Interview DEATH (Greif / Butler) Jan. 2013

Chuck dans le privé

Avant même de vous poser des questions sur la carrière de Chuck, j'aimerais d'abord savoir quel type d'homme Chuck était dans le privé… Qu'est-ce qui vous vient immédiatement à l'esprit quand vous pensez à lui aujourd'hui ?
Eric Greif (manager) : Chuck était vraiment très "famille". Il avait un sens profond de la loyauté envers les membres de sa famille et préférait toujours rester avec eux plutôt que d'être sur la route. Il était spécialement un oncle très fier, aidant sa sœur Beth à élever son fils Christopher et était très proche de sa mère Jane. En tant qu'ami, il pouvait se révéler très généreux et aussi très loyal. Quand je pense à Chuck, je revois un gars qui aimait cuisiner pour sa famille et ses amis, et qui pouvait surprendre n'importe qui en lui offrant des cadeaux mais aussi des attentions toutes simples de gentillesse.

L'impact de Chuck sur le metal : une révolution musicale ?

Chuck a eu une carrière d'une quinzaine d'années et pourtant, son impact sur la musique Metal a été énorme dès la sortie de Scream Bloody Gore. Etait-il conscient de ça à l'époque ?
Eric : Je ne pense pas que Chuck ait vraiment mesuré l'impact qu'il a pu avoir sur l'univers metal. Bien sûr, on lui a dit qu'il était le responsable de la création d'un nouveau genre, le death metal, mais il n'a jamais accepté d'endosser ce rôle et en fait, a même carrément rejeté cette idée… Pour lui, même Scream Bloody Gore n'était qu'une extension plus brutale de ce qu'il aimait, à savoir le heavy metal. Je pense qu'il était fier de son travail, que celui-ci méritait reconnaissance pour les efforts et les sacrifices personnels consentis, mais il n'a jamais apprécié à sa juste valeur le degré d'influence qu'il a pu avoir sur les gens durant sa vie. Maintenant, bien sûr, je suis bien conscient de la manière dont Chuck a révolutionné le genre et je mets quiconque au défi de me dire que Scream Bloody Gore n'a pas changé la face du metal.
Terry Butler (basse sur les 3 premiers albums) : Même à l'époque de Spiritual Healing, Chuck ne réalisait pas, c'est venu bien plus tard dans sa carrière. Death a toujours été populaire et ce n'est qu'après sa mort que les gens ont commencé à analyser ce qu'il s'était passé musicalement. Il jouait de la musique extrême et voulait juste être pris au sérieux. Nous nous sommes vite rendu compte que Spiritual Healing était un album différent pour nous mais personne dans le groupe ne pensait à quel point notre musique allait influencer d'autres groupes. A l'époque de Mantas et des premières démos, notre seul but était d'essayer de faire comme nos héros et Chuck et Rick Rozz (guitare solo) jouaient comme Venom, Slayer et Possessed. Mais dès ce stade, il est évident que Chuck tentait de créer sa propre identité. On ne parlait que de ces groupes, de qui on aimait… Maintenant, en y regardant de plus près, effectivement, Death a influencé je ne sais combien de groupes et de musiciens.

Spiritual Healing : le véritable album-charnière de la carrière de Death ?

