Keanu Reeves Hits Fallon, Slipknot's Sid Wilson Saga Deepens, and California's Black Metal Underground Quietly Levels Up
Thursday night on network television, of all places, gave the California rock diaspora a strange little jolt of nostalgia: Keanu Reeves stood on the Tonight Show stage, bass in hand, and ran through "Joy" with Dogstar in front of Jimmy Fallon's studio audience. It's easy to forget that Dogstar started as an actual Los Angeles band in the early '90s before Reeves' film career swallowed everything else whole, and the fact that they're back with a fourth album, "All In Now," and prime-time exposure says something about how durable the SoCal alt-rock and grunge lineage really is. It's not metal, but it's California music history, and it's a reminder that this state's rock underground has always been bigger and weirder than any one genre tag.
Meanwhile, the actual metal news cycle this week has been considerably messier, and considerably more relevant to anyone tracking where the genre's biggest acts are headed as we look toward metal bands touring 2026.
Slipknot's Sid Wilson Exit: Confirmed, Deleted, Confirmed Again
The strangest story in metal this week wasn't even really a surprise by the time it happened — it was the execution. Two weeks after TMZ first reported that DJ and keyboardist Sid Wilson had been permanently removed from Slipknot, the band finally posted an official statement acknowledging his departure after 28 years, wishing him "the best in his future endeavors." Then, minutes later, they deleted it.
The post confirmed what fans had suspected for two weeks, then vanished almost as quickly as it appeared — leaving the internet to screenshot first and ask questions later.
Whatever the internal politics driving that whiplash, the practical reality is that one of nu-metal and mask-culture's most recognizable lineups is now a member down heading into whatever comes next. For California fans who grew up on Ozzfest package tours and warehouse shows built on Slipknot's aesthetic, it's a genuine changing-of-the-guard moment, and it underscores how volatile even the biggest bands in the genre can be. If nothing else, it's a reminder to appreciate the stability of your local lineups — check upcoming shows around the state and go support the bands who are still showing up night after night with the same faces on stage.
The Osbourne-Snider War of Words
Sharon Osbourne has run her management empire out of Los Angeles for decades, and Ozzy's entire post-Sabbath solo mythology — the guy who basically invented the modern arena-metal frontman blueprint on some of the best heavy metal songs of the 80s metal bands era — is inseparable from this state's industry machinery. So when Twisted Sister's Dee Snider went on record questioning how much of Ozzy's songwriting was actually his own, and took a shot at Sharon in the process, it landed here too, not just in the tabloids.
Kelly Osbourne didn't let it slide. She called Snider's comments "spectacularly classless" and accused him of trying to diminish her father's "abilities and achievements," before doubling down with an even blunter callout invoking the infamous Will Smith Oscars line: keep her father's name out of it. Whatever you think of the songwriting-credit debate itself, it's a useful flashpoint for a bigger conversation the genre keeps having about who actually gets credit for the songs that built heavy metal's canon — the kind of argument that flares up every time someone tries to rank the best metal albums of all time and somebody's session players or ghostwriters get left off the liner notes.
Nails' Fingerprints Are All Over the Underground Right Now
Buried in this week's flood of new music videos was a genuinely interesting connection back to California. Lockslip just dropped the video for "Gray World," featuring King Yosef, ahead of their debut album "The Conversation" landing in November — and the guest list includes members of Nails, the Oxnard powerviolence and grind institution that's been one of this state's most influential extreme exports for close to two decades. Any time Nails' DNA shows up on a new record, it's worth paying attention, and it's a good excuse to point back at the deeper grind and crust lineage California has quietly built — a scene that includes acts like the deathgrind and powerviolence outfit Scalp, still carrying that torch of controlled chaos.
That underground churn extends into black metal too, a corner of the scene that doesn't always get the same press as the deathcore and metalcore circuits but has been building steadily in California basements and DIY venues for years. Depressive black metal in particular remains criminally under-covered relative to how many bands are actually working in the style here, and Southern California's own Anu is one of the acts worth keeping an ear on if you're into the atmosphere-heavy, emotionally bleak end of the genre. Pair that with the depressive and death-tinged work coming out of Autopsy, and you've got a snapshot of a California black metal underground that's expanding in directions the bigger trade press rarely bothers to chase.
The Metalcore and Hardcore Grind Keeps Rolling
Elsewhere, the metalcore and hardcore world had a genuinely busy week. Misfire dropped the video for "Born To Die" ahead of a run of shows alongside Raider this month. Dead Tired, the project connected to Alexisonfire, released "The Pull" with Chris Cresswell guesting, timed to their new album "Hornets Of The Fall." Evergreen Terrace filmed a new video for "Bolt Cutter" out in Berlin, and Brother's Keeper came back from a 23-year layoff with "Asymmetrical Warflair," featuring Patrick Kindlon of Drug Church on guest vocals — a genuinely wild first-new-song-in-two-decades moment for anyone who remembers that band's earlier run. Crossbreed also put out "Time Stands Still" with a Wade Harris feature, and Saliva launched the title track video for their twelfth studio album, "Breaking Through."
None of these are California bands specifically, but the sheer density of metalcore and post-hardcore activity in a single week is worth flagging for anyone in this state's scene, because it's exactly the kind of climate that keeps touring packages coming through California venues all year long. If you're a promoter or a fan trying to figure out who's going to be routing through the region next, this is the wave to watch — and it's the same wave that acts like the groove-and-metalcore hybrid Dead Icarus have been riding on the local circuit, proof that California bands can hang comfortably on the same bills as these national and international names.
Old Guard, New Tunings
On the more traditional end of things, Helloween's Andi Deris used a recent podcast appearance to talk about how the band handles decades-old material live, noting they're capable of playing the classic catalog in its original tunings even after all these years — a small but telling detail about how seriously the NWOTHM-adjacent old guard still treats its own back catalog. It's a good reminder that heavy metal's 80s lineage isn't just nostalgia bait; bands from that era are still actively maintaining the technical standards that made them legendary in the first place, which matters when California's own crop of heavy metal and NWOTHM-leaning bands are out there building their own version of that same discipline.
Where This Leaves the Golden State
Between a former action-movie star trading his sword for a bass guitar on late-night TV, a legacy nu-metal band publicly fumbling its own roster announcement, and a genuinely petty celebrity feud reopening old wounds about who wrote what on some of rock's most iconic records, this was one of those weeks where the biggest metal headlines had almost nothing to do with California directly — and everything to do with the ecosystem this state's scene still operates inside. The grind and black metal undercurrents connecting Lockslip back to Nails, and the steady work being done by bands like Anu and Autopsy, are proof that the real engine of the California metal scene keeps running whether or not the trade press is watching. If you're in a band doing that same kind of unglamorous, unglazed work — the stuff that doesn't need a Tonight Show slot to matter — go submit your band and get on our radar.
