Glenn Hughes has announced his retirement from touring and live performances as he prepares to undergo heart surgery.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee shared the news in a statement posted to social media, revealing that recent medical tests led doctors to recommend another open-heart surgery.
According to the statement, Hughes made the decision to step away from the stage on the advice of his medical team.
“This past year, I’ve had some health issues. The results from numerous MRIs, CT scans, and an echocardiogram have alerted my medical team, that I need another open-heart surgery. I really have no option and no choice as health is my number one priority. Grateful to have been chosen with a life full with the gift of music… Thank you for walking beside me.”
As a result, all upcoming live shows have been canceled.
Known as “The Voice of Rock,” Hughes first rose to prominence with Trapeze before joining Deep Purple during the band’s Mark III era, appearing on the classic albums Burn, Stormbringer and Come Taste the Band. Over the decades, he has also enjoyed a prolific solo career and collaborated with artists including Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, Black Country Communion and The Dead Daisies.
No additional information has been provided regarding the timing of Hughes’ surgery.
Ghost frontman Tobias Forge, Anthrax bassist Frank Bello and Korn drummer Ray Luzier have contributed to a re-recorded version of German heavy metal band Accept’s 1980 deep cut Save Us.
The re-imagining, which you can hear below, also features Accept themselves and is taken from an upcoming tribute album marking 50 years since the Solingen band formed. The 19-song set, Teutonic Titans 1976–2026, comes out on September 4 via Napalm.
Accept guitarist Wolf Hoffman says in a statement that Forge “was not really on my radar” until he met him at a show in Stockholm. The singer told him that Save Us was his favourite Accept song, and that he once wanted Ghost to cover it, but plans were scrapped.
“Save Us? I don’t even remember that song,” Hoffman jokes. “Nobody has even mentioned that song! I had to go back and listen to it. After I saw a Ghost show it all made sense to me. It really fits his style and I could really imagine him doing that song really well. He’s right, it’s a fun song!”
Teutonic Titans 1976–2026 was announced in April and features guest spots from 50 rock and heavy metal musicians. Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and ex-Motörhead drummer Mikkey Dee play on Fast As A Shark, Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford sings Balls To The Wall and The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan appears on Love Child.
Ex-Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing, Overkill singer Bobby Blitz, Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho and many others are set to appear on as-yet-undisclosed tracks.
Accept are also celebrating their 50th anniversary on the road. The band are currently making their way across mainland Europe and will perform at Helsinki Metal Fest on Friday, August 7. They’ll play two headline UK dates and a set at Stonedead festival in Newark later this month, before returning to the mainland for a headline tour from November to December.
Although Ghost are best known for such successful hard rock originals as the multi-Platinum-selling Mary On A Cross and the Grammy Award-winning Cirice, they’re a prolific cover act. They’ve released three EPs mostly or entirely composed of covers, the latest being 2023’s Phantomime. In 2021, they contributed a take on Metallica’s Enter Sandman to the US heavy metal giants’ tribute album The Metallica Blacklist.
Ghost are currently on hiatus following the completion of their globe-trotting Skeletour earlier this year, but are the subject of a new documentary/concert film, 2 Big To Rig, which hits cinema and IMAX screens worldwide from August 26. The film follows 2024’s Rite Here Rite Now and offers a rare look at the real-life workings of the band, who wear masks onstage and are made up of anonymous members apart from Forge.
Meanwhile, Bello’s band Anthrax are gearing up to release their 12th album Cursum Perficio on September 18. It will mark their first studio release in 10 years. Luzier’s Korn will tour Europe and the UK in October and November.
Interview by Thrasher As frontrunners of Florida’s mid-’80s extreme-metal explosion, Nasty Savage forged a theatrical, high-octane path that helped lay the groundwork for Tampa’s reign […]
(Our writer DGR has been playing catch-up on records released earlier this year when other distractions interfered with writing about them. In mid-July he delivered Issue One (which you can find here), and now we have Issue Two, encompassing reviews of four records released in March, May, June, and July.) It is politics season here […]
Weezer is heading out on a massive world tour, and the North America leg alone hits more than 30 cities before they even leave the country. Continue reading…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
METAL DEVASTATION RADIO AND PR CLOSE IN ON 30 MILLION TOTAL VIEWS
July Growth Pushes Underground Metal Platform to 29.9 Million Views With Historic Milestone Within Reach
The countdown is on.
Metal Devastation Radio and Metal Devastation PR have continued their unstoppable growth, adding 369,317 views during July 2026 and pushing the platform’s all-time total to an incredible 29,928,478 views .
With less than 75,000 views remaining before reaching the historic 30 million view milestone , Metal Devastation is closer than ever to achieving one of the biggest milestones in its history.
