Jay-Z has been out there this year, celebrating the 30th anniversary of his debut album Reasonable Doubt, the 25th anniversary of The Blueprint, and his overall superstar legacy with high-profile gigs at the Roots Picnic and YankeeStadium. His chart-topping “Empire State Of Mind” also got a lot of burn during the New York Knicks’ run to the NBA championship. But one thing missing from the campaign has been new music.
ArcTanGent Festival, the UK alternative and experimental metal and rock festival, recently announced that the 2026 edition would be the final one hosted at Fernhill Farm, the festival’s home since its inception in 2013. They have now revealed that ArcTanGent 2027 and future editions will occur at Todenham Manor Farm in Gloucestershire. Read more…
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The saddest metal deaths also serve as chronicles of those great men and women’s lives. Great musicians who helped shape the genre and give us amazing music. In that regard, their legacy is timeless.
Therefore, this list is meant to honor ten amazing musicians who left this earth throughout the years. It also goes in no particular order.
1. Cliff Burton
Cliff Burton died at age 24 on September 27, 1986. He was Metallica’s bassist and died in a bus accident when they were touring in Sweden. Burton was an extremely talented player and a close friend to the rest of the band. As he passed away, his legacy became one of deep mourning. A lot of fans, along with the band, feel that he was taken too soon.
And it is impossible to disagree with that statement. Burton’s technical and soulful bass playing was extraordinary. His background in classical music also gave another layer to Metallica’s music. This could be seen on the “Ride the Lightning” and “Master of Puppets” records. Moreover, the instrumental “Orion” is heralded as his own masterpiece.
One of the saddest metal deaths by far. And one that even took a toll on members of the band.
“All through my childhood there were no funerals for family members, no talk of death, no talk of illness,” vocalist James Hetfield told MOJO Magazine in 2008. “The religion we were in, there were no funerals. Just, ‘OK, the soul has moved on.’ There was no place to grieve, to cry, to let this stuff out, get together and talk and work through all that stuff, which is very necessary, especially if you’re very attached to someone. But through therapy I was able to do a lot of grief work – for my parents and with Cliff.”
2. Ronnie James Dio
Ronnie James Dio passed away on May 16, 2010, at age 67. He died of stomach cancer. What can be said about Ronnie? One of the saddest metal deaths by far. He was a timeless icon of the genre and a massive influence for multiple generations. The fact that he was the one who popularized the devil horns gesture also means a lot.
Moreover, it was Dio’s immense singing abilities and personality that made him endure. Whether it was with DIO, Black Sabbath, or Rainbow, he was always shining. He wrote many of the genre’s most enduring anthems. And did so while being an elder statesman of metal and always vouching for it.
The world of heavy metal became a bit smaller without Ronnie James Dio.
“He loved his fans and that should continue on and carry on,”Wendy Dio, Ronnie’s wife, told Classic Rock in 2022. “That’s one of the reasons why we did the documentary, was so that people could understand him, understand his life and where he came from and the trials and tribulations he had. He wasn’t an overnight success. He paid his dues, for sure. And also to get his message out there. Ronnie‘s message was always, like, follow your heart, follow your dreams (and) don’t give up.”
3. Randy Rhoads
Randy Rhoads passed away at age 25 on March 19, 1982. He died in a plane crash in Florida while on tour with Ozzy Osbourne. Rhoads was widely regarded at the time as one of metal’s next big things. His combination of rock with classical music was exhilarating. He is often regarded as one of the key influences for neoclassical metal.
Moreover, he was instrumental in the rebirth of Ozzy as a solo artist. Once kicked out of Black Sabbath, the Madman got a second lease of life in the 80s. And it was partially thanks to Rhoads’ histrionics as a guitarist. It is tragic that this partnership didn’t last longer.
In general, it is sad that Rhoads didn’t get the chance to fully spread his wings. One of the saddest metal deaths because he was taken too soon.
“But his compositions with Quiet Riot were more driven toward trying to please record companies, rather than when he started playing with Ozzy,”Rudy Sarzo said about Rhoads in 2025. “He asked Ozzy, ‘What do you want me to write?’ Ozzy just said, ‘Be yourself,’ and that’s what came out.
“That was the real Randy Rhoads. He passed away young, but I’m sure that he left an indelible mark on musicians even today. When they discover him, they want to know more, and they get it.”
4. Chuck Schuldiner
Chuck Schuldiner passed away on December 13, 2001, at age 34. He died after a long battle with cancer. It is one of the saddest metal deaths because of a number of reasons. One of them is that the metal community got together to support Chuck. But alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
Another reason was that Chuck was still very young. He was only 34 years old and had accomplished so much with Death. One can only imagine what he could have done throughout the years if he had been kept alive and healthy. It is a tragedy that a musician and person of his caliber didn’t get to grow old.
