Released: 1999
When you talk legends in the extreme metal world, there's few who can stand alongside the late Chuck Schuldiner for the things he brought to the form. Death remains one of the most important metal bands to have ever existed and their legacy looms large over the genre that was named after them like a colossus. Control Denied was Schuldiner's last musical venture, a project originally begun in 1996 before he iced it to produce the final Death album The Sound of Perserverence. Also featuring three other former Death members in the shapes of Shannon Hamm, Richard Christy and Steve DiGiorgio, The Fragile Art of Existence was either a continuation of that group or a completely new band (the truth will now never be known) but there did seem to be more of a "band" feel to the album than there was with Death.
Schuldiner still loomed over the project as principal songwriter, lead guitarist and co-producer but the vocals are handled by Tim Aymer, a refreshing move. Apart from this, there isn't a great deal else to distinguish The Fragile Art of Existence from much of Death's late-period work (the last album in particular) except that the overall sound leans more towards truly progressive power metal. Each of the eight tracks, most of which run for more than seven minutes, contain the usual Schuldiner hallmarks of intricate riff structure, quirky arrangements and blazing guitar passages. Here though his occasionally overbearing hand seems to have been reined in a little. That said, Control Denied's music lacks a few hooks and while the playing is solid (and with this line-up, how could it be anything else?) it places it sounds like a bunch of session musicians working together rather than a band playing.
Despite this criticism, The Fragile Art of Existence is a great album that should have been the beginning of a new chapter in Chuck Schuldiner's musical journey. Tragically, it became his epitaph, the final curtain call for a true musical visionary.
- Consumed
- Breaking the Broken
- Expect the Unexpected
- What if..?
- When the Link Becomes Missing
- Believe
- Cut Down
- The Fragile Art of Existence
Rating: 92%
It would have been very interesting to have heard what their second album, had it been completed and released. This one lacks a bit of an edge, but was pretty cool nonetheless.
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