A SINGER died when a van carrying two metal bands - Early Graves and The Funeral Pyre - crashed in the United States.

Two guitarists were also injured in the crash, which came when a driver ferrying the San Francisco area bands from a show in Oregon to Nevada lost control after falling asleep, police said.

Early Graves vocalist Makh Daniels, 28, of Pacifica in California, died at the scene north of Medford in Oregon, police said. The band had recently released its second album, Goner.

The driver was identified as Justin Garcia, 24, a guitarist for The Funeral Pyre. He and a passenger, Early Graves guitarist Tyler Jensen, were taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries not considered life-threatening.

Six other men escaped injury in the van, which was pulling a utility trailer.

Daniels said in a recent interview he had been through some dark times and writing the lyrics on the band's latest album, with themes of loneliness and depression, had been "an exorcism of sorts."