Guilt Trip Lands an Irving Plaza Date, and New York's Death Metal Underground Gets a National Nod
There's a particular kind of satisfaction in watching a band claw its way from basement shows and VFW halls to a marquee with their name on it in midtown Manhattan. That's exactly what's happening this week as New York's own Guilt Trip gets confirmed as direct support for Swedish heavyweights Thrown on their March/April 2027 North American tour — and the stop that matters most to us lands March 13 at Irving Plaza, sandwiched between Philadelphia and Boston dates with fellow support act Fromjoy rounding out the bill.
If you've spent any time in the Northeast beatdown and metallic hardcore trenches over the past few years, Guilt Trip needs no introduction. The band's brand of death-metal-infused beatdown hardcore has been one of the region's most reliable exports, and this Thrown run is the kind of co-sign that moves a band from "local favorite" to "name on the flyer people actually recognize." It's also a reminder that when people talk about metal bands touring in 2026 and into 2027, New York acts are increasingly part of that conversation rather than just the backdrop for it. Catch the full routing and grab tickets before they're gone — this is shaping up to be one of the hotter club dates of next spring. Keep an eye on upcoming shows for when local pre-sales and after-parties get announced.
Fear Factory's Next Chapter and the Industrial Metal Long Game
Elsewhere in the touring-and-recording-cycle news, Dino Cazares has been making the rounds talking up Fear Factory's upcoming record, describing it to GRIMM Gent as "diverse" and something that "goes into different elements." This comes on the heels of "Roboticist,” the band's first single featuring new vocalist Milo Silvestro and drummer Pete Webber. Fear Factory has spent three decades proving that industrial-tinged extreme metal doesn't have to calcify into self-parody, and a lineup this fresh taking a swing at genuine stylistic range is worth watching. It's the kind of reinvention story that tends to get name-checked whenever people argue about the best metal albums of all time versus the stuff that's actually pushing forward right now — and for a band this foundational to industrial metal's DNA, both conversations matter.
Death Metal's Steady Churn: PeelingFlesh and the State of the Underground
Unique Leader signees PeelingFlesh dropped another cut from their upcoming self-titled sophomore record, "Crackology," landing ahead of the album's November 27 release. It's brutal, technical, and exactly the kind of release that keeps death metal's underground machinery humming along nationally. New York's own death metal contingent has been doing the same unglamorous, essential work for years without always getting the same press cycle — bands like Slaughter the Prophets, Glorious Depravity, and technical players Terrestrial Sphere have all been quietly building catalogs that deserve to sit alongside national labels' flagship signings. If you're building a list of new metal bands for 2026 worth tracking, don't sleep on the state's death metal underground just because the headlines skew toward the coasts' bigger labels.
On the slam and brutal death end specifically, Carnic and Goblinectomy remain two of the heavier bets in the state if PeelingFlesh's new single scratches that particular itch for you. This is a genre that thrives on scenes feeding scenes — a band blowing up on Unique Leader should, in theory, pull a few more ears toward the regional acts doing comparable work in VFW basements from Buffalo to Brooklyn.
Grindcore and Crossover Get Their Due
Napalm Death announced a 2027 European/UK tour with Misery Index, Author & Punisher, Habak, and Piece — another entry in what the band has long called their Campaign for Musical Destruction. It's not a New York date, obviously, but Napalm Death's continued relevance is worth noting for anyone tracking grindcore as a genre that refuses to go quietly. The state has its own grind and extreme pedigree worth connecting to that lineage, including Chepang's chaotic, genre-blurring attack and the crust-and-doom-adjacent grind of Misanthropæ. If Napalm Death's name still moves units in 2027, it says something about how durable a well-built extreme metal catalog can be — a lesson worth internalizing for any band in New York grinding it out right now.
On a lighter note, Big Ass Truck I.E. premiered the video for "Big Ass Gun" alongside their debut EP "Found on Road Dead" — a reminder that crossover thrash's goofier, riff-forward tendencies are alive and well nationally. New York's crossover contingent, including Eat Lead, Activator, and Critikill Mass, has been mining similar territory — thrash riffs, hardcore attitude, and a healthy disregard for taking itself too seriously. It's a genre that rewards bands willing to have a sense of humor without sacrificing the pit-starting riffs, and the state's roster is deep enough that it deserves its own spotlight soon.
Hardcore's Anniversary Circuit Keeps Rolling
Four Year Strong announced their "Rise or Die Trying" 25th anniversary tour with Drug Church, Heart Attack Man, and Sunbloc, continuing what's become a steady drumbeat of hardcore and melodic hardcore bands hitting major milestone years. Infectious Grooves, the Robert Trujillo/Mike Muir project, is doing something similar on the West Coast, celebrating 35 years of their debut with a Los Angeles show. There's a pattern here worth noting: the scene is increasingly comfortable looking backward and forward at the same time, treating catalog depth as currency rather than nostalgia. New York's hardcore lineage — from the beatdown and metallic hardcore scenes Guilt Trip comes out of, to legacy crossover acts that have shaped the sound for decades — fits squarely into that same conversation about what makes a scene durable rather than just trendy.
Taylor Momsen Draws a Line on AI Songwriting
In a smaller but telling story, The Pretty Reckless frontwoman Taylor Momsen was blunt when asked if she'd ever use AI as a songwriting tool, telling Lipps Service With Scott Lipps: "Fuck no. Fuck no. What is that? No. I mean—" before the thought trailed off into pure incredulity. It's a small quote, but it lands at a moment when plenty of corners of the music industry are quietly experimenting with exactly that. Momsen, who's spent years working out of New York and remains closely tied to the city's rock lineage, is essentially restating something most working musicians in this scene already believe: the human hand on the instrument, the actual lived frustration or joy behind a lyric, is the entire point. It's not a radical stance, but hearing it stated this plainly, from someone with her platform, matters.
"Fuck no. What is that? No. I mean... I just don't understand the point of that." — Taylor Momsen on AI songwriting
What It All Means for New York
None of these stories are, on their own, earth-shattering. But taken together, they sketch a picture of a national metal landscape that's expanding in every direction — industrial reinvention, death metal churn, grindcore's stubborn survival, crossover's goofy riffage, hardcore's anniversary tours — while New York's own scene continues supplying talent that gets slotted directly into that bigger conversation. Guilt Trip opening for Thrown at Irving Plaza isn't an outlier; it's evidence of a pipeline that's been quietly working for years. Whether you're chasing the next great metal bands touring in 2026, trying to figure out which new acts deserve a spot on your rotation, or just trying to catch the best heavy metal songs live before the tour buses roll out, the Empire State's underground remains one of the more undersold scenes in the country. If your band has news, a release, or a show worth covering, don't wait for the next cycle — submit your band and let's keep building the record of what's actually happening here, show by show, riff by riff.