgment exists.

This helps me remember Chuck from his most passionate days, when the cross in the Death logo was still inverted, and Chuck had rejected society in favor of death metal. Back then, Chuck knew as we all do (somewhere in our consciousnesses) that death metal was founded to get away from the sickening social logic of which Christianity is a part, of mainstream culture. Death metal is about passion and spirit; Christianity is about bowing to a spirit, an idea, and a religion which has demonstrated its moronic effects on culture for the last 2,000 years.

Any band worth its salt in the metal community completely rejects Christ, and back before he gave up and joined the forces of beaten adulthood, Chuck Schuldiner felt the same way. His blasphemies were part of the community he joined after bands like Sodom, Morbid Angel, Sepultura, Possessed, Slayer, Bathory and Celtic Frost laid the groundwork for death metal. That attitude was the spirit that allowed death metal to break away from the mainstream and become unique. But as Chuck aged, his attitude softened, and soon he became a full-on Christian. The upside down cross in the Death logo began the slow process of morphing to a Christian one.

Chuck's conversion to Christianity, a dirty secret of the metal community, had many believing that it is acceptable to be a metal musician and to still follow the religion that destroys all things which metal upholds. Some study of the genre suggests otherwise. Contrary to popular belief, Chuck had no education and very little reading in philosophy, or was completely stupid in his radically awkward misinterpretations of philosophical arguments. The labels who profit the most from his works are quick to echo this feeling, and to shout loudly at any of us who point out that to be a Christian in underground metal, is to be a traitor!

chuck schuldiner started the band death and contributed some things to death metal, but then became an icon of the christian left upon converting to christianity and changing his music to simpler, more heavy metal styled products America is such a moralistic cesspool that the vast majority of death metal fans, who like the vast majority of Americans are mediocre, anti-intellectual and of short attention span, immediately took it upon themselves to broadcast Chuck's image on sites across the net, often including the image of a cross next to his name. People waxed on endlessly about Chuck's contributions to "philosophy" in metal lyrics, a complete fabrication. Chuck knew sentiment, not philosophy; don't confuse the two just because you, like most Americans, are philosophically illiterate. Other folks rambled on about how he "invented" death metal and glorified Death as the absolute height of the genre. Still others were content to become maudlin and, because the death metal community is dysfunctional and emotionally wishes it had the cohesion of others, began acting as if this death was "bringing the community together" and achieving some kind of God-fearing unitivity that we're all somehow lacking.

These things help no one, least of all Chuck during the time of his contribution to the genre. Control Denied covered familiar ground only. Later Death albums, as proto-Control Denied works, fit into a similar category. And interestingly, his ideology slid into the vapid at the same time his music fell into predictable patterns.

Chuck did some great things for metal. These ended when he became Christian. Whether or not you want to attempt a short-range argument and claim that metal itself is not explicitly anti-Christian, arguing that DEATH METAL is not explicitly anti-Christian is nothing short of insane. This is alienated music that left the mainstream for a good reason, and the mainstream in America is definitely Christian or Judeo-Christian, as philosphers (not death metal lyricists) like to call it. Judeo-Christianity, or Christianity, however you prefer, is the mindset that drives the hatred which drives a desire for a new way or possibility in metal.

Chuck Schuldiner, his supporters and profiteers have smashed all of what metal stands for with tributes to Chuck that are essentially Christian propaganda. Let's not smear the music Chuck and thousands of others worked for by letting his name and a cross stand for this genre. Let's not screw up and give up on our independence and join the rest of the world with a hallmark commemoration, so we can feel like victims too and have a designated crying day on Chuck's birthday. Let's instead take a stand and reject the idea of martyrdom, self-pity and anything which reeks of the insipid Christianity upon which this country was founded.

(This indignant and moralistic reply looks like a sure hit to me.)

X-Originating-IP: [209.244.150.227]
From: "jane schuldiner" <tanzid2@hotmail.com>
To: prozak@anus.com
Subject: Re: chuck schuldiner and christianity
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 06:49:59 -0600

What kind of mental problem do you have? Chuck nor his family have said 
anything about christianity, for or against. It is not a cause with us and 
never has been. Sorry, your email evoked nothing in me but disgust that 
people like you exist to harass a mother who just lost her son. I will 
definitely send this to your carrier. Hopfully ,you will lose your rights 
with them. I will also publicize this in order to alert people that you 
exist and to beware.

>From: prozak@anus.com
>To: tanzid2@hotmail.com, fortress@thevine.net
>Subject: chuck schuldiner and christianity
>Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 15:09:30 -0600
>
>Here are our thoughts on Chuck and his conversion to Christianity:
>
>http://www.anus.com/metal/about/metal/chuck_schuldiner.html
>
>Christianity does not belong in death metal. Chuck did not invent it.
>His mother and her supporters are abusing the underground by
>attempting to make us accept Christianity in the process of mourning
>Chuck.
>
>I hope this email hurts you, offends you and wakes you up. Christians
>are traitors to metal - no exceptions.
>
>SRP
>

Death Lyrics from Chuck Schuldiner

Do you feel what I feel, see what I see, hear what I hear
There is a line you must draw between your dream world and reality
Do you live my life or share the breath I breathe
Lies feed your judgment of others
Behold how the blind lead each other
The philosopher
You know so much about nothing at all
"The Philosopher," Individual Thought Patterns

Here we can see a very Christian defense of individualism from Chuck, in which he tells us how he doesn't want to be judged, while judging others and thus contradicting himself. Do we need another philosophically illiterate vocalist in metal? Hell, no!

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