Label Owner Clarifies His Position On Plans To Release CONTROL DENIED Recordings

Guido Heijnens, owner of the now-defunct Dutch record label Hammerheart Records (which has since been "resurrected" under the Karmageddon Media banner),has sent a follow-up statement to BLABBERMOUTH.NET addressing some of the criticisms posted by the visitors to this site regarding his decision to press ahead with plans to release the (currently unfinished) recordings originally slated to appear on the sophomore album from CONTROL DENIED, the band formed by the late DEATH mainman Chuck Schuldiner. His latest statement reads as follows:

"We have never ever stated we do not want the album finished the way Chuck wanted it. With all the love in the world, we would like it like that! And we have been trying to get this done for four years now.

"We [Karmageddon Media] are a very small, underground-orientated label. We have thought [about] simply letting all this rest, despite the financial consequences, but…

"The [Schuldiner] family tried to sell the record to another (bigger) company, excluding us, simply thinking we could not do anything [to stop them from doing so]. They did not even have a copy of the contract. We had to fax them proof we actually paid all the money for the recordings (if you want to know, it was $50,000 USD in 2000, which is now 70,000 euros. [Editor's Note: Based on the current currency conversion rate, $50,000 USD is the equivalent of 41,160 euros.]. Average Dutch people earn around 17,000 euros in a year. So do we… We never got rich from owning a label, so… We cannot pay [an artist to make] a record [and then have it released by] a bigger label and not even receive our invested money back.

"I tried, and actually did talk to the [Schuldiner] family, even offered to visit them, talk it all over, but on over ten occasions they did not respond, and when they said they would, they simply did not.

"All those people judging [us] so easily, if I take away you salary for a couple of years' hard work, would you simply let it be? When it gets personal, anyone would agree, I guess.

"The judge agreed on ALL our complaints, everything…. If it was you in our shoes, you would be happy that you were right. And how can we be agreed upon all our complaints? And still some of you think we are the 'evil' ones….?

"[Regarding] Chuck’s music [and] DEATH and CONTROL DENIED, I saw DEATH in 1988 on the 'Leprosy' tour. I spent five days with Chuck, we got along like brothers in metal should and I have absolute nothing against him, his music, his composing or his attitude, not even against his family, but they should treat us fair. And yes, I am still very, very sad Chuck died. It would have obviously been the best for the whole metal world if he could have [released] 50 more records… And, of course, I do understand the grief and pain his family has felt and still feels, but I explained above why we acted as we did.

"Whatever your thoughts [are] on this, and even if you do not believe [anything] I [have to] say, think before speaking up. Do you think it is 'cool' or 'great' to go this way? You know the answer, right? And [regarding] your bad wishes etc. towards me, I would feel bad about it indeed if this was done out of greed, but people who know me know I am not like that at all… That's exactly the reason why Chuck signed with us instead of [with any of] the bigger companies."

As previously reported, Chuck — who passed away in December 2001 after a battle with pontine glioma, a rare type of brain tumor — began work on the album (tentatively titled "When Machine and Man Collide") in 2001 but never managed to complete the effort before his health quickly deteriorated in the months leading up to his tragic death. The remaining members of the group — bassist Steve DiGiorgio, vocalist Tim Aymar, guitarist Shannon Hamm, and drummer Richard Christy — subsequently announced their desire to complete the CD and release it in Chuck's memory, but legal hassles between Schuldiner's family and Hammerheart Records (to whom Chuck was signed at the time of his death) put the entire project on hold (Karmageddon Media — formerly Hammerheart Records — have since issued various incomplete demo recordings as two separate low-quality albums, "Zero Tolerance" and "Zero Tolerance II").

Jane Schuldiner, mother of late DEATH/CONTROL DENIED frontman Chuck Schuldiner, had previously stated about the unfinished recordings: "[Chuck's]last masterpiece deserves more than to be released as unfinished bits of rehearsal room recordings on CD, or to be grabbed for free on the Internet. It deserves to be finished by the rest of the band and to be released on a full-length album, titled: 'When Machine and Man Collide'."