Bad Wolves' Dolly Parton Meltdown, Metal Church's Road-Wise Reunion, and Where Ohio Fits In This Week's Chaos
Some weeks in metal news feel like a soap opera writers' room got a hold of a genre newsletter, and this is one of them. Between a guitarist quitting a band over a country cover only to praise it days later, three separate legacy acts postponing tours for entirely different reasons, and a fan literally stealing an ambulance at an arena show, the national metal press had its hands full. But underneath the headline-grabbing drama, there are real threads connecting to the Ohio metal scene — from touring economics to the death metal and black metal undercurrents that keep this state's underground humming.
The Bad Wolves Saga Takes Another Bizarre Turn
If you blinked, you missed at least two chapters of the Bad Wolves/Dolly Parton saga. Guitarist AJ Rebollo quit the band over a planned cover of "Jolene" — a cover that was reportedly set to feature Dolly Parton actually singing on it before things fell apart. The song eventually surfaced anyway, and within days Rebollo released a new statement now praising the cover and the label behind it. Whatever happened behind closed doors, it's a reminder of how fragile band chemistry can be once a single creative decision becomes a referendum on identity.
It's worth remembering this kind of internal combustion isn't exclusive to major-label rock bands. Ohio's underground has seen its share of lineup shakeups over the years, and the lesson holds regardless of scale: when a band's sound shifts direction, someone in the room usually feels like the ground moved without them. For newer, self-managed acts building a following through upcoming shows and word of mouth, it's a case study worth filing away.
David Ellefson and Metal Church's Smarter Road Map
Former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson has been candid lately about his role in Metal Church's newly reconfigured lineup, which reunites founding guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof with longtime guitarist Rick Van Zandt and drummer Ken Mary. In a recent conversation with Roppongi Rocks, Ellefson talked about touring "smarter, not harder" at this stage of his career — knowing where the sweet spot of joy and fun actually lives on the road instead of grinding out every possible date.
"We know where the sweet spot and the joy and the fun of it is," Ellefson said of the band's current approach to touring.
That mentality matters far beyond the legacy-act circuit. Ohio's death metal and progressive metal scenes are full of bands weighing exactly this calculus — how many weekends on the road actually build a fanbase versus how many just burn out a lineup. It's the kind of conversation happening in van rides across the state, whether you're an Ohio progressive death metal outfit like Church or a more straightforward Ohio death metal act like Ton. Both genres reward stamina, but the Ellefson approach — fewer dates, higher intent — is increasingly the model younger bands are borrowing from their elders as touring costs climb heading into 2026.
Darkest Hour Returns With 'Suffer Divine'
Metalcore lifers Darkest Hour announced their eleventh studio album, "Suffer Divine," due October 30 via MNRK Heavy, produced by Mark Lewis (Whitechapel, The Black Dahlia Murder, Cannibal Corpse). The title track that dropped alongside the announcement is exactly the kind of ferocious, riff-forward statement longtime fans have come to expect — a band still finding new teeth more than two decades into a career.
The word "suffer" in that album title is a fitting segue to talk about Ohio's own death metal and deathcore contingent, where suffering — sonically speaking — is basically the job description. Ohio death metal and deathcore act Suffer occupies exactly the kind of brutal, low-end-heavy space that Darkest Hour's new material seems to be leaning into, and it's a genre lane that continues to dominate the state's index. If you're building a personal list of the best metal albums of all time, this is the era-spanning lineage — mid-2000s metalcore explosion feeding directly into today's deathcore revival — that keeps proving itself durable.
Devil Master and the State of Black Metal's Identity Crisis
Metal Injection's interview with Devil Master is one of the more entertaining reads of the week, with the band's frontman taking aim at what he calls the "total BS" permeating a lot of modern black metal while name-dropping My Chemical Romance as an influence without a shred of irony. It's a refreshing bit of honesty in a subgenre that can take itself extremely seriously, and it raises a fair question: how much of black metal's mystique is substance versus costume?
Ohio's black metal scene has never been shy about carving its own identity rather than chasing Scandinavian orthodoxy, and bands like Ashes continue to represent that independent streak within the state's index. Whether or not you agree with Devil Master's takes on the genre's current state, it's the kind of provocation that's healthy for any scene to sit with — including the one building here in the Buckeye State.
Legacy Acts Hit the Brakes: Carcass, Scorpions, and John Christ
Three separate pieces of news this week underline just how physically demanding touring remains for veteran musicians. British extreme metal institution Carcass postponed their Australia and New Zealand tour with Brujeria — later expanded to include China and India — due to a "family situation" affecting drummer Dan Wilding. Meanwhile, Scorpions pushed their 2026 Las Vegas residency at Planet Hollywood all the way to September 2027, citing unforeseen circumstances. And former Danzig guitarist John Christ revealed he's been dealing with a medical issue serious enough that doctors ordered him to take several months off — joking that otherwise "they will send Glenn to my house to babysit."
None of these are Ohio stories directly, but collectively they say something important about the current state of metal bands touring in 2026: the road takes a toll, family emergencies don't wait for album cycles, and even titans need to build in recovery time. For the Ohio scene's death metal and deathcore acts grinding out regional and national tours, it's a useful gut check — burnout isn't a badge of honor, it's a liability.
Iron Maiden Brings Eddie's Dive Bar Stateside
On a lighter note, Iron Maiden's "Run For Your Lives" world tour kicks off its U.S. leg September 5 in New Jersey, and with it comes the American debut of "Eddie's Dive Bar" pre-show meetups — a fan experience previously exclusive to overseas dates. For a band whose catalog is a permanent fixture on any list of the best heavy metal songs ever written, bringing this kind of communal pre-show tradition to American audiences is a nice bit of fan-service. Ohio Maiden diehards should keep an eye on tour routing; if the dive bar concept catches on stateside the way it has abroad, it wouldn't be surprising to see similar grassroots meetups spring up around shows here.
An Ambulance, a Concert, and a Very Bad Decision
Sometimes the news is just chaos for chaos's sake. At a recent Avenged Sevenfold and Good Charlotte show, a fan stole an ambulance parked outside the venue and crashed it shortly after. It's the kind of story that reads like satire but happened in real life, and it's a good reminder that whatever's happening in the parking lot at your local show, security and common sense matter. Ohio venues hosting upcoming shows this fall are no strangers to unpredictable crowd behavior — though hopefully nothing quite this dramatic.
Polaris Honors Ryan Siew
On a more somber note, Australian metalcore band Polaris released "Without You," a tribute track dedicated to their late guitarist Ryan Siew, three years after his passing. It's a heavy, emotional release that speaks to how grief continues to shape a band's creative output long after tragedy strikes — a reminder that behind every riff and every tour announcement, there are real people carrying real weight.
Where Ohio Fits
Between legacy bands recalibrating their road strategies, subgenre identity debates, and a new wave of album announcements, this week's national news cycle offers plenty for the Ohio metal scene to chew on. Whether you're following the death metal lineage running through acts like Church, Suffer, and Ton, or the black metal underground represented by Ashes, the throughline is the same one Ellefson articulated: know why you're doing this, and build something sustainable around it. Established Ohio exports like Cleveland's Mushroomhead and death metal act Mutilatred, alongside post-hardcore mainstays The Plot In You, prove that longevity and identity can coexist without burning a band out.
If your band has news, a new release, or a show worth flagging for the rest of the state to see, submit your band and get on the radar. The scene here is deep, growing, and — as this week's headlines prove — worth paying attention to no matter what chaos is unfolding on the national stage.