Crazy Train Hits a Billion Streams While Jeff Loomis Cooks Up New Nevermore — What It Means for Ohio's Heavy Metal Underground

Some weeks the metal news cycle hands you a tidy theme. This week it handed us a billion-stream milestone, a legendary drummer teaming up with an ambient dark ambient composer, a metalcore vocalist launching his own label, and a stack of tour announcements that should have every Ohio headbanger checking their calendars. Let's get into it.

Crazy Train Joins the Billions Club, and Ohio's NWOTHM Scene Takes Notes

Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" just crossed one billion streams on Spotify, landing the 1980 classic in the platform's exclusive Billions Club. It's a milestone that feels bittersweet given everything the Osbourne family and the metal world has processed this year, but it's also a reminder of why that song belongs on every list of the best heavy metal songs ever written. Randy Rhoads' riff still sounds like a lightning strike four decades later, and it's exactly the kind of songwriting DNA that's fueling the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal revival happening in scenes all over the country — including right here in Ohio.

We don't talk about it enough on this site, but Ohio's heavy metal underground is stacked with bands carrying that Rhoads-and-Randy-worshipping torch forward. Columbus-area outfit MSOD blends power metal grandeur with thrash aggression in a way that would make any 80s metal bands enthusiast grin, while Stryker leans hard into pure power-metal bombast. Add in the riff-first approach of Grayhawk, the dual thrash-and-heavy attack of Crysis and Sledge, and the genre-hopping chops of Midevil, and you've got a legitimate case that Ohio's traditional metal scene deserves way more ink than it's gotten. If Ozzy's catalog is still minting new fans a billion streams at a time, there's no reason these bands can't be the next generation carrying that flag at your local VFW hall or club show.

Jeff Loomis Says Nevermore Has "About Six Ideas" — Technical Metal's Slow Burn

Speaking of heavy metal lineage, guitarist Jeff Loomis revealed in a new interview that the revived Nevermore lineup — now featuring Loomis, longtime drummer Van Williams, and a handful of new additions who debuted live back in April in Istanbul — already has roughly six ideas floating around for a new album, with demos starting to take shape. Loomis put it simply:

"The demos are now starting to flow."

Nevermore's blend of technical precision and dark melodic songwriting has influenced an entire generation of guitar-forward metal bands, and that influence runs straight through Ohio's more shred-focused corners of the scene. It's the kind of news that reminds you why patience matters in this genre — great records don't get rushed, and if Nevermore's comeback takes its time, that's a feature, not a bug.

Eddie Hermida Launches Arson Theory — A Blueprint for Ohio's DIY Bands?

Suicide Silence vocalist Eddie Hermida has co-founded Arson Theory, described as an "artist-first music company," already working with Shadow of Intent, PeelingFlesh, Psycho-Frame, 3TEETH and others. In an industry where major labels still treat heavy music as an afterthought, artist-owned infrastructure is becoming the norm rather than the exception, and that's a trend worth watching closely from an Ohio perspective.

This state has never lacked for talent — it's lacked for the kind of business scaffolding that turns a great local band into a touring act. Whether it's death metal, grindcore, or metalcore, the bands filling out our upcoming shows calendar every month are proof that the scene is healthy at the grassroots level. What Hermida is building with Arson Theory is a version of the same DIY-first ethos that's kept Ohio basements, VFWs, and dive bars packed for decades. If you're in a band trying to figure out your own next move, our submit your band page is still the easiest way to get your project into our database and in front of people actually looking for new metal bands in 2026.

Dave Lombardo and Lustmord's Experimental Turn

Thrash legend Dave Lombardo has teamed up with dark ambient pioneer Lustmord for a new experimental project, dropping their first single "Paleomagnetic Resonance" ahead of their debut album "The Pulse of Atoms," out October 2 via Ipecac Recordings. It's a hard left turn from the guy who defined extreme drumming with Slayer, but that's part of what makes Lombardo one of the most respected figures in metal — he's never been afraid to chase texture and atmosphere over pure aggression.

That same appetite for atmosphere lives in Ohio's death metal underground too, even when the tempo stays brutal. Cleveland's own 200 Stab Wounds have built a reputation on death metal that's as much about groove and dread as it is about speed, and the primordial crunch coming out of bands like Caveman shows there's room in this state's scene for death metal that isn't afraid to get weird at the edges. Lombardo's willingness to work outside genre lines is a good reminder that the "best metal albums of all time" conversation almost always includes a record that broke the rules first.

Neurosis Heads to Roadburn 2027 — And Ohio's Post-Metal Corner Takes Notice

Neurosis will play two sets at the 2027 edition of Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Netherlands, cementing the festival's reputation as the premier gathering point for heavy music that refuses to be boxed in. Neurosis basically wrote the rulebook for post-metal, and their influence runs deep through Ohio's own instrumental and atmospheric scene. If These Trees Could Talk have spent years building cinematic, crushing instrumental records that owe a clear debt to that Neurosis lineage, proving Ohio's contribution to the genre isn't just theoretical — it's touring-grade, festival-worthy material that belongs in the same conversation.

Wage War, Islander, and the State of Metalcore Right Now

Wage War teased their new single "Sweet Dreams" with a brief video preview, while Florida's Islander dropped a cover of Deftones' "Back To School (Mini Maggit)" that they've also started working into their live sets. Metalcore and nu-metal-adjacent heaviness keep cross-pollinating in interesting ways right now, and Ohio has its own deep well of bands riding that same current. Cleveland's Corpus Christi blend melodic death metal with metalcore structure in a way that fits squarely into this conversation, and it's worth remembering this state has produced some of the genre's most influential exports over the years. Whenever a national act covers Deftones or teases a new single built on that mid-2000s heaviness, it's worth checking who's doing the same thing three states closer to home.

Rob Zombie Goes 4K, and the Horror-Metal Crossover Never Dies

Rob Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses," "The Devil's Rejects," and "3 From Hell" are getting the 4K treatment as a collector's set arriving October 13. It's a nice reminder that the crossover between horror and heavy metal has never really gone away — it just keeps finding new formats. Ohio's black metal and sludge contingent, from the raw aggression of Coward to the atmospheric dread of Ghast Misanthropia, has always understood that horror imagery and heavy riffs go together like Halloween and a leather jacket. If you're building a spooky-season watch list to pair with a spooky-season playlist, this reissue set is basically mandatory.

The Touring Circuit Keeps Growing — Check Your Local Listings

This week's tour news alone should keep you busy planning drives: Eyehategod, BL'AST!, Luicidal, and Evil Army have announced what's being billed as Eyehategod's final run of dates for 2026, a lineup that's basically a masterclass in sludge and hardcore crossover. Elsewhere, Rival Sons frontman Jay Buchanan announced a solo acoustic "Storyteller" tour running September into October 2026, 311 tacked on three extra dates to their fall tour, and Creed confirmed their annual "Creedmas" shows will close out their 2026 touring in Las Vegas and Highland. Meanwhile Josh Homme made headlines of his own for lighting up on stage with Queens of the Stone Age despite a reported $10,000 fine risk — a reminder that some rock stars still refuse to read the room, corporate rulebook be damned.

With this much action on the national touring circuit, it's worth remembering how much is happening closer to home too. If you've been typing "metal concerts near me" into a search bar hoping something local pops up, our upcoming shows listings are built exactly for that — because the bands touring 2026 aren't just the arena headliners, they're the death metal, thrash, and black metal acts filling out bills in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and everywhere in between. Ohio's metal scene doesn't need a billion streams to matter. It just needs you to show up.