Greg Davies, a long-time Geeks of Doom contributor and friend, passed away Tuesday. He was one of the first internet friends I made at the dawn of the social media and news-sharing era over a decade ago. He went by the handle cgt2099 and regularly used a silver alien head as his avatar. He immigrated to America from his home down under in Australia, and often ended discussions with the word “Dilligaf*.” And unlike the majority of folks I encountered in those early days of the social web, this guy was always hyper interested in two things: the most important news of the day, and figuring out a way to build a community around it that had more humanity than a rowdy comment section.

Best known for playing a young Pavel Chekov in the rebooted Star Trek franchise and for roles in films such as Terminator Salvation and Green Room, actor Anton Yelchin died this morning. He was 27.

The cause of Yelchin’s death, according to his representative, was a fatal traffic collision at his San Fernando Valley home. The rep stated, “His family requests you respect their privacy at this time.”

Vilmos Zsigmond, the legendary cinematographer who brought an unmistakable gift for gorgeous imagery to some of the greatest motion pictures ever made, died on January 1, 2016, according to Variety. He was 85 years old.

Born in Hungary in 1930, Zsigmond left the country at the age of 26 along with fellow future cinematography great László Kovács (Ghostbusters). His early years in the U.S. were spent working as a still photographer and lab technician and filming exploitation features such as The Sadist, Psycho a Go-Go, and Five Bloody Graves.

This week we lost a giant of the metal community. Bassist Frank Watkins was, for 20 years, a member of Tampa, Florida death metal pioneers Obituary. He had split from the band on bad terms in 2010, and more recently was a member of another groundbreaking band, Norwegian black metal titans Gorgoroth.

The 47-year-old Watkins had been battling cancer in recent years, but remained active musically right up to his passing. For a more lengthy look at his career, check out this article by our friends over at Blabbermouth.

Our massive Metal Monday Track for this week is the title track of Obituary’s second album, Cause of Death, which was released in 1990 and was Watkins’ first recording with the band. So, help us in celebrating the life of one of death metal’s founding fathers by blasting “Cause of Death.”

When composing an obituary, it is customary to include life accomplishments, surviving relations, and generally create a bubble in which to compress a person’s entire life, so that the reader gets a synopsis of who the real person was beneath it all. I am choosing to walk a different path today, while I talk to you about Seth Kushner. Seth was a great photographer and a spectacular writer/creator, make no mistake about that. His peers and his friends have been properly forthcoming on his Facebook page, and in other social media. But what struck me most about this amazing guy was his genuine love of his family, and of life itself.

If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool metal fan like me, you need no introduction to independent label Relapse Records. For the last quarter of a century the Philadelphia record label has been home to some of the most revered acts in the metal world. Their roster reads like a who’s who of influential and beloved artists: High On Fire, Mastodon, Pig Destroyer, A.C., Death, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Dying Fetus, Obituary, Nile, Suffocation, Neurosis, Voivod, Revocation, and many, many more have called the label home at one point or another.

So, imagine my excitement when I heard that, in celebrating their 25th anniversary, Relapse has posted a 184-song sampler to their bandcamp page and it is a 100% FREE download. Yeah, you read that right — 184 tracks for free!

Sad news out of Savannah, GA, as Jonathan Athon, bassist/singer for sludge metal band Black Tusk passed away yesterday, November 9, 2014. He was 32.

Athon was involved in a traffic accident Friday night when his motorcycle collided with an SUV. Athon was then put into a medically induced coma, but he had suffered irreparable brain damage and was then taken off life support.

Wayne Static, the former guitar player singer of the industrial/nu metal band Static X passed away Saturday, November 1st at the age of 48, according to his publicist. No cause of death has been stated at this time, but several of Static’s friends and associates are indicating that drugs were a factor.

Watch the official video for Static X’s song “Push It” from their 1999 debut album Wisconsin Death Trip.

Actress Marilyn Burns, best known to horror fans as the heroine of the original 1974 horror classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, has been found dead at her home in Houston, TX, according to TMZ. She was 65 years old.

The cause of death has yet to be determined, but it has been reported that Burns was found by a family member.

One of the original scream queens, Burns’ gutsy performance as Sally Hardesty in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the film’s unsung virtues. The actress managed to convey genuine terror in its most harrowing scenes (though the squalid, brutal filming conditions probably played a big hand in that) and her lungs got the kind of workout that few horror heroines could match at their best moments. Chainsaw‘s shocking impact and box office success failed to catapult Burns to film stardom, but she still find roles regularly throughout the four decades that followed.

Sad news to report this morning: Multiple sources are reporting that legendary Texas blues guitarist Johnny Winter passed away yesterday in Zurich, Switzerland. The news was broken by Jenda Derringer, wife of former Winter band mate Rick Derringer, via her Facebook account.

Winter was born John Dawson Winter III in Beaumont, Texas on February 23, 1944. Both he and his brother Edgar Winter, who would also go on to rock-stardom, suffered from albinism. Winter started playing guitar at a very young age and was recording by the time he was 15. In December of 1968, the guitarist gained widespread fame after friend Mike Bloomfield invited him to jam onstage at the Fillmore East. Johnny brought down the house and, as a result, Columbia Records signed him to what was at the time the largest advance ever paid to an artist ($600,000).