Geezer Butler's Cameo and Pantera's Shadow: What Legacy Metal Means for Ohio's Heavy Metal Underground
There's a particular kind of chill that runs through a band when a genre-defining elder statesman agrees to guest on their record. Troy Sanders of Mastodon felt it when Black Sabbath co-founder Geezer Butler laid down the bass intro to "The Vanishing" off the band's forthcoming "Marrow Deep." Asked if it made him feel like a teenager again, Sanders didn't dodge it — he called it exactly what it was: a cool moment, full stop. And it is. Butler isn't just a bassist; he's one of the architects of the riff language every metal band on Earth still speaks, whether they know it or not. When one of the guys who invented doom shows up on your record, that's not a guest spot. That's a benediction.
Why does this matter to a regional outlet covering Ohio? Because that same lineage — the direct line from Sabbath's blueprint through to whatever's happening in a basement in Akron or a VFW hall in Columbus tonight — is the whole reason the traditional heavy metal and NWOTHM underground exists here at all. Ohio has quietly built one of the more interesting pockets of throwback heavy metal and power metal in the country, and it's worth pausing on two bands doing that work right now: Cincinnati-adjacent heavy metal and power metal outfit Character and NWOTHM torchbearers Avalanche. Neither band needs a Geezer Butler cameo to prove their credentials — the riffs do that themselves — but the Mastodon news is a useful reminder that this stuff isn't retro nostalgia. It's continuity. The same impulse that made a bunch of Alabama sludge-metal weirdos want a Sabbath legend on their record is the same impulse driving Ohio bands back toward twin leads, soaring vocals, and songs that actually resolve. If you're chasing the best heavy metal songs of the last decade, don't sleep on what's coming out of this state.
Power Trip, Pantera, and the Ghosts Ohio Bands Are Still Chasing
Speaking of lineage: Power Trip guitarist Blake Ibanez recently sat down with Metal Blade's Brian Slagel for the "100 Songs That Define Heavy Metal" podcast and reminisced about the Texas thrashers' 2025 European run supporting Pantera, calling it flatly "the best tour ever." It's a small quote, but it lands hard, because Power Trip built their entire career on refusing to let '80s and '90s thrash and groove metal calcify into museum pieces. They played it loud, fast, and mean, and Pantera — the band that basically invented groove metal as its own genre — validated that approach by handing them the stage.
That's the exact energy running through Ohio's crossover and thrash scene right now. You hear it in the riffing of Youngstown-area thrash unit Crucified Mortals and in the pit-ready aggression of Alcocide. It's the same conversation Ibanez was having about Pantera: how do you take a genre that peaked commercially decades ago and make it feel dangerous again instead of like a costume party for 80s metal bands nostalgia tours? Ohio's underground has been answering that question in real time for years, mostly without national press paying attention. Maybe it's time that changed.
Anneke van Giersbergen and the Case for Anniversary Tours Done Right
Over in the gothic/prog world, Anneke van Giersbergen has been talking up the response to The Gathering's 30th-anniversary "Mandylion" reunion shows, telling Poland's Mystic Festival that the reaction exceeded even her own hopes. That record turned 30 this year, which is a genuinely startling sentence to type, and the fact that a reunion tour built around a single album can still sell out rooms says something important about how metal fans engage with legacy now. We're not just nostalgic for bands — we're nostalgic for specific records, specific eras, specific feelings.
That's relevant to anyone tracking metal bands touring 2026, because the model works both ways. Legacy acts are cashing in on catalog anniversaries, sure, but it also creates oxygen for opening slots, local support bills, and the kind of regional show that actually builds a scene. If you're the type who scans upcoming shows looking for metal concerts near me and keeps landing on the same three national tours, keep an eye on how anniversary-tour openers get booked — that's often where the next great local discovery hides.
Uncertainty in the Ranks: Mudvayne, God's Hate, and Jay Weinberg's Silenced Years
Not everything in the national conversation is triumphant. Mudvayne's Chad Gray recently admitted there are no locked-in "big plans" for 2027, and that "mutterings" persist that the band's current run might really be it. For a band that helped define nu-metal's more theatrical wing, that's a heavy admission, and it's a reminder that even bands with rabid followings don't get infinite laps.
Meanwhile, hardcore outfit God's Hate surprised everyone by popping up at This Is Hardcore's Sound and Fury set after a hiatus, with a new EP, "Won't Be Disgraced," reportedly imminent — including a guest-filled Harm's Way cover. And speaking of This Is Hardcore, the festival itself just confirmed its 2026 edition for December after its notable absence over the summer sparked plenty of speculation. Hardcore fans who feared the fest was done can exhale.
Then there's the more unsettling story: former Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg revealed he was legally restricted from making music for a stretch, describing the experience as watching "a part of my creative self" die. Weinberg framed his love of collaborating across disciplines and backgrounds as something he'd always considered healthy — which makes the forced silence even harder to sit with. It's a stark reminder of how fragile creative freedom can be even for musicians at the highest level, and it's the kind of story that should make regional scenes appreciate how much unrestricted DIY freedom actually matters. Ohio's death metal and grindcore underground — bands like Anhedonia Falls, Muciferous, and Tomb Perfume — exist entirely because nobody's stopping them from booking a basement show next weekend. That's not nothing.
Fresh Tracks Worth Your Ears
On the new-music front, a few things landed this week worth flagging for anyone building out a 2026 playlist. Evil Island dropped the video for "Terminatrix," featuring a guest spot from XCOMM's Michael Gatto, while Sace6 unveiled the "Basorexia" video, continuing their self-described "brutalist" approach. Neither band is from Ohio, but both are exactly the kind of aggressive, video-forward release strategy that newer bands chasing new metal bands 2026 momentum should be studying — short, sharp visual statements that get shared fast.
Leprous frontman Einar Solberg also reissued his solo record "Vox Occulta" as a deluxe edition with instrumentals included, a smart move for a prog-adjacent artist whose fanbase tends to obsess over vocal layering and arrangement choices. And Denver doom crew Khemmis gave a full track-by-track breakdown of their new self-titled concept album, with one member offering the almost too-honest line that giving in to the madness might be the only way to survive it. That's as good a mission statement for doom metal as you'll find this year, and it's a sentiment Ohio's own doom and sludge contingent — Moth Priest, Churches Burn, and DeathCrawl — would probably co-sign without hesitation.
Where This Leaves Ohio
None of these stories originated here. But every single one of them — Geezer Butler passing a torch, Power Trip chasing Pantera's ghost, an anniversary tour outperforming expectations, a legendary band quietly admitting it might be winding down, a musician fighting to reclaim his own creative voice — describes forces already shaping this state's scene. Ohio has never needed permission from the coasts to build something real. The best metal bands here right now, across heavy metal, doom, death metal, and thrash, are working through the exact same tensions the national scene is working through: how to honor the past without becoming a tribute act, how to survive line-up churn, how to keep making music when the industry keeps finding new ways to make that harder.
If you're in a band doing that work — chasing the best metal albums of all time as inspiration while building something that's unmistakably yours — we want to hear about it. Submit your band and let's keep building the record of what's actually happening here, one release at a time.
