Ex-DEATH Guitarist JAMES MURPHY Hopes To Complete Long-In-The-Works CHUCK SCHULDINER Tribute Album

In a recent interview with Pod Scum, guitarist James Murphy (ex-DEATH, TESTAMENT, OBITUARY) spoke about his plans to complete the long-awaited DEATH tribute album, "Within The Mind - In Homage To The Musical Legacy Of Chuck Schuldiner" which he had started work on nearly two decades ago. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I still have all those tracks in the can. The bottom line is I stopped working on it for a number of reasons, one of them which was pretty pernicious but which has… that problem has gone away; it's resolved. Now, obviously, the moving parts that were in place to get that behemoth of a project moving forward and rolling when it did, those have all been at rest for a long time. So now it's a matter of getting the proper lubrication and fuel and impetus back into those moving parts so that it can roll again. And that's what I'm figuring out, if that's still wanted, desired and needed by everyone involved. And if it is, then I will get it done — now that the main hindrance and problem has resolved itself. I'm not gonna go into what that is — it wouldn't be fair to everyone involved — but a major hindrance came to a resolution. So that sort of leaves it open for the beast to be revived."

Murphy went on to say that the tribute LP is still a long way from being finished. "It's not as simple as flicking a switch; there's a lot of things to get done to make it happen," he explained. "So perhaps it will get done; I certainly hope so. But it was put to bed — it was put to bed quite some time ago. There's still a lot left to do. There's still some recording to do and there's all the mixing and mastering to do. There's some re-recording that will need to be done. And there's also a lot of clearances and permissions and stuff like that that will have to get done, because paperwork and clearances and permissions that were in place back in the day when we started are no longer valid. We've gotta redo a lot of that work, and we will."

"Within The Mind - In Homage To The Musical Legacy Of Chuck Schuldiner" was originally conceived by then-CKY guitarist/vocalist Deron Miller as a means to help Murphy raise money for his medical bills (Murphy was diagnosed with a massive brain tumor in August 2001).

Among the musicians who were scheduled to appear on "Within The Mind" when it was first announced were Miller, Murphy, Dave Culross (MALEVOLENT CREATION, SUFFOCATION),Richard Christy (ICED EARTH, DEATH, CONTROL DENIED),Matt Thompson (KING DIAMOND),Luc Lemay (GORGUTS),Patrick Mameli (PESTILENCE),Jean-Francois Dagenais (KATAKLYSM),Mick Thomson (SLIPKNOT),Paul Gray (SLIPKNOT),Brett Hoffmann (MALEVOLENT CREATION),Ross Dolan (IMMOLATION),Mike Chlasciak (PAINMUSEUM, HALFORD),Matt DiFabio (PISSING RAZORS, SINGLE BULLET THEORY) and Terry Butler (OBITUARY, DEATH, MASSACRE).

A year ago, Murphy joined former DEATH bassist Terry Butler to play two shows commemorating the 20th anniversary of Schuldiner's passing at Brass Mug in Tampa, Florida. Murphy and Butler performed DEATH's classic third album, "Spiritual Healing" (1990),in its entirety under the LIVING MONSTROSITY banner.

In October 2021, Eric Greif, former manager of DEATH and president of Perseverance Holdings Ltd., which manages Chuck Schuldiner's (DEATH, CONTROL DENIED) legacy, died. Greif also worked as an entertainment lawyer, representing bands like OBITUARY and MASSACRE. He was 59 years old.