The old guard might be headed into retirement, but the world of metal is looking healthy in 2026. It seems barely a week can pass without a brilliant up and coming band emerging, meaning it can be overwhelming trying to keep up with everything new and shiny.
But we've got you covered! We've looked far and wide to find some of the hottest bands around operating in the metal sphere. This month we bring you political firebrands Pinkshift, fun, furious thrashers Turn Cold, Victorian doom metallers Opia and nu djent nutcases Vianova.
Pinkshift
“There's a lot to learn on YouTube,” explains Pinkshift singer Ashrita Kumar, when asked how she perfected the guttural roar on their latest album, Earthkeeper. Moving effortlessly from luscious harmonies to demonic howls and back, the Baltimore punks’ second album is a serious gear-shift from the more pop-punk leanings of their 2022 debut, Love Me Forever.
Lyrically, Earthkeeper is about coming of age in an era where the climate crisis, the rise of the right wing and late-stage capitalism are eroding the ground under the feet of young people. The personal becomes political: one of the first songs written for the album, the Paramore-esque Freefall (‘I’m feeling tragic and hopelessly unsure’) is about the anxiety many Gen-Zers feel towards the state of things today.
“Society is shifting towards a collective understanding that the systems we have in place are shattering,” Ashrita tells us. “The whole album is probably one big spiritual experience of the return of Saturn [in astrology, this is when Saturn returns to the position/sign it was in when you were born, at age 29, symbolising a coming-of-age].”
Another tentpole track, Blood, shares lyrics with opener Love It Here and deals with the effects of colonialism (‘There’s blood in the water / there’s blood in the trees’). It was partly inspired by guitarist/vocalist Paul Vallejo’s visit to his father’s rural hometown in Peru.
“There was this very European Catholic church there and I thought, ‘How much subjugation and violence had to happen for that to be there?’”.
The trio, completed by drummer Myron Houngbedji, are outspoken. In 2025, they condemned the anti-trans toilet policy at Download Festival and have publicly railed against anti-immigration rhetoric and ICE raids in the US, defiant even if they could face repercussions.
“Even though I was born in the US just like any white person was born here, they won’t face the same consequences of speaking up as I will,” Ashrita says. “But I will never stop speaking up about the injustices my community and other marginalised communities face.” Priya Elan
IN SHORT
SOUNDS LIKE: National anthems for the disaffected FOR FANS OF: Pollyanna, Pierce The Veil, Spiritbox LISTEN TO: Evil Eye
Turn Cold
“Sometimes, making music is the only thing that keeps me from bringing an axe to work and chopping up my co-workers,” jokes Stenvik Mostrom of Atlanta thrashers Turn Cold. “You’ve gotta be able to pop the top and let the fucking steam out!”
Turn Cold’s crushing first album, Violent Breed, is pure crossover catharsis. It doesn’t just pop the top off the vent; it detonates the whole stinking sewer, with a maelstrom of whiplash-fast thrash and brutal breakdowns, replete with rabid-dog snarls, crunchy, quickfire riffing and pounding, racing drums.
The band formed in 2020, and there’s been no shortage of stuff to get mad about since. While the kitschy fiends on the album’s cover – a werewolf feeding cocaine to Dracula from a Bowie knife, no less – suggest songs that veer towards the comical, the 23-minute rager contains explosive state-of-the-nation addresses on the sorry state of pretty much everything.
‘No kings, no thrones, no crowns of gold!’ yells Sten on No Kings, a track which became especially – if accidentally – poignant after millions of protesters took to the streets in June 2025 to rage against the authoritarian policies of the Trump administration.
“I named that song before the No Kings protests started,” Sten says. “I was like, ‘Shit, well, that works.’”
Hardcore alumni with previous projects “too punk for the metalheads and too metal for the punks”, says Sten, now they’re just playing what they like – a blend of classic New York hardcore with socially conscious thrash.
“A lot of us are fucking fed up with the way that the powers-that-be have categorically failed us,” adds drummer Matt Karoglou. “You’ve got to shine a light on that shit and be like: enough is enough. That’s been the spirit of thrash and hardcore from the beginning.”
