Nu Metal News 1 October 2026: P.O.D. Unleash Outbreak, Enter Shikari Plan 2027 Goodbye, Niis Sign To Rise

Nu Metal News 1 October 2026, welcome to Thursday. P.O.D. have put out what Sonny Sandoval is calling one of the heaviest songs the band has ever written, and they brought Norma Jean’s Cory Brandan along for it. Enter Shikari have told their fans exactly how long they have left to see them, Poppy has a Halloween date in Los Angeles, and Niis from LA are our featured band after signing to Rise Records. We also take a moment for Cronos of Venom, whose records shaped more of this music than most people realise.

P.O.D. Bring Cory Brandan Into Outbreak

P.O.D. released “Outbreak” on Wednesday, and it is the first single from their twelfth studio album. Norma Jean vocalist Cory Brandan is on it as a full partner rather than a cameo, and Will Yip produced it. Yip is the producer behind records by Turnstile and Code Orange, which tells you something about where the low end on this one was always going to sit.

Sonny Sandoval has called it “possibly one of the heaviest songs P.O.D. has ever written,” and that is not marketing talk. Bringing in a voice as distinctive as Brandan’s, from a band with Norma Jean’s history, says plenty about how hard they wanted this one to hit. Marcos Curiel described it as fun yet hard hitting, and that balance is exactly what the band have always done best.

The video, directed by JT Ibanez, leans all the way into a zombie apocalypse, and Curiel has said the song sits somewhere between fiction and fact. For a band who have been making rap metal with real conviction since the early nineties, it is a reminder that they can still surprise people. No album title or date yet, but this is a strong first look.

Australian fans get it live first. P.O.D. are already on the Good Things bill with their own sideshows around the 4, 5 and 6 December festival dates, and “Outbreak” is the kind of song that will land hard in those rooms.

Enter Shikari Plan A Fourteen Month Celebration

Enter Shikari announced today that they will fall dormant as a recording and performing band at the end of 2027, with 31 December 2027 named as the line. They were careful with the wording. In their own words, “we don’t think we’re ‘splitting up’, we do not have a diary that extends beyond 2027.” The door is left open, and they said so.

What matters is how much is still coming. The band say new music should arrive sooner rather than later, and they are marking twenty years of Take To The Skies, ten of The Spark and fifteen of A Flash Flood Of Colour. They have been back into the original multitracks for Take To The Skies, and they mentioned something they have just finished filming. That is a lot of material for one goodbye year.

The live side is already moving. November brings the UK arena run, including Glasgow’s Hydro, Manchester’s Co-op Live and two nights at Alexandra Palace in London, with The Callous Daoboys among the support across Europe and the UK. January 2027 adds shows in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, then mainland European and North American festivals through the year.

There will be no farewell world tour, and they were honest that they may not get back to every favourite room. Instead they are calling the next fourteen months a celebration of what the band means to them. Few bands have crossed electronica, post hardcore and metal with this much ambition, and if the shows are your thing, the window is open now.

Cronos And The Records That Named A Genre

Conrad Lant, known to everyone as Cronos, has died at 63. Venom announced the news through their own channels today, and no cause has been shared. He founded Venom in Newcastle in 1978, played bass, sang, and gave the band a voice that nobody has managed to copy since.

The legacy is in the records. Welcome To Hell in 1981 and Black Metal in 1982 did not just influence extreme music, they gave whole genres their vocabulary and their attitude. Thrash, black metal and death metal all trace a line back to those albums, and the bands who built those scenes have always said so. At War With Satan and Possessed pushed it further, and he was still making records this year with Into Oblivion.

It might look like a long way from Newcastle in 1982 to the music this column covers every day, but it is not. The idea that heavy music can be theatrical, confrontational and completely its own thing runs straight from Cronos through to the masks, the costumes and the whole visual language of nu metal. His bandmates described him as “uncompromising, fearless and unmistakable,” and that is the right way to remember him.

His son Nathan put it simply: “His music will never die. His voice will never fade.” If you have never sat down with Black Metal from start to finish, tonight is a good night to do it.

Poppy Takes Over Halloween In Los Angeles

Poppy will headline the music at The Boulet Brothers’ Los Angeles Halloween Ball on Saturday 31 October, with a DJ set at The Globe Theatre downtown. The night runs from 10pm to 3am across three floors, alongside the Boulet Brothers themselves, Rasputin’s Marionettes and their human sized puppets, a House of Ninja vogue show and a Halloween burlesque revue.

It is a perfect fit. Poppy has spent years building an artistic world where horror, glamour and very heavy guitars all live together, and few artists move as comfortably between a pit and a club. She is also a guest judge on the seventh season of The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula, which premieres on Shudder and AMC+ on Tuesday 27 October, so Halloween night doubles as a celebration of that run.

This has been a big season for her in this column. Last month she finally played “End Of You” live with Amy Lee and Courtney LaPlante at The O2, and the Halloween Ball shows the other side of what she does. There is a $1,000 prize for the best costume on the night, so if you go, dress like you mean it. Tickets are through Ticket Tailor.

Featured Band: Niis Want You To Feel Alive

Looking Ahead: Friday Brings The Records

Tomorrow is release day, and the Friday slate we laid out on Tuesday still stands, with Imminence’s Axis Mundi on Sumerian the big one for metalcore fans. If you missed yesterday’s edition, it covers A Perfect Circle’s 2027 dates, the new Hatebreed song and Northlane’s North American tour.

Further out, the dates to circle are Dragula’s new season on 27 October, Play Niis on 23 October, Halloween with Poppy, and Enter Shikari’s UK arenas in November. If you are heading to any of those shows, our guide to dressing for a long night at a metal show is worth a look first.

Get Your Band In This Column

This column covers small and unsigned bands on purpose, every single day, next to the names everyone already knows. If you are in a band, or you work with one, send it over through the get featured form. It takes a couple of minutes and it goes straight to a human.

The bands that turn up there get the same space and the same care as anyone else on the page. Links, a photo or your artwork, and one line about what the song is actually about will get you a long way.

Nu Metal News 1 October 2026, Your Questions