James Mecherle's band The Coup De Grace is the first world-known band of Mark Chaussee. "He played in The Coup De Grace for a while and we had the best of times! So much fun together!" - 28 February 2007, Jimmy Coup.
Fight
In Rob Halford's post-Judas Priest band Fight: guitarist. He was discovered through a tape he sent to Rob Halford's management. Joined the band as a replacement for the recently departed Robby Lochner. "We put Mark in a tight situation – pretty cruel actually. We stuck him in a small studio and said, "Play". He was great." – Rob Halford, A Small Deadly SpacePress Kit, 1995. Participated in recording of an album A Small Deadly Space and tour across the US and Canada.
Danzig
Chaussee participated in recording of two songs on the Danzig album Blackacidevil as an invited musician.
Returning in The Coup De Grace
Right after leaving Danzig, Chaussee rejoined his second band The Coupe De Grace and participated in recording of a demo and touring the Midwestern United Statesin 1999.
After the unsuccessful audition in Killswitch, he joined Stereomud in the summer of 2000, but met with similar results. "After rehearsing for a few days we recorded our first demo in Atlanta and all agreed we had something special going on. The band was formed, almost... Once we had about 10 songs, the band decided that we could use another guitarist to augment the sound. I called up my friend Mark Chaussee who came in and played with us for about two months. Things didn't work out with Mark and we tried out a bunch of other guys." – Erik Rogers, PRP.
Jimmy Coup
In 2003, Chaussee returned with James Mecherle, now known as Jimmy Coup, to work on a "full-on metal" album with ex-The Coup De Grace guitarist Steve Wresh and drummer Brett Degendorfer. "It's gonna have lots and lots of guitars, killing double leads, tough vocals and hit hard. All the shit I love!" – Jimmy Coup, Unearthed Archives.
Marilyn Manson
Chaussee joined Marilyn Manson in autumn 2004 replacing the recently departed John 5, as a temporary live guitarist for the Against All Gods world tour in support of Marilyn Manson's greatest hits collection , where tours proceeded from October, 27th, 2004 till August, 31, 2005. Chaussee's style of play featured an original and exotic heavy sound, similar to "old-school" heavy metal – crude and unpolished, contrasting the glam-rock influences of former guitarist John 5 and the former style of the band as a whole. Mark lent a more rigid, gloomy and aggressive sound to the band. "I thought Mark added something great and different to the tour. We haven’t had the opportunity to write songs together" – Marilyn Manson.
Citation
In the interview with Jeff Brinn for Schwegweb.com, Jimmy Coup named Mark Chaussee "the most killer lead player I've ever known".
