From the ashes of VIRUS in viale piave 9 (an old punk haunt) there emerged the two driving forces behind the birth of the group .
Milan 1986 Alex Vicini and Mauro Tonon (bass guitar and lead vocalist respectively) decided to put some flesh on the bones of their idea. Firstly with the name decided by Alex “DEATHRAGE” , which worked well and was immediately adopted without losing any time in trying to justify the choice and give it a meaning and then by looking for a drummer and lead guitar amongst friends . this proved successful only for the first with Roberto “JENA” Sambusida , whilst to find the latter required going outside their group of friends to Lorenzo Marconi. The band started its journey frequenting various music rooms.
It soon became apparent that Lorenzo’s guitar , not with standing his “virtuoso” was not powerful enough and therefore a new entry Davide Castelli came on the scene and the new sound was immediately “devastating” with a violent rhythmic .
The lyrics fluctuated between the social to anti-satanism and came almost entirely from the mind of JENA , translated into English by the all-knowing Alex .
The band went ahead with full sails and the moment of recording the first demotape arrived . divide left the group following incomprehension and disagreements over the musical level and he was immediately replaced by Massimo De Stefanis who added a touch of power with a less limpid rhythmic .
The promiscuity of the musical influence of every member (tastes from Judas to Napalm Death via Motorhead ) led the group to coin a new genre “Tramp Metal”.
Time flew and by 1988 DEATHRAGE signed by Metal Master (Discomagic) cut their first LP “Self Conditioned Self Limited “ under the technical care of A C Wild (Buldozer).
In terms of concerts the band performed a number throughout northern Italy.
In 1990 Mauro left his place in the band to Nico (Alex Nicolini) who with his tone gave a more death-like imprint on yhe 2nd LP “DOWN IN THE DEPTH OF SICKNESS” , but the links holding Mauro to the band proved too strong and his re-entry became necessary. And so it was!
The desire to reinvent themselves gave the necessary push to introduce a new instrument: the keyboard , behind which was Tito. The experiment was not the happiest and the group quickly returned to its roots.
The 2nd demotape , where a pure piece of Discharge style can be appreciated was the last chapter , and also if never openly declared , the end of the group was natural.
To date no one has has kept in touch…..

For info: maurodeathrage@gmail.com
Special thanks to Mauro Bassi