Best Deceased Metal Musicians

A list to honor the fallen greats of heavy metal. R.I.P. to everyone who makes it into this list.
The Top Ten
1 Ronnie James Dio Ronnie James Dio (born Ronald James Padavona; July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010) was an American heavy metal singer, songwriter and musician. He fronted and/or founded numerous groups including Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and Heaven & Hell. He is credited with popularizing the "metal horns" hand gesture in metal culture and is known for his medieval themed lyrics. Dio possessed a powerful versatile vocal range capable of singing both hard rock and lighter ballads; according to Rainbow/Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore upon hearing him sing, "I felt shivers down my spine." Dio sold over 47 million albums throughout his career. He died from stomach cancer in 2010 at the age of 67.

One of the best classic heavy metal vocalists. It'll be tough for metal music to move forward without him.

2 Jeff Hanneman Jeffrey John "Jeff" Hanneman was an American musician, best known as a founding member of the American thrash metal band Slayer.

Jeff's death really got me. His death ripped a huge hole in Slayer that will never be sealed again. He is one of the greatest guitarists to have ever lived. He wrote some of their greatest songs including one of my favorites, Angel of Death. No doubt in my mind that Jeff will be missed for a long time.

3 Chuck Schuldiner Charles Michael "Chuck" Schuldiner (1967-2001) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known as the founder and vocalist, guitarist and bassist of the American heavy metal band Death. He is considered the most influential figure in Death Metal, with some publications referring to Chuck as the "Godfather of Death Metal". Schuldiner died in December 13, 2001 of brain cancer, his death subsequently leading to the disbandment of Death, but has remained influential among many aspiring metal artists. He was also known for his polite and life loving attitude and openly condemned stereotypes of metal musicians being harmful and evil.

This man made death metal what it is today. Death metal wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Chuck.

I'd sacrifice Dave Mustaine for Chuck

4 "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott

He could have been here still, making awesome music with his guitar, but some dude just had to go off and kill him on stage. Dime didn't deserve that death.

5 Cliff Burton Clifford Lee "Cliff" Burton (February 10th 1962 - September 27th 1986) was an American musician, best known as the second bass guitarist for the American thrash metal band Metallica, recording three studio albums. He died after the driver of the bands tour bus lost control on a patch of black ice and crashed at the town Dörarp in Sweden whilst promoting Metallica's third album "Master of Puppets" Cliff fell out through a window during the chaos and when the bus rolled over the last time it crushed him.

He killed it on Metallica's first 3 albums. Most definitely the best bassist to have ever lived.

6 James "The Rev" Sullivan

Jimmy was an amazing drummer. It really hit me hard when I heard of his death. He brought such a passion to Avenged Sevenfold with his awesome drumming style and his epic backing vocals. We'll miss you Jimmy. FoREVer.

Jimmy was such an inspiration, I know he inspired me. FoREVer

7 Paul Gray Paul Dedrick Gray, also known as The Pig or by his number #2, was an American musician, best known as the bassist and one of the founding members of the Grammy Award-winning metal band Slipknot.

This is probably one of the saddest musician death ever. There are so many videos made as tribute for him. There's the press conference they held (one of the saddest videos I've ever seen especially when it came to Joeys time to speak), there's the tattoo Corey got of him, also extremely emotional and probably the coolest one, the two minutes of silence they held for him at one of their live shows. R.I. P Paul. You will always stay in the heart of all Maggots around the world.

Awesome bassist. Such a damn shame he had to leave this world when Slipknot only made 4 albums.

8 Mitch Lucker Mitchell Adam "Mitch" Lucker was an American musician and lead singer for the deathcore band Suicide Silence.

Might not be the most beloved metal dude who died... but he did bring something very special to metal...

9 Chi Cheng

I was really hoping that Chi would recover from that horrible accident in 2008. I honestly can't believe he's gone.

