Connor Betts, the gunman who slaughtered nine people and wounded 27 others in Dayton, Ohio early Sunday morning, was a singer in ‘pornogrind’ bands whose lyrics frequently included references to raping and killing women as well as necrophilia.

The 24-year-old massacred nine people, including his 22-year-old sister Megan Betts, with an assault rifle at about 1am on Sunday in a section of the city known for its nightlife.

Betts, who was wearing body armor and a mask during the rampage, was shot dead by police outside a bar about 30 seconds after he first opened fire.

In the last year, Betts would perform live with groups including Menstrual Munchies, a three-person band that did gigs regularly in the Midwest, and Putrid Liquid.

Connor Betts, the gunman who carried out the massacre of nine people in Dayton, Ohio early Sunday morning, was a singer in 'pornogrind' bands

Connor Betts was a member of the three-man band Menstrual Munchies (seen above performing in this undated photo)

Betts (seen above singing with Menstrual Munchies) also performed with a band called Putrid Liquid

Betts and his two other bandmates with Menstrual Munchies were most recently seen appearing at the Summer Massacre 2 concert in Chicago on June 29, according to BuzzFeed News.

‘Pornogrind’ is a subgenre of grindcore, an extreme kind of heavy metal that includes macabre themes such as sexual violence and gore.

Pornogrind bands that have gained a following in the Midwest include Necro Cannibal A** Grinder, Bill Nye da Nazi Spy, C*** Torch, and others.

Menstrual Munchies has produced songs with provocative titles that include ‘Preteen Daughter Pu$y Slaughter’ and ‘C*** Stuffed With Medical Waste - Sexual Abuse of a Teenage Corpse.’

The art cover of these albums are also graphic and explicit. One album cover shows a woman eating feces.

Another depicts a woman’s headless body chained to a bed and covered in blood while a man nearby puts his pants back on.

Menstrual Munchies’ Facebook page, which had nearly 1,700 likes, and its YouTube account were deleted in the aftermath of the shootings on Sunday.

The band’s page on Bandcamp, the site on which musicians stream their music and in turn also allows music fans to directly support artists they like, has also been taken down.

Before it was deleted, the Bandcamp discography page contained explicit background images of maggots and a woman with ejaculate covering her face and mouth.

The band’s page on Bandcamp, the site on which musicians stream their music and in turn also allows music fans to directly support artists they like, has also been taken down. Before it was deleted, the Bandcamp discography page contained explicit background images of maggots and a woman with ejaculate covering his face and mouth

Putrid Liquid is still maintaining its site on Bandcamp, though none of its members agreed to speak to the press.

In the wake of the shootings, those who knew Betts from the pornogrind scene are condemning his actions while regretting their past association with him.

Jesse Creekbaum, 25, was a bandmate of Betts in Menstrual Munchies.

He told Vice News that he is taking down all of the music recorded by the band - work that spans more than five years.

Creekbaum says that the music and its lyrics, while vulgar and explicit, were never meant to be taken literally. He says it was supposed to be a joke.

Creekbaum is taking down the music wherever it appears online so as to prevent anyone from using it to create a cult following that lionizes Betts.

‘I feel s****y having let him be in the band, doing those lyrics,’ Creekbaum said.

‘Because I know, like, whereas I saw it as a joke - like, “Let's play this and we’ll shock some people,” and then the people that we know laugh - he didn't see it as a joke.

‘He was like, “F***, yeah. We're gonna do this”.

‘It's like, Jesus Christ, how much of this was like real life for him?’

As part of his efforts to rid the internet of the band’s work, Creekbaum is also reaching out to those who hosted songs and videos online and asking them to remove the content.

‘I took it all down,’ he told Vice News. ‘I'm trying to get everyone I know to take all of it down.

‘I don't want to be associated with it. I don't want it blowing up.

‘I don't want him romanticized. I don't want any of this romanticized.

‘I want people to erase him from history.’

Creekbaum said that after he heard the news about the shooting, he immediately phoned local police.

He also said that FBI agents visited his home on Monday to talk to him.

Creekbaum said that during the time Betts spent with him and other musicians in the pornogrind scene, there were signs that something was amiss.

While touring in Iowa, Creekbaum said that Betts brought a handgun.

Betts even suggested to his bandmates and others that they rob some gas stations, according to Creekbaum.

Jesse Creekbaum, 25, (pictured) was a bandmate of Betts in Menstrual Munchies. Since learning of the massacre, Creekbaum has been frantically trying to delete all of the band's music online

Creekbaum said that at the time he did not take Betts seriously, though he says he did warn him about comments of that nature.

Betts was also known to seriously discuss doing acts that are mentioned in the lyrics, according to Creekbaum.

He also told others about his use of methamphetamines and his supposed criminal record, which turned out to be a lie.

