The Biggest Rock + Metal Stories of 2025 (In Case You Forgot)

These were the biggest rock and metal stories of 2025, in case you forgot (we certainly did).

It’s hard to keep track of everything that happens within a 12-month span, especially if you spend a lot of time reading the news. This year, like every other, had many highs and lows, but there were definitely a few things that happened that made it a unique time in rock and metal.

The year can essentially be divided in half — before and after Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne‘s “Back to the Beginning” farewell concert that took place in early July. While you probably don’t need a reminder that Ozzy died a few weeks later, everything that happened before then might be a little blurry just because it was such a huge deal.

We dug through the 2025 archives and rounded up some of the biggest and most surprising things that took place to give you a bit of a refresher. There were shocking lineup changes, exciting reunion announcements, triumphant farewells and heartbreaking deaths.

It’s not all bad, but in reality those types of stories tend to shake us the most and have the biggest impact on the genre.

READ MORE: The 13 Biggest WTF Rock + Metal Moments of a Wildly Chaotic 2025

On the bright side, there’s a lot to look forward to in 2026. Rush will tour for the first time since 2015 and since the death of Neil Peart. In fact, 41 new tours were just announced this past week alone.

This isn’t a definitive list by any means so we’re not undermining the importance of all the other occurrences from this year. But the following 11 stories definitely shaped 2025 the most, for better or for worse.

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