KUALA LUMPUR: Singaporean independent rock band Stompin' Ground's lead singer and founder member Hafidz Samsudin has died of a heart attack. He was 50.
His cousin and bandmate Suhaimi Subandie announced the sad news on his Instagram account yesterday, with the caption, "You will be dearly missed brother. Al-Fatihah."
Singapore daily the Straits Times reported today that Hafidz' mother Khatijah Abdul Wahid, 76, found him unconscious in his room at their Chai Chee Housing Board flat at about 2pm on Wednesday.
He was sent to the Singapore General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Khadijah said that her eldest of four children had a history of heart ailments and was hospitalised several times over the last few years.
Hafidz, a graduate from the Lasalle College Of The Arts, formed Stompin' Ground in 1988 with his close friends. They released their first demo cassette Grey in 1990 and debut CD We Set The Pace in 1993.
The band's second album Measured By The Richter Scale, peaked at No.2 in the Australian Billboard Metal Charts in 1995.
Hafidz was the main songwriter of the band, and his lyrics mostly touched on environmentalism, animal abuse, the dangers of drug abuse and friendship.
Stompin' Ground's final show took place in Kuala Lumpur in 2013.
Suhaimi, the band's guitarist, said that his cousin was "easy-going and a great listener".
"When he was on stage, he was all rage and fury. I have never seen any other singer in Singapore who can match his stage presence," he said.
The band's bassist Syed Mahdzar Al-Shahab said: "He always made me laugh. And when we were on stage together, I would always feed off his energy, it was raw and sincere."