What We Lost in 2025

Vicky & Metalcatto

People change, people grow. They become musicians, leave a legacy behind, and sadly pass away when we need them the most. When they are still alive, no one cares about them, others treat them like scum, but the second they die, they become popular again, fans rediscover their music, and they forget that they once saw these artists as if they had plague and it was dangerous to get close to them.

Their former bands have an almost nonexistent mourning period, and then they go on tours again, release new material, without those musicians, and they act like nothing has happened, like no one has died, and they just pretend that everything is alright again. But it’s not, and it won’t be for a long time. This article holds a requiem for a few brilliant people that we have lost in 2025 – Ozzy Osbourne, Ace Frehley, Tomas Lindberg, Adam Ramey, and, more recently, Adrian Pleșca. About Ozzy, we obviously know that he had a solo project, and that he was once part of Black Sabbath. Ace Frehley was the guitarist of KISS, he had a solo career, and also founded Frehley’s Comet. Tomas Lindberg was the vocalist of At The Gates, amongst others. Adam Ramey was only 31 when he took his own life, and he was a part of Dropout Kings.  And last, but certainly not least, Adrian Pleșca (or „Artan”, as some of you may know him) was the lead singer of Partizan and had also been part of Timpuri Noi.

These five artists have, in one way or another, contributed to how we see Rock and Metal as genres nowadays. The world is a darker place without them, and we can’t thank them enough for existing, for becoming musicians, and for shaping many generations of people. It’s sad to think about the fact that our children will some day see Ace Frehley the same way we did Jim Morrison, or paint the picture of Tomas Lindberg in bright colors, like some of us did with Euronymous.

And then, at a certain point, when people will ask rocker kids if they had ever heard of Ozzy before, they’ll ask “who’s that? Does he sing with My Chemical Romance?”. We’ll be sad, realizing how old we are and how time leaves its brutal marks on all of us… Some day, people won’t have heard of MTV, won’t have ever seen blink-182 running around (naked and) blurry in the video for “What’s My Age Again?”. They’ll just use AI to come up with answers to any ideas, so that, however, maybe – if we’re lucky –when we ask them if they’d ever listened to Partizan or if they’d ever heard of Adam Ramey, they’ll just say “oh, yeah, ____ [insert your AI platform of choice] just told me they were famous about 100 years ago, back when you were young.”

But moving on to our five artists: let’s try not to forget them. Let’s try and keep them alive as long as possible, at least through what they have created. And here’s what: I’ll give you a list of songs I really hope you guys will listen to and think about what 2025 really meant from numerous points of view.

Ozzy Osbourne – “Mama, I’m Coming Home”

KISS – “I Finally Found My Way”

Orphaned Land & Tomas Lindberg – “Only the Dead Have Seen the End of War”

Dropout Kings – “Something Awful”

Timpuri Noi – Perfect

Catto’s note: Oh boy! That was depressing! Let me give you an elder’s perspective to not end on a tragic note. Old people will go, new people will come, that’s the way of the world. Some things are good and some things are bad. We have it better in some ways and worse in others. Life has as much tragedy as comedy, and I do not fear technology—because the future is everything that has been before, with its cruelties and its joys. Now, I’d add a loss to this list: Brent Hinds was taken from us too soon, but at least he and his buddies left us treasures like this:

Mastodon – “The Last Baron”

And with that I quote Dylan Thomas: Do not go gentle into that good night. Cheers!