Listen to haunting instrumental cover of Madonna's Frozen recorded by late Death mastermind Chuck Schuldiner

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By ( Metal Hammer, Louder ) published

Death mastermind toyed with Madonna cover in early stages of terminal cancer battle – hear it now for first time

Death's Chuck Schuldiner with an inset of Madonna
(Image credit: Chuck Schuldiner picture by Catherine McGann/Getty Images, Madonna picture by Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

A long lost demo of late Death mastermind Chuck Schuldiner covering Madonna's 1998 single Frozen has been unearthed and posted on the band's Instagram page.

Schuldiner’s nephew Chris Steele posted a video of him inserting a CD labelled 'Frozen' into his car stereo and playing the instrumental track, which features a haunting guitar sound recreating the pop song's unmistakable vocal melody. Watch the clip below.

Steele's post includes the caption: "Found this today going through some things. 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."

Death were pioneers of death metal and Schuldiner has been given the nickname 'Godfather of death metal'.

Formed in Florida in 1993 as Mantas, the band later known as Death went on to make waves without ever achieving the mainstream success the work they produced over the course of seven albums deserved.

In 2001, Schuldiner died from brain cancer. He was just 34.

His influence can be heard in the sound of so many of the metal acts who followed.

Trivium frontman Matt Heafy told Metal Hammer in 2018: “The way he approached things was so unorthodox.

"He’d treat the guitar like a flamenco player. There aren’t a lot of bands where you can hear the guitarist play a riff and identify them right away.

"Zakk Wylde, Dimebag, James Hetfield. And you definitely can with Chuck."

Stef Lach

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022. 

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