Riffs Never Retire: Iommi, Slash, and the Multi-Generational Guest Spots Reshaping the US Metal Scene

There's a particular kind of electricity that runs through the metal world when the architects of the genre refuse to sit still. This week, that electricity came from multiple directions at once — a Sabbath founder dropping a mournful new single, a glam-rock shock legend lending his voice to a country outlaw, and a Foo Fighter crashing a stadium set for three and a half minutes of pure riff worship. None of it happened in a vacuum, and all of it says something about where the US metal scene is heading as we edge toward 2026.

Iommi's Ghosts Are Still Singing

Tony Iommi dropped the second single from his upcoming solo record 'From the Dark,' and "Stormwatcher" is not the song you put on to pump yourself up before a workout. It's slower, heavier in the emotional sense more than the sonic one, built around a guitar tone that sounds less like it's wailing and more like it's grieving. For a guy whose riffs basically invented an entire subgenre, it's a reminder that the best heavy metal songs don't always need to be fast or aggressive to hit hard. Iommi, now well into his seventies, is still finding new shades of darkness to paint with, and that matters for a US scene that owes its entire existence to the blueprint he and his bandmates drew up more than fifty years ago. Anyone compiling lists of the best metal albums of all time inevitably circles back to that Birmingham sound, and 'From the Dark' feels like Iommi quietly reminding everyone where the map started.

Alice Cooper and Cody Jinks Build a Bridge Between Genres

Multi-platinum outlaw country singer-songwriter Cody Jinks released "Moving Mountains" this week with a guest vocal from Alice Cooper, the song co-written by Jinks, Cooper, and legendary producer Bob Ezrin. It's framed around faith and perseverance, and the pairing makes more sense than it might look on paper — Cooper has spent decades being the connective tissue between shock rock, hard rock, and whatever genre needed a dose of theatrical menace. For a US scene that sometimes gets boxed into genre silos, this kind of crossover is a healthy reminder that metal's DNA runs through country, blues, and classic rock just as much as it runs through thrash and death metal. It's the same spirit that drives the 80s metal bands revival conversations happening constantly in comment sections — the idea that the old guard built something flexible enough to still be relevant across genres decades later.

Anthrax Finds a Ringer in Mexico City

When Anthrax needed a drummer for their support slot behind Iron Maiden at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City on October 2, they turned to Derek Roddy, a session and touring veteran whose resume includes stints with Hate Eternal, Nile, Malevolent Creation, and Toxic Holocaust. Watching a death metal and extreme metal specialist slide behind the kit for one of thrash's founding fathers is the kind of only-in-this-scene moment that reminds you how small and interconnected the US metal community really is. Roddy's background in some of the most technically demanding extreme metal bands of the last two decades made him an obvious call when Anthrax needed someone who could walk in and deliver on short notice, and it's a small but telling example of the depth of session talent sitting just below the surface of the touring circuit.

Grohl Crashes the Highway

Meanwhile, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Dave Grohl walked out during AC/DC's Friday night set to join the band for "Highway to Hell." It's a small moment in the grand scheme of a stadium tour, but it's also a reminder of how porous the line is between hard rock royalty and the metal world that grew up worshipping it. Grohl's willingness to show up unannounced for legends has become something of a signature move at this point, and watching him trade riffs with Angus Young is as close as 2025 gets to a time machine back to the genre's foundational years.

Mark Morton Wonders Why Nobody's Copying Lamb of God

In a new interview with Australia's Heavy, Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton expanded on his recent comment that he finds it genuinely strange that no newer bands have just flat-out ripped off Lamb of God's sound. "I find that curious," Morton said, reflecting on how groove metal's angular, riff-driven approach shaped so much of American metal in the 2000s without spawning an obvious next generation of imitators the way thrash or death metal did. It's a fair point, and it's worth noting that plenty of bands working the groove-thrash intersection today — like the Midwest-born groove and thrash act False Prophet — are carrying forward some of that same percussive, riff-forward DNA, even if they're not direct Lamb of God clones. The new metal bands 2026 conversation keeps circling back to this exact tension: everyone wants originality, but the best metal bands of any era are usually the ones who absorbed their influences so completely that the lineage becomes invisible.

