Reminitions Unleash Hellraiser, Exhumed Hit the Road, and California's Extreme Underground Keeps Grinding
Another Tuesday, another stack of new music that reminds you why California remains ground zero for heavy music in every direction it can be bent. From deathcore basements in the Inland Empire to grind veterans plotting their next assault on North America, this week's headlines paint a picture of a scene that refuses to sit still. Let's get into it.
Reminitions Bring the Pain with "Hellraiser"
California deathcore outfit Reminitions dropped the music video for their new single "Hellraiser" this week, giving fans a brutal preview of the EP they're set to release this September. The clip leans into exactly the kind of horror-movie theatrics the title promises, and it's a solid reminder that the Golden State's deathcore pipeline never really stopped producing after acts like San Diego's deathcore veterans Carnifex put the region on the map. If you're compiling a list of new metal bands 2026 is going to be talking about, Reminitions deserve a spot on it — the riffs are massive, the breakdowns are punishing, and the visual presentation shows a band that understands the deathcore playbook while still trying to add their own twist to it.
Exhumed Lead a Grind Caravan Through the Underground
Death-grind institution Exhumed announced they're hitting the road this fall alongside Jarhead Fertilizer, Savage Master, and Molder for "The Long and Grinding Road Part 2: Redder Asphalt." It's a lineup built for people who like their metal filthy, fast, and unconcerned with radio play, and it's the kind of tour that reminds you why the West Coast grind scene has such a loyal, tape-trading fanbase. Exhumed's California roots run deep, and tours like this tend to ripple outward into every corner of the underground, giving smaller regional acts a reason to pack the van and open local dates.
It's also worth using this moment to shine a light on the death metal scene grinding away in California's own backyard. Bands like death metal act Rut are out here doing the unglamorous work that keeps this genre alive between the big package tours — riffs built on rot and dread, no filters, no apologies. If gnarly, unpolished death metal is your thing, Rut is exactly the kind of band worth digging into, and it's the same spirit that runs through acts like brutal death metal outfit Severed Savior and death metal/grindcore project Doodlebob. This is a genre with a huge bench in California, one that rarely gets the same press as the metalcore and nu-metal side of things but absolutely deserves it.
Hardcore's Two Fronts: Pain of Truth and the Post-Hardcore Reunion Circuit
Metallic hardcore crew Pain of Truth released "Stranded," a ripper of a track backed by live footage that captures the chaos of their sets in full force. It's a reminder that the hardcore-meets-metal crossover that's dominated underground bills for the last few years shows no sign of slowing down, and California's hardcore rooms remain some of the most brutal, tightly-packed environments in the country to experience it live.
On the flip side of the aggression spectrum, a new supergroup called Unless just dropped their debut single "Sun Gone Low." The lineup reads like a post-hardcore hall of fame — members with roots in Norma Jean, The Chariot, mewithoutYou, Underoath, and Every Time I Die all in one room. It's the kind of project that reminds longtime fans why this scene's connective tissue matters so much: these musicians keep finding each other, keep collaborating, and keep proving that the mathy, chaotic, spiritually-charged post-hardcore sound of the mid-2000s still has plenty of gas in the tank.
Metalcore's New Guard Keeps Pushing Forward
There's no shortage of metalcore activity to track this week. Solid State signees Save Us premiered the music video for "Far" ahead of their label debut dropping in October, while Wage War rolled out the video for "Sweet Dreams." Meanwhile, Equal Vision act Kaonashi dropped a chaotic new single called "…Typing," signaling what sounds like a genuine reinvention for the band. And A Killer's Confession went a different direction entirely, releasing a cover of The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" as part of their upcoming album Victim 3 — proof that metalcore bands covering pop hits remains a reliable way to get outside the algorithm bubble and in front of new ears.
Add to that Slaughter to Prevail frontman Alex Terrible dropping a cover of Korn's "Freak on a Leash," and you've got a full week of artists paying tribute to the sounds that shaped them while still pushing their own music forward. For a scene constantly being asked what the best heavy metal songs of the last three decades even are, it's worth noting how often those conversations circle back to Korn, and how much influence that nu-metal era still exerts on bands releasing music today.
Remembering Brent Hinds Through CKY's New Track
One of the more emotional stories this week involves CKY releasing "Beware of the Heartless," featuring a guitar solo recorded by the late Brent Hinds before his tragic passing. CKY and Hinds had been scheduled to tour together, and hearing his playing show up on this new track is bittersweet in the best way — a reminder of how interconnected the heavier corners of rock and metal really are, and how much weight a single guitar solo can carry when it turns out to be someone's final recorded performance.
Jay Weinberg on Creative Freedom After Slipknot
Former Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg spoke candidly in a new interview about the restrictions he dealt with around outside collaborations during his tenure in the band, tying the conversation to his new single "Drown Fountain" with Canadian duo Softcult. It's a rare, honest look at the legal and creative red tape that comes with being in a band of that scale, and it lands as Weinberg continues building a résumé that spans Suicidal Tendencies, Bruce Springsteen, and now a growing list of collaborative projects. For drummers coming up in California's club scene dreaming of a career like his, it's a useful reminder that even at the highest levels, creative freedom is something you have to fight for.
Festival Season and the Road Ahead for 2026
Louder Than Life dropped its full day-by-day schedule for 2026, with Tool and Limp Bizkit anchoring a stacked lineup, while pro-shot footage from Dead Poet Society's Welcome to Rockville set this past May is now streaming for anyone who missed it live. Between festival announcements like this and the wave of fall tour routing hitting inboxes daily — Quicksand and F*cked Up teaming up for Canadian dates among them — it's clear metal bands touring 2026 is already shaping up to be a packed calendar. California venues and festival promoters would do well to keep pace, because the appetite for these lineups isn't slowing down.
A Quick Trip Back to the 80s
Poison drummer Rikki Rockett resurfaced this week with stories about how rock media in the 1980s tried to manufacture a rivalry between Poison and Metallica, essentially pitting glam against thrash for headline clicks. It's an old story, but it hits different in California, the state that produced both scenes almost simultaneously — Bay Area thrash on one side, Sunset Strip glam on the other. That tension helped define what a lot of people still consider the best metal albums of all time, and it's a useful reminder that the 80s metal bands era wasn't a monolith; it was a battleground of competing scenes that, decades later, get lumped together under one umbrella. California's traditional metal and NWOTHM revival scene, carried today by acts like heavy metal band Death Dealer Union, owes plenty to both sides of that old rivalry.
Keep Digging
Between deathcore, grind, hardcore, metalcore, and a healthy dose of 80s nostalgia, this week's news cycle is a solid snapshot of just how many lanes the California metal scene is running in at once. If you're a band with news to share, don't sleep on getting in front of us — submit your band and let us know what you're working on. And if you're looking for something to do this weekend, check upcoming shows across the state, because odds are there's a bill somewhere close by that covers at least three of the genres mentioned above.