Corpse Husband and the 'Faceless Youtuber' Phenomenon

Photo Courtesy of Anthony Padilla

Corpse Husband, also known as Corpse, is a YouTube streamer and independent music artist who has gained immense popularity in the past year. What’s unique about Corpse is that he has never shown his face to the public before or revealed much about his true identity. He is what people call a faceless YouTuber. The added mystery of his true identity, matched with his incredibly deep, raspy voice, it’s no wonder people are intrigued by him.

In 2015, Corpse Husband started his YouTube channel narrating horror stories, gaining a decent following from that. In 2018, Corpse Husband went dark on YouTube and social media to the dismay of his fanbase. But his fans proved their loyalty when Corpse returned in May of 2019, posting a live stream explaining the reasons for his absence. He revealed that he went through some devastating diagnoses, including a chronic disorder called fibromyalgia, which causes widespread musculoskeletal pain throughout the body. He was also diagnosed with gerd, also known as acid reflux, making narrating horror stories difficult. Corpse has also been very open about his struggles with mental health, including anxiety and depression, which led to agoraphobia.

Corpse Husband continued narrating horror stories until 2020 when he was invited to play the newest video game craze, “Among Us,” with popular gamer Pewdiepie and others. Pewdiepie’s massive following clearly took a liking to Corpse Husband, as his subscriber count skyrocketed from that point on. Since then, Corpse Husband’s YouTube channel has shifted to a very successful gaming channel, with almost 7.5 million subscribers.

All the while, Corpse was making emo rock and rap music on the side, but hadn’t released any until 2020, when his debut single “MISS YOU!” dropped, ranking 31st on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. His most popular song to date, “E-GIRLS ARE RUINING MY LIFE!” reached 100 million streams on Spotify. He also recently released a song with popular alternative artist Machine Gun Kelly titled, “DAYWALKER!” which peaked at 8th in the Billboard US Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, and 88th in the Billboard Hot 100.

Corpse Husband has acknowledged the continued pressure to reveal his identity, but says there’s such a huge amount of build up of what he’s supposed to look like because of his voice and his persona, that it’s a terrifying standard to live up to for him. He struggles with his own self-image issues and has only revealed his face to a few of his closest online friends. All we know about Corpse is that he is from San Diego, he’s 23 years old, and his birthday is August 8th, 1997. He plans to stay anonymous as long as he can, but understands that eventually, the truth will come out. Many fans have supported his decision to remain anonymous, jokingly calling him a modern-day Hannah Montana. More importantly, Corpse’s story shows how the music industry is changing to support independent artists. Without a record label or a face, Corpse has managed to break his way into the music industry and reach the top charts.