25 ta Life is an American, New York hardcore band that originally formed in mid-1991.The band was started by Frank Smarra (bass) and Harry Minas (drums) in Astoria, Queens, New York City. They were soon joined by Fred Mesk (guitar) and together wrote most of the material that would be on their early releases.
In early 1992, they recruited former Agnostic Front roadie Rick Healey who added the lyrics to all the songs. They adopted the name after it was suggested by Freddy from Madball that also helped by giving them guest appearances at the end of its sets. 25 ta Life played their first full show at Studio 1, New Jersey, on May 10, 1993, supporting Obituary. After a few failed attempts to add a second guitar player, Steve Pettit (formally of Dmize) joined the band in late 1993. In January 1994, bassist and co-founding member Frank left the band due to family commitments and was replaced by Warren Lee from Out Of Line Queens. Steve was later replaced by his partner in Dmize: Beto Rosario. The band continued to play a large number of shows in the tri-state area and up and down the East Coast. In early 1996, 25 ta Life travelled to Europe, playing in France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium and Poland for the first time. By late 1996, co-founding member Harry left the band and was replaced by Seth Meyer from One 4 One.
25 ta Life opened for Agnostic Front's reunion show at the Wetlands in December 1996 and then played all of AF's East Coast dates along with Madball, Hatebreed and H2O in early 1997. They went to Japan in April 1997. Warren and Beto left in May 1997 after the West Coast tour. Mike H from One 4 One joined on bass in June 1997 and they went to Europe in July 1997. They recorded "Strength through unity..." in July 1997, writing half of it on the spot. "Loyal ta the grave", featuring Freddy (Madball) and Lord Ezec (Crown of Thornz, Skarhead), was written and recorded in less than an hour. Mike left in August 1997 and was replaced by Dave Urban from Faction Zero. Later that month, they went to Puerto Rico and recorded two songs for the second "New York's Hardest" compilation. In October–November 1997, Biohazard took 25 ta Life on a short eight-show tour of the East Coast from Washington, DC, to Boston. Seth left the band in February 1998 and was replaced by Rob Pallotta. The band recorded its first full-length album "Friendship, loyalty, commitment" in 1999. After years of touring, the band broke up in late 2000.
Rick reformed the band in 2002 with all new members. They released several albums with different lineups over the next few years. The band eventually stopped releasing new albums and playing shows as rumors of Rick's mental illness began to spread.
In 2017, Fred Mesk, Seth Meyer, Beto and Mike 141 reformed the band with Stikman from Fury of Five on vocals. They performed at This is Hardcore fest in Philadelphia on July 29, 2017. They also announced on their Facebook page that they are working on new material. In March 2018, 25 ta Life released 3 new songs (Hunting Season EP) online. They also went on a short European tour which included headlining the sold out Superbowl of Hardcore in Rennes, France.
In 2018, Fred Mesk announced that he was leaving the band to go solo in a project called "Mista Bojangles" described as death metal meets Oi! he states that a full length LP is due in the near future.