One of the biggest losses in the genre.
5. Ozzy Osbourne
One of the saddest deaths in metal and a fairly recent one. Ozzy Osbourne passed away on July 22, 2025, at age 76. Several health problems he had ultimately took a massive toll on him. It wasn’t just one cause.
Moreover, thankfully Ozzy got a chance to perform one last show with the original Black Sabbath days before passing. It was in his hometown of Birmingham and a perfect finale for a legendary career. Furthermore, it also represented a final goodbye to a legend without equal.
You are not going to see another Ozzy Osbourne in this era.
“Well, it’s now a year since Ozzy’s passing and I still can’t believe that he’s not with us,”Tony Iommi posted on Instagram in 2026. “I watch him on YouTube and it feels like he’s still here with us. We always stayed in touch, almost every week or so and we’d usually talk about our ailments and then about what we’d been doing that particular week.”
“The fans have been absolutely brilliant and the love and respect that they have shown for him has just been amazing. I’m so glad that we were able to play one final show with the original line up of Sabbath at the Back To The Beginning show in our home town of Birmingham! There will never be another Ozzy. I miss you my dear friend.”
6. Dimebag Darrell
Dimebag Darrell passed away on December 8, 2004, at age 38. He was shot to death by Nathan Gale while touring with his new band, Damageplan.
It is easy to see why it is one of the saddest metal deaths. Darrell was widely regarded as one of the greatest metal guitarists of his generation. His massive success with Pantera propelled him as one of the new leading forces in the genre. And while the band had broken up, he was still young enough to continue with his career. But he was taken too soon.
Dimebag is still revered by a lot of fans. New generations are still discovering his music. And that’s the proof of his undying legacy.
7. Ingo Schwichtenberg
Ingo Schwichtenberg passed away on March 8, 1995, at age 29. He took his own life in his hometown of Hamburg, Germany. This is one of the saddest metal deaths because it shows how fragile mental health can be.
He was the drummer of Helloween during the band’s first five albums. However, he was also suffering from schizophrenia. Band members such as guitarist Roland Grapow and singer Michael Kiske have talked about his episodes over the years. And during the early 90s, his drug abuse took a severe toll on his mental health.
He was let go from the band after the 1993 album, “Chameleon”. And as he went deeper into his schizophrenic episodes, he took his life. He jumped in front of an S-train.
Helloween would honor him with the 1996 record, “The Time of the Oath”. Former bandmate Kai Hansen honored him with the Gamma Ray song “Afterlife”. And Kiske did likewise with a song from his solo project, “Always”.
8. Jeff Hanneman
Another one of the saddest metal deaths because of how avoidable it was.
Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman passed away on May 2, 2013, at age 49. The cause of death was liver failure. The news came off as a shock to people, his family and band included. Especially since he was recovering from necrotizing fasciitis, which was caused by a spider bite in 2011.
Overall, the death of Hanneman caused a lot of sadness in the metal community. Overindulgence in alcohol is nothing new in the genre. However, that doesn’t make the loss of a beloved musician any less tragic. Moreover, especially one who didn’t even get to reach his fifties.
“So, yeah, I think about him,” vocalist Tom Araya said in 2017. “You just wonder… You always think about how you wish you could have or should have done things different that went on towards the latter period of his life. In hindsight, you always wanna do… you think you should have done more, and that’s how I feel: I feel like we could have, or I should have done more to help him.”
9. Lemmy Kilmister
Lemmy Kilmister passed away on December 28, 2015, at age 70. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer two days before his passing in California. Compared to other cases on this list, it seems unfair to add Lemmy. After all, he had a very extreme life and still managed to reach his 70s.
It is, however, one of the saddest metal deaths because of who he was. He was an elder statesman of the genre. And furthermore, someone who represented everything that was great about this kind of music. Lemmy breathed and lived this kind of music. And when he died, there was a feeling of something dying with him in the genre.
”There will never be another band like MOTÖRHEAD,” former Motorhead drummer Mikkey Dee told Metal Sticks in 2025. “There wasn’t before, and it’s never gonna be again, because there’s so many ingredients that are so unique for that band. Let’s start with Lemmy (himself). His way of thinking, his way of living, his way of seeing the world reflects a lot in how this band was. I keep saying, if everybody was like Lem, we would never have a war, we would never run into this f… political b… correctness, and everybody could take a joke and everybody could live life.”
