Born on August 25: Marc du Marais (La Muerte), free in his mind

A Brussels native at heart, a figure of the Belgian underground, Marc du Marais was born in August 1959.

In the early 1980s, London irresistibly attracted musicians from the United Kingdom and the Old Continent. A true promised land. In 1981, we could even speak of a small Belgian invasion in Albion. The Names recorded Night Shift with Martin Hannett in Manchester. The Honeymoon Killers landed the cover of the music weekly "New Musical Express," while Paul du Noyer chose "Free Radio Station" by Carolos de Sic as "single of the week" in the pages of the same rock bible.

For her part, Marine, led by Marc du Marais, set the place ablaze with "Life In Reverse," a trumpet-streaked funk punk that hasn't aged a day. Signed in Brussels by Les Disques de Crépuscule, they were naturally invited to this epic night organised by the label in London. This concert also marked the beginning of the end for the band.

In 1983, Marc founded La Muerte with guitarist Dee-J, a deliberately ironic pseudonym for a musician who loved distortion. Wild and unpredictable, their musical style boasted influences from Birthday Party (Nick Cave's first band), The Stooges, and even Motörhead. As you can see, with them, there wasn't a single ballad to slip into your ear canal!

The first grenade with the pin pulled was an EP, "The Surrealist Mystery," released in 1984, followed three years later by their debut album, "Every Soul By Sin Oppressed," a title that speaks volumes about their approach. Their concerts, always epic and sometimes violent, established them as a cult band, particularly in Germany and Eastern Europe. Without ever taking their foot off the gas, the recordings followed one after the other: "Death Race 2000" (1989), "Experiment In Terror" (1990), "Kustom Kar Kompetition" (1991), before culminating with the diabolical live album "Raw" (1994), an unequivocal homage to Iggy Pop's Stooges.

Having disappeared since 1994, leaving Marc free to make a few deliberately gory short films, the original duo of Le Marais and Dee-J relaunched the infernal machine in 2014. Initially planned for a single concert, this outing from the depths provoked such enthusiasm that the band decided to push the dials into the red again, giving birth to three new incendiary albums. The last one, in 2023, is entitled "Sortilegia."

But in the fall of 2025, La Muerte decided to add fuel to the fire one last time before finally calling it a day.

Farewell concerts:

September 26: N9 - Eeklo (Belgium)

December 13: Le Botanique - Brussels (Belgium)

Photo: La Muerte in Brussels in June 1985 with Marc du Marais on the right in the photo