Richie Cip, Power Trip's Comeback, and a Stacked Release Week: New York Hardcore Shows Up
Some weeks in metal news hit close to home no matter where you're standing, and this is one of them. The heart of this week's cycle isn't a chart position or a festival lineup — it's a GoFundMe page and a community doing what the New York hardcore scene has always done best: closing ranks around one of its own.
Richie Cip and the NYHC Family Closes Ranks
Richard "Richie Cip" Cipriano, the original bassist for Sick Of It All, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund has launched a fundraiser to help cover his medical expenses. If you've spent any time at all around the New York hardcore scene — whether that's CBGB mythology, a VFW hall show in the 2000s, or a packed basement gig last month — you understand what Sick Of It All means to this state. Richie was there at the formative stage, helping lay down the low end that would influence generations of bands who came up listening to that first wave of NYHC.
This is the kind of news that reminds you how small and tightly wound this scene actually is. The same ethos that built Sick Of It All — mutual aid, loyalty, showing up for your people — is exactly what's driving the response to Richie's diagnosis. If you're in a position to give, the Sweet Relief fund is the place to do it. And if you're a promoter or band anywhere in the state thinking about a benefit slot, there's no better time than now.
Power Trip Finally Breaks the Silence
Texas crossover thrash outfit Power Trip dropped a double single, "Precinct 3" and "Scavenger," this week — the band's first new material since 2020, and the first since the devastating loss of frontman Riley Gale. A full-length is reportedly on the way in 2027, which means fans who've spent nearly a decade wondering whether we'd ever hear new Power Trip again finally have something concrete to hold onto.
It's worth sitting with how much weight this release is carrying. Power Trip's catalog already gets mentioned in conversations about the best metal albums of all time from the 2010s crossover revival, and the fact that the band is moving forward at all says something about how deeply that music mattered to the people who made it. For New York's own crossover and thrash contingent — bands cutting their teeth on the same Suicidal Tendencies-via-Slayer blueprint — this is validation that the sound still has somewhere to go. Local crossover thrash crew Moment of Truth and thrash lifers like Aberrated are working in that same lineage, and a Power Trip comeback is exactly the kind of signal that keeps that corner of the scene energized heading toward 2026.
A Loaded Week of New Tracks
Metal Injection's weekly roundup of new tracks was noticeably stacked this time around — Deafheaven, Trivium, Calva Louise, Wage War, Employed to Serve, and Power Trip all landed picks, among several others. That's an unusually deep bench for a single week, and it's a reminder that the pipeline of new metal bands heading into 2026 is as healthy as it's been in years, spanning blackgaze, metalcore, groove-driven heaviness, and everything in between.
For a site that spends most of its time tracking the New York metal scene specifically, weeks like this matter because they set the tone for what gets played at local shows for months afterward. When a track from Deafheaven or Trivium gets added to rotation nationally, you can bet it's already soundtracking warmups at DIY shows from Buffalo to Brooklyn. It's also a good moment to point out that discussions of the best heavy metal songs of any given year increasingly have to account for how fractured and genre-blended the landscape has become — nobody's staying in their lane anymore, and that's a good thing.
NWOTHM Keeps Climbing, and New York Has Skin in the Game
While the bigger headlines this week skewed toward thrash, hardcore, and metalcore, it's worth zooming out to note how much momentum the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal has picked up over the past few years — bands chasing the riff-forward, no-frills songwriting of 80s metal bands without any ironic distance. New York has a real stake in that movement. Heavy metal outfit RIP is carrying that torch locally, building the kind of straightforward, hook-driven metal that owes a clear debt to the genre's golden era while still sounding like it belongs in 2026. If you're compiling a list of the best metal bands keeping that tradition alive at the regional level, RIP deserves a spot on it, and it's a scene worth paying closer attention to as NWOTHM continues its slow, steady climb back into relevance nationally.
Tour Announcements Worth Circling
Two touring announcements landed this week that are worth flagging for anyone mapping out their 2026 concert calendar. Silent Civilian — the project fronted by former Spineshank vocalist Jonny Santos — announced a 20th anniversary tour for "Rebirth Of The Temple," giving nu-metal and industrial metal fans another chance to revisit a record that mattered a lot to that scene two decades ago. Meanwhile, Filth, Narcotic Wasteland, and Killcrown announced "A Very Filthy Christmas Tour," proving once again that extreme metal and the holiday season are not mutually exclusive.
Both of these runs are the kind of mid-tier package tours that tend to make real stops in New York, whether that's a club show in Brooklyn, a basement gig upstate, or a Long Island VFW hall. As metal bands touring 2026 start locking in their routing, keep an eye on upcoming shows for dates in the region — these are exactly the kinds of bills that reward showing up early and supporting the local openers who get slotted underneath.
Beyond the Five Boroughs: Legacy Acts Still Have Something to Say
It wasn't a quiet week for the elder statesmen of hard rock and metal, either. Stone Temple Pilots guitarist Dean DeLeo spoke about the band's decision nearly a decade ago to move forward with singer Jeff Gutt, saying the "peace of mind" Gutt brings to the band is "immeasurable" — a reminder that lineup transitions, however painful, can sometimes lead somewhere stable.
Matt Sorum, meanwhile, named The Cult as his favorite band he's ever played in, noting it was:
"right in my lane as far as how I like to approach the drum kit."
It's a small quote, but it's a useful one — a reminder that even drummers with Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver on their résumé have a specific pocket where they feel most at home.
Elsewhere, Lamb of God's Randy Blythe talked about how he approaches clean vocals within the band's otherwise relentless sound, Skillet's John Cooper addressed pushback he's faced for bringing his Christian faith into secular rock spaces, and Devin Townsend announced a new ambient record under the Dreampeace banner, timed to World Mental Health Day. None of these stories are New York stories specifically, but they're part of the same ecosystem that feeds the touring circuits, radio playlists, and algorithmic rabbit holes (RIP to everyone whose Instagram Stories got soundtracked by Creed's "Higher" against their will) that shape what gets heard in clubs across this state.
What This Means for the Local Scene
Weeks like this one don't hand New York bands a headline of their own very often, but they do set the weather. A healthy national release calendar, active touring packages, legacy acts still engaging with their catalogs, and a hardcore community rallying around one of its founding members — all of it filters down into what happens at the club and DIY level here. Sick Of It All's influence runs through half the hardcore and crossover bands playing basements in this state right now, and Power Trip's return is already being talked about in the same rooms.
If your band has news, a release, or a show worth covering, submit your band and let's keep building out coverage of what's actually happening on the ground here. And if you're able to chip in to the Sweet Relief fund for Richie Cip, do it — the scene takes care of its own, and this is as clear a case as there is.