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

The band began in late 1995 while Death were touring for the album Symbolic, B.C Richards initially joined the band as vocalist, though he temporarily left the same year to focus on his band, Wicked Ways. Schuldiner attempted to get Andy LaRocque as a lead guitarist, but the lack of a label hindered it. Drummer Chris Williams also joined around this time, who recruited Shannon Hamm on guitar and Scott Clendenin on bass. By 1996, Richards had rejoined but he had left the band again in 1997, while Clendenin was briefly replaced by Brian Benson. at the time their first album was initially going to be titled The Moment of Clarity.

Psycho Scream guitarist Jim Dofka had sent Schuldiner demo material and was interested in joining Control Denied alongside his bandmate, singer Tim Aymar. However, Schuldiner had already selected Hamm as the guitarist. After a brief audition, and demo, (which included the tracks What If, Believe and Cut Down), Aymar was chosen as the new singer, while Rob Halford of Judas Priest was also in the running. Earlier, Warrel Dane of Nevermore was almost selected as the singer, though the scheduling did not work out as Dane was dedicated to Nevermore and didn’t have the time. Williams left the band as he couldn’t “hang around waiting” any longer and went on to form Beyond Unknown.

The Fragile Art of Existence

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. Though Clendenin was intended to be on the debut Control Denied album and it was announced in early April that the recording had been completed, Schuldiner let the bassist go later in April and brought on DiGiorgio to re-record most of the basslines. The band’s debut album, The Fragile Art of Existence, was released in 1999. it was reissued in October 2010 by Relapse Records in a 2-disc standard format and a 3-disc deluxe version featuring rare or previously unreleased demo material.

When Man and Machine Collide

Schuldiner began writing the second Control Denied album in 1999 and completed it by March of 2000, he signed with Hammerheart Records in December of 2000.

The second album (initially under the title of When Hate Strikes Down, but was was later changed into When Man and Machine Collide), was partly recorded in November 2000. According to an interview with Hamm, Schuldiner and Christy had completed their tracks, while Hamm recorded three of his tracks before the funds were diverted to pay for Schuldiner’s medical bills. The death of Schuldiner in 2001 put the recordings on hold. Remaining band members had expressed a wish to complete and release the material. However, there existed a longstanding legal dispute over the rights of the material with Hammerheart Records (known as Karmageddon Media from 2003 to 2006), further postponing the completion and release of the album.

During the legal dispute, Karmageddon Media released demo tracks from the album alongside rare Death material on the compilation Zero Tolerance without consent from Schuldiner’s family. Schuldiner estate lawyer and Death manager Eric Greif settled all matters with the label by 2009, allowing for the possibility of completing the album.

Aymar released a statement in December 2010 saying that plans were being made to record and release the album, stating that Jim Morris of Morrisound Studios had been in contact with Greif to begin planning and booking studio time to record the remaining parts of the album. Plans were cut short by a break-in at Morrisound in the spring of 2011 that saw much of their equipment stolen, pushing back the album’s completion. An exploratory meeting between producer Jim Morris and guitarist Shannon Hamm was held in December 2012. Greif said in October 2016 that the recordings would not be completed, stating it was too enormous of a task and that the machine that Schuldiner used to record his guitar parts was corrupted, making it difficult to sync with Richard Christy’s drum tracks.

A couple snippets from the album can be heard in the 2018 Death Documentary film Death by Metal, In December 2021 during a Death tribute show. lyrics and song titles from the album were revealed.