Top Ten Metal Musicians Who Died Too Soon

All good things must come to an end, but some end too soon. All of these musicians' careers are examples of this. Here is a countdown of all of the great metal artists whose careers were tragically ended by death. These musicians will be in our hearts forever.
The Top Ten
1 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.

Cliff should be #1!
Dimebag's death was absolutely tragic but his best riffs had already been seen and he couldn't have topped that. He had a fulfilling life.
Same goes for Dio, Chuck and Hanneman.
Cliff on the other hand died after Metallica's 3 albums! The best bassist ever had so much left to show the world. If he was alive Metallica would still be the same Metallica we fell in love with, not some rich lazy bamd

Imagine if Cliff still played for Metallica.

He was an amazing musician.

Way to soon. 24 years old. RIP.

2 Dimebag Darrell Darrell Lance Abbott, also known as Diamond Darrell and Dimebag Darrell, was an American guitarist and songwriter best known as a founding member of two bands, Pantera and Damageplan, alongside his brother, Vinnie Paul. Abbott died in 2004 after he was shot by a mentally unstable fan.

Yea Metallica may have been better with old Cliff, but didn't seem to slow them down. Without Dime Pantera would be out of the picture. One man army.

Had so much incredible music left to offer. He was just getting started.

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.

Most brilliant metal musician of all times. This guy is ina a whole new level, nobody on this list can ever compares to him (except for Lemmy)

4 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.

He had plans for at least another 3 albums,

Still can't believe he died. I love his voice!

Answer this question how did he die

He should have lived longer.

5 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.

He would have improved so much if he didn't die

Twenty five and dead

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

I literally just got back from Mayhem fest, and I saw Slayer. The amount of tribute payed to Jeff was insane

People overlook his genius.

7 Criss Oliva Christopher "Criss" Michael Oliva was an American musician who was the lead guitarist and co-founder of the band Savatage.
8 Layne Staley Layne Thomas Staley was an American musician who served as the lead singer and co-songwriter of the rock band Alice in Chains, which he founded with guitarist Jerry Cantrell in Seattle, Washington in 1987. Alice in Chains rose to international fame as part of the grunge movement of the early 1990s. In 2002, Staley was found dead in his home of a drug overdose.

Not a metal musician.

9 The Rev James Owen Sullivan (February 9th, 1981 - December 28th 2009), better known by his stage name "The Rev" (Short for "The Reverend Tholomew Plague") was an American musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the former drummer, backing vocalist and co-founder of the American alternative metal/ metalcore band Avenged Sevenfold. He was also in the metalcore stage of Avenged Sevenfold. He is often regarded as one of the world's best drummers, especially in the 21st century. He is not only known as one of the best drummers of the bands history, but also crucial to Avenged Sevenfold as a backing vocalist, making the song "A Little Piece Of Heaven" possible.
10 Lemmy Kilmister 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.
The Contenders
11 Dave Brockie David Murray "Dave" Brockie, was a Canadian musician, and best known as the lead vocalist of the metal band Gwar, in which he performed as Oderus Urungus.
12 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 the music and lyrics on all of albums. He died from a heart attack in 2004.
13 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.

The Octopus. One of the greatest drummers of all time. I am so sad I never got to see him live. I hope there is an afterlife just so I can see the great Rainbow lineup live. R.I.P. Cozy, Ronnie and Jimmy...

14 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.
15 Denis 'Piggy' D'Amour
16 Ingo Schwichtenberg Ingo "Mr. Smile" Schwichtenberg was a German drummer and one of the founding members of German power metal band Helloween. Schwichtenberg was famous for his high-energy drumming. His Helloween bandmates gave him the nickname, "Mr. Smile", because he often appeared to be cheerful and smiling.
17 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.

How is he not higher? I mean come on some people who I have never heard of are higher...

18 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.
19 Mitch Lucker Mitchell Adam "Mitch" Lucker was an American musician and lead singer for the deathcore band Suicide Silence.

I know a lot of people don't like deathcore, but this guy died at age 28. He seemed like a very nice guy, and no one deserves to die at a very young age like 28.

He made bad music but that doesn't mean he deserved to die.

20 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 ...read more.
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 Nick Menza Nick Menza (1964-2016) was a professional drummer best known for his work in Megadeth from 1989-1998 and in 2004. He recorded drums on four of Megadeth's albums "Rust In Peace", "Countdown To Extinction", "Youthanasia", and "Cryptic Writings".
23 Trevor Strnad Trevor Strnad was an American singer and musician mostly known as the lead vocalist and frontman of The Black Dahlia Murder.
24 Jani Lane Jani Lane was an American recording artist and the lead vocalist, frontman, lyricist and main songwriter for the glam metal band Warrant.
25 Dave Williams
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