10 Quorthon Tomas Börje Forsberg, known by the stage name Quorthon (1966-2004), was a Swedish musician. He was the founder, songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of the band Bathory, which pioneered the black metal genre and is credited with creating the Viking metal style. A multi-instrumentalist, Quorthon wrote ...read more.
The Contenders
11 Randy Rhoads Randall William "Randy" Rhoads was an American heavy metal guitarist who played with Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot. He was killed in a plane crash.
12 Lemmy Ian Fraser Kilmister, known as Lemmy, was an English musician, singer and songwriter who founded and fronted the rock band Motörhead. He was a bassist and a singer known for his raspy voice. He died in 2015 from cancer and other health problems.

Lemmy may not be the most well known metal artist, but he damn well should be. As lead singer and bassist for Motorhead, one of the godfathers of metal music, his name should be put up everywhere you go.

RIP Lemmy killed by death

13 Clive Burr Clive Burr was an English drummer. He was a member of Iron Maiden from 1979 to 1982. Previously a member of Samson, Burr joined Iron Maiden in 1979 (coincidentally at about the same time Bruce Dickinson joined Samson).

Can't forget the man who helped start one of the biggest bands in heavy meta, Iron Maiden.

14 Per Dead Ohlin Per Yngve Ohlin, better known by his stage name Dead, was a Swedish black/death metal vocalist and lyricist best known for his work with Norwegian black metal band Mayhem. He committed suicide in 1991 in which former guitarist Euronymous took a few pictures of his corpse and used one of them as the front cover for one of Mayhem's live albums, Dawn of the Black Hearts.
15 Peter Steele Petrus Thomas Ratajczyk, better known by his stage name Peter Steele, was the lead singer, bassist and composer for the gothic metal band Type O Negative.
16 Cozy Powell Colin Trevor "Cozy" Powell was an English rock drummer, who made his name with many major rock bands and artists like The Jeff Beck Group, Rainbow, Robert Plant, Whitesnake and Black Sabbath.

He set a world record for the most drums played in under one minute (400).

Amazing drummer.

17 Criss Oliva Christopher "Criss" Michael Oliva was an American musician who was the lead guitarist and co-founder of the band Savatage.
18 Chester Bennington Chester Charles Bennington (March 20th, 1976 - July 20th, 2017) was an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor, best known for being the lead singer of Linkin Park. Before he was known for Linkin Park, Bennington was the lead singer of post-grunge act Grey Daze who was heavily inspired by Stone Temple Pilots they released two albums with Chester before his death. Wake Me and No Sun Today, a third album called Amends would be released in 2020 consisting of voice samples from Bennington. After Grey Daze dissolved, Bennington would join Linkin Parkin in 1999 formerly called Hybrid Theory, replacing former vocalist Mark Wakefield, who would go on to become Taproot's producer. Even with Bennington's ...read more.
19 Bon Scott Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott was a Scottish-born Australian rock musician, best known for being the lead singer and lyricist of Australian hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980. He was born in Forfar and lived in Kirriemuir, Scotland, for 5 years before moving to Melbourne, Australia, ...read more.
20 Wayne Static Wayne Richard Wells, known professionally as Wayne Static, was an American musician, best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist and music sequencer for metal band Static-X.

Amazing singer one of the best live singers ever

21 Euronymous Øystein Aarseth (1968-1993), who went by the pseudonym Euronymous, was a Norwegian guitarist and co-founder of the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem. Euronymous was stabbed to death by band member Varg Vikernes in August 1993. ...read more.
22 Jasmine You
23 Matt Holt
24 Paul Baloff

EXODUS! REST IN PEACE BALOFF. We will miss this metal god m/ Bang your head against the stage! Bonded by blood!

25 Freddie Mercury Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara, 5th September 1946 - 24th November 1991) was a Zanzibari-born British singer of Indian descent, songwriter and record producer, known as the lead vocalist and songwriter of the British rock band Queen. He also became known for his flamboyant stage persona and four-octave ...read more.
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