The archives of Chuck Schuldiner — the visionary behind DEATH and CONTROL DENIED — continue to surprise fans more than two decades after his passing. This week, Schuldiner’s nephew Chris Steele unearthed and shared a previously unheard recording: an instrumental cover of Madonna’s 1998 single “Frozen.”
Schuldiner, often hailed as the “Father of Death Metal,” was diagnosed with pontine glioma in May 1999 and tragically passed away on December 13, 2001. Despite the illness, he remained musically active, working on new material even after the release of CONTROL DENIED’s The Fragile Art of Existence in 1999. Among those late creative sparks was this stripped-down yet unmistakably Schuldiner take on Madonna’s haunting ballad.
“Found this today going through some things,” Steele wrote on DEATH’s official socials. “Chuck recorded this in the early stages of his battle with cancer, I remember it well. Chuck sitting in his bedroom with his stealth and a drum machine. I’m not sure how many people outside of the family and a few friends have heard this but it’s all yours. Chuck’s version of Madonna’s 1998 single ‘Frozen’.”
The discovery is especially poignant given the timeline. In 1998, Madonna released “Frozen” as part of her Ray of Light era, while Schuldiner unveiled DEATH’s final album, The Sound of Perseverance. By 1999, CONTROL DENIED’s debut marked his last official release, though Schuldiner had completed work on a second album in 2000 that never saw the light of day.
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