Chuck a commencé à créer une musique plus subtile, plus technique et je vois cet album comme le disque de transition entre la période primaire de Death, "old school" et "gore" et la période plus technique qui s'en est suivie, avec Human. Spiritual Healing n'a d'ailleurs pas forcément été bien accueilli par la critique et les fans, qui espéraient peut-être un Leprosy pt2. Fut-il touché par ces critiques ?
Eric : Chuck a toujours espéré une reconnaissance artistique de son travail mais en même temps, il n'a jamais fait de concessions. J'étais à peu près tout le temps là lors de l'écriture de Spiritual Healing et l'intention de Chuck était de démontrer que le monde réel pouvait être aussi malsain que le monde des films d'horreur. Il trouva l'inspiration dans ce qui l'entourait dans la réalité, en opposition à l'horreur et au gore des deux premiers albums. Je me rappelle que certains fans ont mal réagi à Spiritual Healing parce que les paroles n'étaient pas assez gore et que les riffs n'étaient plus aussi primitifs. Chuck a juste haussé les épaules et a dit "dommage". Il n'était aucunement question pour lui de compromettre son intégrité musicale pour gagner un peu plus de fans. Il avait une trop grande estime de son travail pour ça. Malgré tout ce qui a pu arriver à Chuck dans sa vie, je le vois évoluer sans cesse techniquement, et je suis encore sur le cul de la rapidité de son évolution entre Leprosy et Spiritual Healing, et bien sûr encore plus entre Spiritual Healing et Human !
Terry : Nous avons commencé à écrire Spiritual Healing quand Rick était encore dans le groupe et nous n'avons pas décidé consciemment d'être plus techniques ; ça s'est juste fait naturellement. Les mélodies avaient déjà fait leur apparition sur Leprosy mais Spiritual Healing fut la parfaite combinaison entre la brutalité et la mélodie. Le gore fut remplacé par des horreurs réelles de la vie et il s'est en effet trouvé des fans pour dire que c'était trop propre pour du death metal sauf que la presse a adoré l'album et les salles étaient pleines. Ce sont aussi les critiques qui te font avancer, qui font que tu restes humain. Personnellement, j'ai participé à l'écriture de quatre titres et aidé aux arrangements des autres, en donnant mon opinion quand nécessaire. J'étais là pour le mix, tout comme les autres membres. On peut dire qu'on était un vrai groupe, dans tous les sens du terme : on répétait sans arrêt et on sortait ensemble…

Je me souviens que le groupe est venu tourner en Europe pour cet album, en support de Kreator, sans Chuck, qui fut remplacé au dernier moment par Walt Trachsler, un roadie ! Que s'est-il réellement passé, les gars ?
Eric : Chuck était très stressé à cette époque et il a décidé au dernier moment de ne pas aller en Europe. Il était complètement cramé mentalement et il craignait que le groupe ait encore de mauvaises conditions de tournée, comme ce fut le cas pour Leprosy. Quelles que soient leurs motivations, Terry et Bill Andrews (batterie) ont décidé de faire la tournée en remplaçant Chuck par Walt. Je ne leur en veux pas (la preuve, je suis toujours l'avocat de Massacre et d'Obituary) et je sais qu'ils ont fait ça pour respecter le contrat qui avait été signé avec Kreator. Le problème est qu'en allant à l'encontre de la décision de Chuck, ils se sont exclus eux-mêmes du groupe.
Terry : Après la tournée américaine avec Carcass et Pestilence, nous n'avons eu qu'une semaine de repos avant de parir en Europe pour 9 semaines. Walt, qui était aussi notre ingé-son, avait l'expérience de la scène puisqu'il était aussi le guitariste de Rotting Corpse. C'est lui qui devait initialement tenir la deuxième guitare à la place de James Murphy, parti chez Obituary. Du coup, quand Chuck s'est désisté, on s'est retrouvé sans 2ème guitariste. On a alors demandé à Albert Gonzalez du groupe Evil Dead de venir avec nous mais il n'était pas intéressé. Du coup, c'est Louie Carrisalez, ex-batteur de Devastation, qui devait être notre technicien batterie sur cette tournée, qui s'est retrouvé au chant ! On a désespérément essayé de faire Chuck changer d'avis mais ça n'a pas été possible. Bill et moi avons alors pensé que notre dernier recours était de partir quand même en tournée sans lui et même Chuck fut d'accord. On a donc assuré ces neuf semaines ; on était jeunes et on a pensé que c'était la meilleure solution…

Cette période semble assez incroyable car apparemment, après cette tournée, on a entendu dire que Chuck dut même aller en justice pour récupérer les droits sur le nom du groupe !
Terry : Je ne suis pas sûr de ça… En tout cas, ni Bill ni moi n'y avons été pour quoique ce soit. On n'a jamais essayé d'utiliser le nom du groupe.
Eric : C'est complètement faux ! Ce sont des conneries qui ont été colportées par on ne sait qui ! Chuck et moi avons juste rencontré Barbara Andrews, la mère de Bill, pour lui signifier que son fils et Terry ne faisaient plus partie du groupe. Chuck a alors continué l'aventure en louant les services de musiciens. C'est ainsi que Steve DiGiorgio (Autopsy, Sadus), Paul Masvidal et Sean Reinert (Cynic) se sont retrouvés sur Human et sur la tournée qui a suivi.

