Fall Tour Season Arrives, Ohio's NWOTHM Scene Gets Its Moment
The back half of the year always feels like metal's second wind, and today's slate of news makes that abundantly clear. Between fresh album announcements from punk and metalcore veterans, a major co-headlining tour that could very well swing through the Midwest, and a quiet but important nod to the heavy metal revival happening right here in Ohio, there's a lot to unpack. Let's get into it.
Metal Bands Touring 2026: Amorphis and Insomnium Hit the Road
Finnish melodic death metal institutions Amorphis and Insomnium have announced a co-headlining North American tour for this fall, with Hinayana along for support. This is exactly the kind of package that reminds you why melodic death metal never really went anywhere — it just kept getting better at what it does. For Ohio's death metal faithful, tours like this are the ones worth circling on the calendar, and if the routing lines up anywhere near the state, it'll be a night to build a whole weekend around. Fans of homegrown death metal outfits like Siegelord or Godslayer should already know the melodic wing of the genre has plenty of crossover appeal, and a tour of this caliber is a great excuse to introduce a friend to the genre before the headliners even hit the stage. Keep an eye on the upcoming shows page as routing details firm up.
Meanwhile, Fake Names — the punk supergroup featuring members of Bad Religion and ex-Refused — have confirmed their third album, "Punk Ruins," landing October 23 via Epitaph. The new single "Until It's Normal" is a guitar-forward gut-punch aimed squarely at complacency, and the band has already locked in a U.S. tour for February. It's a good reminder that punk and metal have always shared a Venn diagram in Ohio, where hardcore kids and thrash heads have crossed paths in the same VFW halls and basement shows for decades.
New Metal Bands 2026 Watch: Metalcore's Fall Lineup Takes Shape
Darkest Hour just dropped the title track from their upcoming record "Suffer Divine," out October 30 via MNRK Heavy, and it's as ferocious as the title suggests. The band has never strayed far from the melodic metalcore blueprint that Ohio bands have helped define for two decades now. That lineage runs directly through this state — from the breakdown-heavy chug of The Devil Wears Prada to the atmospheric riffing of Like Moths To Flames and the faith-driven intensity of Wolves At The Gate. Ohio has quietly been a metalcore incubator for years, and records like "Suffer Divine" are a good barometer for where the wider genre is heading heading into next year.
On the heavier, more chaotic end of the spectrum, Nasty has announced their new album "Trauma," due out in October, with the title track streaming now. The record features guest appearances from members of LANDMVRKS and Eternal Enemy, continuing a trend of modern metalcore and hardcore acts leaning on collaborative features to blur genre lines. It's the kind of cross-pollination that's become standard practice in 2026, and it tends to trickle down — expect more Ohio bands to start stacking guest verses and features on upcoming releases as that becomes the norm rather than the exception.
Ill Niño also shared word that their first single with new vocalist Tommy Roulette, "Born To Suffer," is dropping this week, with a music video teaser already out. Nu metal's various reunions and lineup shuffles over the past few years have kept the genre's flame alive, and Ohio has its own claim to that scene's legacy through Chimaira, the Cleveland groove metal outfit that helped define the genre's late-2000s evolution alongside acts like Ill Niño. New vocalist eras are always a gamble, but if Ill Niño can find their footing, it's a good sign for legacy bands everywhere trying to stay relevant without leaning purely on nostalgia.
Ohio's Heavy Metal Revival Deserves More Attention
While the bigger headlines this week belong to punk and metalcore, it's worth pausing on something happening closer to home. The New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal — NWOTHM, if you're keeping up with the shorthand — has been one of the most interesting undercurrents in the broader Ohio metal scene, and it doesn't get nearly enough ink. Bands drawing on the riff-first, no-frills songwriting of 80s metal bands have been popping up across the state's basements and DIY venues, proving that the genre's foundational sound never actually went out of style — it just went underground for a while.
Ohio doom and heavy metal act Three is a good example of a band operating in that same lane, pulling from classic doom's weight and traditional heavy metal's songcraft in a way that feels both familiar and distinctly their own. When people talk about the best metal bands of a given era, it's usually the ones willing to honor the source material while still carving out their own identity, and that's the throughline connecting acts like Three to the wider heavy metal/NWOTHM movement gaining traction across the Midwest right now. If you're building a playlist of the best heavy metal songs coming out of Ohio this year, this corner of the scene deserves a spot on it.
The state's thrash contingent is holding up its end of the bargain too. Sinister continues to represent the thrash side of Ohio's heavy metal family tree, a reminder that the genre's 80s roots and its current revival are more connected than a lot of casual fans realize. Between the traditional metal resurgence and the thrash bands keeping the tempo up, Ohio's got a legitimate case for being one of the more underrated heavy metal states in the country right now — it's just a matter of getting the word out. If your band fits into that lane and you haven't gotten on our radar yet, you know what to do: submit your band and let's fix that.
Gear, Legends, and the Rest of the Metal News Cycle
A few smaller but notable items rounded out today's news cycle. TAMA officially unveiled a new signature snare drum for Rush drummer Anika Nilles, the result of more than two years of development focused on low end, wire definition, and a vintage-inspired look. It's a solid reminder that gear innovation is its own quiet corner of metal culture, and drummers in Ohio's death and thrash scenes — the ones grinding through blast beats and double-kick runs every weekend — are exactly the kind of players who'll be paying attention to specs like these.
Gibson also announced an ultra-limited Billy Gibbons "Pearly Gates" 1959 Les Paul Standard Collector's Edition, tied to an exclusive experience at Gibson Garage Nashville. ZZ Top's fingerprints are all over the DNA of countless 80s metal bands, and it's worth remembering how much of modern heavy metal's guitar tone owes a debt to that blues-boogie foundation, Ohio bands very much included.
On a heavier note, Rose Tattoo frontman Angry Anderson was hospitalized after suffering a cardiac arrest during the band's European tour, just weeks after the remaining dates of that run were canceled. Anderson's a genuine legend of Australian hard rock, and the metal world is undoubtedly hoping for a full recovery.
Elsewhere, Stryper's Michael Sweet made it clear in a new interview that he wouldn't join King Diamond's band as a guitarist, but confirmed Stryper would "absolutely" tour with Mercyful Fate given the chance. As Sweet put it:
"You mean, like be in [King's] band? ... I wouldn't do that, but Stryper touring with Mercyful Fate? Absolutely."
And finally, for the more experimental corners of the internet: Mike Patton is set to guest on three new Avalanches tracks, including one alongside actor Haley Joel Osment, while BABYMETAL landed an exclusive variant cover for Marvel's upcoming "Marvel Zombies: War Zone" comic. Metal's reach into pop culture keeps expanding in ways nobody could have predicted a decade ago, and honestly, that's part of what keeps this whole ecosystem — from the underground doom bands playing basements in Ohio to arena-filling legacy acts — feeling alive heading into next year.