Death – “Spirit
Crusher”: Chronicling a Metal Masterpiece
By Perry M. Grayson
©
Copyright 2025
 |
| Death circa 1998: Shannon Hamm, Chuck Schuldiner, Scott Clendenin & Richard Christy |
So, Pavlos from the German metal mag Deaf
Forever has asked me to pick a
favorite Death/Chuck Schuldiner song and comment on it for the online forum. That’s not a heavy
task to write about. It’ll be harder to keep things concise and to the point. I
can be a pretty nostalgic guy when it comes to my metal, and it’s tough not to
get carried away when I’m as passionate about something as I am with Death,
Control Denied and not-so-evil Chuck. The song in question is “Spirit Crusher”,
which was immortalized on The Sound of Perseverance album. I’ll
break my commentary down to sections, so I don’t get too sidetracked.
The origins of
“Spirit Crusher”
I first became aware of the tune
in the early days of the Internet (1996), when I obtained a cassette of what I
was told were Control Denied demos – in a tape trade with a chap by the name of
Jeff Brubaker – a website developer who was friends with lead axeman Shannon
Hamm. Jeff ran a Death website called A Land Forlorn. I had yet to join
Destiny’s End or write for Metal Maniacs magazine. I was just a massive
metal fan and small press zine writer/editor/publisher trying to get a taste of
my all-time fave metal performer’s new material to feature in said zine, called
Yawning Vortex. I’d previously covered Fates Warning and Dream Theater
in YV.
Jeff’s handwritten title on the
tape was “A Moment of Clarity”, which I learned was also the name of one of the
several tracks. This embryonic version of “Spirit Crusher” was a rough
instrumental demo – rhythm guitar and drums only. Someone can correct me if I’m
wrong, but I believe the drums were handled on this recording by Chris Williams
– who sadly passed away shortly after these 1996 demos were recorded. The other
tunes on the cassette all had lyrics/vocals, most of which were sung by Chuck
himself. I had seen Death live in 1992 and 1995 and was a member of The Metal
Crusade, the official Death fan club. I knew of Chuck’s intentions to
concentrate on his new power/prog metal project, Denied from a fan club
postcard and a Chuck interview in the zine Sentinel Steel. Chuck
jokingly stated that the vocalist was a dude by the name of B.C. Richards,
rather than letting the cat out of the bag that he himself was singing “clean”.
“Spirit Crusher” from a Muso’s Perspective
For the uninitiated, “muso” is
Aussie slang for musician, and I use it quite a bit. After all, I am
one! Though I’m primarily self-taught (as Chuck was), I did learn a bit of
music theory along the way. I’ll try to analyse the track in simple muso’s
terms without losing you. First off, the demo version intro arpeggios were
played on guitar by Chuck. It wasn’t until “Spirit Crusher” became a
full-fledged Death song that the intro was played solely as a bass guitar line
by bassist Scott Clendenin.
The intro – to me at least –
betrays a horror film soundtrack influence. This time it’s Fabio Frizzi’s
soundtrack to Lucio Fulci’s The Gates of Hell. We know that Chuck was a
major fan of Italian gore flicks in his teens. He’d already used Umberto
Lenzi’s Cannibal Ferox (aka Make Them Die Slowly, and see “Torn
to Pieces”), Stuart Gordon’s Reanimator (“Scream Bloody Gore”) and – of
course - Lucio Fulci’s The Gates of Hell (“Curse of the Priest”, which
was later retitled “Regurgitated Guts”) as lyric sources for tracks on Scream
Bloody Gore in 1986-1987. Actually, by The Sound of Perseverance era,
Chuck was primarily addressing real world horrors and existential themes in his
tracks. Come 1996 it was the music itself which sometimes – rarely - reeked of
the graveyard.
Moving on to the meat and
potatoes of the tune, the first verse betrays more graveyard arpeggios – this
time using add9 chords. On the demo version, Chuck spiced up the first verse by
picking the overtones – called artificial or “pinch” harmonics – making the
riff sound like it was delivered by two of Chuck’s heroes, Judas Priest’s Glenn
Tipton and K.K. Downing. There are other places where I hear echoes of another
big Florida metal band – some Savatage-like riffage (‘Tage often tuned down to
D, like Chuck). Most notably the pre-chorus – which can first be heard around
the 0:43 mark - when Chuck pedals off his low D string. In the same riff, Chuck
breaks the rules and amps things up by going hyper-speed (I mean double-time)
mid-riff, a maneuvre I could see Slayer taking. The other ’Tage-type riff
appears at 3:34.
The massive chorus riff is hook-laden,
super-solid and chunky, a la Kiss circa Destroyer. Chuck was always very
vocal about how much Kiss inspired him from the time he was knee-high to a
grasshopper. At the bridge, around the 2:11 mark, Chuck can be heard taking
cues from Texas prog juggernauts Watchtower, another of his big influences. The
finished studio tune boasts back-to-back ripping solos by both Chuck and
Shannon Hamm. From a drum standpoint, Richard Christy’s performance on “Spirit
Crusher” is both groovy and blistering, somewhere between Sean Reinert and
Peter Criss!
The People Behind
the Music
How do people deal with fame?
Some never forget their roots and are very humble when interacting with their
fans. Others cop rockstar attitudes and come off as too-cool-for school and holier-than-thou.
Not so with Chuck and his metal comrades from The Sound of Perseverance
lineup. How can I say something like that? Well, because I was fortunate enough
to have met and hung out with them a few times over two magic days in Southern
California – December 5th and 6th of 1998. A bit of
backstory: as some of you know, I was playing guitar for the power metal band
Destiny’s End by September 1997. Through Sentinel Steel publisher
Denis Gulbey, Chuck had contacted Helstar (and DE) vocalist James Rivera about
the possibility of him singing for Control Denied. James turned him down flat.
