In Memorium
3rd April 1970 – 6th May 2007
Marco Corbelli was the man behind the prolific noise project Atrax Morgue; he was born in 1970 and committed suicide by hanging in 2007. He was described as friendly but socially awkward and it is said that his obsessions were a very real part of who he was. Little else is known about him or his life. I have personally been interested in Corbelli since buying Atrax Morgue’s No More CD when researching an article on another artist: Premature Ejaculation. His influence can be heard in a lot of darker noise music today, I could argue his death reinforces the extremity of his musical output.
Greatly inspired by an earlier Italian Power Electronics act The Sodality, their 1987 LP Beyond Unknown Pleasures and Whitehouse’s “Dedicated to Peter Kurten”, Marco Corbelli recorded his debut cassette as Atrax Morgue at a friend’s house in summer 1992, calling it In Search of Death. The musical setup that he used for this – Keyboard, multi effect and voice – produced amazingly raw results. Corbelli didn’t use Atrax Morgue as purely a vehicle for pure noise, the sounds were purposely sick and infected as if he was using a selected palette for a purposefully murderous concept. The Atrax sound was often mentioned in regards to the Death Industrial genre rather than Power Electronics due to its consistent depravity, sickness and darkness. Although Atrax Morgue sometimes screamed and used sharp frequencies, rage was never the focus; Corbelli seemed happy to be pissed off and revel in the lower frequencies and rumblings. Friend and Deathpile noisemaker Jonathan Canady describes his sound as having taken the Whitehouse method of one synth line and one vocal and making it his own.
Corbelli immediately started running his own Slaughter Productions label in order to frequently release Atrax Morgue material, totalling around 39 Atrax Morgue recordings between 1993 and 2006. He would average 3-4 sometimes 5 Atrax Morgue releases per year on Slaughter as if he had no time to be too reliant on other labels to always release everything, so there would constantly be newer darker Atrax material released. Through Slaughterhouse, Corbelli released other artists like Con-Dom, Maurizio Bianchi, Deathpile, Progetto Morte, Taint and Richard Ramirez amongst others. Slaughter did some legendary compilations featuring the work of Corbelli and others such as the Death Odors series, Tabula of Slaughter – A Deathwish Manifest and From Sickness to Death.
Corbelli openly listed manias and obsessions as Atrax Morgue influences; Murder, Psychosis, Isolation, Pornography, Necrophilia, Pathology, Diseases, Fetishes and most importantly Death. They were often the subject matters and inspiration to Corbelli’s recordings. Atrax Morgue titles inspired by these obsessions included Woundfucker, Black Slaughter, Esthetik of a corpse, Cut My Throat, Slush of a Maniac, Exterminate, Death – Orgasm Connector, Her Guts and Cockskull Fantasy.
In 1998 Corbelli started an Atrax Morgue side project called Morder Machine which dwelled on the same sickness but with pulsating powerful slow beats to emphasize the depraved mania. Morder Machine released two cassettes on Slaughter Productions in 1998; Deathshow and Happy Birthdeath. Morder Machine also appeared on the Butchers House Productions compilation Snuff Electronics. There were several other Corbelli projects that releases on Slaughter such as; Necrofilia, Necrophonie, Pervas Nefandum and Progetto Morte.
After concerts around the world and numerous releases Corbelli’s reputation grew within the noise scene and Atrax Morgue released material on other labels including; Old Europa Café, RRR records, Bloodlust!, Murder Release, Less Than Zero and abRECt. There were 27 known other Atrax Morgue releases on other labels.
Following his death by hanging in 2007 a collaboration with an earlier Italian Power Electronics legend Maurizio Bianchi was released in 2008 called M. Plus T. This was a lot different than previous Corbelli output, a decayed gem with distorted grand synth noise and instrumentation. It served as a grand finale for Corbelli’s music and elevated him to the league of great Italian noisemakers. His name is now legendary in noise circles, a prolifically consistent artist who raised the bar within his own genre.
Written by Larsz4
Photograph: Marco Corbelli/Atrax Morgue live in London – hinoeuma the malediction/hagshadow.
Discography:
Black Slaughter 1993
In Search of Death 1993
Necrosintesi 1993
Collection in Formaldeide 1994
Necrophiliac Experience 1994
New York Ripper 1994
Woundfucker 1994
Basic Autopsy Procedure 1995
Catch My Agony 1995
Esthetik of a Corpse 1995
Exterminate 1995
Homicidal Texture 1995
Pathophysiology 1995
Untitled 1995
Autoerotic Death 1996
Cut My Throat 1996
Extended Autoerotic Death 1996
Forced Entry / N.C.W. 1996
Lesion 22 1996
Sickness Report 1996
Studio – Live Material 1996
Sweetly 1996
Aminobenzolmessias 1997
James Oliver Huberty 1997
Slush of a Maniac 1997
DeathShow 1998
Disconnected Sin Organisation 1998
Woundfucker 1998
Overcome 1999
Esthetik of a Corpse 2000
Exterminate 2000
In Search of Death 2000
Paranoia 2000
Homicidal / Mechanic Asphyxia 2001
I Vizi Morbosi Di Una Giovane Infermiera 2001
Necrophiliac Experience / Necrosintesi 2001
New York Ripper 2001
Basic Autopsy Procedure / Homicidal Texture 2002
Collection in Formaldeide 2002
La Casa Dalle Finestre Che Ridono 2002
Pathophysiology 2002
Sweetly Spatter 2002
Death – Orgasm Connector 2003
No More 2004
Her Guts 2005
No More 2005
Claustrophobic Introduction 2006
Frustration 2006
Inorganic Introduction Pt.II 2006
Negative Frequencies 2006
Pathophysiology 2006
(Source: http://heathenharvest.org/2012/10/08/october-obituaries-category-vi-atrax-morguemarco-corbelli/)
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