Rapid-fire guitarist
Mike Scaccia rose from regional fame with the Texas thrash titans
Rigor Mortis to world renown with international industrial iconoclasts
Ministry. In the mid-'80s,
Scaccia's interest in heavy music and horror flicks lead him into
Rigor Mortis, a roughshod quartet who briefly ruled Dallas mosh pits.
Scaccia's lightning-fast fretwork soon caught the attention of Chicago's insidious
Al Jourgensen and
Paul Barker, who drafted the hirsute axe-man first for studio work and then for their ensemble touring company. "TV2" off
Ministry's massive
Psalm 69 showcases
Scaccia at his finest and fastest, just as
Ministry stood poised to conquer the world. Like many innovators, countless carbon copies reaped the benefits of boundaries broken down by
Ministry; but the once-prolific band shouldered myriad troubles in the '90s, recording and touring only sporadically, and never fully capitalized on their brief platinum period. Meanwhile,
Rigor Mortis, whose other personnel went on to play with
Speedealer and the
Hellions, among others, continually threatened to re-form and tour, until
Scaccia died suddenly in December 2012, after having collapsed on-stage during a show in Ft. Worth, Texas. ~ Whitney Z. Gomes