Terry, penses-tu que Spiritual Healing fut LE véritable album de transition de la carrière de Death ?
Terry : Oui, complètement. Comme je l'ai dit, il n'est pas le plus technique mais certainement le meilleur compromis entre brutalité et mélodie. Chuck, Bill et moi avons commencé à écrire Human entre les deux tournées de Spiritual Healing. Nous avions déjà quatre titres de prêts, chansons qu'on peut d'ailleurs entendre sur les bonus de la réédition de Human et de Spiritual. Par la suite, une grosse partie des changements techniques sont dus aux fantastiques parties de batterie des albums suivant Spiritual Healing.

La fin de carrière de Chuck…

Eric, penses-tu que Chuck se soit lassé du death metal à partir de The Sound Of Perseverance ?
Eric : Je pense que tout ce que Chuck a créé découle d'une évolution personnelle naturelle. Il ne se considérait pas comme un musicien de death metal, juste comme un musicien de metal et donc se sentait libre de faire ce qu'il voulait. Dès l'album Symbolic, Chuck voulait lâcher les vocaux et engager un chanteur plus mélodique. Il n'y a pour moi aucune différence musicale entre The Sound Of Perseverance et The Fragile Art Of Existence de Control Denied, hormis les vocaux clairs sur ce dernier. Sur TSOP, il y a cette reprise de Judas Priest, "Painkiller", que Chuck chante lui-même avec une voix heavy, et qui clôt l'album ; je suis sûr qu'il a voulu donner là une indication sur ce qu'allait être la suite de sa carrière…

La mort de Chuck a été un choc pour tout le monde, d'autant qu'elle aurait pu être peut-être évitée si sa famille avait pu financer sa deuxième opération du cerveau. Penses-tu que les nouvelles lois actuelles aux USA sur le service de santé auraient pu sauver Chuck aujourd'hui ?
Ce problème n'est pas réglé aux USA et ne le sera probablement jamais. Comment veux-tu obliger plus de 300 millions de personnes à prendre une assurance-santé comme le stipule la loi Obama ? Je ne veux donc pas spéculer sur le fait que Chguck aurait pu être sauvé aujourd'hui. Ce n'est pas le système politique, ou l'état de l'industrie pharmaceutique ou hospitalière qui ont tué Chuck, c'est ce putain de cancer !

Les rééditions récentes : une fumisterie ?

Que penses-tu des rééditions des albums de Chuck alors que sa famille avait dit au départ que rien ne sortirait des cartons après sa mort ?
Déjà, je peux dire que ce qu'a fait Hammerheart Records en sortant les démos du deuxième album de Control Denied en 2004 nous a tous dégoûtés et mis très en colère. Jamais ces trucs n'auraient dû sortir de leurs bureaux ! Heureusement, j'ai réussi à régler les conflits entre la famille de Chuck et les différents labels de Death en 2009 et je peux te dire qu'avant sa mort, Chuck m'a dit qu'il aimerait voir le deuxième album de Control Denied terminé et offert aux fans. Le guitariste Shannon Hamm va d'ailleurs bientôt rencontrer Jim Morris au Morissound Studio pour finaliser cette affaire. En tout cas, dire que la famille Schuldiner a accepté les rééditions de Death pour rembourser des dettes est ridicule. On a signé avec Relapse car ils sont vraiment cool et respectueux de la famille. Maintenant, l'héritage musical de Chuck est plus présent que jamais, une nouvelle génération de fans y a accès. Attendez-vous donc à voir bientôt débouler des rééditions de Leprosy et Scream Bloody Gore avec des bonus inédits et bientôt une "box-set" de l'entière discographie de Chuck ! Le seul but de la famille de Chuck est que sa musique survive à sa mort et c'est ce à quoi je m'emploie tous les jours !
Merci à toi pour cette interview et ton support indéfectible à Death depuis les débuts du groupe !

