Forbidden Loses Its Drummer, Death Angel Honors Metallica, and California's NWOTHM Faithful Finally Get the Spotlight

There's a particular kind of ache that comes when a Bay Area thrash institution loses a member mid-stride, and this week San Francisco's own Forbidden felt it in the most modern way possible: via social media, with the rest of the band reportedly finding out alongside everyone else. It's a messy, very 2026 way to end a chapter, but it's also a reminder that the Bay Area thrash scene — the one that gave the world Death Angel, Testament, Exodus, and Forbidden itself — is still very much a living, breathing, occasionally dysfunctional organism, not a museum piece.