Lancaster's Own August Burns Red Prove Pennsylvania Still Builds the Best Metalcore in the Game
There's a reason people outside the Keystone State assume every technical metalcore band with a conscience has to have at least one Pennsylvania connection. This week that assumption gets fresh ammunition, as Lancaster's own August Burns Red frontman Jake Luhrs sat down with Australia's Metal Roos to talk through the band's eleventh full-length, "Season Of Surrender." Asked point blank whether the new record hits heavier than 2023's "Death Below," Luhrs didn't dodge the technical-versus-emotional conversation that's followed this band for two decades. He described August Burns Red plainly as "a technical, progressive American metalcore band" that still "tries to shine some hope" into a genre that too often mistakes nihilism for depth.
That's not a small statement, and it's worth sitting with if you care about the Pennsylvania metal scene. August Burns Red didn't just help define American metalcore in the 2000s — they did it from Lancaster County, proving early on that you didn't need to be based in a coastal metropolis to build a globally touring, Grammy-nominated metal band. Eleven albums deep, they're still the standard other bands in this lane get measured against, and "Season Of Surrender" sounds like a band actively trying to out-write their own back catalog rather than coast on nostalgia.
West Chester Mourns and Celebrates: CKY's Brent Hinds Tribute
Just down the turnpike from Lancaster, West Chester's own CKY delivered one of the more bittersweet moments in metal this week. The band released "Beware Of The Heartless," a new track featuring a guitar solo from the late Brent Hinds, recorded before his tragic passing last year. CKY and Hinds had been slated to tour together, a pairing that made sense on paper — both acts built reputations on unpredictable, riff-forward songwriting that refuses to sit neatly inside one genre box. Hearing Hinds rip through a solo on a CKY track now plays like a posthumous handshake between two camps of underground rock that always respected each other from a distance.
CKY's Pennsylvania roots run deep, and moments like this are a reminder that the state's hard rock and metal lineage isn't limited to one scene or one sound. From Bam Margera-adjacent skate-rock chaos to the technical precision of Lancaster metalcore, Pennsylvania bands have never needed to sound alike to matter.
The Metalcore and Deathcore Pipeline Keeps Running Through PA
August Burns Red's continued relevance is a good excuse to zoom out and look at just how stacked Pennsylvania's metalcore and deathcore bench actually is heading into 2026. This isn't a one-band conversation. Reading's own Signs of the Swarm have spent the last several years building a reputation as one of the most crushing deathcore exports in the country, while Motionless In White have taken a gothic-industrial spin on heavy music all the way to arena-adjacent stages. Add in the technical death metal minds of Rivers of Nihil and the beatdown-hardcore intensity of Varials and The Last Ten Seconds of Life, and you've got a state that's quietly become one of the deepest wells in the country for heavy music that refuses to be pigeonholed.
It's within that lineage that heavy metal act Surrender deserves a mention. Pennsylvania's homegrown scene has always thrived on bands willing to lean into straightforward, riff-driven heavy metal even while the metalcore and deathcore machines get most of the national press. If you're trying to map out where the next wave of best metal bands in this state are coming from, don't just look at who's touring arenas — look at who's playing the VFW halls and DIY basements building the same kind of grassroots momentum August Burns Red had in Lancaster twenty years ago.
Solid State's New Signing and the Christian Metalcore Thread
Speaking of that lineage, Solid State Records — the label that's long been a home for melodic, message-driven metalcore in the August Burns Red tradition — just premiered a new video from Save Us for their track "Far," ahead of their label debut dropping in October. It's a reminder that the hopeful, technically-minded strand of metalcore Luhrs described in his interview isn't going anywhere. If anything, labels are actively investing in it as an antidote to the genre's darker corners. Pennsylvania fans who grew up on August Burns Red's earlier Solid State-adjacent records will find plenty to connect with here, and it's worth keeping an eye on whether any of these newer signings end up sharing bills with PA staples when tour routing season kicks into gear.
Grind and Death Metal Hit the Road — Will They Stop Here?
On the extreme end of the spectrum, Exhumed, Jarhead Fertilizer, Savage Master, and Molder just announced their fall North American run, cheekily billed as "The Long and Grinding Road Part 2: Redder Asphalt." Tours like this one are exactly the kind of package that tends to route through Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, or one of the state's mid-size DIY rooms, and Pennsylvania's grind and death metal underground — home to acts like Laboratory, Cadaveric Spasm, and G.R.U.M. — has historically shown up in force for exactly this kind of bill. Keep an eye on upcoming shows as routing gets finalized; a night with Exhumed and Jarhead Fertilizer is the kind of show that reminds you why grindcore still has teeth in 2026.
The Broader Underground Keeps Moving
Elsewhere in the underground, a handful of stories this week point to a scene that's still restless and experimental in ways that should interest Pennsylvania listeners who like their metal adjacent to noise rock and post-hardcore. Evil Island's new "T-Hexx" video features a rare guest vocal turn from Fugazi's Guy Picciotto — his first recorded vocal appearance since 2002 — which is the kind of crossover moment that gets shared in group chats among fans of PA's own noise-punk lineage, including bands like Mannequin Pussy, whose sound has always danced along that same line between hardcore aggression and art-punk unpredictability.
Meanwhile, the new supergroup Unless — featuring veterans of Norma Jean, The Chariot, mewithoutYou, Underoath, and Every Time I Die — dropped their debut single "Sun Gone Low" this week. Given how many of those bands have deep touring and friendship ties to Pennsylvania's own experimental-hardcore contingent (mewithoutYou's Philadelphia roots run especially deep), it wouldn't be surprising to see this project land a regional show sooner rather than later.
Zombi, Gehenna, and PA's Quieter Corners
It's also worth remembering that Pennsylvania's metal identity isn't only built on breakdowns and blast beats. Pittsburgh's Zombi continue to represent the state's more atmospheric, synth-driven progressive side, while death metal outfit Gehenna holds down the traditionally brutal end of the spectrum. Between the technical, hopeful metalcore of Lancaster, the grinding chaos rolling through on tour, and the atmospheric weirdness coming out of Pittsburgh, this state covers more sonic ground than almost any other region its size.
If you're in a band chasing a spot among the new metal bands 2026 will remember, or if you've been grinding away in a practice space waiting for someone to notice, now's the time to get on the radar. The Pennsylvania metal scene has never needed permission from the coasts to build something worth talking about — August Burns Red proved that from a small city in Lancaster County, and CKY proved it from West Chester. Whoever's next just has to submit your band and let the rest of the state catch up.