Cannibal Corpse's Road Wisdom, Chad Gilbert's Legacy, and Florida's Heavy Metal Renaissance

There's a particular kind of honesty that only comes from a band who's been grinding it out for nearly four decades, and Tampa death metal institution Cannibal Corpse just delivered it in spades. Drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz sat down with "Reckless" Rexx Ruger of Pod Scum recently and admitted what a lot of veteran musicians think but rarely say out loud: touring just isn't as exciting as it used to be. "The older we get, the harder it is," he said, and if you've ever watched a 50-something drummer load his own gear into a van at 3 a.m. after a two-hour set of blast beats, you know exactly what he means.

It's a small quote, but it lands heavy here in Florida, where Cannibal Corpse isn't just a band — they're a foundational pillar of the entire death metal edifice this state is built on. Tampa's reputation as ground zero for American death metal doesn't happen without bands like Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel putting in decades of brutal, unglamorous road work long before festival main stages and tour buses with bunks made any of it comfortable. Mazurkiewicz's candor is a reminder that the Florida metal scene's legacy was built on exhaustion as much as riffs, and that every young band grinding through a DIY tour in a rented van right now is walking a path Cannibal Corpse paved with a lot more physical pain than the highlight reels ever show.

That legacy is still very much alive at the ground level, too. Death metal outfit ASP represents exactly the kind of band carrying that Florida death metal torch forward into 2026, part of a deep bench of homegrown talent that includes progressive power metal act Control Denied and genre godfathers Morbid Angel. If you're compiling any list of the best metal bands to come out of this state, the Tampa death metal lineage has to be chapter one — and it's still being written.

Remembering Chad Gilbert: A Florida Hardcore Kid Who Never Stopped Being Heavy

Metal Injection's recent rundown of "The Five Heaviest Chad Gilbert Songs" is a worthwhile detour for anyone who only knew Gilbert from New Found Glory's pop-punk radio hits. Gilbert, who came up through South Florida's hardcore scene before Shai Hulud and New Found Glory made him a household name, spent his career proving that pop hooks and genuine heaviness aren't mutually exclusive. New Found Glory formed in Coral Springs, and that Florida hardcore DNA never fully left Gilbert's songwriting, even when he was writing choruses that ended up on mainstream radio.

It's a good moment to point out that Florida's contribution to heavy music has never been limited to blast beats and pig squeals. The state's hardcore and metalcore lineage runs deep and wide, from Gilbert's early work straight through to current acts like Poison the Well and modern electronicore/metalcore outfit Fame On Fire, both of whom prove the throughline from Gilbert's era to now is still very much intact. Metalcore juggernaut Trivium, out of Orlando, also owes something to that same generation of Florida bands who figured out you could be brutal and melodic at once without apologizing for either.

NWOTHM Keeps Climbing — Is Florida Ready to Claim Its Piece?

This week's international headlines are practically a love letter to the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal, even if nobody's calling it that directly. Copenhagen's Empath, featuring Volbeat bassist Kasper Boye Larsen alongside vocalist Morten Grønnegaard, announced their self-titled debut album for a November 13 release through Indisciplinarian — a project built by two guys with roots in the metal band Rising, chasing pure heavy rock songwriting rather than chasing trends. Meanwhile, Nevermore locked in a 21-date "Liminal Spaces" European headline run for spring 2027, and Dirty Honey dropped two new tracks, "Lights Out" and "Butterfly," from their upcoming third album "Catch My Butterfly," due January 15, 2027. Even Sabaton's Joakim Brodén is already teasing "some fun ideas" for a follow-up to "Legends."

Taken together, it paints a picture of a global heavy metal underground that's not just surviving but actively expanding its footprint heading into 2026 and beyond. That matters a lot for Florida, because this is exactly the genre space where the state's blog coverage has been thinnest — despite having a genuinely strong bench of traditional and power metal acts quietly building something real. Thrash and power metal veterans Nasty Savage have been flying the Florida heavy metal flag since long before "NWOTHM" was a hashtag. Groove-and-thrash hybrid act Sykosis, heavy/thrash outfit Backlash, and solo heavy/power metal artist Jeremy Aitken are all working in the same tradition that's currently getting international attention through bands like Empath and Nevermore.

If there's ever been a moment for Florida's heavy metal and NWOTHM contingent to get louder about what they're doing, it's now. The genre is having a real cultural moment overseas, and this state has the players to be part of that conversation among the new metal bands 2026 is going to be talking about — they just need the spotlight pointed their way. Consider this us pointing it.

Quick Hits From Around the Metal World

Not every metal headline this week demands a deep dive, but a few deserve a mention because they're either genuinely funny or genuinely rough. Primus guitarist Larry LaLonde revealed on the Sixty Scales And The Truth podcast that he lost roughly 60 guitars in the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires — an entire collection built over decades, gone. His response was about as graceful as it gets:

"I've been trying to have a positive attitude."

That's the kind of line that hits differently for touring musicians everywhere, Florida included, where hurricane season means gear loss is an annual anxiety rather than a hypothetical. It's a good reminder for anyone in this scene to actually check their insurance policy before storm season peaks again.

Elsewhere, MetalSucks' recurring "Net Worthless" column with Johnny Spreadsheets took on the eternal DIY-touring dilemma of gear versus cash, offering (very tongue-in-cheek) advice on "upgrading your backline by wrecking your van." It's satire, obviously, but it's satire that lands hard for any Florida band that's ever done the Gainesville-to-Pensacola-to-Miami triangle in a vehicle held together by faith and duct tape.

And in the "only in 2026" file: 95-year-old William Shatner fronted his own heavy metal band, The *uckers, at a Riot Fest aftershow in Chicago before making his main-stage appearance on the festival's Rebel Stage. Whatever you think about the spectacle of it, there's something oddly fitting about the Star Trek legend showing up in a metal context — heavy music has always had room for the theatrical and the absurd alongside the brutal.

What This Means for the Florida Underground

None of this week's headlines are directly about a Florida club show or a local record release, but that's often how the national metal conversation works — it ripples outward and lands on regional scenes in ways that are worth tracking. Mazurkiewicz's honesty about the toll of touring is a gut-check for every local band grinding through the Florida circuit right now, from death metal and grindcore units like Bodybox to doom and sludge acts carving out their own lane. Chad Gilbert's legacy reminds us that Florida's hardcore roots run through mainstream success without losing their teeth. And the international NWOTHM surge is a flashing signal that Florida's traditional and power metal bands deserve a bigger seat at the table.

The Florida scene keeps producing bands worth watching — quietly, consistently, without waiting for national press to notice first. If you're playing in one of them, or you know a band that deserves coverage, submit your band and get on our radar. And if you want to see what's happening on stages around the state this month, check our upcoming shows listing before you start planning your next van-based financial decision.