“And Lemmy was extremely intelligent, and that made him to what he was — a very simple, easygoing guy. He was never, ever a rock star. And the first thing he told me when I joined, he took me on my shoulders and said, ‘You know what, Mikkey?! Good manners cost nothing. Remember that. But if you walk into a room and there’s a f… a…hole in there, make sure you are the biggest a..hole of them all.’”
That was Lemmy for you.
10. Peter Steele
Peter Steele passed away on April 14, 2010, at the age of 48. He was one of the saddest metal deaths because of the cause of his passing. Steele died because of sepsis caused by diverticulitis, which was caused by his alcoholism.
The then-Type O Negative singer struggled with alcohol abuse for years. However, the saddest part is that, around the time of his passing, he was clean. He had managed to overcome his vices. But the toll those years of abuse took on his body remained.
It says a lot that the other members of the band decided to end it after his passing. That goes to show how important he was for Type O Negative. And while he is not that known these days with younger generations, he deserves a lot of love. A great frontman, singer, and songwriter. And sadly, another one who was taken too soon.
Aurora is the third Yes studio album to be released in five years, an astonishing work rate for a veteran band who seem to be riding a genuine wave of creativity. Prog spoke to Steve Howe and vocalist Jon Davison about this burst of activity and how, even after nearly 60 years, the band are still honing their craft.
To release three albums in the space of five years would be a fine effort for any contemporary band. For a supposed ‘heritage act’ with a history spanning more than 55 years, it’s a herculean feat – although Yes’ current rate of work isn’t quite on a par with their run of early-1970s classics.
They recently unveiled Aurora, the third work in a trilogy that began with The Quest in 2021 and continued with Mirror To The Skyin 2023. “I really like some of the songs on The Quest,” says guitarist Steve Howe. “But we were finding our feet. Then on Mirror To The Sky, we were much more assertive with the rock elements. When the opportunity came up for another record, we all felt we should try to do even better; we wanted to develop more polish and detail, leading to a greater continuity in the music. I think it’s quite a successful project in that regard.”
A feature of Aurora is the varied combinations of writing credits, with even Jay Schellen – playing drums on a Yes album for the second time following Alan White’s passing in 2022 – contributing to the 13-minute album centrepiece, Countermovement. “Each song takes a great deal of crafting, and every member of the band contributes,” explains Howe, “especially in developing the arrangements. That’s always been the key to Yes music. We still want to attempt to inspire, and to get across that Yes are a band of very high standards, which we still hope to achieve.”
A further aspect of the record is the enhanced contributions of keyboardist Geoff Downes, following a somewhat muted role on Mirror To The Sky. Vocalist Jon Davison confirms it was a deliberate move. “We wanted to bring him more tightly into the fold, so we expressed our love and appreciation for him and how important it was that he be given a position where he could place his unique stamp on the album.”
Downes was chiefly responsible for the Anytime Soon section of Countermovement, sung by Howe, and much of the music of the grandiose Ariadne. The latter is one of only two orchestral arrangements from Paul K Joyce, whose fine work graces all three recent albums; his other contribution being on the title song. “The treatment’s quite different this time because although we only use the orchestra twice, they’re on big tracks,” says Howe. “I didn’t want them to keep interfering with the band too much, so when they had their moments, I wanted to make them really huge.”
Davison is also full of praise for Joyce: “He’s our sixth bandmate, if you will, because his classical touches are simply beautiful, and really give a broader sense and legitimacy to our music. I love working with him. His two arrangements are very different. He composed the piano on the beginning of the title track and then arranged that surge into its great, powerful intro, taking various vocal themes from the song and intertwining them. It’s just brilliant.”
Even though Downes is much more prominent on Aurora it doesn’t mean there’s any less of Howe. As always, he provides a wealth of textures, from the layering on the two short pieces that bookend Countermovement to the acoustic and classical textures of Turnaround Situation and Love Lies Dreaming, then the almost aggressive distortion of All Hands On Deck. His beloved Gibson ES-175 was a key instrument.
“It was really enjoyable having the opportunity to use the 175 so much on this album,” he says. “But I still like to develop my steel guitar work, especially because it lets me combine unusual textures. You get that very stern and emotional steel in Freedom’s Edge [the final part of Countermovement]. But in Taro [the first part], it’s more of a playful interplay between the electric and the steel, and I don’t know whether anybody’s ever done that. So I still try to cross bridges I haven’t attempted myself yet.”
Davison’s approach to vocal melodies is intriguing. He’s often working with music that’s already composed and arranged and so his melodies sometimes explore directions the listener may not expect, or indeed appreciate on first listen. “I sometimes approach the vocal melodies instrumentally,” he says, “so I’ll write them with a keyboard, which brings out more complexity than if I were just singing off the top of my head.”
