Dave Mustaine vs. Chuck Schuldiner

Who is the better metal musician, Dave Mustaine or Chuck Schuldiner? Both are vocalists and take a rhythm/lead guitar role and are the sole composers for a large chunk of their respective bands songs. Both also carved their own niche in their genres of metal, Mustaine in thrash metal and Schuldiner in death metal/progressive metal. 

I'm a fan of both.

I'm a fan of both, and both were brilliant musicians and very important and influential, but absolutely Chuck for me

Without a clear cut winner as far as talent goes, I had to fault Chuck for his weaker songwriting abilities.  Almost every single Death song follows the same formula:

Edited by Wilytank - 12 Nov 2011 at 1:43pm

Chuck...but at least it's a bit closer than Dave vs. Kirk. 

Chuck Schuldiner. Though, I'm getting tired of hearing his name how important he was for death metal etc etc. But that's how it goes when someone dies I suppose.

Interesting analysis of the Death songwriting above, maybe that's why I get bored halfway into each Death album.
Sure Dave for me.

Yeah the man isn�t always sensible to my ears either, but he is a gifted composer IMO.

RuneWalsh2112 wrote: http://www.askdavemustaine.com/

Holy hell...this is borderline impossible for me.

Guess I need to say I love both, they are 2 of my absolute favorite guitarists and both are immensely skilled and great songwriters.
I can't even compare vocal styles since they are just too different. Chuck's was obvious fitting for his music, and Dave was obviously not very good at all but again, wouldn't really fly in death metal.

I'm also disregarding lyrics since I do not give a flying fuck about them, (though I'd have to give the nod to Dave)

Wow, I'm giving my vote to Dave by just a hair. It's his composition skills that gives him the nod.
Even there it's just a hair difference and I must say Chuck improved vastly over time.
Though still, can't disagree with willytank...a tad formulaic and that's why I give Dave the nod.


Even Dave had some patterns though: verse, small solo, verse, small solo, verse, different verse, epic back and forth soloing. It's very evident on "Kill Em All" the Metllica album with most Dave influence and quite different from their rest...