Rigor Mortis and Ministry Guitarist Mike Scaccia Died After Falling Onstage on Saturday. He Was 47.

Dallas-based guitarist Mike Scaccia, founding member of legendary area thrash metal outfit Rigor Mortis and an on-again-off-again member of industrial pioneers Ministry since 1992, was pronounced dead in a Fort Worth hospital early on Sunday morning, shortly after having fallen onstage during a performance at the metal-centric The Rail Club on Saturday night.

He was 47 years old.

Scaccia’s fall came during a performance from the recently resurgent Rigor Mortis, who were headlining a show in celebration of frontman Bruce Corbitt’s 50th birthday. Rigor Mortis, officially reunited since being asked to do so by Ozzy Osbourne himself in advance of 2008’s Frisco-hosted Ozzfest, was reportedly in the process of recording a new album — its first since 1991 — produced by Ministry’s Al Jourgensen. (Scaccia also served as a performer in Jourgensen’s cross-continental industrial supergroup, Revolting Cocks.)

Specific details as to the cause of Scaccia’s death are scant at the moment, as is any information regarding a funeral service. We’ll let you know those details as they come.

Update at 10:47 p.m. on Sunday, December 23, 2012: Scaccia on-stage collapse and death was the result of sudden cardiac failure due to atheroslclerotic and hypersensitive heart disease, his bandmates in Rigor Mortis confirm via a Facebook update.

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