![\"Death](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Alex-Solca-copy-1.jpg\")
Death to All celebrates the music of pioneering death metal act Death and includes members that actually played in the band. Credit: Alex Solca<\/p>\nDeath to All celebrates the music of pioneering death metal act Death and includes members that actually played in the band. Credit: Alex Solca<\/p>\n
When Chuck Schuldiner, frontman for the pioneering death\u00a0metal band Death, died at 34,\u00a0he left behind a legacy most\u00a0musicians who live decades longer can only\u00a0dream of.<\/p>\n
Schuldiner and a rotating cast of musicians\u00a0laid down the template for one of metal\u2019s\u00a0most enduring subgenres.\u00a0Not only can they be credited for creating\u00a0death metal with the punishing riffs, barked\u00a0vocals and morbid themes explored on their\u00a0earlier albums, their later, more refined\u00a0incorporations of fusion and prog paved the\u00a0way for technical death metal and helped\u00a0define that scene as well.<\/p>\n
Some of the musicians who played with\u00a0Schuldiner, who died of a brain tumor in\u00a02001, have teamed up to keep that influential\u00a0music alive. Their band, Death to All, will hit\u00a0San Antonio\u2019s Vibes Event Center on Saturday, Nov. 22, to celebrate two of the band\u2019s\u00a0landmark albums,\u00a0Spiritual Healing (1990)\u00a0and\u00a0Symbolic (1995).<\/p>\n
The Current spoke with drummer Gene\u00a0Hoglan on Zoom about the tour, his time\u00a0with Schuldiner and the complex rhythms\u00a0that define Death\u2019s music. We also considered\u00a0whether this band offers the metal community at large a chance to honor Schuldiner\u2019s\u00a0outsized influence.<\/p>\n
The following interview has been edited for\u00a0length and clarity.<\/p>\n
What would you say to someone who says,\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not familiar with Death. Where do I\u00a0start?\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Well, since Death has had such a very\u00a0historical musical evolution, I would probably have them pick a song from album No.\u00a01, which was\u00a0Scream Bloody Gore, and then\u00a0take that all the way, play a song from\u00a0Sound\u00a0of Perseverance [the band\u2019s final LP]. And you\u00a0could hear the musical journey of the band.\u00a0And then, work your way inwards and see the\u00a0evolution, from one side over to the other\u00a0side. I would tell somebody, \u201cHey, check\u00a0out where the band started when they were\u00a0teenagers, and then see where they ended up\u00a0when they were in their later 20s.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In the documentary\u00a0Death by Metal, Chuck\u00a0has an Iron Maiden shirt on. And when you\u00a0think of today\u2019s death metal contenders,\u00a0you usually see band members wearing\u00a0shirts for more underground bands. Not\u00a0that everybody doesn\u2019t have a respect and\u00a0love for Maiden, he seemed to have a sense\u00a0of larger stages.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, Chuck was always a staunch proponent\u00a0of the traditional metal. He was always all\u00a0about it. And especially when it was around\u00a0the\u00a0Symbolicera. There was always tunes play-ing somewhere. At that time, it was like all\u00a0the latest Dio stuff. Like I think the Dio album\u00a0Strange Highwaysmight have been the one\u00a0that was out at the time. You know, which\u00a0led to\u00a0Angry Machinesafter that, which, you\u00a0know, Chuck was one that brought me back\u00a0to Dio. I admit, I was probably kind of veering\u00a0away from the traditional stuff, because what I was finding \u2014 back in like \u201994, \u201995 \u2014 was that I was excited to create the next level of music, whatever it was. And so, for me, traditional metal at that point, wasn\u2019t quite exciting me the way it was Chuck. But Chuck was just an absolute purist when it comes to that stuff, listening to tons of Japanese stuff. He\u2019s like, \u201cCheck out the productions on these albums.\u201d This is just good \u2014 good players on good records and having good engineers using good studios and good microphones and good equipment, you know. And it\u2019s a marvel what can be done with that sort of approach.<\/p>\n But Chuck was definitely leaning away from the same interests that he had when he was in his late teens writing Death material. I\u2019ve mentioned this before, when\u00a0Symbolic\u00a0came out, it was a head scratcher for a lot of people. It was not immediately addressed as, \u201cThis is an all-time classic.\u201d A lot of the old hardcores wanted their death metal to be like Cannibal Corpse and Deicide and Morbid Angel, Obituary, whatever. But Chuck was like, \u201cI\u2019m not the same person I was almost a decade ago when I wrote stuff. I\u2019m on my musical journey, and I\u2019m going to write from my musical perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n Something that always struck me about Death and Chuck\u2019s riffs, especially as the band progressed, is that they\u2019re very deliberate. There may be a time when it feels like it should be a riff in 7\/4, and he pushes it to 9\/4 or whatever. Is Death\u2019s music difficult to feel for you? Do you have to be deliberate and count?