Slash Gears Up for Another Run

Slash, Myles Kennedy, and the Conspirators announced a new album, 'Flying Blind,' along with a world tour, and dropped a music video for the title track. For a US scene constantly asking which metal bands touring 2026 will actually deliver a show worth the ticket price, Slash's continued output is basically a guarantee. The guy's been doing this since the Reagan administration and shows zero signs of slowing the creative output, which says something about longevity in a genre that chews up and spits out trends constantly.

Fear Factory's New Voice Finds His Footing

Fear Factory vocalist Milo Silvestro spoke with Impact Metal Channel about the band's new single "Roboticist," admitting he consciously tried to channel original vocalist Burton C. Bell's phrasing and tone. It's a delicate needle to thread — honoring a legacy without becoming a tribute act — and Silvestro's candor about the attempt is refreshing in an industrial-leaning scene where lineup changes often get buried under PR spin. Bands working in that same heavy, mechanized space, including the death metal and djent-adjacent act Alluvial, understand the same tightrope: how do you innovate on a sound without losing what made people fall in love with it in the first place.

Underground Momentum: Deathcore, Grindcore, and Black Metal Keep Grinding

Away from the arena headlines, the underground kept moving. As Cities Burn's 'Brain Matter(s)' got a wide release after being a Lockstep exclusive, deathcore outfit To The Grave dropped 'Liberation Front' along with a video for "Limb From Lamb," and Alienist welcomed new guitarist/vocalist Jacob Churchward with a "Phantom" music video. On the festival side, the 2027 edition of Disturbin' the Peace already has Cold World, Madball, Integrity, and Combust on the bill alongside Division Of Mind, The S.E.T., and Iron Mind — proof that hardcore and grindcore festival culture is planning years ahead at this point. That kind of lineup resonates with the deathgrind and powerviolence corner of the US underground, the same space occupied by acts like Scalp and the death metal/grindcore project Danny Tanner. The crust punk scene in particular remains criminally under-covered given how many bands are actually grinding away in basements and VFW halls across the country right now.

On the black metal end, the genre keeps producing bands willing to work in colder, rawer textures than the algorithm usually rewards. Black metal act Ails is part of that same undercurrent — a reminder that the raw black metal and atmospheric wings of the US scene are still quietly expanding even when they're not dominating headlines.

Exodus Goes Digital, HELLYEAH Keeps Grinding

Bay Area thrash pioneers Exodus announced a collaboration with KnuckleBonz to bring the band into KnuckleBonz360, an immersive 3D digital backstage platform launching in October 2026, with guitarist Gary Holt noting he's "seen a lot of strange things in 45 years" of doing this. It's an odd but telling sign of where legacy thrash bands are putting their energy these days — not just touring and recording, but building out entirely new digital experiences for fans. That same restless energy exists in groove-thrash circles more broadly, including with HELLYEAH, whose catalog continues to find new listeners through exactly this kind of cross-platform discovery.

Even outside pure metal, the crossover energy keeps bleeding through — alternative and pop-punk-leaning acts like Tx2 are part of the same broader heavy music ecosystem that's increasingly comfortable blurring genre lines, the same spirit driving the Jinks/Cooper pairing and Grohl's AC/DC cameo.

The Weekly Grind Continues

This week's new release slate included Amon Amarth, Imminence, Dead Poet Society, Dissimulator, Frozen Crown, Haywire, Lustmord Lombardo, Temic, and To The Grave — a reminder that no matter what the legacy acts are up to, the actual engine of the US metal scene is the relentless pace of new output. If you're trying to keep a finger on the pulse of new metal bands 2026 will actually remember, this is where the real work is happening. Check upcoming shows near you, and if you're in a band that deserves coverage, submit your band — the underground doesn't cover itself.