About Death

There are at least four artists by this name: 1) A death metal band from Florida, United States. 2) A proto-punk band from Michigan, United States. 3) A horrorcore rapper from Louisiana, United States. 4) A techno producer from Mainz, Germany. 1) Death was an influential death metal band founded by guitarist and singer Chuck Schuldiner in Orlando, Florida in 1983. They released several demos as Mantas before changing their name in 1984. Death is widely considered one of the most influential bands in the genre. The band's debut, "Scream Bloody Gore", has been described as "death metal's first archetypal document," and Schuldiner himself as the "father of death metal". However, Schuldiner dismissed such attributions in an interview with Metal-Rules.com, stating, "I don't think I should take the credit for this death metal stuff. I'm just a guy from a band, and I think Death is a metal band." As of 2008, Death has sold over 1.5 million albums worldwide, with 368,184 albums having been sold in the US alone (not counting sales prior to the Soundscan era), making them one of the top-selling death metal bands of all time. After the album "Spiritual Healing", Death began moving away from their early death metal sound and adopting more of a progressive metal style, with jazz-influenced bass playing and more complex time signatures. Their best-selling album, "Human", was released in 1991 and is considered by many to be the band in top-form. Their last album, "The Sound of Perseverance", was released in 1998. In 2001, Chuck Schuldiner died from a three-year battle with brain stem cancer and the project ended. Along the way, Death included celebrated musicians from the death metal genre, including bassist, Steve DiGiorgio, drummer Gene Hoglan, and guitarist, James Murphy (Testament, Obituary, more). There was an aid to help Chuck, it started in June 2001. There was signed Death merchandise which went for auction along with other band merchandise like "Fear Factory " "Obsolete" gold record. Despite the effort this was not enough to save Chuck. 2) A garage rock and protopunk demo band formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1971 by brothers Bobby Hackney(bass, vocals) / David Hackney (guitar) / Dannis Hackney (drums). In 1964, the three young Hackney brothers were sat down by their father to witness The Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. The following day, David found a discarded guitar in an alley and set about learning to play. Brothers Bobby and Dannis soon followed suit and they began playing music together. The brothers practiced and recorded early demos in a room in the family home and performed their earliest gigs from their garage. Originally calling themselves RockFire Funk Express, guitarist David convinced his brothers to change the name of the band to Death. "His concept was spinning death from the negative to the positive. It was a hard sell," Bobby Hackney recalled in 2010. In 1974 at Detroit's United Sound Studios with engineer Jim Vitti, they recorded seven songs written by David and Bobby. According to the Hackney family, Columbia Records president Clive Davis funded the recording sessions, but implored the band to change its name to something more commercially palatable than Death. When the Hackneys refused, Davis ceased his support. The band only recorded seven songs instead of the planned dozen. The following year they self-released (on their label Tryangle Records) a single taken from the sessions: "Politicians in My Eyes / Keep On Knocking" in a run of just 500 copies. The Hackney brothers ended the band in 1977. The brothers then moved to Burlington, Vermont and released two albums of gospel rock as The 4th Movement in the early 1980s. David moved back to Detroit in 1982, and died of lung cancer in 2000. Bobby and Dannis still reside in Vermont and lead the reggae band Lambsbread. In 2008 the sons of Bobby Hackney Sr (Julian, Urian, and Bobby Hackney Jr) started a band called Rough Francis covering the songs of Death after discovering the old recordings in their parents attic. In 2009, Drag City Records released all seven Death songs from their 1975 United Sound sessions on CD and LP under the title ...For the Whole World To See. In September 2009, a reformed Death played three shows with original members Bobby and Dannis Hackney, with Lambsbread guitarist Bobbie Duncan taking the place of the late David Hackney. During a 2010 performance at the Boomslang Festival in Lexington, Kentucky the band announced that Drag City would release a new album with demos and rough cuts that predate the 1974 sessions. The album Spiritual Mental Physical was released in January 2011. An independent documentary film titled A Band Called Death, directed by Jeff Howlett and Mark Covino, was released in 2012. In 2013 the EP Relief/Story of the World was released. 3) A horrorcore rapper from New Orleans, who released an album "Possessed By The Ouija Board" in 1993. 4) Death (real name: Thomas Peter Heckmann), is a German musician born in Mainz, Germany.His first release was as Exit 100 in 1991 on the Force Inc. Music Works label out of Frankfurt. In 1993 he founded Trope Recordings, and its sub-label Acid Fuckers Unite (A.F.U.) the following year. In 1998 he succeeded those labels by starting Wavescape, and its sub-label Sub~Wave in 2000. He currently produces Hard Techno with strong EBM influences, and has been a frequent collaborator with Jörg Henze since 1998.