In other areas Aurora is downright catchy; listeners may find that the chorus of Turnaround Situation, for instance, becomes an earworm. Davison laughs as he remembers how he came up with the melody: “I have this habit of repeating something my wife has said – I’ll sing it back to her. It’s quite annoying, actually. One evening, we got lost leaving engineer Curtis Schwartz’s studio. It was late at night in the dark English countryside, and we kept missing our turn. Emily started saying, ‘You know, this is a turnaround situation.’ So rather than me helping her through our navigational predicament, I start singing, ‘Turnaround situation lately,’ and there it was!”
One aspect of the album that might intrigue listeners and even split the crowd somewhat is its structure. It’s front-loaded with pieces that will sound relatively familiar in style; but it finishes with three shorter tracks that display some wild stylistic twists – Howe’s surprising All Hands On Deck, the wordless Outside The Box and the sensitive Davison ballad Emotional Intelligence. How were the sequencing decisions made? “That’s down to the brilliance of Thomas Waber of InsideOut,” says Davison. “He formulates the song order and how it should flow, and then suggests it to the band. It’s worked out that way each time over the last three albums that we finish on a quieter song. Perhaps I have some quality in my songwriting that appeals to him as a nice closure.”
The universe decided that I needed to accept this call of duty from Chris Squire, Alan White and Steve Howe. I’ve done my best to honour Jon Anderson
Jon Davison
When the title track was released ahead of the full album, fans reported mixed reactions. “I don’t really read any comments,” Davison says, “but when the video came out on YouTube and I saw there were so many likes and views, I read some of the feedback. The first one caught my eye – it was really insightful, which led me to the next one. I thought, ‘Don’t read the comments; you know better.’ I kept going, and in the main they were really positive. But I’m not part of Facebook, so I’m not privy to the battle zone, if you will.”
One song that might well prod the hornet’s nest is Howe’s deceptively simple All Hands On Deck. “Fundamentally, Yes is a rock band,” he says, “and if we weren’t, we wouldn’t be Yes – we’d be a lot more middle of the road. So yeah, All Hands On Deck does shout in your face a bit, but I think it’s refreshing to have a track like that.”
(Image credit: Curtis Schwartz)
While some of Davison’s lyrics, such as on Ariadne, have their roots in mythology, others hint a little at former vocalist Jon Anderson’s more oblique phrasing. Does Davison feel any pressure of legacy? “I’ve learned to see it not as pressure, because that would be limiting. I see it as inspiration. I just respect the man so much. He’s a sheer genius; he’s a hero of mine, and for whatever reason, the universe decided that I needed to step up and accept this call of duty from Chris Squire, Alan White and Steve Howe.
“And I’ve done my best to honour Jon. So it’s not like I want to go one way and this voice in my head is telling me to go another. I just do my best to celebrate the Yes music – music I love.”
We need to keep moving forward. It’s no good to keep looking back and saying, ‘Let’s do this song – it’s a bit like Yours Is No Disgrace’”
Steve Howe
With Howe awaiting an essential medical procedure, the band’s upcoming live shows have been pushed back to the spring of 2027. The plan had been to perform the same set they’d been playing during the US tour in 2025, based around the Fragile album, and it seems that will remain the case. They also included Circles Of Time from Mirror To The Sky, which raises the question of whether a song or two from Aurora might appear.
“It’s really challenging to take on the new songs, which is why it’s impossible to say for certain,” Davison says. “When we first toured after Mirror To The Sky came out, we played Cut From The Stars, which wasn’t easy; and we attempted All Connected, which went really well for a while,but the set got too long and that was the one that had to get cut.”
Although the band see their three recent albums as a trilogy, it seems that this definition is a loose one – it isn’t the end of a Yes journey, but more a convenient way to frame the last five years. There’s a clear feeling that there’s more to follow. “We’re really in a good stride now,” says Davison. “There’s a sense of momentum. The muse and its music are sort of taking over the artist, if you will. So, I certainly think there is more music to come.”
Howe feels the same: “These three albums bookend a story about the band. So where we go next has to be more revolutionary or stylistically somewhat different. I think that’s what Yes are about: we don’t have to confine ourselves to being a certain kind of band. We’re free to be whatever we can be. We need to keep moving forward. It’s no good to keep looking back and saying, ‘Lset’s do this song – it’s a bit like Yours Is No Disgrace.’”
So, regardless of how Yes fans react to Aurora, it seems this is a band with plenty more to offer, and with so many of their contemporaries now retired or, at best, sporadically active, that’s quite remarkable.
