Meditasi drummer Raja Azreen Raja Talib died after collapsing at a festival

Raja Azreen Raja Talib, the drummer in the Malaysian rock band Meditasi, collapsed onto his kit during a festival set on July 18 and died the same day. He was playing the Teruntum Rock Festival in Kuantan, Malaysia, and the band was barely two songs into what was meant to be a ten-song set when he went forward over the drums.

The band's frontman, Bakaruddin "Burn" Daud, said he saw it happen and went straight to him. "I rushed towards him, but I could sense that he was already gone," Daud said, in remarks translated from Malay. "I called out to him and tapped him, but there was no response. His body was already cold."

Talib was carried backstage and taken to Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a few hours later. Metal Injection reported that he had shown no direct sign of illness before the performance, and that the account reached English-language press through People, which drew on Malaysian outlets including Berita Harian and New Straits Times.

His brother, Raja Azman, told Berita Harian that the cause was heart complications. "He was given respiratory assistance, but he did not regain consciousness or respond after the collapse," Azman said, also translated from Malay.

Both the brother and the bandmate pointed to recent health history. Talib had been diagnosed with diabetes, and he had been in hospital in June with heart problems. "He was hospitalized twice; the first stay lasted two to three weeks before he was admitted again," Azman told the paper.

Azman also raised the day itself. Talib was a keen cyclist who had once run a bike shop, and by his brother's account he went to the festival directly from a BMX competition. Azman said it is possible that extreme fatigue took a toll on his brother's heart. That is the family's reading of the day rather than a formal finding.

Talib's death reached English-language readers through a single metal site, which is often how it goes for a working musician outside the Anglophone press. Other rock losses on the site this summer include Rubettes guitarist Tony Thorpe, who died at 80 and Trashcan Sinatras guitarist John Douglas, who died at 62.

Meditasi go back to the 1980s, when the band took a name that means meditation in Malay. Daud said he and guitarist Rosli Ahmad have not yet talked through what happens to the band, though they intend to keep performing, because they believe that is what Talib would have wanted.