He recalls bandmates and others distancing themselves from Betts as his behavior grew more bizarre.

Betts even told them about being suspended from high school for making a ‘hit list’ and a ‘rape list’ of classmates that he targeted.

Creekbaum says Betts told him he was depressed. Nonetheless, Creekbaum never thought Betts would commit a mass shooting.

‘I think he decided that he was going to kill himself, and he was like, “I don't have the balls to do it” and he drew a gun,’ Creekbaum said.

DEATH METAL'S SEEDY SUBCULTURE Pornogrind is an offshoot of goregrind, which is a fusion gentre of grindcore and death metal. Incorporating elements of heavy metal and hardcore punk, goregrind falls under the umbrella of death metal - an extreme version of heavy metal. Death metal, which usually employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, covers themes in its lyrics ranging from religion, death, Satanism, occultism, horror, and mysticism. Pornogrind is simply the subgenre of the same music in which the lyrics are tailored toward themes of sexual violence, rape, necrophilia, and misogyny. The bands who play pornogrind prefer to keep the genre underground rather than attract a large audience. Pornogrind began in the 1990s in the United States and Germany. The subgenre has grown and expanded to numerous countries, including the United Kingdom, Cuba, Poland, Ukraine, Canada, Russia, France, Italy, Israel, the Czech Republic, and Chile. Advertisement

Earlier on Monday, Betts's former classmates recalled his obsession with killing and death, which included threats to shoot up his school.

Multiple former classmates at Bellbrook High School have said they reported Betts' behavior to police but claim nothing was done to address the red flags and say they weren't surprised he was responsible for the recent massacre.

Jessica Masseth, a female classmate who was named on a rape list compiled by Betts, said she contacted police at the time and that she handed her phone over to authorities so they could see threats he sent her.

She said that Betts had texted her a copy of the rape list.

'The school failed us. The police failed us. He spoke and wrote of rape, decapitation and just the total destruction of those on that list, which included me,' Masseth wrote on Facebook.

'None of us are surprised by this. My mom called me with his name and I said 'makes sense'. If Bellbrook High School had taken it more seriously... If the police had treated it like it should have been treated... There are levels of failure here that are sick.

'This could have been prevented 10 f**king years ago when I made that phone call, when I was interviewed by the police and when I told the school.'

The rape list included girls who had spurned his advances or thought they were better than him. There was another 'kill list' that included names of boys who he considered a threat.

Betts was once taken off a school bus by police and then later suspended after the lists were reported to authorities.

An ex-classmate who worked with Betts at a fast food restaurant claims he threatened to kill customers who didn't leave tips and another said he regularly spoke of rape and decapitation.

'Conner Betts was a psychopath... I remember when he threatened to shoot up our school and had a hit list of people that he wanted to kill. I've worked with him too and he scared the employees on a daily basis,' Bri Monique said.

'Everyone who knew him knew he had issues. I would tell people all the time to just stay away from him because he's threatened to kill people.

'When the customers didn't tip him, he would threaten to go to their house and kill them. I thought he was just all talk but then I would be at work by myself with him and hear him chanting things that sounded like he was worshiping the devil. I would be calling his name for him to stop and he wouldn't answer.'

Another woman, who didn't want to be identified but whose name was on the rape list, recalls receiving a phone call from police during her freshman year to tell her that she was included on a list of potential targets.

'The officer said he wouldn't be at school for a while,' she said. 'But after some time passed he was back, walking the halls. They didn't give us any warning that he was returning to school.'

Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Schools officials have declined to comment about the lists and only confirmed that Betts attended schools in the district.

The discovery of the hit list early in 2010 sparked a police investigation, and roughly one-third of Bellbrook students skipped school out of fear, according to an article in the Dayton Daily News.

Jessica Masseth, a former high school classmate of Dayton gunman Connor Betts, said she reported a rape list he had compiled to police but claims they did nothing about it

Betts, who was wearing body armor and a mask during the massacre, was shot dead by police outside a bar about 30 seconds after he first opened fire

Though Betts, who was 17 at the time, was not named publicly by authorities at the time as the author of the list, the former classmates said it was common knowledge within the school he was the one suspended over the incident.

It's not clear what became of that investigation and police have not yet commented on it.

Former Bellbrook Principal Chris Baker, who resigned last year, said he 'would not dispute that information' about the hit list suspension but declined to comment further.

It has also emerged that Betts was a member of junior ROTC military program during his time at Bellbrook.

Demoy Howell, one of his classmates who was also in the program, told the Dayton Daily News that he recalls it having a calming influence on Betts.

'He was always a bit of an oddball,' Howell. 'He had a dark sense of humor — jokes about people dying. He would wear all black. I remember sensing a dark energy around him.

'I think this is less of a hate crime and more of an 'I hate everybody' crime. I honestly feel more comfortable now knowing that he's gone.'