Pinkish Black Singer Daron Beck Dies at 48

Daron Beck, leader of Texas metal outfit Pinkish Black, has died. The band’s longtime label Relapse Records shared the news on social media on Friday, August 23, writing, “Daron was a kind, tremendously funny, and gentle soul that made some of the most creative and compelling music ever released on Relapse Records. Our hearts go out to his partner Lisa, mom Debbie, bandmate Jon, and everyone else that was lucky enough to cross paths with him.” Beck died from natural causes following medical complications, a label representative confirmed to Pitchfork. He was 48 years old.

Beck formed Pinkish Black with drummer Jon Teague in 2011. The pair had previously played in the Great Tyrant, a doom-jazz project with bassist Tommy Atkins that ended when Atkins died by suicide in 2010.

Pinkish Black’s self-titled debut arrived in 2012, with Beck handling lead vocals and keyboards while Teague played percussion. The following year, Pinkish Black issued Razed to the Ground, followed by their inaugural Relapse album, 2015’s Bottom of the Morning. They released a fourth studio album, Concept Unification, came out in 2019, followed by a 2020 collaboration with Yells at Eels called Vanishing Light in the Tunnel of Dreams.

Beyond Pinkish Black, Daron Beck played in Zombi & Friends, a collective that covered soft rock tunes from the 1970s and 1980s. In 2018, a GoFundMe was launched for Beck after he suffered two heart attacks.