Rotting Corpse was initially formed in July 1985.  Walt Trachsler and Jim 'Mo' 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 Studios with Jerry 'The Elden' Abbott at the board.  This demo sold extremely well being distributed around the world and receiving 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.

Rotting Corpse had several bassists before and after Steve Murphy joined in early 1987.  One of the first was a tall fellow named Marty Griffin who played a black Rickenbacker.  Another short-lived member is now remembered only as Rodney.   And of course there is the infamous 'Number 75'.  Steve Murphy 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 bands 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.  Walt became the vocalist. 

Soon after, Rotting Corpse recorded a four-song demo titled Fuck It - It's Only Thrash at Pantego Sound Studios with Vinnie Paul at the board. The four songs recorded were Those Without Conscience, Evolvement, The Price of God and When It Rains, It Pours.  After this recording, Roger Gallardo from San Antonio's Hellpreacher joined as the second guitarist.  With this line-up, Rotting 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 named Mando Tovar played bass.  They played some shows in fall of 1987 with this line-up.

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 of Corpus Christi played bass for a short time.   Some time in 1988 Steve returned to Rotting Corpse 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 guitar recorded or was ever mixed properly because the boat that Walter had traded Vinnie for the studio time sunk to the bottom of Lake Arlington.  Only two songs exist in decent enough form for Rotting Corpse to release on it's remastered CD compilation titled The Demos.  These songs are Emotional Scars and Evolvement.

Thus begins 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 Rotting Corpse 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 Rotting Corpse played with Nuclear Assault, Overkill, Dead Horse, and Gammicide, among others.

In January of 1990 Walt, Steve and a re-joined Dave Gryder recorded 7 songs at Elephant Tracks 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.  The three songs from the first demo were also re-recorded during this session.  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 now he may be right.  The last Rotting Corpse show took place in San Antonio on Valentine's Day 1990 - a fitting place to end with all the excitement that RC once generated in that town.

Jump forward to 2004...

Rotting Corpse was given new life 14-years later with Murphy and Trachsler getting together with former members, Luke Brewer on guitars and Randy 'Gribb' Cook on drums for an impromptu jam the weekend of Murphy’s wedding in July 2004.  What was meant as a final hoorah and a quick trip down memory lane for the four band mates actually triggered the passion that was burning inside Trachsler in the early days of Rotting Corpse.  With bassist Murphy leading the charge in heading up the project, all the early Rotting Corpse demos including the two demos produced by Vinnie Paul were re-mastered by Allen Crider, and officially released on CD for the first time in 2005 through the bands own label, F**k It Records.

Rotting Corpse along with original vocalist Mulqueen have been playing sporadically throughout Texas sharing the stage fellow thrashers Rigor Mortis and Gammacide on selected nights.

Rick Perry of Gammacide says, “Walt plays rhythm guitar like James Hetfield did back when he was badass.”

Screw the Nu, the Old School is back in session. Rotting Corpse has been resurrected.