On Oct. 27, the worlds of metal music, true crime novels and horror films were dealt a great loss with the death of Housecore Horror Film Festival co-founder Corey Mitchell. The following day (Oct. 28), Mitchell's Housecore Horror cohort, Philip Anselmo, released a heartfelt statement mourning his friend.

This year's Housecore Horror Film Festival brought some of the planet's best metal and horror to Austin, Texas from Oct. 23 - 26. Acts like Danzig, Samhain, GWAR, Napalm Death, Portal and a one-off reunion of Superjoint Ritual pummeled the fest, but sadly, the day after Housecore wrapped up, Corey Mitchell suffered a fatal heart attack.

The Austin Chronicle reports that Mitchell suffered his fatal heart attack while loading up his car with help from a fan who had spent the night nearby. According to Kate Richardson, partner of Philip Anselmo, “[The fan] heard a thud and turned around and saw [Mitchell] on his knees. Then he fell all the way down. He got him on his side and then he called for help.”

”We’re really just still in shock,” Anselmo told the Chronicle. “After Danzig was done, Corey and I got up on stage and thanked all the bands and all the fans, the filmmakers, and the 'Texas Chainsaw' people. It’s all just horrifically surreal. This one hurts, man. They all do, but this has a special kind of hurt to it. The event was such a blast, such a success, and everybody had such a great time. Nobody worked as hard as Corey. He believed in it so f--king much. He fought for it every inch of the way. It’s like lightning striking, man, you just never know.

In a lengthier statement sent out via press release, Phillip Anselmo writes:

This is stunning. After a weekend of incredible bands, awesome horror films and masses of fantastic people, tragically, unexpectedly, and with heart-crushing reality, co-founder of The Housecore Horror Film Festival, Corey Mitchell, passed away Monday, October 27th 2014, after the event ended. This is devastating on so many levels, I can't and won't go into how tremendous a loss Corey's untimely death truly is. I was introduced to Corey first and foremost as a best-selling crime author, and shortly after that meeting I agreed to have him as my co-writer of an unfinished novel I'd been working on.

It was his idea to create a horror and film festival that would became The Housecore Horror Festival. He had a vision, and no one worked harder than him to see the event through. But forget festivals. Forget books. We lost a great friend. From all of us here at Housecore Records, we extend our utmost condolences to his wife, Audra, and his two beautiful young daughters. This is devastating on countless personal levels, and I'm finding it difficult to type these lines. We lost a brother. We lost a great man with a passion for everything that we love. He will be unfathomably missed... RIP Corey. His legacy will never be forgotten, nor will his friendship. With supremely heavy hearts, we mourn.

Sincerely - Philip H. Anselmo

Once again, we'd like to send our heartfelt condolences to Corey Mitchell's wife, daughters, friends and extended family.

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