Eric Greif et Chuck à Cologne, en 1991.

DEATH - Spiritual Healing (réédition)
Relapse Records

Site : www.emptywords.org

Facebook officiel : www.facebook.com/DeathOfficial

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ENGLISH VERSION

Chuck in the private…

Even before asking you questions about Chuck's career, I would at first like to know which type of friend and colleague Chuck was in the private, with his family and friends… What immediately comes to you when you think of him today?
Eric Greif (former manager and Chuck's friend) : Chuck was the ultimate family man. He had a profound sense of loyalty to his family and always preferred being with them privately than being on the road. He was an especially proud uncle, helping to raise his nephew Christopher and to be a constant companion to his mother Jane. As a friend he could be very generous, and also believed in being loyal. When I think of Chuck I think of a guy who liked cooking for his family & friends and would surprise everyone with gifts and acts of kindness.

Chuck's impact on Metal music : a musical revolution ?

Chuck had a career of about fifteen years and nevertheless, his impact on the Metal music was enormous from Scream Bloody Gore's release. Was he aware of that at this time? Did he feel that he had just created a new style by 1985 / 1988 which was going to change the face of Metal? Did he speak about it with you at this period and personally, how do you see things today?
Eric : I don't think Chuck ever fully comprehended how much of an impact he truly had on the metal world. Of course he was told that he was responsible for creating the death metal genre, but he never accepted this role and actually rejected it. Definitely in the period prior to the release of Scream Bloody Gore he would have thought that what he was creating was merely a heavy extension to the music he himself loved and emulated. I think he had pride in his work, and did believe in getting credit when it was due, but the degree of influence he had on heavy metal in general would never have been fully appreciated by him during his lifetime. Today, of course, as I oversee his works I am keenly aware of how Chuck singlehandedly invented a genre and I challenge anyone to play that first DEATH album and tell me it wasn't the start of something new. It is unlike any previous album by anyone, including Slayer or Possessed. I have no trouble verifying that Chuck assisted in the creation of death metal, if not came up with it musically himself.
Terry Butler (former bass player of the band) : Not when Spiritual was released. He may have realized that later in his career. Death was always at the forefront of the scene and fairly popular. Obviously after his passing people started to analyze and understand what he was trying to do. He was playing extreme music and wanted to be taken seriously as a musician. We were aware that Spiritual Healing was a different album for us. But no one in the band was thinking that it would inspire and influence other bands. In the early days during the Mantas demo and the first couple of Death demos, it was about trying to emulate their heroes. Chuck and Rick were trying to play like Venom, Slayer & Possessed. Even at this early stage it was evident that Chuck was crafting his own style. We always talked about the scene, were we thought it was headed and who we liked.
Looking back, Death obviously influenced countless bands and musicians.

Spiritual Healing : the real "hinge-record" of DEATH's career ?

We are going to speak about Spiritual Healing, if you want. Do you remember the period of composition of this album? Chuck began to create a more subtle, a little more technical music and I see this album as the record of transition between the old school and gory period of Death and the more technical period which followed with Human. Spiritual Healing was not welcomed well moreover necessarily by the criticism and the fans, who maybe expected for a Leprosy pt2. Did Chuck speak about it in this time? Was he affected by these criticisms?
Eric : Chuck always hoped for artistic recognition of his work, but at the same time he made3 no apologies. I was around for much of the writing of Spiritual Healing and Chuck's intention was to demonstrate that the real world was just as evil and gory as the world of horror movies. He found inspiration for his lyrics from things happening in reality as opposed to the make-believe horror and gore content of the first two albums. I do recall that some fans reacted negatively to SH because the lyrics weren't gory enough, or that the riffs weren't primitive enough, and that Chuck merely shrugged his shoulders and said 'too bad'. Chuck would never compromise his musical or lyrical integrity merely to gain acceptance. He had far too high standards for that. Despite whatever was going on in Chuck's personal life, I watched him evolve technically, and it was quite astonishing how fast he was progressing between Leprosy and Spiritual Healing, and of course from Spiritual Healing to Human.
Terry : Of course I would love to speak about Spiritual. We began writing Spiritual while Rick was still in the band. We never consciously sat out to be more technical with the writing of Spiritual. It just flowed that way. The melody started to come out on Leprosy. Spiritual was a perfect combination between Brutality and Melody. The gore was replaced by real life horrors so to speak. There were a few people who thought it was to polished or clean for death metal but the press loved it and we packed out the venues in support of Spiritual. We just thought those who didn’t like it were haters…haha… As with anyone he got upset over bad criticism, sometimes at the wrong people but that’s what made him human.

