Iommi Says No to a Sabbath Reunion Album — And Why Pennsylvania's Heavy Metal Traditionalists Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way
There's a particular kind of stubbornness that runs through heavy metal's founding generation, and this week Tony Iommi reminded everyone exactly what that looks like. In a new interview with Classic Rock, the Black Sabbath riff architect revealed that producer Andrew Watt approached the band's original lineup years ago about recording one final farewell album together. Iommi turned it down. He voted against it. And in doing so, he protected something that a lot of newer bands — including several grinding it out in Pennsylvania's clubs and basements right now — understand instinctively: sometimes the legacy is bigger than the temptation to cash in one more time.
Iommi has also revealed he voted against it.
That's not a knock on Watt, who's become the go-to producer for legacy rock acts wanting a modern sheen. It's just Iommi being Iommi — a guy who's spent five decades deciding what does and doesn't wear the Black Sabbath name. It's the same instinct that's kept Judas Priest's Faithkeepers tour rolling through Europe this month with a setlist still built on "Metal Gods" and "Breaking the Law," fan-filmed footage from Bern, Switzerland proving the classics still hit exactly as hard as they did in 1980. Tradition, in this genre, isn't a dirty word. It's the whole point.
Iommi, Shatner, and Metal's Strange Little Universe
In a genuinely delightful side note, Brian May confirmed to U.K. radio host Zoe Ball that Iommi will also appear on William Shatner's upcoming heavy metal album — yes, that Shatner, Captain Kirk himself, apparently making a full-on metal record with a murderer's row of guests. May says Iommi "loves a challenge," which honestly tracks. This is a guy who just said no to a Sabbath reunion record but yes to jamming with a 94-year-old former starship captain. Heavy metal has always had room for the absurd right alongside the sacred, and that's part of why the genre refuses to die.
Mastodon, Baizley, and the Value of Showing Up
Elsewhere in the world of bands who've earned the right to do whatever they want, Mastodon announced that Baroness frontman John Baizley will join their live lineup for the band's fall tour, following a surprise intimate club set where the pair already tested the chemistry live under the banner "Big Hairy Elephant." It's the kind of collaborative, low-stakes gesture that reminds fans why the Atlanta scene has stayed so tightly knit for two decades — and it's a good model for Pennsylvania's own overlapping subgenre communities, where black metal drummers play in death metal bands and stoner acts share bills with hardcore kids on a random Tuesday in Lancaster.
Fear Factory's Bass Chair Finally Gets Settled
On the industrial-metal front, Fear Factory confirmed that bassist Tony Campos handled all studio bass duties on the band's forthcoming album — a first, given that guitarist Dino Cazares has historically tracked most of the low end in the studio himself. It's a small detail, but it matters to the gearheads and the riff-nerds who care about who's actually playing what, and it's a reminder that even 35 years into a career, bands are still figuring out how to divide the labor.
Where Pennsylvania Fits Into the Traditionalist Wave
All of this — Iommi's stubbornness, Priest's unkillable setlist, the Watt conversation — points to something bubbling under the surface of the national conversation: a renewed hunger for heavy metal played straight, without irony, the way it sounded before anyone called it "classic." That's exactly the lane occupied by Pennsylvania heavy metal act The End, a band built on the kind of riff-first, no-nonsense songwriting that made Priest and Sabbath essential in the first place. In a scene often dominated by deathcore breakdowns and blackened atmospherics, bands like The End are doing the unglamorous work of keeping true heavy metal alive at the club level, and they deserve the same attention we give the arena acts making headlines this week.
They're not alone. Pennsylvania heavy metal outfit Sumerlands has spent years mining that same NWOTHM vein — leather, twin leads, no apologies — proving that the traditionalist wave isn't a nostalgia act but a genuine, ongoing movement with real staying power. It's worth noting that heavy metal and NWOTHM remain some of the most underdiscussed corners of this scene relative to how many bands are actually doing the work, and that's a gap worth closing as more of these acts play out across the state this year.
The Rest of the Scene Doesn't Sleep, Either
Traditionalism is only one thread in Pennsylvania's tapestry, of course. The state's death metal and deathcore exports continue building national profiles — Signs of the Swarm have spent the last several years proving that crushing, low-tuned brutality can still fill rooms far outside their home turf, while progressive death metal act Alustrium keeps pushing the technical ceiling of what local bands are capable of on record. Meanwhile, on the shoegaze-adjacent end of things, Superheaven remains a reminder that "heavy" doesn't have to mean blast beats — sometimes it just means turning the amps up and letting the fuzz do the talking. Pennsylvania's strength has always been this range, the fact that a single regional index can house black metal, groove metal, sludge, and pop-punk-adjacent noise rock without any of it feeling out of place.
Attitude, Access, and the Alex Terrible Problem
Not every story out of the wider metal world this week was about riffs. Slaughter to Prevail frontman Alex Terrible found himself defending his habit of clapping back at online critics, comparing his situation to Falling in Reverse's Ronnie Radke and arguing that responding to negativity on his own platform shouldn't be treated as some kind of scandal. It's a familiar tension in 2026 — the same social-media-native energy that helps a deathcore band build an enormous following also puts frontmen in the crosshairs of a much bigger, much meaner comment section than metal musicians dealt with a decade ago. Pennsylvania bands climbing the same ladder, from local unsigned acts to the state's bigger deathcore and metalcore exports, are watching how these public dust-ups play out, because the same playbook will eventually land in their inbox too.
Legacy Acts, Still on the Road
Chad Gray's "30 Years of Madness" tour rolled through Boston this week with a full set of Mudvayne and Hellyeah classics, fan-filmed and uploaded in full — a nice reminder that legacy touring isn't just a Priest and Sabbath phenomenon, it's happening at every level of the business. Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting also dropped a full pro-shot set from Guilt Trip, closing with a Machine Head cover that got the whole tent moving. None of these dates are in Pennsylvania, but they're the exact kind of touring activity worth tracking if you're the type who checks listings for metal concerts near me every few days hoping something new pops up on the calendar. The lesson from all of it is the same: touring bands, at every tier, are still the lifeblood of this genre, and Pennsylvania venues continue to get their share of both national package tours and DIY basement bills.
Small Rooms, Big Riffs, and a Little Alement
Tom Morello's recent reminiscence about Maynard James Keenan teaching him drop D tuning, and the shared DNA between Tool's "Sober" and Rage Against the Machine's "Freedom," is a good reminder that even the biggest songs in metal history came out of small rooms and shared curiosity — not unlike the way Pennsylvania's club scene actually works. Grab the right alement to go with a night of local riffs at any of the state's metal-friendly taprooms and you'll find the same spirit: musicians trading tricks, borrowing tunings, building songs out of whatever's lying around. That's the throughline connecting Iommi's stubborn integrity to a Tuesday night set from an unsigned Pennsylvania act nobody outside a fifty-mile radius has heard of yet.
If you're in one of those bands, or you know one that deserves wider ears, get on the index — check upcoming shows across the state or submit your band for coverage. The best metal bands in Pennsylvania right now aren't waiting for permission from the majors, and neither should the conversation about them.
