Frank Watkins, American bassist, Died at 47

  Dead Famous

Frank Watkins, born on February 19, 1968, and passed away October 18, 2015 from cancer.

Frank was an American heavy metal musician best known as a former, long-time bass player for the death metal band Obituary.

From late 2007 until his death, he had been the bass player of the Norwegian black metal band Gorgoroth.

Frank Watkins was born in 1968. Frank began playing music at the age of 12, and began his professional career in 1986, before joining with Obituary in 1989.

He has played on every Obituary release, except for their debut album Slowly We Rot and cites his musical influences as “anything dark, aggressive, and pissed off” and tends to bring his punk/hardcore background to the realm of death/black metal.

Frank prides himself not only on the technical side of his music, but also in the business aspect, managing, mentoring, and guiding other bands and musicians.

He formed his management company Back From the Dead Productions in 2007 in hopes to help bands create a positive career in the music business.

In late 2007 Watkins became the bassist of Norwegian black metal band Gorgoroth, and in 2009 he participated in the recording of the Gorgoroth album Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt.

Frank debuted live with the band at the Hole in the Sky festival in Bergen on August 29, 2009.

This was the first concert Gorgoroth had performed since September 2007.

In an interview with Metal Maniacs published online on August 2009, Watkins explained that for his work with Gorgoroth he had taken the stage name “Boddel”, which means “Executioner” in Norwegian.

Frank Watkins died from cancer on October 18, 2015. He was 47 years old.