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Korn's 'Life Is Peachy' gets a 30th anniversary vinyl reissue with a bonus 'Twist' a cappella cut, while Butcher Babies, In This Moment, Carnifex, and a wave of new singles keep California's touring and underground circuits humming.
From Haywire's chaotic guerilla show near a San Diego freeway to Tony Iommi's doom bloodline and a stacked calendar of 80s metal reunions, California's underground and legacy circuits are both proving they refuse to slow down.
California Metal Index tracks 1,987 bands but only 41 upcoming shows as of 2026-08-24 — a gap that reveals how concentrated the state's live metal calendar really is, city by city.
Santa Barbara nu-metal legends Snot sign to BLKIIBLK for a 2027 album, Sacramento's Aftershock Festival drops its stacked 2026 set times, and Bay Area thrash pioneers Vio-Lence circulate a pro-shot Moscow set that reminds the world where the riffs came from.
God's Hate honors the late Bo Lueders at Sound & Fury, Long Beach's Haywire lands a Roadrunner deal, and Dave Mustaine's memoir tour is a reminder that California basically invented thrash metal.
Butcher Babies announce their Howard Benson-produced album 'Nightbloom,' Bad Wolves and With A Vengeance keep the SoCal hard rock family tree growing, and California's overlooked heavy metal underground gets its due.
From Troy Sanders geeking out over Geezer Butler's cameo to a guest-filled hardcore tribute EP, this week's headlines reveal the lineage and legacy running through California's heavy metal and hardcore underground.
STRYFE's new Candlepower Records deal headlines a week that also touches on Sepultura's warning about art under authoritarianism, Aaron Stainthorpe's post-My Dying Bride doom project, and California's overlooked technical death metal and crust punk underground.
Dogstar's Fallon appearance, Slipknot's chaotic Sid Wilson exit, and the Osbourne-Snider feud dominate this week's national metal news — but the real story is how California's black metal, grind, and crust underground keeps quietly building around it.
This week's roundup covers Reminitions' new deathcore video, Exhumed's fall grind tour, a wave of metalcore and hardcore releases, and a look back at California's 80s thrash-versus-glam rivalry.
Otep confirms a genre-shifting comeback, the scene mourns Artery Foundation co-founder Mike Milford, and two accountability controversies collide with MetalSucks' new pit-etiquette column in this week's California metal roundup.
Dethklok's Bloodstock 2027 headline slot, Ozzfest's confirmed return, and a wave of anniversary reissues dominate this week's metal news — and California's underground scene, from black metal to progressive metal, is still quietly building the next chapter.
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