Side Projects, Sequels, and Scar Tissue: Inside This Week's US Metal Shakeup
Some weeks in this business feel like a slow burn. This week feels more like triage. Between a Filter frontman launching a brand-new project, a gothic metal supergroup rising from the ashes of two legendary bands, a metalcore mainstay dropping another gut-punch single, and an 80s guitar hero forced off the road by his own body, the American heavy music underground and its arena-level cousins are both making noise for very different reasons. Let's get into it.
Richard Patrick Steps Outside Filter With A Place To Kill
Richard Patrick has spent three decades as the face of Filter, but his newest venture proves he's not done exploring. A Place To Kill, his collaboration with Jim Louvau of There Is No Us, just dropped the music video for "What Feels Right," and it's a reminder of how much cross-pollination happens at the top of the alt-metal food chain. Patrick's résumé as a platinum-selling rock frontman and film/TV composer gives this project instant credibility, and Louvau's background as both a vocalist and an acclaimed photographer/director suggests A Place To Kill is going to be as visually deliberate as it is sonically aggressive. Side projects from established rock and metal veterans can go either way — vanity exercise or genuine creative left turn — but the pedigree here is hard to ignore.
Silvertomb Rises: Type O Negative and Agnostic Front Collide
If you've been missing the doom-laced, gothic weight of Type O Negative since Peter Steele's passing, pay attention. Silvertomb — featuring former Type O Negative guitarist Kenny Hickey and drummer Johnny Kelly, alongside veterans of Agnostic Front and Sheer Terror — has announced a new album, The Interpretation Of Nightmares, backed by a crushing new single. This isn't a nostalgia act coasting on old glory; it's a genuine hybrid of gothic doom atmosphere and New York hardcore muscle, which makes sense given the members' pedigree. Bands that fuse hardcore aggression with slower, heavier doom textures have carved out real staying power in the American scene, and fans of that sludgier, more emotionally bruised sound should also be checking out acts like Louisiana sludge institution Crowbar and hardcore-death hybrid Communal Misery, both of whom mine similar territory of weight, groove, and unfiltered aggression. Silvertomb's return is exactly the kind of full-circle story that makes this genre worth following decade after decade.
Miss May I Keeps Pushing Forward With "Hand Me A Halo"
Metalcore lifers Miss May I aren't slowing down. The band — Levi Benton, Jerod Boyd, Ryan Neff, and Elisha Mullins — just released the video for "Hand Me A Halo," the latest single off their upcoming album No Place For Me, due October 2 via Solid State Records. The track leans gritty and guitar-forward, a signature Miss May I move that's kept them relevant across multiple metalcore eras without losing their identity. It's worth remembering that metalcore as a genre has weathered more trend cycles than almost anything else in modern heavy music, and bands like Miss May I are part of the reason it keeps finding new listeners. On the regional front, that same spirit of guitar-driven, breakdown-heavy songwriting runs through acts like I Prevail, whose blend of melody and heaviness has made them one of the genre's biggest crossover successes, as well as progressive-leaning outfit Silent Planet and the more straightforward Catch Your Breath. Metalcore gets dismissed by purists more than almost any other subgenre, but weeks like this are proof of its staying power in the American touring circuit.
Slash and Myles Kennedy Are Already Thinking Ahead to 2027
In a new interview with Rolling Stone Australia, Slash confirmed that the next album from Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators is finished and locked in for a February 2027 release. That's a long runway, but it also signals something important: the band is already planning tour dates to support the record, which means fans should expect Slash and Kennedy's chemistry — one of the more reliable creative partnerships in modern hard rock — to be a fixture of the touring circuit well into next year. With so many metal bands touring 2026 already announced, artists locking in album cycles a full year out shows how much lead time major-label rock machinery now requires. It's a useful reminder for smaller regional acts too: the bands that plan their release-to-tour pipeline furthest in advance tend to be the ones still filling rooms years later.
Adrian Vandenberg's Health Scare and the Fragile Legacy of 80s Metal
Not every story this week is about momentum — some are about the physical toll of keeping legacy rock alive. Dutch guitarist Adrian Vandenberg has canceled his "My Whitesnake Years" August 2026 U.S. tour after a bacterial infection invaded his body. The trek was set to kick off August 3 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and featured an all-star lineup including guitarist Vinnie Moore. It's a gut punch for fans who've been waiting to see Vandenberg's Whitesnake-era material performed live, and it underscores a harsh truth about the 80s metal bands still active today: these musicians are playing through decades of wear and tear, and health issues are increasingly part of the story, not the exception.
That reality was echoed elsewhere this week, with Stryper's Michael Sweet revealing regret over his COVID-19 vaccination and speculating about a possible connection to recent health issues, including retinal detachment and thyroid cancer. Whatever your read on Sweet's comments, the underlying theme is the same as with Vandenberg: the guitarists and vocalists who defined the sound of 80s metal are now grappling with the physical cost of a lifetime on stage. It's worth remembering, too, that the spirit of that era hasn't disappeared — it's been inherited by the new wave of traditional heavy metal movement, with bands like Alien and Attila carrying forward the riff-driven, leather-and-chains energy that made that decade unforgettable in the first place. If you want to trace a direct line from the Whitesnake era to today's NWOTHM revival, this is exactly where to start.
Frontierer's Chaos and the Mathcore Underground
On the noisier end of the spectrum, Frontierer premiered the video for "Ultraviolet Parasite," the title track from their upcoming album, with pre-orders now live. Frontierer has built a reputation as one of the most punishing, technically unforgiving bands in modern mathcore, and "Ultraviolet Parasite" doesn't ease up on that reputation. For listeners who like their metalcore twisted into something closer to controlled chaos, that same spirit of dissonant, rhythmically unpredictable heaviness runs through regional acts like 156/Silence, whose mathcore and post-hardcore leanings scratch a similar itch for fans tired of straightforward breakdowns.
Traitors, President, and the Rest of the Week's Grip
Rounding out the week, hardcore outfit Traitors dropped the video for "Violence Is Necessary," their second single of 2026, continuing a steady drip of new material that suggests a full release isn't far behind. Meanwhile, the mysterious masked rock act President — rumored to be fronted by Busted and Fightstar's Charlie Simpson — unveiled the "Dark Heaven" video ahead of their September 4 debut album Blood Of Your Empire on Atlantic Records, complete with a companion video capturing fan reactions to an exclusive first listen. It's a smart promotional play that speaks to how much theater and mystery still sell in 2026, even in an era of instant streaming.
Where This Leaves the American Underground
Weeks like this remind you why the US metal scene stays interesting even when the headlines skew toward established names. Between side projects from veteran frontmen, gothic-hardcore supergroups, metalcore lifers, and mathcore chaos merchants, there's no shortage of proof that heavy music keeps mutating in every direction at once. And if you're chasing the deep cuts, don't sleep on the legacy of American death metal that made so much of this possible — brutal death metal pioneers like Pyrexia and avant-garde heavyweights Imperial Triumphant remain essential listening for anyone building out their list of the best metal albums of all time.
Keep tabs on upcoming shows in your area, because 2026 is shaping up to be a packed touring calendar across every subgenre mentioned here. And if your band deserves a spot in this conversation, don't wait around — submit your band and let's get you into the index.
