Rotting Corpse
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Since 1985

Band Members

Four decades, three men who have never really left, a lead guitar chair that has never stopped changing hands, and everyone else who passed through.

Right Now

The Band

Steve Murphy puts it plainly: “Rotting Corpse is Walt, Randy Cook and myself.” These three played the tapes in the 1980s and they’re the band today.

Walt Trachsler

Walt Trachsler

Guitars & Vocals · Founder

1985–1990, 2004–2009, 2021–present. Started the band, and the only man who has been in every version of it.

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Steve Murphy

Steve Murphy

Bass & Vocals

1987–1990, 2004–2009, 2021–present. Joined from Eldritch Rite, and the reason the band exists again.

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Randy "Gribb" Cook

Randy "Gribb" Cook

Drums & Vocals

1986–1989, 2004–2009, 2021–present. Came down from Michigan, started on bass, ended up naming the whole era.

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The Revolving Chair

Lead Guitar

“The lead guitar players change,” as Steve Murphy puts it — and they always have. More people have held this one chair than have played every other instrument in the band combined.

Cameron Fisher Current

2026 · Trenchsweeper

The lead guitarist playing with Rotting Corpse now.

Scott Shelby

1990, 2024–2026, and guest appearances · Gammacide, Warbeast

Played the leads on the 1990 demo — the record several members still call the band’s best — without ever attending a practice or playing a show. He finally shared a stage with them nearly twenty years later, at a benefit in Fort Worth.

Fig Newton Farr

2025–2026 · Harvester

Held the lead guitar chair through the run of shows around the release of Thrash in Pain or Die Insane.

The Rest Of The Story

Past Members

Everyone else who has played in Rotting Corpse across four decades, in the order they turned up.

John Perez playing guitar onstage

John Perez

Lead guitar, 1985–1987 · Founding member

Answered Walt’s ad in an Arlington music store and helped start the band. Left in 1987 to found Solitude Aeturnus, the group he still fronts. He has guested with Rotting Corpse a handful of times since, but he is not in the band.

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Jim "Moe" Mulqueen singing into the microphone onstage

Jim "Moe" Mulqueen

Vocals, 1986–1987 · Founding member

Walt’s fellow Pantera roadie and the band’s first voice, on the 1986 demo. He still turns up to sing at reunion shows.

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Dave Gryder

Drums, 1986–1987 and 1989–1990 · Founding member · Blood of the Sun

Met Moe Mulqueen at Savvy’s in Arlington, found they liked the same records, and set up a rehearsal. He played the first demo, came back to play the last one, and went on to Blood of the Sun.

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Louie Carrisalez

Drums, 1987 · Devastation, Death, Helldogs

Came over from San Antonio’s Helldogs and cut the second demo with Walt and Steve about a month after they started playing together. He later fronted Death as vocalist on the 1990 European tour — the same run Walt played guitar on.

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Luke Brewer playing lead guitar onstage

Luke Brewer

Lead guitar, 1988–1990, 2005–2009 · R.I.P.

Joined in 1988 and put fresh leads on the salvaged pieces of the third demo. Steve Murphy has said Luke called him nearly every day for twenty years, and he was in the room for the 2004 jam that brought the band back.

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Roger Gallardo

Guitar, 1987 · Hellpreacher

Came down from San Antonio to fill John Perez’s spot, and played the Dark Angel dates that summer.

Mando Tovar

Bass, 1987 · Las Cruces

One of the bassists who covered the gap after Steve Murphy’s first departure.

Jim Cleaver

Bass, 1986

Marty Griffen

Bass, 1986

This list comes straight from the band — it replaces the guesswork that used to sit on this page. If you played a show with Rotting Corpse and you’re not on it, tell us and we’ll fix it.

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From The Archive Desk

All articles →
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Thrash History · 10 min read

Testament: Bay Area Thrash’s Great Survivors

Formed as Legacy in 1983, renamed on the eve of its debut, nearly broken by the 1990s and a cancer diagnosis, and still making some of thrash metal’s best records.

Fuel The Tour

From The Merch Table

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Show flyers, throwbacks, and the next date — posted straight from the band, first.

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