Supergroups, Séances, and Double Bass Drums: Inside This Week's US Metal News Cycle
Some weeks in metal feel like a greatest-hits compilation of everything that makes this scene weird, loyal, and stubbornly alive. This is one of those weeks — a new supergroup record from the Melvins camp, a horror-metal homecoming in New Orleans, a deathcore vocalist trading the stage for the ring, and a drum legend finally admitting he was wrong about double kicks. Let's dig in.
Prepare The Ground Adds Royal Thunder, Deadguy, and Author & Punisher
The 2027 edition of the Prepare The Ground festival just got a lot more interesting with a dozen fresh additions to the bill, and the one jumping off the page for US metal fans is Atlanta's own Royal Thunder. The band's smoky blend of hard rock, progressive rock, and psychedelic weight has made them one of the South's most distinctive exports for over a decade, and their inclusion alongside hardcore mainstays Deadguy and the one-man noise-rock onslaught of Author & Punisher gives this festival a genuinely unpredictable shape. This isn't a lineup chasing a single algorithm-friendly subgenre — it's the kind of bill that rewards fans willing to walk from a sludgy riff set straight into a grinding hardcore pit without blinking, and that eclecticism is exactly what keeps American festival culture from calcifying into tribute-act territory.
It's also a reminder of how deep the bench is when it comes to metal bands touring 2026 and beyond — festivals like this are increasingly where regional scenes cross-pollinate, with doom, death, hardcore, and prog-adjacent acts sharing a stage that used to be siloed by subculture.
Gatta Morta and the Underground Supergroup Era
Speaking of unpredictable, Gatta Morta — the self-described "rock and roll hydra" featuring Buzz Osborne of the Melvins, JD Pinkus of the Butthole Surfers, Coady Willis of Big Business, and Clinton Jacob of Mr. Phylzzz — just announced their debut album, "Immaculator," due February 12, 2027, alongside a suitably unhinged video for "Music For Furbies." This is the kind of lineup that exists entirely because these musicians trust each other's chaos, and it lands squarely in the experimental corner of the underground that rarely gets the coverage it deserves. With 144 bands in our index tagged experimental and essentially zero mainstream ink to show for it, Gatta Morta's arrival is a welcome signal flare for a genre that thrives on exactly this kind of unhinged collaboration — noise rock, sludge, and avant-garde songwriting colliding without apology.
CYHRA's New Bassist and the Melodic Metal Pipeline
Across the Atlantic but very much part of the touring ecosystem American fans engage with constantly, CYHRA — the melodic metal supergroup built around Amaranthe co-founder Jake E alongside members of Kamelot, The Crown, and Suburban Tribe — dropped a new video for "Venom In Me," filmed on the road while supporting Dead By April, and used the opportunity to introduce new bassist Ben Varon. It's a small piece of news, but it underscores something true across the whole melodic metal and power metal pipeline: lineup continuity is fragile, and bands that can absorb a new member mid-cycle without losing momentum are the ones built to last. That same spirit of reinvention runs through Meridian Veil, the newly announced project pulling members from The Agonist, Cryptopsy, Seven Spires, and Leprous, whose debut "Forgotten Sun" arrives January 22, 2027 via Season Of Mist. The lead single "The Watcher" is exactly the kind of genre-blurring, technically loaded opener that should appeal to anyone who's been chasing the best in modern melodic death metal and progressive extremity.
Housecore Horror Returns to New Orleans
Philip Anselmo's Housecore Horror Film Festival is back this month, running November 19-21 in New Orleans as a companion event to the previously announced Great NOLA Trendkill weekend. For anyone who's never made the pilgrimage, Housecore is proof that metal and horror cinema were never separate scenes to begin with — they share an audience, an aesthetic, and a willingness to sit with discomfort. New Orleans has long punched above its weight as a breeding ground for sludge, doom, and groove-laden death metal, and events like this keep that regional identity front and center even as the festival circuit nationalizes. It's the same Gulf Coast lineage that runs through Texas bands like Creeping Death, whose death metal, hardcore, and thrash hybrid sound would feel right at home on a bill built around horror, heaviness, and regional pride.