Personally, what was your part in the composition of the album?
Terry : Well, I helped write 4 songs and help arrange the others and gave my opinion when needed. I was there for mixing as was the rest of the band and gave my 2 cents worth.
We were a band in every sense of the word at that time. We practiced nonstop and hung together.

I remember as well as the band came to tour in Europe for this album, as opening act of Kreator, without Chuck, which was replaced at the last moment by Walt Trachsler, a roadie! He had said to us that he had not wanted to come because of problems of business, that he was in particular in conflict with his tour manager and other band members… What is your version of the story?
Eric : Chuck was under a great deal of personal strain and stress at the time and he made the decision to cancel the European tour at the last minute. I believe he was burned out, and in addition he had negative thoughts about the previous European tour for Leprosy and feared conditions would be the same. Whatever their motivation, Bill Andrews and Terry Butler decided to go ahead with the tour anyway, because of the legal implications of breaching their contract for such an extensive tour with Kreator, and replaced Chuck with the DEATH guitar tech and roadie. I remain friends with Terry (I am the lawyer for his bands Massacre and Obituary) and I have no reason to doubt his word on the subject: that he and Bill felt it was their obligation to fulfill their contracts. However, it also meant that, once the tour would be over, either they would be out of the band DEATH or that DEATH would no longer exist. What did end up happening was the former, and Chuck had me formally terminate Bill and Terry from the band and we executed a settlement agreement so that Bill and Terry no longer had any connection to the band.
Terry : Ok, the story goes like this… After the 2nd leg of the U.S. Spiritual tour in which Carcass and Pestilence opened, we had 1 week off and then we were to head to Europe for a 9 week tour with Kreator. Walt, who was our Sound man at the time had plenty of experience playing guitar from his Rotting Corpse days. He was to play 2nd guitar on the European tour. That was planned from the get go. We had no 2nd guitarist. Albert Gonzalez from Evil Dead filled in on the 2nd us tour but had no interest to go to Europe. So this is why Walt was playing guitar in the first place. Louie Carrisalez ex drummer of Devastation was to be the drum tech. That was also planned from the get go.
With 2 days to go before the tour, Chuck said he was not going. We tried desperatly to talk to him but had no luck. I think he was going through a transitional phase emotionally and musically and wanted to escape for awhile. Bill and I thought that our only recourse was to do the tour without him. All parties agreed and we were off tour Europe. So Walt played guitar as planned and I told Louie that he was to going to sing. He was suprised to say the least. We did 9 weeks and pulled it off. Of course we wished Chuck had been there but it was not to be. We were very young and thought this was our best choice at the time.

This period seems rather incredible for DEATH because apparently, after this tour, Chuck even had to go to court to get back the rights on the name of the band he created! Can you can explain to us what was the problem?
Terry : I’m not sure. I’ve never heard that. If so, it had nothing to do with Bill and I. We never tried to use the name.
Eric : No, that is untrue. He merely had me contact Bill and Terry, who were represented at the time by Bill's mother Barbara. It took almost no time to come up with a settlement proclaiming that Bill and Terry were no longer in the band. Chuck then continued on by hiring musicians, as opposed to having new 'members' of DEATH. We put together the plans for Human and Chuck hired Steve Di Giorgio, Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert to play on the new album, and the latter two to do the world tour.

