I am really shocked and terribly sad. With a heavy heart i have to share the news that Lars Ratz died today. He was only 53 years old. Lars Ranzenberger, as his full name was, passed away on April 18th, 2021, in a microlight accident in Vilafranca, Catalonia, Spain. As we can read in diariodemallorca.es, Lars Ratz died this Sunday morning after rushing with an ultralight. The plane crash occurred around ten in the morning in front of the El Cruce restaurant, on the Petra road. For reasons that are being investigated, Lars has fallen from a great height against the ground, when he was flying over the area in a microlight.
Lars Ratz was known as the leader and bassist of the heavy metal supergroup Metalium. The band, which was founded by Lars Ratz, Chris Caffery and Mike Terrana and featured Henning Basse on vocals, released eight studio albums and caused quite a stir, especially with its first album (“Millennium Metal – Chapter One”).
I personally would like to thank Lars for the memories, his great words and music. I knew him personally since the listening session of the Metalium debut album in Hamburg, Germany, in 1999.
Rest in Peace, Lars. Rock in Heaven forever!
Dimitris Zacharopoulos.
