Control Denied "The Fragile Art Of Existence (USA, Nuclear Blast America, NBA06415)"

Control Denied was a progressive metal band formed by death metal musician and Death co-founder Chuck Schuldiner.

Schuldiner signed with the record label Nuclear Blast in 1997, though the label required that another Death album be released before a Control Denied album could be issued. This led to the release of Death's The Sound of Perseverance in 1998.

It was announced in early April 1999 that the recording of the debut album was completed by the TSOP lineup (with the addition of Aymar). However, Schuldiner let Clendenin go in April and brought on DiGiorgio. The band's debut album, The Fragile Art of Existence, was released in 1999.

The Fragile Art of Existence is the only studio album by Control Denied, a progressive metal band founded by Chuck Schuldiner. It was released worldwide on Nuclear Blast America on November 30, 1999. Metal Mind Productions reissued the album on April 15, 2008 (February 11, 2008 in Europe). The release was digitally remastered and limited to 2,000 copies. The album was again re-released in 2010 by Relapse Records, available in two-disc and three-disc editions. The three-disc edition was limited to 1,000 copies.

This was also Chuck Schuldiner's final studio album before he died of brain cancer on December 13, 2001.

The album's musical style retains the "progressive musical prowess" of Death's later output. Tim Aymar's vocals have been likened to those of Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden and Rob Halford of Judas Priest. The album's overall style has been categorized as hybrid of power metal and progressive metal, and has been characterized as "[tearing] down the conventional walls" of the former. The album's guitar solos have been described as "free jazz meets metal guitar God."

The lineup that recorded Death's album The Sound of Perseverance (along with singer Tim Aymar) was originally intended to release the Control Denied album (and had completed the recording process), though bassist Scott Clendenin was let go in April 1999. Schuldiner contacted frequent Death collaborator and bass player Steve Di Giorgio and requested that he record new basslines to replace the ones recorded by Clendenin. In some instances, Di Giorgio kept the bass lines recorded by Clendenin; he viewed it as a way to "return the favor", as Clendenin kept some of the bass lines that Di Giorgio played on the demos for TSOP. Schuldiner remarked in a January 2000 Metal Maniacs interview that Clendenin "just didn't seem into it, I don't know if it was the material or what, but he didn't seem happy with what was going on, so we had to just let him go."

Jason Hundley of AllMusic called the album "powerful, brilliant, and subversively catchy" and said that it was Steve Di Giorgio's "finest hour behind the bass."

Track listing

All songs written by Chuck Schuldiner.

1. "Consumed" 7:24
2. "Breaking the Broken" 5:41
3. "Expect the Unexpected" 7:17
4. "What If...?" 4:29
5. "When the Link Becomes Missing" 5:17
6. "Believe" 6:10
7. "Cut Down" 4:50
8. "The Fragile Art of Existence" 9:38

Total length: 50:46

First pressing of 10,000 units has no barcode, catalog number, or label info printed on inserts or disc.

Official music video:

- Breaking the Broken

Recording information:

Produced at Morrisound Studios, Tampa, Florida.

Jim Morris - production, engineering, mixing & mastering