What happened to Sebastian Marino? Former Overkill and Anvil guitarist dies aged 57

Sebastian Marino, former guitarist for the bands Overkill and Anvil in the 90s, passed away at the age of 57, on January 1. As per various reports, he was rushed to the hospital while working on a New Year’s Eve job, setting up sound equipment for an event in Florida. The news was shared on Facebook by Marino’s friend and colleague, Bruce Pilato. The cause of Marino’s death has still not been made clear.

The two bands Anvil and Overkill confirmed the news on Twitter. Anvil singer-guitarist Steve Lips Kudlow on January 1, posted:

"Condolences to my friend Sebastian Marino's family and friends. Seby was a dear friend and I will miss him profoundly!! Worth the Weight was an extremely special Anvil album and it will keep Seby alive through our history forever! RIP SEBASTIAN MARINO."

Overkill took to Twitter on January 2 to confirm Marino’s death. The band wrote:

"It’s with heavy hearts that we mourn the passing of our good friend & great musician, Sebastian Marino. Seb was an asset in the studio as well as on the stage for the 3 releases he did with us. The music world has lost one of the good ones."

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Sebastian Marino was the lead guitarist for Anvil and Overkill

Marino joined Anvil in 1989 and was with the band until 1995, working on their hit album Worth the Weight in 1991. It was Anvil’s only release with Sebastian Marino on guitar, during his seven-year tenure.

The artist then joined Overkill in 1995 and was with them through 1999, contributing to three of their albums from the late 90s, including The Killing Kind (1996), Underground and Below (1997), and Necroshine (1999).

Marino’s friend and colleague Michael Amico, in a detailed Facebook post, said that Marino was a brilliant musician and later moved to audio production. In his post, he mentioned that Marino was a member of a local band called Pantera in his formative years.

He further added:

"I remember conversations with him at the Penny Arcade in Rochester NY when he had joined Anvil and we laughed about the fact his personality was opposite the aggression many many times."

In a Facebook post, Bruce Pilato, who posted about Marino's death, described his personal relationship with Marino:

“He and I go back to the 1980s and in the mid 1990s we worked together with Linda Rutherford & Celtic Fire, which featured his first wife. It was Sebastian who I approached for a road crew when I first started working with Carl Palmer in 2005."

He further added:

"Sebastian essentially brought a slew of top quality production people who made up the road crews of Carl Palmer's band; ASIA; YES and other platinum level acts around the globe. He was like a best friend to any working musician or road tech's who interacted with him. He always treated them fairly and often working for less than he should have just so the music could survive.”

After leaving the band, Marino went on to own and operate his A/V company Audio Images and was part of the touring crew for the bands Yes and Asia.