Thanks for this - brings back the memories. Along the vein of Joy Division, I’ve always been a fan of Love and Rockets, and when I went to look them up it turns out they just got the band back together again. Likewise with Bahaus.

So for the purposes of this post, I’m gonna nominate King Missile… they could have been the next Ween.

Eighty-five comments in and no one has mentioned Necrophagist.

Stabwoueeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrerd!

Birmingham’s own Nineteen Forty-Five. Not sure what happened; a couple of the members went on to backup Amy Ray for her solo career, another released her own solo album.

Two amazing albums and handful of other releases.

Fair to Midland. 2 albums and called it quits unfortunately. Hell of a live show. Lead singer never went on to another project either.

Mad Season

Acid Bath. Their bassist died in a car accident after they released two of the best, most unique metal albums of all time imo. I still listen to them regularly. Sammy went on to do Goatwhore. The vocalist had other projects I wasn’t fond of. But still one of the best bands of all time for me.

I’ve got two nominations, in very divergent tastes -

Zeigeist - a fun pop electronica art project that was intended as a one-and-done experimental piece. Obviously, shut down as intended - after producing one of my all-time favourite albums.

World/Inferno Friendship Society - sure they were around for a while and pumped out a lot of albums, but it’s also felt like they were just on the cusp of breaking through and getting the acclaim they deserved, at any given moment, with each new release. … Jack Terricloth died in 2021, and while revival & tribute projects are ongoing, the band will have died with him.

Miser

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIwkFNxj5qU803iy7Vtw-6VPkDCc2wmHL

They put out one album and I love it. They don’t seem to be interested in doing another one.

Memento

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbsObMjR8kdheo0ECRmB6v0i7ZLfodIeT

I found them years after they broke up and am sad. Love this album.

Might be a bit on the Zoomery side of cultural conversation compared to the rest of this thread, but the duo Her’s were tragically killed in a road accident while on tour in the US. They made songs that were cheesy but still emotionally resonant, which is a hard balance to hit.

Their music would blow up even more online in the years following their death, I know there was a lot of of TikTok buzz around them during the pandemic, when a bunch of bedroom pop artists were gaining a ton of traction. While I hate that platform, it can be pretty good for promoting music naturally when people aren’t gaming the system (which they’re doing all the time - fuck TikTok). I think some of their famous songs are still considered TikTok clichés, but I wouldn’t really know.

I didn’t even know they were dead until this year.

There’s always this conspiracy of labels preferring to promote artists who are dead because they can pocket more money from dead artists, and I think about that when one of their songs pop up.

I always liked the band Jellyfish.

I just took a gander over to Wikipedia to learn why they broke up. It was there where I read one of the best break up write ups ever:

“During the tour for Spilt Milk, Sturmer and Manning grew increasingly distant as friends. On their return home, the two songwriters independently wrote material for a third album, provisionally titled Nausea Trois. By then, they were drifting apart musically. Manning remembered that, prior, they would bond over albums such as Paul McCartney’s Ram or the Zombies’ Odessey and Oracle; however, “it was clear that none of that was happening anymore.” He said that he was “rediscovering my love of […] high-energy, fun melodic pop with attitude. And Andy was Leonard Cohen. That was it.” When Sturmer presented him a country ballad song, he accordingly “left in tears because I had zero interest in recording it.” Sturmer felt that Manning had outgrown the partnership, and for his part, was fearful that Manning’s new songs would likely inspire journalists to persistently compare the band to Alice Cooper.”

Really paints a picture!

They were a good band while it lasted.

https://youtu.be/RTrfvwpX9g0

Also…In 2004 or 2005, Coachella organizers invited Manning to reunite Jellyfish for a one-off performance at the festival. Manning advised the organizers to consult Sturmer first. Sturmer, through his lawyer, responded he would not accept the offer regardless of any amount of money involved.

Woah!!

For any mid 2000’s metalcore fans out there I’m sure yall can agree that Catherine fits the answer to this question. Their album The Naturals was absolute perfection and then cancer had to be a piece of shit and take the vocalist from this world. Their follow up with a new vocalist, Inside/Out, had a couple of good songs but it just wasn’t the same. Always wondered what that release would have been like with their OG vocalist.

The Knack - bangin hit, and couldn’t handle the first month of tour together. Broke up.

Can we include Trevor Moore in this discussion?

2 albums of music in addition to the wkuk (which had songs as well)

Story of out times

High in church

Juice WRLD. Was introduced to his music about a year after he died, and was bummed there wouldn’t be any new songs from him.

Gospel. They released an absolutely legendary prog/screamo record in 2005 called “the moon is a dead world” and then just disappeared (though they actually did release a followup last year but after a 17 year hiatus they might as well have been dead)

Honorable mention: Weakling. Birth of American black metal, released “dead as dreams” and I don’t think ever played a show