Bay Area Thrash Rallies Around Dennis Pepa as Metal Church, Power Trip Keep the Old Guard Fighting
There's a particular kind of ache that runs through a scene when one of its own gets hit with a diagnosis nobody deserves. That's where the Bay Area thrash community finds itself this week, and the response has been exactly what you'd hope: a full-throttle, community-wide show of force.
On Sunday, January 24, 2027, San Francisco's DNA Lounge will host "Heal As One: A Benefit For Dennis Pepa," an all-star gathering of thrash metal musicians assembled to support Death Angel co-founder Dennis Pepa, who is currently battling Stage 4 duodenal cancer. Pepa helped lay the groundwork for the Bay Area thrash explosion of the 1980s alongside his cousins in Death Angel, a band whose fingerprints are all over the DNA of American thrash. The benefit will reportedly include a special evening of performances built around Pepa's legacy, and the fact that "some of thrash metal's most influential musicians" are clearing their calendars to be there says everything about how deeply this community still takes care of its own.
The event is billed as an evening in tribute to Pepa's decades of contributions to the genre, with proceeds directed toward supporting him through treatment — a reminder that even in an era of streaming numbers and algorithm anxiety, the old thrash networks still function like family.
It's worth remembering that the Bay Area thrash scene didn't just produce Death Angel — it was the incubator for an entire sound that metal fans worldwide still chase. When people argue about the best metal albums of all time, that mid-80s Bay Area run is never far from the conversation, and Pepa's fingerprints are on that history. Benefits like this one are also a good excuse to shine a light on the region's current thrash underground, including acts like the Southern California-based thrash outfit Atrophia, who are carrying that riff-forward, no-frills tradition into a new generation.
Death's Shadow Still Looms Large Over Death Metal
Speaking of bands whose influence refuses to fade, it's impossible to talk about American death metal without circling back to Florida's Death, the Chuck Schuldiner-led outfit widely credited as the genre's foundational act. Decades after Schuldiner's passing, Death's catalog remains the reference point every new death metal band gets measured against, whether they want to be or not. That lineage is exactly why a column like MetalSucks' "Disgrunted Dad Reviews" matters as much as it's funny — this week host Dave Mustcomplain rolled out a new rating system while tackling Deathgrave's "Hell Is Evil," and the fact that death metal records are still being evaluated against the genre's technical and atmospheric high-water marks tells you the bar Death set 30-plus years ago hasn't moved.
For listeners trying to map the current death metal landscape against that history, it's a good moment to revisit what actually built the genre's best heavy metal songs and riffs in the first place — the technicality, the dynamic shifts, the refusal to just be fast for fast's sake. New bands chasing that sound in 2026 still have Death's catalog as homework.
Power Trip's Dallas Homecoming Doubles as a Mental Health Push
Down in Texas, Power Trip is inviting fans directly into the creative process. The band is hosting a music video shoot and live show in Dallas, and instead of a traditional ticket, they're asking attendees to make a donation to a local mental health counseling non-profit to secure an RSVP. It's a smart, low-cost way to build community buy-in around a video shoot while putting real resources behind a cause that touches the metal and hardcore scenes constantly — burnout, substance struggles, and mental health crises have hit this community hard over the past decade, and Power Trip using their platform to funnel support toward counseling resources is the kind of move worth applauding without overselling it. Dallas has long punched above its weight in the Texas metal corridor, and a homegrown band using a video shoot as a community event is a reminder that the regional scene thrives on these grassroots gatherings as much as it does on arena tours.
It's a similar spirit to what's happening north of the border, where Hamilton, Ontario's Teeth are asking fans to show up for a video shoot tied to the lead single off their upcoming album. Different genre, different country, same underlying logic: in 2026, fan participation isn't just marketing, it's become part of how bands build loyalty before a record even drops.
Metal Church Keeps the 80s Metal Flame Lit
If you want proof that 80s metal bands still have plenty of gas in the tank, look no further than West Coast veterans Metal Church, who just dropped a music video for "Dead To Rights," the title track off their thirteenth studio album. The clip pulls footage from the band's set at the Alcatraz festival, and it's a good reminder that this group — formed in the Pacific Northwest back in the early 80s — is still cranking out records more than four decades into their run. Thirteen albums is not a small number, and Metal Church's continued relevance says something about the staying power of the NWOTHM-adjacent sound they helped define before NWOTHM was even a term anyone used. Bands chasing that classic heavy metal tone today, whether they know it or not, owe a debt to records like this.
That kind of longevity conversation naturally bleeds into questions about the current health of American hard rock's older guard. Canadian rockers Triumph were forced to cancel the second leg of their "Rock & Roll Machine Reloaded" tour, citing sudden and unexpected medical circumstances affecting the band — a leg that was set to run through major Midwest and Northeast markets. It's a gut-punch for fans who'd locked in plans around those dates, and another reminder that touring at a veteran level comes with real physical costs that don't get easier with time.
Lineup Shakeups and the State of Metalcore
Elsewhere, Skid Row guitarist Scotti Hill has been talking up new singer Justin Sargent, the Broadway veteran who stepped into the frontman role and, according to Hill, already feels like a natural fit for the band. Sargent's theater background — including stints in "Rock Of Ages" and "Bonnie & Clyde" — gives Skid Row a different kind of showman energy than the band has had in years, and it'll be worth watching how that translates on stage through 2026 touring dates.
Meanwhile, Killswitch Engage's Jesse Leach is rethinking the album cycle altogether, telling Australia's Heavy that he's open to the band releasing an EP or a handful of standalone songs rather than committing to a full-length. It's part of a broader shift happening across metalcore and modern metal more broadly — with streaming rewarding consistent output over big album rollouts, more veteran bands are experimenting with shorter release cycles. Whether that approach sticks for a band as established as Killswitch Engage will be an interesting test case for everyone watching how new metal bands in 2026 are expected to structure their release strategy from day one.
Signal Boosts Worth Your Attention
On the emerging band front, The PRP has been busy spotlighting a wave of new music video premieres worth a look — Hollow Front's "Death To My Name," the third single off "No Love Without Despair"; Holy Wars' "I.F.O.Y.G.," ahead of a fall tour alongside Kingdom Of Giants; Lockslip's vampiric mental-health-themed clip for "I'm The Same"; and From First To Last's Anaheim-shot video for "Picking Clothes To Die In." None of these are massive headline-grabbers on their own, but collectively they paint a picture of a scene that's still churning out visually ambitious content on tight budgets, which is exactly how the American metal and metalcore underground has always operated.
And in the "we didn't see this coming" category: Smash Mouth, of all bands, recorded a cover of Slipknot's "Duality" during a single three-hour studio session for Musora. It's a genuinely bizarre crossover, but it's also a small sign of how deeply Slipknot's catalog has penetrated mainstream rock consciousness outside of metal circles entirely.
Across all of this — the benefit concerts, the fan-funded video shoots, the lineup changes, the veteran bands adjusting their release strategies — the throughline is the same one that's always defined the US metal scene: community first, spectacle second. If you're looking to catch any of these acts in person, keep an eye on upcoming shows in your area, and if your band deserves a spot in this conversation, you know where to find us — go ahead and submit your band.