Afterward, Death became more technical, more progressive and everybody recognized Chuck's immense musical talent. Do you think that Spiritual Healing is really the "hinge-record" in the history of the band?
Terry : Yeah it’s a transitional record. As I’ve said before it might not be the most technical or the most brutal but it’s the most important in my opinion. It was a great balance of brutality and melody.
Chuck, Bill & I started to write human in between the 2 Spiritual tours. We had 4 songs down. There are rehearsal tracks of the songs on the rerelease of Human and Spiritual. So you can hear that we were moving forward to the new album before the European tour. A lot of the technical sounds to me are enhanced by the amazing drumming on the releases after Spiritual Healing.

The end of Chuck's career… tired of Death Metal ?

However, it seems that he rather fast grows tired of the death metal when he formed Control Denied. What was its point of view at this moment, on the form to give to its career?
Eric : I think that everything Chuck ever did musically was a natural progression from whatever he had done previously. He never consciously decided 'I don't want to do death metal anymore' because, frankly, he never saw himself as being 'death metal' - he considered everything he ever created as being 'metal'. From the period of Symbolic, Chuck no longer wanted to do the vocals - he much preferred stepping back into the role of songwriter/guitarist and having a melodic vocalist come in. But there is really no difference musically between Control Denied or DEATH's The Sound of Perseverance - only that the vocals are used as a melodic instrument in Control Denied.

On The Sound Of Perseverance, at the end, there is this Judas Priest's cover, "Painkiller", title which he sings himself in a heavy metal way... Do you think today that with this title, Chuck wanted to prepare the fans for the future release of Control Denied and end of Death?
Eric : As you know, Chuck could quite capably sing melodically. He felt quite constrained in DEATH because it was expected that he would continue to use his 'Chuck voice'. In fact, for all the demos of both Control Denied (and even much of The Sound of Perseverance) he sang the vocals himself melodically. Obviously he sings quite differently on TSOP because I believe that would have been the final DEATH album, at least for a long while. Painkiller does indeed give an indication that Chuck had the vocal prowess himself to sing in a heavy metal style, and perhaps it was his hint that all vocals would be in this vein in future.

A big concert was organized a big concert of support in The Splendid, Lille (north of France), in 2000, to help to collect funds to finance his treatment. It was a big popular success… Unfortunately, that was not enough. By respect for Chuck and for you, his family, I do not want to ask you questions about what he lived but rather on the difficulties which his family met to finance his treatment. Incredible all the same that we refused him this damned second operation due to the lack of money!!! I have to say to you that we were all revolted by this situation here in France… Do you think today that it is thanks to actions as that committed then Chuck's mother, who encouraged people to have health insurance, that the system was able to evolve in the USA to end in the law Obama of 2010? Would Chuck have been able to be suitably cured after nowadays?
Eric : The health care situation in the USA needs to be fixed. It was very negative for Chuck and the millions of others with no health insurance. When I was myself living in the US I was unable to purchase health insurance because of my own pre-existing condition of Type 1 Diabetes. Although I don't want to get political, as I live in Canada and not the US these days, I can't really comment on whether or not Obama's solution is the correct one. I only know that the entire political reality in the US is polarized to such an extent that, unless the two sides come together in negotiation, the problems will never get fixed. I know you simply can't impose a socialized medical system on a nation of 350 million folks overnight - there is no way that can happen. It must come through dialogue and understanding. Lastly, I don't want to speculate on whether or not Chuck would have survived if his illness had occurred nowadays. It wasn't the political system that killed him, or the state of the medical insurance industry or hospital care - it was cancer.

The reissues of old records : a lack of respect of Chuck's memory ?

