Josh Martin, the guitarist for one of grindcore band Anal Cunt, has passed away due to injuries sustained in an unfortunate escalator accident on Monday night.
Martin, who had played guitar with the controversially-named grindcore legends from 1996 until 2011, was confirmed to have passed away following an incident near a local mall’s food court, as police reports obtained by WPRI and The Boston Globe reveal.
The 45-year-old musician reportedly fell backwards off of an escalator at a shopping mall in the US city of Providence, Rhode Island on Monday night. Martin had apparently been “clowning around and riding the rail of the escalator” before he fell one floor, hitting his on a table, which caused “massive injuries” before he was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Police noted that the incident appeared to be accidental, though they plan to review security footage to confirm this.
While police did not confirm at first that it was Martin who had passed, Vanyaland “confirmed with the musician’s friends that it was him who took the fatal fall.”
Anal Cunt existed for 21 years between 1988 and 2011, with their controversial frontman Seth Putnam having passed away in 2011 following a heart attack. The group were known for their outrage-provoking song titles and lyrics, which were often crafted for the sole purpose of causing offence.
Since the group folded in 2011, Josh Martin had been performing in a number of heavy bands, including Impaled Northern Moonforest, Fukk, and Adolf Satan.
Martin also gained notoriety in 2017 after a video circulated which showed him heckling KISS’ Gene Simmons at an event, culminating in Simmons entering the crowd to confront him.
Check out one of Anal Cunt’s more inoffensive tracks, ‘Branscombe Richmond’:
