Ten years gone - rip, mr. schuldiner
posted on 14 Dec 2011 under category History
As a metalhead, I’m quite aware of the remembrances of the day going out for Chuck Schuldiner, death metal pioneer and mastermind behind one of the biggest underground metal bands of the 80s/90s metal scene. He passed away ten years ago today, yet at the time I found out I remembered that his death was three years to the day after his last live performance. December 13, 1998, Death and Hammerfall played The Masquerade in Atlanta, GA to close out the Sound of Perseverance tour. It must have been added at the last minute because I remember at the time being surprised that they weren’t playing Atlanta at first, and then I also remember getting the “Live in LA” CD and the booklet omitting mention of it in the tour listing printed there.
And I also just remembered that they were all sold out of merchandise, which is where the rest of this post comes in.
In 1998 I was writing for Eternal Frost webzine, an online metal zine headed by the enigmatic Goden (fanatic for gore/horror and all things doomy and gore-grindy). He passed off lots of thrash and speed metal albums to me to review, let me do the occasional interview, and on the rare occasion I got to go to a gig I would do a gig report. Well, Issue #5 (which can be dug out of the Internet Archives’ Wayback Machine) came out just after that, and in that issue I wrote a gig report for that show. And so, to honor the day and the man, I reprint the review I wrote of his last gig. It’s almost like one of those snapshots - you can project the future of that time, which is now your past, onto what you see there, but it’s strange to look at what was and realize what we didn’t know was about to happen. Innocence is the best word for it, and when discussing Innocence I think Chuck himself said it best:
Savor what you feel and what you see / Things that may not seem important now / But may be, tomorrow
RIP, Chuck.
-—-
Written for ETERNAL FROST Webzine, #5.
DEATH/HAMMERFALL @ The Masquerade Atlanta, Georgia December 13, 1998
This show happened to be the last show of DEATH and HAMMERFALL on the U.S. tour and this show was not originally on their tour schedule, so it was indeed a special night. There were plenty of surprises, but no exhaustion or ‘this is it, one more and we’re done’ - it was simply great. (It would have been perfect, but since they didn’t originally plan on this show, all of Death’s merchandise had sold out. . . oh, well, that’s metal).
Hammerfall has been getting a lot of flak for being on this tour, and this isn’t really the place to go into the “why”s, the “who’s right”s and the “who’s wrong”s. All I’m going to say is this: I don’t see how anyone who is a true fan of metal could have been there watching Hammerfall and not enjoyed the show. There are influences (HEAVY influences) from lots of old ’80s metal bands (JUDAS PRIEST and HELLOWEEN being most prominent), but these guys definitely had their own sound - very fast, aggressive, but still melodic, they sort of wrapped that whole “‘80s sound” into one package. And then there was the show - THEY KNOW HOW TO PUT ON A SHOW!! Some may have thought that the ‘posing’, or the ‘unison banging’ or the fact that they looked like they were having a ball detracted from the show, but to me it just brought home a sad fact - nobody puts on a show anymore. Still, I saw most of everyone in the club banging their heads and fists, shouting along with the lyrics, playing back to the band just like the band was playing to the crowd. It was the most fun metal show I’ve ever seen, and that includes BODY COUNT. . .
Then, after the beer break, the lights dimmed and out of the speakers came the eerie score from HALLOWEEN. The dim shadows took their place, and at the crescendo, BOOM! Death blasted directly into one of the best renditions of “The Philosopher” I’ve ever heard. For the first time that I’ve seen them (out of four times) Chuck had the same live lineup that he had in the studio, so there was no weak link in the band at all. Scott Clendenin laid down the bass foundation, Richard Christy never missed a splash or crash or tom, Chuck was in fine form (as always), and Shannon Hamm made those sweep arpeggios look too damn easy!
Chuck has never been the best at stage banter, but they kept that to a minimum, simply blasting from one song to the next with barely a pause for breath. The set list was composed of mostly newer material, but enough classic stuff for some of the die-hards. However, the only song earlier than the “Human” album was the encore, “Pull the Plug”. Still, with songs like (in no particular order) “Suicide Machine”, “Together As One”, “Symbolic”, “Zero Tolerance”, “Crystal Mountain”, “Scavenger of Human Sorrow”, “Spirit Crusher”, “Flesh and the Power it Holds”, and “A Moment of Clarity”, who could complain? I was worried that some of the newer stuff might not come off well live, with all of the layered guitars, but they managed to arrange those sections well to focus on the melodies and they just poured in the enthusiasm. A fantastic show. . .
But then, after “Pull the Plug”, something strange happened - a closing band, called “The Waffleheads” (probably because of the Waffle-House paper hats they had on), took to the stage - they looked suspiciously like the two guitarists from Hammerfall, a drummer who looked like a roadie, Scott Clendenin on bass, and the lead singer of Hammerfall on backing vocals - but the lead singer, though he looked a lot like Richard Christy, had on some weird nerd glasses, a fake nose, and suspender tights a-la Tarzan. And they ROCKED!! After a little intro, they slammed into a song that must be a cover, but I have to confess I don’t know what it was (lame of me, wasn’t it?) - but it rocked! The chorus went something like “Let your tongue roll over my bunghole/you’re my kind of girl!” - if anyone can help me identify it, please e-mail me.
Maybe ‘fun’ is a bad word in the metal world these days, but I think what made this show so great was the fact that you could easily tell that both bands were having a blast playing, and I think the crowd mostly picked up on that (skinheads and mosh-morons aside, and fortunately there were very few of both), making this a special night for everyone there. I can’t wait for Death’s and Hammerfall’s next albums - would the fates be kind enough to let them tour the U.S. together again? Damn, I hope so. . . –Lord Vic
(That song referred to in the next-to-last paragraph was “Let Your Tongue Roll” by a Florida-based punk-metal band called The Perpetrators.
I still remember that night distinctly, seeing the Death guys on sidestage watching Hammerfall play, seeing Death play most of my favorites from the new album (especially “A Moment of Clarity”, which they didn’t play at all the shows - it’s not on the Live in LA album…), driving home down Moreland and I-675 at about 2 am, streets deserted, thinking life just didn’t get better. Well, it did, and it got worse, too. Sometimes all at the same time.
I also remember meeting some dumbass poseur with a shitty ‘zine that night, ultimately leading to a bad review of “This End Up” by a clueless loser. Not that that’s one of the ‘worse’ things referred to above. It’s just something I remember.)