From Positivity Anthems to Purple Carpets: Metal's Week of Messages, Mergers, and Milestones
Metal has always worn two faces at once — the snarl and the embrace, the riot and the reassurance. This week's news cycle leans hard into the latter, with bands across the global metal scene using their platforms to check in on each other, literally and figuratively, while the business side of the genre keeps grinding forward with new signings, reissues, and tour dates stretching out past the horizon. It's a reminder that the global metal scene isn't just riffs and blast beats; it's a community that occasionally pauses to ask if everyone's okay.
Skindred Tell You to Check on Your Friends
Welsh ragga-metal mainstays Skindred have dropped the music video for "Big Em Up," and the band has been refreshingly direct about the intent behind it. As they put it themselves:
"'Big Em Up' is a simple message for everyone to check on their friends and to pick 'em up and to try and encourage some positivity back into the world."
It's a small thing, in the grand scheme of a news cycle dominated by album cycles and tour routing, but it's worth sitting with. Skindred have spent two decades fusing dancehall bounce with crushing low end, and the fact that they're still finding new ways to deliver a message of solidarity speaks to why they remain one of the most beloved live acts on the circuit. If you haven't caught them on this run, keep an eye on upcoming shows — this is a band that still treats every gig like a reunion.
Alien Ant Farm Calls Out the Gaslighters
Speaking of bands with staying power, Alien Ant Farm has returned with "Gaslighter," a new single and video released via Judge & Jury Records that takes direct aim at liars, manipulators, and toxic relationships. The clip, directed by a former member of Orgy, signals the band hasn't lost its sense of humor or its appetite for sharp visual storytelling. "Gaslighter" will appear on the band's forthcoming album, and the track has also been added to the "Stage Tour" video game — a crossover that says a lot about how bands born in the nu-metal era are finding fresh avenues to reach listeners who weren't alive for "Smooth Criminal." With tour dates lining up around the world, Alien Ant Farm is proof that the acts shaping metal bands touring 2026 schedules aren't always the newest names on the bill — sometimes they're the ones who've simply refused to go away.
The Osbournes Open the Doors on "Back to the Beginning"
On the legacy front, the Osbourne family has announced the official world premiere of "Ozzy & Black Sabbath: Back to the Beginning," set for a purple-carpet event on October 14 at The Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. Tickets for the family-hosted screening are on sale now, with proceeds structured to benefit causes close to the family. Whatever your relationship to Sabbath's discography — and for most of us, it sits comfortably among the best metal albums of all time — this feels like a fitting way to close a chapter that began in Birmingham and ended up rewriting the rules for every band that followed.
New World Man and Eternal Champion Trade Riffs on "Devil Time"
Over in the traditional metal underground, New World Man and Eternal Champion have teamed up for "Devil Time," a collaborative track arriving ahead of New World Man's album "I Am The Machine," due October 23 via Closed Casket Records. Pairings like this are becoming more common as bands within the same scene lean on each other's reach, and it's a good sign for anyone tracking new metal bands 2026 is likely to champion — cross-pollination like this tends to be how smaller rosters build momentum heading into a new album cycle.
Haywire Signs to Roadrunner, Hardcore Keeps Expanding
The hardcore side of the ledger had its own big week. Haywire has officially signed to Roadrunner Records and announced a new LP and video, following a memorable appearance at Sound & Fury where the band reportedly threw cash into the crowd. The album was produced by Mat from Citizen and mixed by Taylor Young, whose own band God's Hate used the same festival weekend to drop a surprise set followed by a surprise EP. It's a snapshot of a hardcore scene that's never been more confident about blurring lines with metal, and a reminder that signing announcements like Haywire's often ripple outward into bigger festival bookings and co-headline runs down the line.
Faetooth Lock In California Dates
On the West Coast, Faetooth has announced a run of California shows alongside Glixen, Starling, and more — a lineup that should appeal to anyone chasing the heavier, atmospheric end of the current wave. Regional package tours like this are the lifeblood of a healthy scene, and they're exactly the kind of grassroots booking that keeps smaller rooms full between the arena-sized legacy tours.
Rwake Preserves a Hometown Ritual
Arkansas sludge institution Rwake will release "The Return of Magik" as a live album this November, capturing a full album performance recorded in their hometown of Little Rock. For a band that's always treated its live shows as something closer to ceremony than concert, a hometown full-album set feels like the right way to document it. It's also a good moment to point toward the wider doom and sludge underground carrying that same weight-and-ritual approach, from the stoner-leaning crunch of Hogslayer to the slow-burning doom of Conifer and Despojo — bands proving the riff-worship tradition is alive well beyond the genre's original strongholds.
Mustaine Gets Candid, Deicide Books 2027, Battlesnake Goes Bog-Diving
Dave Mustaine sat down with former MTV VJ Matt Pinfield ahead of Megadeth's September 24 Grammy Museum performance, and the thrash veteran offered a characteristically blunt take on why fans connect with him: "People find relief in some of the stuff that I have gone through, because I don't always bitch about something." It's the kind of quote that explains why Mustaine remains such a durable figure even decades removed from Megadeth's early run — among the best heavy metal songs of the genre's history, his fingerprints are all over a startling number of them.
Meanwhile, death metal godfathers Deicide have set dates for a 2027 Australian tour and been added to the 2027 Froth & Fury Festival, proof that legacy extreme metal acts are booking well ahead of the curve these days. And on the stranger end of the spectrum, Battlesnake has debuted "Bog Bringer" and detailed a new album titled "Bogpocalypse and the Annihilation of Lucifer" — a title that promises exactly the kind of over-the-top riffing its swamp-themed branding suggests.
Darkest Hour, Amaseffer, and Arch Enemy Round Out the Dial
Darkest Hour has released "Warrior," the latest cut from their upcoming album "Suffer Divine," out October 30 via MNRK Heavy — another data point in a strong year for the melodic death and metalcore crossover that bands like Cyberdelya continue to mine on the independent side. Israeli prog-metal outfit Amaseffer, meanwhile, is finally following up one of the more ambitious prog albums of the 2000s with "When The Lions Leave Their Den," a record described as sumptuous and richly arranged — the kind of release that rewards patience from fans who've been waiting since the band's Tel Aviv-rooted debut made waves alongside countrymen Orphaned Land.
And for anyone who wants their melodic death metal served live and stripped-down, Arch Enemy has announced an intimate "Back to the Root of All Evil" old-school show in Los Angeles, capping off their fall North American run. Old-school sets like this — small rooms, deep cuts — tend to sell out fast, so don't sleep on it.
A Nod to the Past, A Push Toward the Underground
Bush is marking 30 years of "Razorblade Suitcase" with a deluxe edition out December 11, a reminder that reissue culture isn't just the domain of 80s metal bands — the 90s alt-rock crossover generation is getting its own archival treatment now too. But while the legacy acts get their flowers, there's still a wide swath of the underground going uncelebrated. Raw black metal, melodic black metal, depressive black metal, crust punk, and experimental metal all have deep benches in our index with almost no press coverage to match — genres where bands like the Scottish atmospheric outfit Saor or Finnish grind veterans Rotten Sound show just how much range those tags can cover. If your band lives in that space, or anywhere adjacent to the riffs that built this genre — from the technical death metal blueprint laid down by Death onward — now's a good time to submit your band and get on our radar before 2026's touring cycle kicks into gear.
