Malaysian drummer Raja Azreen Raja Talib, 56, was two songs into a 10-song set when the beat stopped. Meditasi frontman Bakaruddin Daud turned toward the riser and found the bandmate he had known for decades slumped over his kit. The collapse came mid-performance on Saturday, July 18, 2026, at the Teruntum Rock Festival in Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia; Raja Azreen never regained consciousness.
He had left his bandmates with instructions before the July 18 show, asking them to dress head to toe in black and reminding them that the performance should continue “no matter what,” according to reports published August 24. The band had rehearsed for three days beforehand, and guitarist Rosli Ahmad had also been unwell.
“I rushed towards him, but I could feel that [he] was gone,” said Bakaruddin, also known as Burn, who spoke in Malay to the Malaysian newspaper Berita Harian. He called his bandmate’s name and patted him, he said, and got no reaction. By then, Burn said, his body was cold.
Fans in front of the stage grasped quickly that something had gone wrong, and Burn said they were alarmed as the scene unfolded. The loss of a musician he had known most of his adult life left him truly shocked and deeply saddened, he said.
Rushed to the Hospital After Collapsing
Burn described to Berita Harian Online what happened once his drummer went down, in comments reported August 24: “We carried [him] backstage and within a few minutes the ambulance arrived. Alhamdulillah, everything was made easier.”
Medical staff at the nearby Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital gave Raja Azreen respiratory assistance after he was brought in. He did not respond and was pronounced dead. The cause was reportedly heart complications.
The breathing support made no difference: his brother, Raja Azman Raja Taib, said the drummer never woke after the collapse. His heart had already been a source of concern within the family. Azman said Raja Azreen was hospitalized in June 2026 with heart problems, and the stay was not a short one.
Two Hospital Stays and a Diabetes Diagnosis
There were two admissions in all, according to Azman, with the first running two to three weeks before his brother was readmitted. Raja Azreen had recently been diagnosed with diabetes, both Azman and Burn said.
After that diagnosis, Azman said, his brother was managing his diet, and the only thing he had observed beforehand was that Raja Azreen looked “very thin,” according to comments reported August 24.
His health had improved enough, though, for him to go back to the pursuits he loved most outside of music. Passionate about sports, Raja Azreen resumed entering competitions once he was on his feet. Azman said that on the day he died, his brother went straight from a BMX competition to the festival stage.
“It is possible that extreme fatigue took a toll [on his heart],” Azman said. Beyond the reported heart complications, no official finding has been detailed publicly.
His bandmate saw no hint of distress in the hours before Meditasi took the stage. Burn said the drummer looked visibly happy to be reunited with friends at the festival, with no signs of illness or low spirits. Minutes later he was gone, two songs into a set the band had played versions of for years.
Metal Wizard, Then Meditasi
Meditasi has been part of the Malaysian rock landscape for more than four decades. The group was founded in 1983 under the name Metal Wizard and rebranded in 1989 as Meditasi — Malay for “meditation.”
Raja Azreen was not there at the beginning. He joined around 1990, after the band had recorded its first album, and “was not a founding member of the group, as some reports have suggested.” Away from the drums he owned a bicycle shop in his hometown of Kampung Gali Hilir in Raub, Pahang. He never married, dedicating much of his life to caring for his elderly mother, Raja Amnah Raja Othman.
The band’s breakthrough came in the 1990s, the golden era of Malaysian rock, when Malay-language bands filled stadiums and dominated cassette racks across the country. Driving guitar rock and the power ballads that defined the era for a generation of listeners built the group’s following. After years of silence, Meditasi reunited in 2015, and it now draws more than 46,000 monthly listeners on Spotify — an audience in which fans who remember the 1990s sit alongside a younger crowd finding the catalog through streaming.
Burn and Rosli had Raja Azreen behind the drums again after that reunion, which returned all three to the festival circuit where Malaysian rock veterans still command loyal, loud crowds. Teruntum Rock Festival was one more stop along it.
Burn Handled the Funeral Arrangements
Decades of friendship linked the frontman and his drummer, and Burn said the death affected him deeply. Azman said all of the funeral arrangements were taken care of by Burn — the bandmate who had been onstage beside Raja Azreen when he collapsed.
On the band’s future, Burn told Berita Harian Online, in comments reported August 24: “We have not yet discussed [the future], but we will continue the group’s struggle. Because as [he] said, the show must go on. We are no longer chasing money, we just want to find friends and fill our free time.”
For now, the way he lived has drawn more attention from Malaysian rock fans than the shock of how he died. Their tributes describe a musician whose final day took him from a BMX event straight to a festival, where he played the songs that made his band’s name.