In 1987, Swedish industrial music veteran Roger Karmanik founded Cold Meat Industry. Over the next decade, the label grew from a bedroom passion project into a world-renowned record company. However, while CMI expanded rapidly, Karmanik’s underground mindset and work methods remained unchanged. Beset by personal and professional struggles, as well as deteriorating mental health, he eventually hit a wall. CMI was declared bankrupt in 2011. But in 2017, as fans from over 40 countries gathered in Stockholm to celebrate the label’s thirtieth anniversary, something unexpected happened.
Originally hailing from Linköping, Sweden, and based in Stockholm since 2007, creative director Claudio Marino is becoming a definite protagonist among his peers. With a constantly growing list of clients – spanning a wide array within the “mainstream” as well as several sub-cultural phenomena, not to mention all of his corporate and commercial patrons – there is no doubt that Claudio Marino, most often operating under the moniker of Artax Film, has what it takes when it comes to making visual story-telling in the form of art and film. He has the exquisite knowledge of how to create tension-filled imagery, leading the way from darkness into light, from blur to sharpness, and from the unknown to the familiar. Claudio Marino is a sensible, sensitive, and sensational filmmaker, utterly respectful and observant to the client’s goals. No holds barred.