Decades, Dad Rock, and Grindcore Grief: How This Week's National Metal Stories Hit Home in Pennsylvania
Some weeks the metal news cycle feels like it's happening somewhere else entirely — Vegas, Richmond, wherever Napalm Death happens to be tracking drums. But dig past the datelines and this week's headlines keep circling back to Pennsylvania in ways that matter to anyone who's spent a Friday night in a basement venue from Scranton to Pittsburgh. Let's get into it.
Motionless In White Gets the Dad Treatment
The biggest story with actual Keystone State fingerprints on it this week isn't a tour announcement or a lineup change — it's a review. MetalSucks' recurring "Disgruntled Dad Reviews" column turned its skeptical eye toward Decades, the latest release from Scranton's own Motionless In White, with columnist Dave Mustcomplain putting the gothic-industrial-metalcore juggernaut through the wringer.
Whatever you make of the format — and "Disgruntled Dad" columns exist specifically to needle bands that have graduated from clubs to arenas — the fact that MIW is still generating this kind of national coverage over a decade-plus into their career says something about their staying power. This is a band that came up through Northeastern Pennsylvania's DIY hardcore and metalcore circuit and turned it into a genuinely national platform, one of the rare acts from this region's underground that broke through to mainstream metal media without losing the scene's respect entirely. Love them or find them exhausting, Motionless In White remains the most visible proof that Pennsylvania's metal scene produces bands capable of competing at the highest level, and that's worth sitting with even if your inner disgruntled dad wants to complain about the eyeliner.
Remembering Chuck Varga, and What GWAR Means Out Here
It's a heavier notice than usual this week with the passing of Chuck Varga, GWAR co-founder and the man behind The Sexecutioner from 1985 until 2022. GWAR has never been a Pennsylvania band, but anyone who's caught one of their blood-soaked spectacles at a Pennsylvania venue over the past three decades knows how deeply embedded they are in this region's live music memory — few bands have crossed through the state as consistently or left as many soaked t-shirts in their wake. Varga's death, confirmed by bassist Casey Orr (Beefcake The Mighty) over the weekend, closes a chapter on one of the genre's most theatrical and genuinely beloved units.
The timing is bittersweet: GWAR's remastered edition of Beyond Hell drops at the end of this week, complete with a newly remastered video for their cover of Alice Cooper's "School's Out." It's a strange, fitting moment — a band mourning one of its own while simultaneously reissuing material that helped define its legacy. For Pennsylvania fans who grew up catching GWAR at venues across the state, this is a week to spin the old records and remember the chaos fondly.
Grindcore's Patience Problem
Napalm Death bassist Shane Embury dropped a dose of reality on fans hoping for quick turnaround on the band's seventeenth studio album, telling "Reckless" Rexx Ruger of Pod Scum that new material "probably" won't surface before late 2027. The band is once again working with longtime producer Russ Russell, which should reassure anyone worried about a sonic left turn, but the timeline is a reminder that even grindcore's founding fathers aren't in any rush.
Pennsylvania has its own grind and death-grind lineage worth championing while we wait — bands like Laboratory and Ectoplasm keep the genre's uncompromising spirit alive on local bills, and the Belgian razorgrind unit Leng Tch'e dropping their first new single in nearly a decade this week ("Hammered Into Collapse," off an EP due October 23) is exactly the kind of international grindcore news that should have PA grind fans paying attention. If Napalm Death's patience is testing yours, there's no shortage of shorter, nastier records dropping in the meantime — support the local scene by catching these bands live; check upcoming shows for who's actually playing near you this month.
Deathcore's Crowdfunding Win
All Shall Perish blew past their $75,000 Kickstarter goal for their first new album since 2011 and celebrated by dropping the new single "Led to Slaughter." It's a genuinely encouraging data point for a subgenre that gets written off constantly — deathcore fans showed up with their wallets, and the band delivered a song to match the hype. Pennsylvania's own deathcore contingent, including A Mutilated Mind and The Last Ten Seconds of Life, has been grinding away on the same circuit that made All Shall Perish a name in the first place. Crowdfunding success stories like this one are worth studying for any regional band weighing whether their fanbase would actually back an album campaign — the appetite for deathcore clearly hasn't gone anywhere.
The Quiet NWOTHM Revival, and Pennsylvania's Place In It
Buried in this week's news cycle is a genuinely interesting trend: traditional and melodic heavy metal is having a moment again on the international stage. Fearless V — the new project featuring former Primal Fear members Tom Naumann, Alex Beyrodt, Alex Jansen, and Michael Ehré alongside vocalist Gianbattista "Jan" Manenti — announced their debut album Circus Life this week with the single "Fearless V." Meanwhile Australia's Vanishing Point returned after a long silence with "Bring Me The Night," the first taste of their November album Eremition, and Crossbone Skully, featuring Alice Cooper guitarists Tommy Henriksen and Anna Cara, unveiled details for their sophomore record Condemned To Rock N' Roll.
None of these bands are from Pennsylvania, but the through-line matters: classic, riff-forward heavy metal — the kind built on musicianship and hooks rather than trend-chasing — is finding renewed international audiences. That's good news for the Pennsylvania metal scene's own heavy metal and NWOTHM contingent, a corner of the index that's long been underserved in coverage despite a genuinely strong roster. Bands like The End, 313, Decypher, and SpellBook are carrying that same torch locally — leather, twin guitar harmonies, and songwriting built to last rather than to trend. If the international scene is rewarding bands willing to play it straight and heavy, that bodes well for anyone in this state still cutting demos in that style. Pennsylvania's heavy metal scene doesn't get the same ink as its death metal or metalcore counterparts, but the talent is there, and it deserves a spotlight as much as anything else in the region.
Industrial and Gothic Currents Keep Flowing
Elsewhere, Filter's Richard Patrick surfaced with a new song, "Keep My Name Out Of Your Mouth," under his new project A Place To Kill alongside Jim Louvau — a reminder that industrial rock's elder statesmen are still finding new collaborators and new ways to make noise. Finland's The 69 Eyes also released an acoustic reworking of their goth-rock classic "Brandon Lee" ahead of an upcoming acoustic full-length. Both stories connect loosely to Pennsylvania's own gothic and industrial-adjacent scene — a lineage that includes Motionless In White at the commercial end and darker acts like Deathwhite working the doom-gothic corners of the state's underground. It's a genre that thrives on reinvention, whether that's an acoustic reimagining of a 25-year-old single or an industrial rock veteran finding a fresh creative partner decades into his career.
Looking Ahead
Between a legendary shock-rock band mourning one of its own while reissuing classic material, a Scranton band getting picked apart by a dad-rock columnist, and grindcore's elder statesmen admitting patience is the only option, this week's national headlines are a reminder that the metal calendar moves at wildly different speeds depending on who you're watching. For Pennsylvania's scene — home to some of the best metal bands quietly building followings well outside the festival-headliner conversation — the lesson is the same as always: keep showing up to the small rooms, keep an ear out for the bands building toward 2026's new metal bands class, and don't sleep on the genres that don't always make the front page. If your band has news worth covering, don't wait for us to find you — submit your band and let's get you into the conversation.
