Rotting Corpse page

. [Life or death it's your choice your addiction grows each day a vital waste of matter as your brain rots and decays...]

BIO

	Rotting Corpse was formed in July 1985. Walt Trachsler and Jim "Moe" Mulqueen had known each other working as roadies for Pantera in the early 80's. They met John Perez after Walt responded to his ad in a local music store. Walt and Mo had been searching for other musicians for over two years before they met John. After a laborious search they then found Dave Gryder to play drums. This is the lineup that recorded the first demo in early 1986 at Pantego Sound with Jerry "The Elden" Abbott at the board. This demo sold extremely well being distributed around the world and received much acclaim as one of the first Thrash Death Metal bands from Texas. Songs on the tape are "Rotting Corpse," "War on Drugs," and "Evil Slaughter." Taken from the original bio: "In terms of live performance, seeing Rotting Corpse is pure energy on stage. The band is definitely not another trendy thrash band trying to get cheap attention. This point must be made clear. Each member is dedicated and experienced in the underground. The actual concept of Rotting Corpse was conceived in the minds of John and Walt long before the current thrash metal explosion. The name Rotting Corpse was chosen at a time when no thrash bands existed in the area (Dallas-Arlington-Ft. Worth, Texas). They needed a name that would catch people's attention and challenge the norm. Rotting Corpse is a metal band that accepts no compromise and believes in itself."
	Rotting Corpse 1986 - Mo, Gribb, John, Walter
	Rotting Corpse had several bassists before and after Steve Murphy joined in early 1987. One of which was a tall fellow named Marty Griffin who played a black Rick and another guy named Rodney and another was Jimmy Cleaver who played with Randy in Montage. Steve was a former member of Eldritch Rite, a deceased progressive power unit from Dallas. Before that time Randy "Gribb" Cook had even played some bass before he started playing drums for the band in late 1986. In the summer of 1987, Randy decided to move back to Michigan. His "so-called" last show was the Heavy Metal Records show in Dallas. All in the same afternoon Walt kicked Mo out the band and John Perez quit within minutes of each other while we sat on the band's Church of Christ bus outside of Walt's mother's house in Arlington. Walt quickly recruited Louie Carrisalez, formerly of San Antonio's Helldogs and later Devastation, to play drums. And Walt became the vocalist.

	Rotting Corpse in Dallas, TX - Heavy Metal Records '87
	Soon after, RC recorded a four-song demo Fuck it - it's only Thrash at PantegoSound with Vinnie Paul at the board. The songs recorded were "Those without conscience," "Evolvement," "The Price of God," and "When it Rains, it Pours." After recording, Roger Gallardo from San Antonio's Hellpreacher joined as the second guitarist. With this line-up, Corpse played the infamous Dark Angel shows in Austin, San Antonio and Corpus Christi. After the shows, Steve quit the band and a friend of Louie's Mando Trevar played bass. They played some shows in fall of 1987 with this line-up.

	At the Ritz in Austin, RC opening for Dark Angel. Photo by Stephen Larson
	By the start of 1988, Louie, Roger and Mondo stopped playing with Walt. Randy returned as drummer and Luke Brewer joined as lead guitarist. At this point Mark Salis Thrasher of Corpus (Brewish) played bass for a short time. Some time in '88 Steve returned to RC but before that Walt and Randy recorded the doomed third demo that was never released in any form other than Walt forcing Steve to give his only copy to some guy at a show at Joe's Garage. Songs on this tape where "Emotional Scars," "Unclaimed Victims," "Walk all over you (AC/DC)," "When it rains, it pours (with vocals)," "War on Drugs," and "Evolvement." This demo never had any bass or was ever mixed because the boat that Walter had traded Vinnie for doing the studio time sunk to the bottom of Joe Pool lake. Only two songs exist in decent enough form for RC to release on it's upcoming The Demos CD - "Emotional Scars," and "Evolvement."

	Live in Houston 88 maybe
	Thus began the Circus of Fools era... Rotting Corpse played with this line up - Walter on guitars and vocals; Steve on bass and backing vocals; Randy on drums and Luke on guitar for 1988 and into 1989. By this time Steve had started a metal-hardcore-punk band called Process Revealed. He did both bands for the next two years. It may sound like he was busy with both bands, but RC had its periods of down time. If Walt got a gig, they'd have an emergency practice and then play the gig. At this time RC played with Nuclear Assault, Overkill, Dead Horse and Gammicide.

	RC '88: Randy "Gribb" Cook, Luke Brewer, Steve Murphy, Walt Traschsler
	After an extended period off from the band, Walt got Steve and former drummer, Dave Gryder, back together. A few shows where played with this line up plus Luke on guitars. In January of 1990 Walt, Steve and Dave recorded 7 songs at Elephant Track studios in San Antonio. Scott Shelby of Gammacide played the lead guitar riffs on these songs. This tape included four new songs: "Neck Breaking Fury," "Payment in Blood," "Progressing Insanity," and a badly named instrumental "Outro," plus the songs from the first demo. With the help of Rodney Dunsmore of Devastation these songs where to be released as a vinyl album with "Those without Conscience" from the second demo. For some reason this never happened. John Perez believes there is a curse associated with this band and now realizing how much those 1000 albums would be going for on eBay he may be right. The last Corpse show took place in San Antonio on Valentine's Day '90- a fitting place to end with all the excitement that RC once generated in that town. (sdm)

Updated 06/05/2009