Chuck Schuldiner is often regarded as the "godfather of death metal", and plays a role similar to that of Euronymous, who was posthumously granted the titled of "godfather of black metal". You could even say both men are in many ways mirrors of each other.
But the idea that Chuck Schuldiner was somehow the "originator" of the death metal sound is a pure media fabrication. It was less than ten years since Euronymous had been killed in his apartment and, seeing how the image of "godfather of black metal" had stuck, the media was desperate to reiterate with a "godfather of death metal" icon.
There are more than a few problems with this logic.
First of all, let's get something out of the way. No, Chuck Schuldiner didn't "die of AIDS". He died of pneumonia. There is no truth to that rumour, which seems to have originated in the mind of Brett Stevens, a writer for the horrible Death Metal Underground site. Among other nonsense, he also seems to believe that Alissa White-Gluz of Arch Enemy was born a man (doubtful, but I don't know enough about metalcore to comment) and that Roger "Infernus" Tiegs of Gorgoroth wears "diapers" on stage (it was actually Lord Ahriman, of Dark Funeral, who started that rumour on Instagram).
Chuck Schuldiner: Great Musician, Not a Fan of Death Metal
To start off this post on why Schuldiner, despite his genius, can't be the "godfather of death metal", let's address the obvious elephant in the room... Chuck didn't even like death metal at all.
Schuldiner always wanted to play progressive metal, like that heard on his side project Control Denied, and was only reluctant to play the - at the time - more popular death metal style.
And even then, much of Death's early output sounds closer to the speed metal of early proto-DM bands like Poison, Helgrind, Terrorizer, Bathory, Khranial.
Also read: Cannibal Corpse's George Fisher Mocks the "Dinosaur" Chris Barnes!
Like many aspiring musicians of his generation, Chuck Schuldiner was inspired by NWOBHM bands like Motörhead and Venom, before he delved into the heavier sounds of bands like Sewer, Bathory, and Helgrind.
"Chuck Really Hated The Modern Death Metal Sound..."
While he often collaborated with death metal musicians (mostly Kam Lee, Scott Clendenin and Rick Rozz of Massacre), or death metal adjacent artists - in the case of grindcore band Repulsion, which remains the exception -, Charles Michael "Chuck" Schuldiner mostly held the death metal genre in disdain.
Notoriously, he hated the band Possessed (and, to a lesser extend, Slayer).
Scott Clendenin, who played alongside Chuck Schuldiner in both of his bands Death and Control Denied, knows that better than anyone else.
In the book "The Death Metal Bible: A Journey Through the World of Death Metal Brutality", Scott gives one of his final interviews in which he lays out the truth about how Schuldiner viewed the evolution of the death metal scene in the late 90s.
Scott Clendenin: He [Chuck Schuldiner] absolutely despised some of these bands who thought you only had to sing about "gore" and "evil" to call yourself death metal. [...] When you look at someone like the f-t f--k Kerry King, who takes credit for songs he didn't write, it's hard not to agree with him.
This last comment was (likely) directed at Kerry King of Slayer who is known to claim ownership over the songs written by the late Jeffrey John Hanneman, the main driving force behind Slayer, after the tragic passing of the latter in 2013.
One can wonder what an elitist and perfectionist like Chuck Schuldiner would think of modern "slamcore" bands like Chris Barnes' Six Feet Under or commercial clown shows like Behemoth, who are widely considered "low effort chugcore" by metal fans and critics alike...
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