<\/strong><\/p>\n I am a feel person. I count very little. I count as little as I need to. So, I definitely feel things, and I\u2019m pretty quick to hear if something\u2019s in a five or a seven or a nine, and then just work on it from there. And I\u2019m not musically trained at all. I\u2019m completely self-taught as a drummer, as a guitarist. So that\u2019s one thing that I\u2019m not sure that ever gets pointed out, or perhaps maybe it\u2019s even overlooked, but a lot of Chuck\u2019s riffs were just deceptively simple. They weren\u2019t in crazy time signatures. It was all the players behind it doing all this wacky stuff, all this crazy stuff that makes it sound like it\u2019s really complicated. But you can pick up any Death album and play the riffs just straight across with it. Richard Christy, for instance, going out of his mind playing the drums that he does. Just completely unplugging that brain of his and making the most technical, psychotic, busiest drum beats imaginable over some pretty simple riffing. So, that\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve always noticed about the Death catalog \u2026 is that Chuck was a pretty traditional writer. Chuck was self-taught as well. Most of us were.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all a matter of feel. Sure, I can count. There are times when you have to count, but for the most part, it\u2019s just like, yeah, you feel the pulses. That was kind of the reason why I picked up all the material on guitar. That was my sheet music for it, I guess, or my charts. It\u2019s like, I can play the riff. Okay, now I can just think about that riff. I\u2019m good at visualizing. I can write an entire album of drums without playing any drums. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s anything that spectacular or anything, but that\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve done on many an occasion, where I don\u2019t get to rehearse something. I have to show up in the studio knowing what I\u2019m doing and I\u2019m on a plane as I\u2019m learning the material.<\/p>\n The Death to All approach is that the music is in the now. If there are different patterns or different fills or whatever that come about with this group of musicians, you\u2019re open to the music sort of living and breathing, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n Absolutely. And so, one thing I do try to do \u2014 say, if I\u2019m playing a Sean Reinert song \u2014 I try to emulate Sean\u2019s style as much as I can. Because for me, it\u2019s kind of like, if you\u2019re going to play a Rush song, you\u2019re not going to put your own spin on Neil Peart. That\u2019s just as an example. Neil Peart, for me, was a very understandable drummer.<\/p>\n He pushed the limits of what he was doing, but it was always really gettable. That\u2019s why Neil was, like, my favorite prog drummer, because I can get him. Guys like Terry Bozzio, and in certain elements of like, Bill Bruford, it\u2019s like, \u201cWow, you guys play some crazy stuff. I can emulate as good as I can, but\u2026\u201d Neil Peart was just always 100% meat-and-potatoes prog drumming, which was killer. It\u2019s understandable. It has elements of some bouncy musicality, definitely, but at the bottom line, it\u2019s understandable. It\u2019s gettable. You can cover it. You can copy it.<\/p>\n I get this sense that fans know Death and Chuck much better now than when all these records were new in the \u201990s. Are the Death to All shows bigger than the Death shows were back in the day?<\/strong><\/p>\n You know what? I would have to say yes, because I\u2019ve done both. When we were putting out\u00a0Individual Thought Patterns\u00a0and\u00a0Symbolic,\u00a0both albums were rather\u00a0mildly\u00a0accepted. Journalists understood it, and you\u2019d have a small pocket of fans that are like, \u201cHey man, I\u2019m here for the band. I get it.\u201d<\/p>\n Death has always struck me in a way as the Velvet Underground of extreme metal. Maybe enough people didn\u2019t hear them the first time around, but everybody that did hear them formed a band themselves and their influence is sort oversized as a result of that.<\/strong><\/p>\n Indeed. I understand that analogy perfectly. I mean, look what Velvet Underground went and influenced, you know, a lot of music that I love. I admit, man, Velvet Underground, that wasn\u2019t my scene, but all the bands that listened to them, and took their cues from that, I love a lot of those bands.<\/p>\n Given this monstrous presence, why isn\u2019t Death better known?<\/strong><\/p>\n There was a nickname that was placed upon Chuck that he was never comfortable with, and that was the \u201cGodfather of Death Metal,\u201d and he was like, \u201cMan, there were bands doing this kind of stuff before me. I love Possessed, I love Slayer, I love Venom, I love Mercyful Fate, you know, bands that were playing this sort of stuff. He was a huge Possessed fan. The lineage of much death metal, of course, goes back to Chuck, but Chuck would always try to pass that lineage back. He would talk about Venom, Mercyful Fate, Possessed, you name it. There was a great advertising tagline, I remember, on the\u00a0Spiritual Healing\u00a0album. It said, \u201cDeath, the first word in death metal,\u201d and I was like, \u201cWow, whoever came up with that is a genius. That\u2019s\u00a0great!\u201d<\/p>\n $44.67, 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, Vibes Event Center, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 255-3833, vibeseventcenter.com.<\/p>\n Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Follow us:\u00a0Apple News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>| Twitter<\/a>\u00a0| Or sign up for our\u00a0RSS Feed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Related Stories<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tThe Grammy-winning group canceled its April 22 show after 77-year-old bandleader Carlos Santana fell ill. \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Santana](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Carlos001.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
![\"Live](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Mavis01.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Eclectic](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sunjammer-BRIGHT.png\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n