After Chuck passed away, Beth Schuldiner declared that he had recorded a big part of the 2nd album of Control Denied but that it was out of question that this one can be released one day. Yet, demos of these titles were released all the same on a dark European label. How was it possible, do you think that in this time, Chuck's memory was betrayed?
Eric : It was indeed a disgusting betrayal for Hammerheart Records to put out Chuck's bedroom demos for When Man and Machine Collide, purely to bring in a financial return. These were of course never meant to be heard by anyone other than Hammerheart. This horrid situation between that label and the Schuldiner family was luckily sorted out in 2009. Whether or not we can ever have the other musicians finish the album is not known at this point, but I can say it was Chuck's final wish that the project would get completed and that the fans would one day be able to hear it. Control Denied guitarist Shannon Hamm is to soon have a meeting with producer Jim Morris at Morrisound in hopes they can achieve this.

Since then, it seems that the position of the Schuldiner family becomes milder because the reissues of the albums of Death were sold to Relapse with unreleased tracks and demos, as on Spiritual Healing, that is re-released this month. Why have they finally agreed to put these pieces at the disposal of the fans (I also think about Mantas)? Certain gossips say that it is because you again have to pay off debts… What is your point of view on the question?
Eric : The debt explanation is ridiculous. Beth Schuldiner approached me several years ago and asked if I would take over the management of Chuck's intellectual property - his music, publishing, masters - since she knew I became a lawyer. I certainly agreed, and the first order of business was to fix all of the numerous problems existing with his labels. We started Perseverance Holdings Ltd. as a company that would own everything related to Chuck's musical career. We entered into a new agreement with Relapse because we knew they were in the best position to reissue everything the right way. Nothing was sold to Relapse - they have a ten year licensing agreement with us, and we enjoy a fantastic working relationship with them and their talented staff. Now Chuck's legacy is bigger than ever and there is a new generation of DEATH fans only recently discovering the music. The main concern of the Schuldiner family is that Chuck's music should live forever, and that is the goal for which I labor.
Terry : Not at all. I believe the medical bills are not an issue these days. It has to do with the fact that some of the releases were out of print and there was a lot of unused material laying around. I have no problem with it.

Are there still Chuck's unreleased things in your boxes?
Eric : Yes indeed. There are extra tracks available for future reissues, such as Leprosy and Scream Bloody Gore, and of course for an entire DEATH box set.

Terry, to conclude, when you think about this period of your life in Death, what are the best wishes which return to you?
Terry : Basically having fun, touring, collecting records & hanging out and laughing our asses off at silly shit.

I just want to say to you that I did this article only to celebrate Chuck's memory because his music changed my life when I was young. I spoke with him several times when he played in France or Belgium and he seemed to me that he was just a great man. Maximum respect to him. Thanks a lot !!!
Eric : My pleasure. Thanks for the opportunity to have dialogue with you and the many DEATH fans of Europe. ERIC GREIF, President of Perseverance Holdings Ltd. & former manager of DEATH.

DEATH - Spiritual Healing (réédition)
Relapse Records

Site : www.emptywords.org

Facebook officiel : www.facebook.com/DeathOfficial

13 déc. 2001 - 11 ans déjà.... RIP Chuck ! Pourquoi un énième article sur DEATH, nous direz-vous ? Tout semble avoir été dit sur ce groupe et pourtant, il règne quelques zones d'ombre sur la carrière de Chuck Schuldiner, comme cette tournée bizarre de 1991 où le groupe vint en Europe sans lui pour promouvoir l'album Spiritual Healing. Comme cet album est justement réédité ce mois-ci par Relapse Records avec des bonus inédits, nous avons contacté Eric Greif, ex-manager du groupe et responsable actuel de Perseverance Holdings Ltd., l'entreprise qui gère juridiquement et commercialement la succession musicale de Chuck en relation avec sa famille, ainsi que le bassiste Terry Butler, pour qu'ils nous donnent leur version de ce qu'ils ont vécu en compagnie du génial compositeur… Un article qui vous montrera la face cachée d'une formation mythique dont on n'a pas fini d'entendre parler malgré le décès prématuré de son mentor ! Interview parue également dans le Metallian 75 de janvier 2013 (en version éditée) ENGLISH VERSION AFTER THE FRENCH ONE !
Entretien avec Eric Greif (manager) et Terry Butler (basse) par Will Of Death
Rechercher : dans l'interview