Control Denied - Fragile Art of Existence (Reissue)

In short, this is one hell of an overlooked gem.

Death frontman and sorely-missed legend Chuck Schuldiner made an unexpected, but wonderfully brilliant leap into progressive power metal in the late 90’s with his Control Denied outfit. Without going too deeply into the horrible passing of Mr. Schuldiner from brain cancer nearly ten years ago, it never ceases to amaze me at just how diverse and prolific he was. While he created some of the greatest death metal riffs ever assembled on wax, tape, disc, Dictaphone, whatever, it truly captivates the mind at how brilliant he was with all aspects of metal music.

Fragile Art of Existence is an album not a lot of people remember or even know of, and that really needs to be addressed and rectified. For progressive power metal this album was leaps and bounds over the insipidity of what was passing for progressive at that point. Vocalist Tim Aymar is one of the unknown positives of high-octave singing and, once again, sadly so. His performance is nothing short of legendary, proving once again that with the right pistons firing on all cylinders perfection can be attained. It was once rumored that Warrel Dane was touted to perform vocal duties here, and in tracks like “Expect the Unexpected” you can certainly hear him and his unique style in there, but that is not to discredit or undermine Aymar’s performance because he is the captain at this helm. I seriously don’t think the album would have sounded as good with any other vocalist, so to him I raise a glass! “Breaking the Broken” is always going to be my favorite track on this album, but every song on this masterpiece is worthy of reverence and praise.

Mr. Schuldiner’s guitar work was always top-notch, but his seemingly possessed efforts here are the stuff legends are made of. Metal still being a dirty word in the mainstream, Chuck never found the credit outside of our hallowed walls that he so richly deserved, but what is evident here in this re-release is just how indelibly vast his scope was; he delved into everything without recklessness or rank casualness. Along with bassist Steve DiGiorgio and drummer Richard Christy, Control Denied laid the groundwork for what many other bands are doing today in terms of power-prog metal. Even the mighty Dream Theater has never impressed me as much as this album did…can you believe it that only one was released? Hopefully that will change soon enough. Some of the riffs here are classic Schuldiner, as Death can certainly be heard here and there, but this project was a totally different animal, showcasing the prowess and limitless boundaries of Chuck’s expansive well of ideas. His perfect timing and precise picking are always a treat, providing a clean texture to otherwise tempestuous music. He was a true pioneer in more ways than one. 
          
Disc two has some demos for the album that are much more than lost Chuck tracks thrown on for a quick cash-grab; these works-in-progress are small pieces of treasure, even artifacts, if you will. The bare-bones version of “Consumed” is enough to create visuals of Chuck and company is a small studio just lounging with axes on knees, plodding through such wonderful music and honing the perfection already evident within. Mostly they are rough mixes, re-workings and rough ideas, but certainly relevant enough to be included here. It’s especially cool to have the demo tracks for “Breaking the Broken” on vocals, as well as his funny throw-away track “Tune of Evil”, which makes you smile as any true metalhead would that knows when the piss is being taken out of something. Even if you’re not a musician you can and will enjoy these instrumental tracks not because Mr. Schuldiner’s life was cut so tragically short, but because the music is seriously damn good. There are no crappy-sounding demo tracks here; the sound and effort put into mastering them for release almost makes it a completely new and different release that could well have been issued on its own.

All I can say is that you really need to have this CD set in your collection, stat. For the metal maniac, the prog-rock elitist, the speed metal freaks and the death metal masses everyone should hear this and understand just how magnificent Chuck Schuldiner was. I was lucky enough to have seen him live four times, once eating hot dogs in a dingy dive with him and two friends after a show across the street from Wrigley Field in ’87 - he was as cool and gracious as you would expect him to be! I’ll cherish that memory for a lifetime! Finally we have a reissue worthy of being issued.  

Release Date: October 26, 2010
Label: Relapse Records

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1:
1.  Consumed
2.  Breaking The Broken
3.  Expect The Unexpected
4.  What If...?
5.  When The Link Becomes Missing
6.  Believe
7.  Cut Down
8.  The Fragile Art Of Existence

DISC 2:
1.  Consumed (1999 Demo)
2.  When The Link Becomes Missing
      (1999 Demo)
3.  The Fragile Art Of Existence
     (1999 Demo)
4.  Breaking The Broken (1999 Demo)
5.  Breaking The Broken (1999 Demo)
     with Chuck Schuldiner on Vocals
6.  Believe (1997 Demo)
7.  What If...? (1997 Demo)
8.  Cut Down (1997 Demo)
9.  Tune Of Evil (Chuck Schuldiner Comedy Demo)

Total playing time: 1:42:36

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*Comments:

Reviewer: Chris

December 9, 2010

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