Rigor Mortis

During their decade together, the Dallas, Texas group Rigor Mortis never reached the upper tier of heavy metal acts, yet the steady sharpening of their brutal, unrefined style traced the full arc from speed metal into thrash and then death metal. Their refusal to settle inside any single subgenre also hampered commercial prospects, but vocalist Bruce Corbitt, guitarist Mike Scaccia, bassist Casey Orr, and drummer Harden Harrison—four dedicated horror-movie fans—never entertained the notion of chasing broad appeal or copying existing templates when they formed in 1983 and landed a Capitol Records contract four years later. Despite that major-label affiliation, the self-titled debut issued the following year still sounded like a high-grade rehearsal tape, albeit one whose hybrid character made its escape from Capitol’s Hollywood offices seem unlikely and its swift dismissal of the band entirely predictable. Corbitt’s subsequent departure from his colleagues opened the door for former Hallows Eve frontman Doyle Bright, and the new lineup promptly signed with Metal Blade, the label that had previously released Bright’s earlier band. That association yielded the 1989 EP Freaks and the comparatively refined 1991 album Rigor Mortis vs. the Earth, yet neither release generated enough momentum to keep the group from meeting the end implied by its name. Scaccia later contributed to Ministry, Revolting Cocks, and Lard, while Orr assumed the Beefcake the Mighty persona in GWAR and played with Speedealer, a band that also featured Harrison. The original quartet has reconvened for occasional live appearances, among them the one-day Ozzfest staged in Frisco, Texas in 2008. Scaccia died in December 2012 after collapsing onstage in Fort Worth, Texas. Bruce Corbitt succumbed to esophageal cancer on January 25, 2019 following a grueling struggle with the illness.