Signs of the Swarm's Dragula Tribute Turns Pittsburgh Into Ground Zero for Horror-Metal — Plus the Fall Tours Rolling Toward PA
There's something poetic about a Pittsburgh deathcore band dragging Rob Zombie's most iconic riff back into 2025 with a cast list that reads like a straight-to-VHS horror anthology. Signs of the Swarm just dropped a cover of "Dragula" with a video stacked full of cameos — Bam Margera, Lorna Shore's Will Ramos, and a rotating cast of familiar scene faces all showing up to pay tribute to a song that's been blasting out of car stereos and mosh pits for a quarter century. It's a fun, unserious flex from a band that's spent the last several years establishing itself as one of the heaviest exports the Steel City has produced, and it's exactly the kind of crossover moment that reminds outsiders the Pennsylvania metal scene isn't just a footnote on the East Coast circuit — it's a full-blown production house.
Pittsburgh's musical identity has always been weirder and more varied than people give it credit for, and that's worth remembering when a deathcore band goes viral for horror-movie theatrics. The city that gave the world instrumental prog-rock oddballs Zombi, whose synth-driven space rock has soundtracked more horror films and midnight drives than most bands twice their size, has never needed a single genre lane to matter. Signs of the Swarm and Zombi couldn't sound more different on paper, but both are proof that Pittsburgh's underground rewards bands willing to lean all the way into a concept and commit.
Horror Metal Isn't Going Anywhere
Speaking of horror-metal crossovers, Bruce Dickinson is deep in production on a solo album video that will feature genre icon Bill Moseley, shot out in Nevada with an award-winning director. It's the same energy as the Signs of the Swarm clip in a lot of ways — legacy metal figures leaning into cult horror imagery because the audience overlap between headbangers and horror nerds has always been massive. Pennsylvania's own doom and sludge underground understands this instinctively. Bands working in atmospheric, dread-soaked territory like Call Off Dead traffic in that same slow-burn, cinematic menace, and if you want the ambient, dungeon-synth side of that horror coin, Shadow Knell has been quietly building soundtracks for imaginary horror films for years. This is a scene that doesn't need a Netflix deal to understand atmosphere sells.
The Skillet/Bad Wolves Situation Is a Reminder About Tour Politics
Not every headline this week was fun and games. Sara "Killboy" Skinner went public after Christian rock outfit Skillet dropped Bad Wolves from a tour over what she describes as baseless accusations. Her response was blunt and, frankly, deserved to be shared widely:
"Upon their findings, I am a trans, OnlyFans, bitch. Now unfortunately, only one of those things is true."
It's a sharp, funny line, but the underlying story is a little grim — a reminder that even in 2025, bands can get bounced off bills over rumor and moral panic rather than anything resembling due diligence. Pennsylvania's DIY and hardcore scenes have long prided themselves on being a little more skeptical of gatekeeping nonsense like this, and it's worth remembering that the strength of this state's circuit — from Philly basements to Pittsburgh VFW halls — has always been built on bands looking out for each other rather than throwing each other under the bus for optics.
Hardcore's Fall Touring Machine Keeps Grinding
On a more optimistic note, Blood For Blood just announced a run of fall shows alongside Ingrown, Death Before Dishonor, Béton Armé, Dropdead, and Skinhead — a lineup that's basically a hardcore history lesson packed into a few weeks of dates. Tours like this rarely skip the Northeast corridor for long, and PA's hardcore and crust contingent should be watching the routing closely. If you're the type who's already scanning for "metal shows near me" or "metal concerts near me" this fall, this is exactly the kind of bill worth driving two hours for. Pennsylvania's own crust and thrash-adjacent acts like Vicious Blade exist in that same lineage of stripped-down, no-frills aggression, and shows like this are usually where local openers get their shot to share a stage with touring legends. Keep an eye on upcoming shows for regional dates as they get added, because bills like this tend to fill in fast.
Corrosion of Conformity, The Sword, and Inter Arma All Have Their Sights on the Northeast
Corrosion of Conformity and The Sword just announced a co-headlining North American run kicking off November 2 in Buffalo, New York — close enough to Pennsylvania's western border that Pittsburgh and Erie crowds should absolutely expect a stop nearby, or at worst a short road trip. Meanwhile, Inter Arma is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a U.S. tour starting October 8 in Atlanta, working its way through the kind of mid-size rooms that have historically treated the band's sludge-doom-post-metal hybrid extremely well. Pennsylvania doesn't currently have a deep bench of bands filed specifically under post-metal in the index — it's one of the more underrepresented tags in the state despite plenty of crossover potential — which makes package tours like Inter Arma's worth paying extra attention to if you're chasing that atmospheric, dynamics-heavy sound live rather than on record.
Gear Talk and Legacy Acts: Rex Brown and Boston's 50th
On the gear side, Pantera's Rex Brown just unveiled a new signature Euro 4 bass through Spector, and it's the kind of release that's going to get discussed in every bass-nerd group chat in the state for the next month. Tone gear news doesn't usually make headlines outside of niche corners, but PA has a long, unglamorous tradition of players who care as much about backplate design as riffs, and that obsessiveness is part of what keeps the region's best metal bands sounding as tight and deliberate as they do.
On the legacy front, Boston's self-titled 1976 debut is getting a 50th-anniversary reissue complete with rare, previously unheard demo material. It's a reminder that Pennsylvania has its own deep well of classic rock and hard rock lineage worth celebrating in the same breath — from Poison's Bret Michaels to Cinderella's Tom Keifer, the state has been exporting arena-sized hooks since long before anyone coined the term NWOTHM. That heavy metal and NWOTHM revival is still one of the more under-covered corners of the index, and bands like John Hahn carry that unabashedly riff-first, no-irony heavy metal torch forward for a new generation of PA listeners who grew up on both Maiden reissues and TikTok algorithm deep-dives.
Prog and Power Metal Are Having a Moment
Nightwish's Tuomas Holopainen revealed he's already written six songs for the band's next studio album, telling Metal Hammer he feels "more inspired than ever." Symphonic and power metal fandoms tend to run deep and loyal, and Pennsylvania's got its own corner of that world worth checking out. Groove-thrash-power hybrid act Chamber has been carving out a lane that splits the difference between technical aggression and anthemic hooks, while progressive outfits like Synesthesia and Athaliah keep proving the state's prog-power underground is far from played out. If you're building a list of new metal bands 2026 to keep tabs on, this is exactly the pocket of the scene to start digging through.
The Underground Keeps Grinding
None of this touches the sheer density of death metal, slam, and speed metal acts quietly grinding away in basements and VFW halls across the state — genres that make up a huge chunk of the index but rarely get national headline treatment. That's fine. That's the job of a regional outlet like this one to fill in. Whether it's the next Alement Beer Hall bill in Philly or a DIY show in a garage outside Erie, the scene keeps moving whether or not Blabbermouth notices. If your band's got a release, a tour date, or a video worth covering, don't wait for a national outlet to find you first — submit your band and let's get you in front of people who are actually looking for this stuff.
