Grindcore Returns, Priest Looks Back, and Ohio's Death Metal Underground Keeps Digging
There's a particular kind of week in metal journalism where the old guard and the new extremity collide, and this is one of them. Belgian razorgrind institution Leng Tch'e just dropped its first new material in nearly a decade, Napalm Death's Shane Embury is confirming the next grindcore landmark is still years out, and somewhere in the middle of it all, Ohio's death metal underground is doing what it always does: grinding away, mostly unbothered by the news cycle, mostly unheralded outside the state line. That contrast is the story this week.
The Grind Never Stopped, It Just Went Quiet
Leng Tch'e dropping "Hammered Into Collapse" after nearly ten years of silence is the kind of return that reminds you how long some bands can sit in the cut before resurfacing with something violent and vital. The two-song EP, arriving digitally on October 23 alongside a track called "Voided," is a reminder that razorgrind and its cousins never really left — they just went underground, which is exactly where extreme metal has always lived best.
Meanwhile, Napalm Death's Shane Embury told Pod Scum that the band's seventeenth studio album probably won't land before late 2027, still tracking with longtime producer Russ Russell. That's not a delay so much as a confirmation that grindcore's elder statesmen still treat the process with the same patience they've always demanded of their listeners. No rush, no shortcuts — just riffs when the riffs are ready.
Ohio has never lacked for bands willing to put in that same grinding, unglamorous work. Ton, the state's death metal outfit that's been quietly building a reputation on riff density and no-nonsense brutality, fits squarely into this lineage. When national headlines are dominated by grindcore pioneers returning from hiatus, it's worth remembering that the same ethos — extremity without spectacle, songwriting over showmanship — is alive in basements and DIY venues across the state right now. Bands like Proper Burial and Death Fetish carry that same weight, and slam-adjacent acts like Titanosauria push the density even further into brutal death metal territory. If you're building a mental list of the best metal bands operating below the radar in 2025, Ohio's death metal roster deserves a slot.
There's also a melodic dimension to this conversation worth noting. Cross the Rubicon works the death metal/metalcore border, and Corpus Christi — an Ohio band blending death metal, melodic death metal, and metalcore — shows that extremity doesn't have to mean abandoning hooks entirely. That's a lesson Amon Amarth's Johan Hegg reinforced this week when discussing the band's upcoming album "The Allfather Awakens," out October 2 via Metal Blade. Asked about the pressure of releasing new material, Hegg was characteristically direct:
"We never really write music that we don't feel is gonna end up on the album."
It's a simple statement, but it's the same philosophy that separates bands who tour on nostalgia from bands who keep making records that matter. Ohio's death metal scene, for all its lack of national ink, operates the same way — nobody's writing filler when the entire point is to hit as hard as possible in the time you've got.
Priest, Purple, and the Weight of the Riff That Started It All
On the other end of the metal timeline, Judas Priest just announced that "Sad Wings Of Destiny" — the 1976 record where the band first found its true voice — is getting the reissue treatment as both "Original 1976 Masters" and a newly "Remixed & Remastered" edition. For anyone building a list of the best metal albums of all time, "Sad Wings" belongs on it without argument; it's the record where twin-guitar harmonies and operatic vocal range became codified metal language, years before anyone called it NWOBHM.
That same reverence for the genre's foundational years showed up when Ritchie Blackmore described his onstage reunion with Deep Purple at Jones Beach on August 12. In the first installment of a new interview series with Now Spinning's Phil Aston, Blackmore didn't undersell the moment:
"The people went nuts... it went down like I just invented the cure for cancer."
These stories matter beyond nostalgia, because they underline a content gap that's real in Ohio right now: the NWOTHM and traditional heavy metal revival happening nationally hasn't gotten nearly enough regional coverage, despite the state having a genuinely strong bench. Gatlin and Sword are both flying the traditional heavy metal flag, Character and Aesthesia lean into power metal's more anthemic, harmony-driven side, and Necromancing The Stone splits the difference between melodic death metal, power metal, and thrash in a way that would make sense on a bill with any of the 80s metal bands currently getting reissue treatment. Dark Demise rounds out that traditional metal contingent too. If Judas Priest's back catalog is getting a second look and Deep Purple reunions are drawing tears from the guy who quit the band decades ago, it's worth Ohio fans remembering that the torch-carriers for that sound aren't just in Birmingham or LA — they're playing rooms in Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati right now.
The Touring Circuit Is Getting Crowded — In a Good Way
Sabaton just launched a North American headlining run with Pop Evil and Wings of Steel in support, and frontman Joakim Brodén used a new interview to downplay the idea that the band's rise has been dramatic:
"We've never had a huge dip or a huge rise" in popularity.
That kind of steady-as-she-goes trajectory is exactly what a lot of Ohio bands are aiming for as touring plans for 2026 start to solidify across the industry. Corey Taylor's intimate Las Vegas solo show, booked for mid-October, and Brujeria's newly announced 2027 European run with Criminal are both reminders that touring cycles are being planned further out than ever, which puts pressure on regional scenes to get their acts booked and their names attached to routing conversations early. If you're a band trying to get on a 2026 bill, now is the window.
Ohio's metalcore and post-hardcore exports are well positioned for that conversation. The Devil Wears Prada has spent nearly two decades proving Ohio metalcore can headline rooms nationally, and Like Moths To Flames carries that same lineage forward. On the doom and gothic side, Frayle continues to represent Ohio's more atmospheric, texture-driven heavy music to audiences who might otherwise never look toward the Midwest for that sound. None of these bands were in this week's headlines directly, but they're the proof that when national touring circuits expand, Ohio bands are already built to slot into them.
There's also been a flurry of smaller but telling news this week: Pearl Jam performing a surprise set at Ohana Festival with Abe Laboriel Jr. sitting in on drums, apparently signaling a real lineup shift; GWAR co-founder Chuck Varga's passing, a loss that ripples through every band that ever borrowed GWAR's theatrical playbook; Cancer Bats drummer Mike Peters stepping back from touring while staying involved with the band in other capacities; and Colepitz debuting a lyric video for "Washed In Red" ahead of their first new album in sixteen years. None of these stories are Ohio stories directly, but together they paint a picture of a scene in transition everywhere — lineups shifting, legacy acts recalibrating, and bands returning after long absences the way Leng Tch'e and Colepitz both are this week.
What This Means for the Ohio Underground
The throughline across all of this — grindcore vets returning, classic metal albums getting the reissue treatment, touring cycles stretching years into the future — is that patience and consistency are what separate the bands that last from the bands that flame out. Ohio's scene has both in abundance. Whether it's the death metal grind of Ton and Proper Burial, the traditional metal sensibilities of Gatlin and Character, or the doom and stoner corners held down by Witch Dagger, Electric Lucifer, and Artemus Ward, this state's underground has never needed a national headline to justify its existence.
If you're a band working on new material, or if you're trying to figure out where you fit into the next wave of new metal bands in 2026, keep an eye on upcoming shows around the state — the rooms are there, the crowds are there, and the momentum from national stories like these tends to trickle down faster than people expect. And if your band hasn't been indexed yet, submit your band so the rest of the scene can find you. Ohio metal doesn't wait for permission from Blabbermouth to matter — it just keeps riffing.