Control Denied

Control Denied
Chuck Schuldiner
Background information
Origin	Florida, United States
Genres	Progressive metal
Years active	1995–2001
Labels	Nuclear Blast, Hammerheart, Relapse

Control Denied was a progressive metal band formed by death metal musician and Death founder Chuck Schuldiner.

Schuldiner had spoken about the possibility of ending Death and forming a more melodic band after he returned from Europe following the 1992 tour, as he was fed up with it, though he decided that he did not want to "get off track" with Death and instead put the idea "on hold".^[1] Schuldiner mentioned the general idea of teaming up with a Rob Halford-esque singer in a September 1993 interview with Guitar School^[2] and expanded on it in a Terrorizer interview with Borivoj Krgin that same year, explaining that it would allow him to do "things that ... can't be totally expressed through this band".^[1] He would discuss the idea further in multiple 1995 interviews, including Guitar World,^[3] the Italian magazine Metal Shock^[4] and the Dutch magazine Watt^[5] mentioning Ronnie James Dio as another example of the type of singer he would like to partner with.^[3] He had already started working on Control Denied riffs by the time Death was touring in Japan for the album Symbolic,^[6] which took place in September 1995.^[7] Death drummer Gene Hoglan has stated that after the Symbolic tour, Schuldiner broke up Death as he was displeased with the record label.^[8]

B.C Richards joined the band in 1995 as vocalist, though he temporarily left the same year to focus on Wicked Ways.^[9] Schuldiner attempted to get Andy LaRocque as a lead guitarist, but the lack of a label hindered it.^[6] Drummer Chris Williams also joined around this time; Williams recruited Shannon Hamm on guitar and Scott Clendenin on bass.^[10] By 1996, Richards had rejoined;^[11] the following year he had left the band again, while Clendenin was replaced by Brian Benson. The name of the album at the time was The Moment of Clarity; other tracks from the album included What If and Cut Down to Size.^[6] Psycho Scream guitarist Jim Dofka had sent Schuldiner demo material and was interested in joining Control Denied alongside his bandmate, singer Tim Aymar. However, Schuldiner had already selected Hamm as the guitarist.^[12] After a brief audition and demo, Aymar was chosen as the new singer, while Rob Halford of Judas Priest was also in the running.^[13] Earlier, Warrel Dane of Nevermore was almost selected as the singer, though the scheduling did not work out^[14] as Dane was dedicated to Nevermore and didn't have the time.^[15] Williams left the band as he couldn't "hang around waiting" any longer and went on to join another band.^[16]

Schuldiner signed with the record label Nuclear Blast in 1997, though the label required that another Death album be released before a Control Denied album could be issued. This led to the release of Death's The Sound of Perseverance in 1998.^[17] Though Clendenin was expected to be on the debut Control Denied album and it was announced in early April that the recording was completed by the TSOP lineup (with the addition of Aymar), Schuldiner let the bassist go later in April^[18] and brought on DiGiorgio.^[19] The band's debut album, The Fragile Art of Existence, was released in 1999.^[18] The Fragile Art of Existence was reissued in October 2010 by Relapse Records in a 2-disc standard format, with one hour of bonus material, and a 3-disc deluxe version, with two hours of bonus material.^[20]

A second album (which was recorded at Morrisound with Jim Morris under the initial title of When Hate Strikes Down,^[13] but which was later tentatively titled When Man and Machine Collide), was partly recorded in November 2000 after Schuldiner had signed with Hammerheart Records.^[21] According to an interview with Hamm originally done in the Tampa Metal Music Examiner, Schuldiner and Christy had completed their tracks, while Hamm recorded three of his tracks before the funds were diverted to pay for Schuldiner's medical bills.^[22] The death of Schuldiner in 2001 put the recordings on hold. Remaining band members had expressed a wish to complete and release the material.^[23] However, there existed a longstanding legal dispute over the rights of the material with Hammerheart Records^{[note 1]}, further postponing the completion and release of the album.^[25]

Schuldiner's mother, Jane, affirmed in January 2003 that the album would be released.^[26] Hammerheart indicated in a 2003 press release that it would release the "incomplete recordings",^[27] to which Schuldiner responded that it would be "sacrilege."^[28] Schuldiner initially announced in March 2004 that they would be uploaded and made available for free download.^[29] The following month, she indicated that rather than release the rehearsal tracks, the entire completed album should be released instead.^[30] Part of these incomplete recordings were released without authorization on the Zero Tolerance album,^[31] which was announced as the title by Karmageddon Media in March 2004.^[32] Schuldiner estate lawyer^[33] and Death manager Eric Greif settled all matters with the label by 2009, allowing for the possibility of completing the album.^[34]

On December 4, 2010, Aymar released a statement saying that plans were being made to record and release the album, stating that Jim Morris of Morrisound Studios (with whom Chuck Schuldiner recorded several albums during his career) had been in contact with Greif to begin planning and booking studio time to record the remaining parts of When Man and Machine Collide.^[35] Plans were cut short by a break-in at Morrisound in the spring of 2011 that saw much of their equipment stolen, pushing back the completion of the album.^[36] An exploratory meeting between producer Jim Morris and guitarist Shannon Hamm was held in December 2012.^[37] Greif stated in October 2016 that the recordings would not be completed.^[38] The progressive metal band Black Water Sunset released a tribute album featuring re-recorded versions of the four leaked tracks in May of 2024, marking what would have been Schuldiner's birthday.^[39]

• 1996 demo (1996)
• 1997 demo (1997)
• 1999 demo (1999)^[20]
• The Fragile Art of Existence (1999)
• Unreleased Themes from Control Denied (bootleg) (2004)
• The Fragile Art of Existence (reissue, two formats) (2010)

• Death/Control Denied official website
• Control Denied discography at Discogs