I might add that Sanctuary and Nevermore vocalist Warrel Dane also declined the
Control Denied job. Destiny’s End recorded the debut, album, Breathe Deep
the Dark, for Metal Blade Records in ’98. I was dying to see if we could
tour with Death or Control Denied. As fate would have it, Chuck chose Swedes Hammerfall
to go on the road with in support of The Sound of Perseverance. Still, My
pal Joey Severance was working for Metal Blade at the time and knew how much of
a Chuck/Death/Control Denied fan I was. Joey promised to give Chuck a Breathe
Deep the Dark CD at the Milwaukee Metal Fest that year. Which he did!
Fast forward to December 5, 1998.
I was ecstatic to see Death live again. This time at the infamous Whisky in
Hollywood. My prog metal friends Prototype were the local support band. I
managed to flag down Shannon after the gig for a friendly chat. Straight off, I
mentioned spending time in Houston and playing in DE with James from Helstar.
Shannon was amazed that I knew of his previous Texas-based band, Metalstorm.
Shannon went and grabbed Chuck off the tour bus and introduced me.
I asked Chuck if he had a chance
to listen to Breathe Deep the Dark after Joey Severance gave him the CD.
Chuck quickly exclaimed, “Totally! Metal!”. I kind of sensed a bit of brotherly
competition at Chuck’s reaction. Like… Here’s this 23 year-old metal kiddie
who’s playing melodic and technical power metal with a high-ranged singer the
way I want to. I mentioned in passing that DE was ready to tour and how much
I’d love to go on the road with Death or Control Denied. Chuck was still a year
away from releasing the Control Denied album, The Fragile Art of Existence,
and he was not able to finish the second CD album (tentatively titled When
Man and Machine Collide.) Anyhow, I told Shannon and Chuck I’d be going to
the Ventura gig the following day, and they invited me down to the in-store
they were doing.
It was on December 6, 1998 that I
had the opportunity to finally hang out properly with Chuck. At their in-store
record signing Chuck inscribed all my Death LPs and CDs, and I apologized for
bringing so many – for being a big fan-boy. But he was really understanding and
cool. "I’m the same way, definitely!" he said, "like with KISS
or King Diamond”. Shannon invited me into the venue to hang out, and I spent
the early afternoon at the Ventura Theater while no one else was around but
Chuck's Nuclear Blast record label rep Maria Abril. It was unreal. I sort of sensed
that Maria wanted to boot me out, but Shannon and Chuck prevailed. I got to
watch Chuck jam unaccompanied while he waited for everyone else to show up for
soundcheck. I vividly recall Chuck doing some mellow finger picking, similar to
what he did on “Voice of the Soul”. He didn't have security kick me out or
wonder what I was doing there. He didn’t need a bodyguard. As a matter of fact,
he was one of the kindest musicians I've ever met. Chuck jumped off the stage
and came up to me for a bit of a talk. He had me write my name out and put me
on the guest list for the show. How many people get to spend time like that
with their biggest music hero? Richard Christy was sick that day and stuck to
the bus primarily, so I didn’t get much of a chance to break the ice with him.
After soundcheck and before
Hammerfall took the stage I adjourned to a bar called Winchester’s and talked
metal with Shannon and bassist Scott Clendenin. Over some Guinness, Shannon,
Scott and I rapped like the prog geeks we were – about Yes, Rush, Queensryche,
Watchtower and Fates Warning. These were the days preceding the appearance of mobile
smart phones. All I had was a disposable 35mm film camera with me. I got so
carried away snapping photos of Hammerfall and Death in action that I exhausted
my chance of getting my picture taken with the Death dudes. I truly felt like
we’d become friends, although Chuck’s battle with cancer kept us from becoming closer
as metal brothers.
When the Ventura gig ended it was
off to the bus to hang with Chuck & Co – including guitarist Oscar Dronjak
from Hammerfall. We listened to Stratovarius and Pat Boone's In a Metal Mood
and laughed like there was no tomorrow. Chuck looked over at a tissue box in the
bus lounge, and a big smile crept over his face. The tissue box was labelled
“James River Corporation”. Chuck wasted no time in saying, “Perry, watch this!”
He took out the Sharpie pen he was using for autographs and added an “a” to the
end of the tissue company – a playful dig at DE singer James’ last name. He had
a wicked sense of humour. Yeah, all considered, it was a golden metallic day
that will live forever in my mind!
Shannon and I swapped contact
details and stayed in touch in the days following the Death/Hammerfall tour. We
used to chat a lot on AOL Instant Messenger. He was the first person I
interviewed for my big Metal Maniacs Chuck tribute article, “Precious
Memories of Chuck Schuldiner”. I think it’s very understandable that there’s
still a lot of grief over Chuck’s passing, even though it was over 20 years
ago. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about Chuck and his music.
I bumped into Richard Christy
again around 2003 when he was crashing at live Falcon drummer Andrew Sample’s
pad. Richard always had a video camera handy, and he got a bunch of footage of
Andrew’s cat and dog play-fighting. Richard shares my love for the Halloween
franchise of horror movies, and we watched Halloween VI together.
I’ll close this piece out by
quoting Chuck’s prophetic lyrics to “Symbolic”:
Do you remember whenThings seemed so eternal?
Heroes were so real
Their magic frozen in time
The only way to learn
Is be aware and hold on tight
When did it begin
The change to come was undetectable
The open wounds expose
The importance of our innocence
A high that can never be bought or sold