Any closing words?
“Fuck ICE!” Sten declares. Tamlin Magee
IN SHORT
SOUNDS LIKE: A hardcore-fuelled thrashfest soundtracking urban decay
FOR FANS OF: Inhuman Nature, Power Trip, Cro-Mags
LISTEN TO: Inside Out
Opia
Despite the dour veil that covers Opia’s music, their debut album, I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep, is a way for the international collective to shine a beacon into the suffocating void of loneliness, loss and despair.
“I want to bring hope, because you can always find the light if you really want to,” says vocalist Tereza Rohelova. “But sometimes it’s hard to see it because the darkness can swallow you.”
Guitarist Dan Tregenna knows this all too well, having dealt with a depression-related eating disorder as a teenager. He felt isolated and misunderstood until discovering Finnish goth metal legends Sentenced and their bleak lyrics.
“I found so much comfort in the fact that somebody else felt there was no hope,” he says. “It was worth more than a million people saying ‘Everything is going to be OK.’”
I Welcome Thee… is a force of gothic death doom. Weighty guitars, sombre melodies and emotive keys build the foundation for Tereza to weave between spine-chilling growls and spirit-conjuring cleans. The songs speak of pain and anguish, cloaking personal stories in the mysticism of Victorian-era Britain. The Fade honours losing a loved one to dementia, while On Death’s Door is about dying of terminal illness – something Tereza sees regularly, as she works in palliative care.
“Every single day, this song is stuck in my head,” she tells us. “Everybody’s lost someone. Everybody experiences some kind of pain. What we’re trying to do is to be really authentic.”
And Dan hopes someone out there can connect to their music like he did with Sentenced.
“If nothing feels good and you can’t see any hope in the world… here’s some music to soundtrack that,” he declares. “Someone else has felt that way at some point too. Maybe the world’s a little less lonely – and that’s a start.” Jon Garcia
IN SHORT
SOUNDS LIKE: An abandoned mansion that still sings the stories of the dead
FOR FANS OF: My Dying Bride, Draconian, Swallow the Sun
LISTEN TO: The Fade
Vianova
Vianova's viral and virile Hit It! is the lovechild of djent and 00s soul, dance and hip hop, brimming with more emotions than an EastEnders omnibus. The Germans describe their sound as “angry dance music”, which is certainly apt. Around 2016, guitarist Felix Vogelsang left southern Germany for Berlin in search of metal in a techno city – and soon convinced his brother Paul to follow.
“He was like, ‘Come to Berlin. You’re my drum slave now,’” laughs vocalist Alex Kerski, whose Hunter S. Thompson-esque sunglasses and furry bucket hat have haunted Instagram feeds all year. He’s Vianova’s third frontman and the reason they’ve become a viral sensation.
“I actually auditioned when the first singer quit, but they didn’t let me in!” he recalls.
Hailed by their now-former guitarist as “the best screamer in Berlin”, at the time, the 18-year-old was rejected for sounding “too squeaky”. A year later, he aced his resit and helped refine their sound.
“Tyler, The Creator made me realise that I don’t need to scream for a song to be heavy,” he says. “We still do that, obviously, but I connect more with emotional heaviness. I want it to feel universal – like a great film that leaves you with bittersweet emotions. That’s where our strengths are. We’re not Animals As Leaders-level technical.”
Offstage, Alex works as a graphic designer and uses that know-how to boost the band’s online presence – but only once the songs are complete.
“We’re artists first,” he affirms. “Then, as a marketer, I go, ‘How can we pimp this thing?’”
He laughs again: “It’d be impossible to write for social media, anyway. Felix still uses an early-2000s flip phone and most of the guys aren’t big on social media. But leveraging the band like this has been really empowering.” Phil Weller
IN SHORT
SOUNDS LIKE: 90s nostalgia mangled into an emotionally turbulent djent disco
FOR FANS OF: Periphery, The Callous Daoboys, Thornhill
LISTEN TO: Uh Yaya
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