The Pretty Reckless Ride Shotgun With AC/DC, and Why New York Hard Rock Just Got Its Biggest Stage Yet
There's a particular kind of validation that comes when a band born in downtown Manhattan clubs ends up sharing a stadium bill with the biggest hard rock act on the planet. That's exactly where The Pretty Reckless found themselves this week, turning up the heat alongside AC/DC in Atlanta on August 27. Photos from the show are already circulating, and if you've followed Taylor Momsen's band from their early Lower East Side gigs to arena-sized crowds, this is the payoff a lot of us saw coming years ago.
The Pretty Reckless have always occupied an interesting lane — blues-rock swagger with a hard rock backbone, alternative sensibilities that never quite fit neatly into "metal" but always felt at home on bills with bands twice their volume. Opening for AC/DC isn't just a tour date; it's a statement about where New York's hard rock export has landed. This is a band that came up through the same city that gave us CBGB, and now they're standing in front of tens of thousands of people who came to see one of the most influential rock bands of all time. That's the kind of full-circle moment that should make every band grinding through a Brooklyn basement show take notice — the ceiling is higher than the room you're standing in.
Alex Van Halen's Knighthood and the Long Shadow of 80s Metal Bands
Speaking of full-circle moments: Alex Van Halen, drummer and co-founder of one of the most important hard rock bands to ever plug in an amplifier, was just named a Knight in the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands. The ceremony took place in Nijmegen, the city where Alex and his brother Eddie were born before their family emigrated to Pasadena and, well, changed rock history. It's a genuinely moving honor — not a Grammy, not a Rock Hall induction, but a royal decoration recognizing a life's work that reshaped what a rock band could sound like.
It's worth pausing on this for a second, because the conversation around 80s metal bands tends to get flattened into nostalgia-tour punchlines. Van Halen's influence runs deeper than "Jump" and tapping solos — it's baked into the DNA of every band that ever tried to make technical musicianship feel like a party instead of homework. That lineage matters here in New York too, where our own scene has never been shy about its debt to that era. Heavy metal and NWOTHM-leaning acts across the state — bands like Talas and Crom — carry that same commitment to musicianship-first songwriting, riffs built to be played loud and played well. If you're chasing a deeper cut of best heavy metal songs from that golden era, Van Halen's catalog is still required listening, and it's not hard to trace a direct line from that record collection to half the amps currently getting hauled up subway stairs to gigs in Bushwick.
Atlantic Records Bets Big on a New Heavy Sound
Elsewhere in the industry, Rev3rent — self-described as the heaviest band ever signed to Atlantic Records — dropped the music video for "She Let The World Run Rampant" ahead of their debut album due in October. Whether or not the "heaviest band on a major label" claim holds up under scrutiny, the signing itself says something real about where the industry thinks heavy music is heading in 2026. Major labels don't typically go looking for aggression unless they think there's an audience hungry for it, and that audience has been building for years in scenes exactly like ours.
This matters for anyone tracking new metal bands 2026 conversations, because a major label placing a bet on genuinely heavy material is a signal flare for every unsigned band grinding through van tours and self-releases. New York has no shortage of bands worth that kind of attention — from the math-metal chaos of Candiria to the technical death metal precision coming out of acts like Pyrrhon. The infrastructure for heavy music to break through commercially hasn't disappeared — it's just gotten pickier, and pickier tends to reward bands that have already spent a decade honing their sound in dive bars and DIY spaces.
Metal Finds New Real Estate: Video Games and Fortnite Festival
If you needed more proof that heavy music's distribution channels have permanently shifted, look no further than this week's double dose of gaming crossover news. HEALTH, Ice Nine Kills, Periphery, and other artists contributed new music to the "Crimson Moon" video game, with an official soundtrack dropping later this week. Meanwhile, Bring Me The Horizon's "Can You Feel My Heart" is headed to Fortnite Festival, putting a modern metalcore anthem in front of an audience of millions who've never set foot in a venue.
Say what you want about the format, but this is genuinely one of the more effective on-ramps into heavy music for a generation that discovers songs through gameplay before they discover them through a radio or a friend's playlist. For touring bands trying to build an audience heading into a busy stretch of metal bands touring 2026 season, a placement like this can do in a week what months of ad spend can't. It's not a replacement for a packed room and a working PA system, but it's clearly part of the modern playbook now, and New York bands angling for wider exposure would be smart to pay attention to where these opportunities keep landing.
Quick Hits From Around the Heavy Music World
Plenty of smaller stories deserve a mention this week, even if they're not directly New York stories — they're the kind of developments that ripple through any regional scene paying attention to the wider landscape.
Grindcore mainstays Nails have launched their new EP "Fear Based Life," with vinyl available for anyone still building out a physical collection — a small reminder that even in a streaming-first world, format still matters to a lot of us. Fans of the East Coast's grind and powerviolence lineage should feel right at home here, and it's the kind of release that pairs naturally with the chaotic, genre-blurring assault of Queens grind outfit Chepang if you're building a playlist this week.
The long-dormant Extreme Thing festival is confirmed to return in 2027 after a decade-long hiatus, and members of The Ghost Inside have already made their excitement public. Festivals coming back from the dead is always encouraging news for a live scene that's had its share of financial casualties in recent years — every returning festival is one more weekend where regional bands might land a coveted lower-bill slot.
Deathcore act To The Grave premiered their "Life Among The Septics" video ahead of an Australian headlining run, timing that reflects just how global the deathcore touring circuit has become — a genre New York's own A Wake in Providence knows plenty about navigating.
On the doom and stoner side, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats announced a European tour alongside Conan and Earth Tongue, though it comes with exactly one UK stop — a reminder that even accomplished bands are being careful about how they route tours in the current climate. Crown Magnetar dropped a video for "Dead Crown," and post-metal outfit The Ocean released the video for "Ultima Esperanza," a meditation on hope and exploration that fits comfortably alongside the atmospheric, genre-blurring work coming out of New York's own experimental corners.
Progressive thrash pioneers Blind Illusion announced a live album, "Stage Flight: Live At The UC Theatre," due October 16 through Hectic Records/Bleeding Priest Records, capturing a 2025 performance with original vocalist David White back behind the mic. It's a reminder that thrash's first wave never really left — it just occasionally goes quiet before resurfacing with something worth hearing.
Finally, two interview moments worth sitting with. Exhorder's Kyle Thomas addressed the growing use of AI in metal's art and music, telling Capital Chaos TV plainly:
"I don't have a strong desire to use it."
It's a simple line, but it's one a lot of working musicians are quietly nodding along to as AI-generated art creeps into cover design and promo material across the industry. And Stryper's Michael Sweet, when asked about joining King Diamond's band, drew a clean distinction — he wouldn't take the gig himself, but said Stryper would "absolutely" tour with Mercyful Fate, proof that the old guard still has plenty of appetite for sharing stages across genre lines.
What It Means Locally
None of this week's headlines originated in New York, but that's precisely the point — the state's scene doesn't exist in a bubble. The Pretty Reckless opening for AC/DC is the clearest local headline of the bunch, but the undercurrents here — major labels chasing heavier sound, festivals returning from hiatus, video games becoming a legitimate discovery engine — are all currents that New York bands are swimming in right now, whether they're playing to a packed room in Brooklyn or grinding through a Tuesday night set upstate. Keep an eye on upcoming shows around the state, and if you're in a band trying to get on our radar, you can always submit your band for coverage.