Anal Cunt's Josh Martin, photo via Return to the Pit

Longtime Anal Cunt guitarist Josh Martin has died following a fatal escalator accident. He was 45 years old.

According to police reports via WPRI and The Boston Globe, Martin fell backwards off an escalator at the Providence Place shopping mall in Providence, Rhode Island late Monday evening (May 28th). Martin, who witnesses said was “clowning around” and “riding the rail” of the escalator, plummeted one whole floor and suffered “massive injuries” after hitting his head on a table in the food court. He was taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.



Officials said the incident is believed to be accidental and that there is no evidence to suggest foul play or that the musician intentionally took his own life. Still, they’re in the process of investigating and combing through surveillance footage.

Initial reports didn’t identify Martin as the victim, but Vanyaland has since “confirmed with the musician’s friends that it was him who took the fatal fall.”

Martin was an integral member of Anal Cunt from 1996 through 2001 and then again from 2006 up until 2011, when the band broke up in the wake of frontman Seth Putnam’s passing. Martin appeared on countless Anal Cunt albums, including fan favorites It Just Gets Worse from 1999 and 1996’s 40 More Reasons to Hate Us. Martin and Putnam also played together in other bands, such as black metal outfit Impaled Northern Moonforest and Adolf Satan.

Below, revisit two of Anal Cunt’s most popular tracks.