Deathcore Steps Into the Ring
Alex Terrible, the deathcore vocalist fronting Slaughter To Prevail, is the subject of "Blood 4 Blood: Sound Of War," a bare-knuckle boxing documentary premiering November 11 on Prime Video and Apple TV. The film follows Terrible trading the stage for the ring, and it's a genuinely compelling crossover — deathcore has always had a physicality to it that borders on combat sport, and watching one of the genre's most visceral frontmen formalize that intensity outside of music is a fascinating artifact. It's worth noting how much appetite there still is in the US for brutal, high-impact deathcore right now, a lane also occupied by bands like Adept, who continue grinding away in that same uncompromising space.
Old Guard Wisdom: McBrain, Tichy, and Curran
Three separate interviews this week amounted to a masterclass in hard-won perspective from musicians who've spent decades in the trenches. Iron Maiden's Nicko McBrain revisited his long-standing refusal to adopt a double-bass drum setup, admitting he once considered it "un-drummer-ish":
"Many years ago, I'd sort of, kind of... I thought it was a bit un-drummer-ish for drummers to play double-bass drums."
It's a funny bit of candor from a guy whose playing helped define what heavy metal drumming even sounds like, and it's a reminder that some of the most iconic techniques in the genre's history were adopted reluctantly, not inevitably — a useful footnote for anyone studying the best heavy metal songs of the NWOBHM era and wondering how those rhythms actually got built.
Session and touring drummer Brian Tichy, who's logged time with Whitesnake, Ozzy Osbourne, Foreigner, and The Dead Daisies, offered a blunt corrective to the mythology of the rock star:
"Hired guns aren't rock stars. I'm a hired gun."
It's a grounded statement that speaks directly to how much of the American touring circuit actually runs — not on frontmen chasing fame, but on journeymen musicians who show up, deliver, and move to the next gig. Meanwhile, Coney Hatch founder Andy Curran addressed the fallout from bandmate Carl Dixon advertising live dates under a modified band name, explaining his own decision to step back:
"If it ain't fun, I am not doing it."
It's a simple line, but it's one that should resonate with anyone who's watched a veteran act fracture over billing and branding disputes. Longevity in this business isn't just about chops — it's about knowing when to walk away from something that's stopped being worth the fight.
Where the Underground Still Needs Coverage
None of this week's headlines directly touched raw black metal or crust punk, but it's worth flagging that both genres remain criminally under-covered relative to their size in the US index — over 200 raw black metal bands and 130 crust punk acts with essentially no press to their name. Atmospheric black metal acts like New York's own Cur are exactly the kind of regional act that deserves more ink; their genre sits adjacent to the raw and atmospheric black metal underground that keeps expanding in basements and DIY venues across the Northeast, largely outside the industry's spotlight. If your band is working in that space, or any corner of the heavy scene that isn't getting its due, submit your band — we're actively trying to close that gap.
Loose Ends Worth Watching
A few smaller stories rounded out the week: Washington governor Bob Ferguson selected Jimi Hendrix as the state's submission to the 2029 U.S. Mint American Innovation coin program, a nice bit of recognition for one of rock's most influential guitarists. Steven Tyler's abuse trial has been pushed to May 2027 as a fifth judge takes over the case, a sobering reminder that legal reckonings in this industry move slowly and painfully. And MetalSucks' satirical "Disgruntled Dad Reviews" column took aim at an Anthrax bit this week, proof that even in a news cycle full of serious business, the scene still knows how to laugh at itself.
Between supergroup chaos, horror-metal homecomings, and veteran musicians getting brutally honest about the job, it's been a week that captures the full range of what keeps the US metal scene interesting — legacy acts still negotiating their own mythology, new bands forming out of scattered members of beloved outfits, and an underground that keeps grinding whether or not anyone's watching. If you want to catch any of this in person, check upcoming shows near you, because on any given night in this country, something worth your eardrums is happening somewhere close by — whether it's a hard rock veteran act like Puddle of Mudd working a club circuit or a death metal band two states over playing its first headline slot.