5 Rock + Metal Moments We’re Thankful for in 2025

As one other yr begins coming to an in depth, we needed to unfold some positivity and share the 5 issues we’re most grateful for that occurred within the rock and metallic world in 2025.

There have been plenty of actually nice moments in music this yr and this is certainly not a definitive checklist or to say solely 5 superb issues came about. This particular handful, nevertheless, stuffed us with nostalgia, gave us the prospect to say thanks and farewell, welcome some acquainted faces again, salute a fallen legend and made us log method too many hours into Reddit attempting to decipher cryptic clues.

These moments all, in their very own method, makes us recognize absence and the opening it will possibly go away in our rock and metallic hearts. And the way coming collectively as a neighborhood of followers is the all-time healer.

The Return of Warped Tour

The rock and metallic neighborhood mentioned goodbye to Warped Tour after its twenty fifth anniversary celebrations again in 2019, however it wasn’t fairly over but. The competition made its triumphant comeback this yr with three separate weekends in Washington D.C., Lengthy Seashore, California and Orlando, Florida.

The competition organizers constructed anticipation slowly all year long by revealing bits of the lineup day by day for 30 days. When all was mentioned and completed and the payments had been finalized, we counted over 100 artists that had been enjoying Warped Tour for the very first time, additional proving the competition’s mission to showcase the style’s rising acts.

Loads of legacy bands and musicians made their Warped Tour return as effectively, so there was one thing for everybody at every of the three occasions.

Warped Tour did not simply come again for 2025 both — it is formally again. The dates for all of the areas, together with new stops in Canada and Mexico, have already been revealed.

The Again to the Starting Live performance + the Osbourne Household

This yr was exceptionally bittersweet as a result of Ozzy Osbourne obtained to say his last goodbye on the Again to the Starting live performance in July earlier than dying 17 days later.

The epic live performance was introduced again in February and was destined to be the ultimate chapter in Black Sabbath’s guide. All 4 authentic members — Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Invoice Ward — had been set to carry out collectively for the primary time in 20 years.

The occasion was meant to function the Prince of Darkness’ farewell to followers, however little did we all know that it truly was his last goodbye. The legend died on July 22 on the age of 76 and you possibly can truly really feel a shift on the planet.

Not solely did members of the rock and metallic neighborhood pay tribute to Osbourne, however it appeared like everybody did. Sharon, Jack and Kelly Osbourne even shared messages they acquired from Donald Trump and King Charles III after the loss.

The household organized a public funeral procession by way of Osbourne’s hometown of Birmingham in order that followers may collect and pay their respects and even live-streamed it for the remainder of the world to see. This was an extremely intimate and troublesome day for the household and but they selected to open it as much as everybody else.

Within the few months that adopted Osbourne’s dying, the family members opened up a bit extra about their grief and shed some gentle on the opposite struggles the rocker had been coping with main as much as the “Again to the Starting” present.

Two documentaries about Osbourne’s life had been launched in 2025 — Ozzy: No Escape From Now (on Paramount+) and Ozzy Osbourne: Coming House (on BBC) — in addition to his last memoir Final Rites, which he completed writing simply days earlier than he died.

Osbourne will not be with us anymore bodily, however because of the openness of his household and these biographies, we nonetheless really feel his presence simply as strongly.

Thanks Sharon and the remainder of the Osbourne household for giving the followers one final probability to see the Prince of Darkness in his glory and for all you’ve got shared with followers since then. We hope you know the way a lot this neighborhood loves and respects you all.

My Chemical Romance Celebrated ‘The Black Parade’ on Tour

My Chemical Romance launched into an enormous comeback tour in 2022, however they took it to an entire new degree after they celebrated almost 20 years of their iconic file The Black Parade in stadiums across the U.S. this yr.

Every present was basically break up into two elements — they performed The Black Parade in its entirety in the course of the first half of the present after which performed one other set from a B-stage in the course of the second half.

However My Chemical Romance weren’t simply enjoying concert events, they had been telling a narrative. Every efficiency was a part of an overarching narrative in regards to the fictional world of Draag (which you’ll learn extra about right here). Each present was distinctive, that includes totally different characters and interactions, modifications to the setlist and extra.

Almost 20 years after its launch, The Black Parade hasn’t pale — it’s reached a brand new peak of cultural relevance. Youthful followers who found MCR throughout lockdown or the 2022 reunion lastly obtained to expertise the album’s full theatrical imaginative and prescient in individual, proper subsequent to the followers who had been there in 2006.

Extra touring is on the books into October of 2026, so maybe we’ll know extra in regards to the story and can have much more to be grateful for by then.

Rush Introduced a Reunion Tour

Rush’s reunion announcement was one other very bittersweet second for followers. It is extraordinarily thrilling to have the chance to see such a legendary band return to the stage, particularly when the final present they performed was over a decade in the past.

Nevertheless, it is also a reminder of one of many largest losses in the neighborhood — the dying of Neil Peart in January of 2020.

READ MORE: The 11 Greatest Rock + Steel Excursions Introduced for 2026 (So Far)

Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson admitted how troublesome of a call it was for them to make to return and announce a 2026 tour with drummer Anika Nilles as a result of Peart was really irreplaceable. However they got here to the conclusion that it was a strategy to rejoice their legacy as a band, to honor Peart and to play their followers’ favourite songs from the stage once more.

The very best half about the entire scenario was how positively Rush followers reacted to the information and even welcomed Nilles. See all of their 2026 tour dates on their web site.

Soundgarden Had been Inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame

Third time’s a allure, proper? Soundgarden had been nominated for the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame thrice and eventually obtained in on the third in 2025. It was a very long time coming — they first turned eligible in 2012, 25 years after the discharge of their��Screaming Life EP in 1987.

Nirvana and Pearl Jam had been inducted in 2014 and 2017, respectively, so it was about time one other one of many Seattle grunge giants had been acknowledged for his or her contributions to music. Soundgarden have at all times been one of many extra obscure teams from that period, however their impression was better than many could notice.

It has been over eight years since Chris Cornell tragically died whereas Soundgarden had been on tour. Although the absence of his larger-than-life voice continues to be felt day by day, surviving members Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd have performed a handful of performances collectively since then.

After being inducted by Jim Carrey, the three musicians had been joined by authentic bassist Hiro Yamamoto, Alice In Chains’ Jerry Cantrell, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, The Fairly Reckless’ Taylor Momsen and Brandi Carlile for renditions of “Rusty Cage” and “Black Gap Solar.”

Cornell’s two daughters took half within the ceremony as effectively, along with his eldest Lily Cornell Silver delivering an emotional speech and his youngest Toni singing “Fell on Black Days” with Coronary heart’s Nancy Wilson on an acoustic guitar.

Soundgarden’s induction felt like one thing Cornell could be pleased with and their efficiency felt like a breath of contemporary air. By this time subsequent yr, it is doable that we’ll have lastly heard the band’s final album with Cornell that they had been engaged on previous to his dying.

It is also doable that they will have taken a few of the songs out on the street, in accordance with some latest feedback the members of the band have made.