On Sunday (December 12), former DEATH members played the second of two shows commemorating the 20th anniversary of the passing of the band’s mastermind Chuck Schuldiner at Brass Mug in Tampa, Florida. James Murphy (guitar) and Terry Butler (bass) performed DEATH‘s classic third album, “Spiritual Healing” (1990), in its entirety under the LIVING MONSTROSITY banner, while Steve DiGiorgio (bass), Bobby Koelble (guitar) and Kelly Conlon (bass) joined forces as SYMBOLIC to play songs from “Human” (1991), “Individual Thought Patterns” (1993), “Symbolic” (1995) and “The Sound Of Perseverance” (1998). Fan-filmed video footage of the concert can be seen below.
SYMBOLIC lineup:
* Steve DiGiorgio (DEATH; bass on “Human”, “Individual Thought Patterns”; CONTROL DENIED – bass on “The Fragile Art Of Existence”)
* Bobby Koelble (DEATH; guitars on “Symbolic”)
* Kelly Conlon (DEATH; bass on “Symbolic”)
* Dirk Verbeuren (MEGADETH, SOILWORK – drums)
* Max Phelps (EXIST; guitars and vocals)
* Leo Lozano (SYMBOLIC; guitars and vocals)
LIVING MONSTROSITY lineup:
* James Murphy (DEATH; guitars on “Spiritual Healing”)
* Terry Butler (DEATH; bass on “Spiritual Healing”)
* Gus Rios (GRUESOME; drums)
* Matt Harvey (GRUESOME, EXHUMED; guitar, vocals)
Originally released in 1990, “Spiritual Healing” marked a new turn in the DEATH discography, one which ushered in cleaner production, a new level of boundary pushing musicianship and songwriting skills that were previously unimaginable from a metal band. “Spiritual Healing” sets the standard for riffs, insane time changes and, of course, Schuldiner‘s masterful guitar solos. Reissued in 2012 as a double CD housed in super deluxe packaging featuring brand new liner notes from Murphy and Butler, Chuck‘s sister Beth Schuldiner and VOLBEAT frontman Michael Poulsen, Disc 1 featured a completely new remaster of the original album and Disc 2 contained 16 previously unreleased rehearsal, outtakes and studio instrumentals.
In addition to the two-disc edition, a limited-edition (2000 machine-numbered copies) triple-CD digipak was made available exclusively from Relapse.com. The third CD featured a never-before-released live set recorded in 1990 featuring the “Spiritual Healing” DEATH lineup. An iTunes deluxe edition was also released containing five additional previously unreleased pre-“Human” rehearsal tracks not available on either of the CD versions.
Schuldiner died on December 13, 2001 after a battle with pontine glioma, a rare type of brain tumor.
In recent years, DEATH‘s storied catalog has undergone a meticulous reissue campaign via Relapse Records.
Relapse released the first-ever fully authorized DEATH tab book, featuring 21 classic songs tabbed out for guitar from the band’s entire discography. The book, which includes traditional notation as well as tablature, also comes with a digital download of all tracks.
In a 2011 interview with Bass Musician magazine, DiGiorgio stated about working with Schuldiner: “Sometimes people make good music together, and sometimes they vibe like yin and fucking yang. Chuck is credited with a lot of things in the music world (metal world, of course), but one thing a lot of people don’t know much about is how aware he was. What I mean is that he was a good listener. If I thought of a wacky bassline to something he was writing, before I could even try to explain why it came to me, he was already ahead of it and looking for something on the next part. He had a good sense of when to hold me back and when to push me. It was great to have someone, especially the ‘main man’ of the band not only appreciate what I contributed but also help me find my inner demon to conjure even sicker and more abstract things to play. There really was some math going on in that roiling storm sometimes.”
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