Lou Koller, the singer of the New York band ‘Sick of It All‘, has died after a battle with oesophageal cancer at the age of 59.
Heartbreaking news for the rock music world came on July 24, as the band confirmed it in an Instagram post.
The band wrote, ‘It’s with unbelievable sadness that we announce to our worldwide hardcore family the passing of our brother Lou Koller. The level of loss that we feel at this time is overwhelming.
‘We have lost a beloved friend and an iconic frontman. Lou had the power to raise everyone’s spirits at our shows with a smile and a sarcastic comment, and he won people over wherever we played, from every culture and every corner of the world, ‘ added.
People know the band as Sick of It All, but before their first show, Lou Koller and his brother Pete considered naming the band General Chaos.
In 1986, the brothers originally planned to name the band General Chaos. However, their drummer, David Lamb, suggested the name Sick of All because its abbreviation, S.O.A., stood out.
But the title evolved when Koller revealed that”another band existed with that name. They eventually settled on Sick of It All.
On May 17, 1986, the band played its first show at the Right Track Inn on Long Island. For their debut performance, they supported Youth of Today, Straight Ahead, and Crippled Youth, sending a clear message that they were part of the hardcore community and also a supportive group.
Born in Queens, New York, Lou Koller was not only the punk rock singer and founding member of Sick of It All, but also previously a member of Blood from the Soul, an industrial metal supergroup founded by British musician Shane Embury.
In 2016, he revealed that his interest in heavy metal began when he first listened to the English heavy metal band Judas Priest.
