You know, it's very strange – I never thought I would witness what took place here just recently. As a fan of DEATH there exists the knowledge that the band no longer is alive and well, and I will never get the chance to see them live. Chuck Schuldiner's untimely passing essentially slams the door shut on the concept, as well. DEATH basically wrote the book on Death Metal, and anyone who is a fan of the genre can't possibly be such a thing without an expert knowledge of arguably the first one: DEATH.
But, as all things can arbitrarily change for whatever reason, things change. I can't say for sure who specifically engineered this thing, but the "Death To All Tour" attempted to bring what seems like lost music to the masses. They've managed to get all the names amongst names of the DEATH era back under one roof to play all the best DEATH hits: Paul Masvidal, Steve DiGiorgio, Sean Reinert, Gene Hoglan, Shannon Hamm, and about seven other DEATH musicians I can't remember off the top of my head. This, as they say, "is awesome". It's positively the best possible thing concert-goable.
The show I attended along the Tour's tour was at the House Of Blues in Chicago, Illinois. Myself and three of my compadres all made the train ride to the city, of course stopping off at a local burger place called Kuma's Korner – famous for it's Heavy Metal themed menu including a "Slayer Burger" consisting of a 10 oz. burger topped with bacon-cheese fries the size of a brontosaurus' scrotum. We soon finished our appropriately named burgers (I had the "Metallica Burger", which boasted Swiss cheese and buffalo sauce) and finally made landfall at the House Of Blues to patiently wait in line (and try not to die while our bodies attempted to digest the massive amounts of ground beef in our stomachs). I recall the wait being exacerbated by the incessant ramblings of a drunken fatty who snuck some Jagermeister into line and sucked away while laughing about possibly everything. Shut up about your drug habits!
Anyway, promptly at 7 p.m. the doors opened and we were let in to the venue. Of course, not before they took the opportunity to fondle everybody for contraband (like bottled water) that would inhibit the venue's ability to sell you the same fucking product at an absurd mark-up. The first thing I noticed was how crowded it was. Rumors I had heard of the tour being cut short of dates because of low ticket sales seemed baseless – we were packed in the place so tightly no fart could possibly escape (a beneficial side effect).
The first band consisted of some no-name Death Metal outfit from the nineties called MORTA SKOLD. Don't know who they are; don't care. They played what I would call the most generic, flat, uninteresting Death Metal I've heard live. As my friend Derek said, "They were the embodiment of mediocrity". I'm inclined to agree, and I also was annoyed by the front-man, Mr. Whatever, and his constant use of the phrase "motherfuckers" in every statement he made. Not for any obscenity or vulgarity reasons, but simply because it made him like he had no idea what to say, and dumb. Not much to say here, because there really isn't.
Up next, we had the legendary GORGUTS. I say legendary not necessarily because GORGUTS is considered a band of wide acclaim, but because they haven't even been seen in so long you can find their line-up on various Canadian milk cartons. GORGUTS – for the uninformed – plays some of the weirdest Death Metal you can find. I'm talking super-dissonant, unsettling riffage and noise making. One could say they are "avant garde", and I'd not really disagree. Normally I use the term for hipster-douchebags who just want to create artificial senses of depth and profoundness where there really is none, but here I would use the term legitimately. GORGUTS simply is an interesting band to listen to. It's just… weird. I enjoyed it, and my friend Matt – a longtime GORGUTS fan – also liked it but was annoyed that they did not play his favorite song. Well, what you just witnessed was the death metal equivalent of finding sasquatch, so count your blessings I guess.
Next up, comes the wait; that interval between bands where various equipment pieces are moved around while the house plays background music. At this point in the show I was located just behind the soundboard station, and I didn't bother leaving it because it was centrally located and the massive crowd gave me reason to stay put. The tension was killing me. I was about to hear the best Death Metal band of all time live, FINALLY! Of course, it was missing the key player, but the fact that everyone else of significance in DEATH's history was present made it still feel like something special. And it turned out to be.
The band opened with "Zombie Ritual" – a very recognizable song off of "Scream Bloody Gore". From there, the band jumped around a bit, playing key songs off of every DEATH album. Personal favorites included "Symbolic" (done surprisingly well by Trevor from the BLACK DAHLIA MURDER as a special guest), "Voice of the Soul", "Leprosy", and "The Philosopher". It was a massive, two-hour set. I was enjoying second of the show. Despite the fact that I was crammed like a fucking tuna fish into the place, standing for roughly seven hours straight, and discharging some strange watery substance from my skin's pores, I was in a purely euphoric state of happiness and sunshine and DEATH. Several line-up changes throughout the set allowed you to hear multiple variations of DEATH's historic roster. This was a rare event, and I know it. I would have stood there for two more hours to hear more stuff from the band. It was simply amazing.
At the shows end, all I could do was run the show back in my head again, and hope my hearing came back soon (it did, mostly). It was amazing to see that people haven't forgotten about the legendary Chuck Schuldiner. He died far too young, but he is not forgotten, because he left us all his music to remember him by. I am happy to have been and still be a part of that.
In DEATH, Chuck lives.
Setlist @ Setlist.fm