Built from the ground up through dedication, independent spirit, and a relentless commitment to underground heavy music, Metal Devastation continues proving that independent metal media can reach a worldwide audience without corporate backing or industry gatekeepers.
JULY KEEPS THE UNDERGROUND MOVING
The July numbers continue to show the strength and reach of the Metal Devastation community:
369,317 total views
88,000 active users
86,000 new users
1.2 million tracked events , including article views, radio streams, submissions, clicks, and fan engagement
957,000 Google Search impressions
Those numbers pushed Metal Devastation’s lifetime view count from 29,559,161 to 29,928,478 .
The next milestone is already in sight.
30 million views is within reach.
FROM THE FRONTLINES
“Watching this continue to grow is absolutely incredible,” says Zach Moonshine.
“Every month proves what happens when independent artists, fans, media, and supporters come together. These numbers aren’t just statistics. Every view represents someone discovering a band, hearing a new song, reading an interview, or finding an artist they may have never encountered otherwise.”
“We’re less than a milestone away from 30 million views, and that achievement belongs to everyone who has supported Metal Devastation over the years.”
BUILT BY THE UNDERGROUND, FOR THE UNDERGROUND
Behind every number is a worldwide community keeping heavy music alive:
Independent bands creating powerful new music
Labels supporting the next generation of metal
Promoters and publicists creating opportunities
Media outlets covering the scene
DJs sharing new sounds with listeners worldwide
Fans discovering and supporting underground artists
Metal Devastation Radio delivering heavy music around the clock
Tennessee Metal Devastation Music Fest bringing the community together in person
Every article, interview, stream, submission, premiere, and share continues expanding the reach of underground metal.
SEARCHING FOR METAL
Search visibility continues to be one of Metal Devastation’s strongest growth engines.
During July alone, Metal Devastation generated 957,000 Google Search impressions , helping connect fans with underground bands, breaking news, interviews, reviews, festival coverage, and new music discoveries.
Every search is another chance for an independent artist to be discovered.
THE FINAL PUSH TO 30 MILLION
The road that started with a passion for heavy music is now approaching another historic milestone.
Metal Devastation Radio and PR will continue supporting independent artists, promoting new releases, interviewing legendary musicians and rising talent, covering the underground scene, and providing a worldwide platform for bands that deserve to be heard.
“The numbers are exciting, but the real victory is the community behind them,” Moonshine adds.
“Thirty million views represents millions of moments where someone connected with heavy music. That’s what this has always been about.”
THANK YOU
This milestone belongs to every musician, listener, label, promoter, venue, festival organizer, journalist, DJ, and supporter who continues standing behind independent heavy music.
The underground doesn’t wait for permission.
It builds its own stage.
And together, we’re about to cross 30 million views .
About Metal Devastation Radio and PR
Founded in 2013, Metal Devastation Radio and Metal Devastation PR have become leading voices in the global underground metal community. Through 24/7 radio programming, worldwide promotional campaigns, artist interviews, news coverage, festival production, and dedicated support for independent bands, the platform continues connecting heavy music fans across the globe.
Contact: Zach Moonshine zach@metaldevastationradio.net
Of the many great underground rock bands currently populating Cincinnati, the Drin may be the toughest to pin down. The group came on our radar playing a fried, bleary, extremely confident hybrid of throwback psych and post-punk, sounding equally like Can and the Fall. That sound worked wonders for them. But as time has gone on, they’ve thrown a bit more classic rock into the mix, and that’s working too.
The arty R&B explorer Dawn Richard has gone down many fascinating paths over the years, and she has radiated strength through all of it, whether testifying against Sean Combs or making experimental records with Spencer Zahn. Today, she announces her new album Creole Culture. Like a couple of Richard’s past records, 2019’s New Breed and 2021’s Second Line, the new one is an homage to Richard’s roots as a Black and Native American woman from New Orleans.
Linkin Park have announced Unshatter, a documentary opening in theatres on September 30, with tickets going on sale August 13. Directed by the band’s DJ and creative director Joe Hahn, the film covers the years following the 2017 death of singer Chester Bennington and the band’s 2024 return with Dead Sara vocalist Emily Armstrong and drummer Colin Brittain.
It runs from intimate 2022 studio sessions through the release of From Zero and the album’s launch concert in São Paulo, combining vault footage, live performances and interviews with band members and fans. A companion release, the Unshatter Film Soundtrack (Live In São Paulo), arrives alongside it and includes performances not featured in the film.
STREAM THE METAL BREAKDOWN DAILY NOW:
On today’s Metal Breakdown Daily, Scott Penfold gets into the Linkin Park announcement — the detail hiding in the title, what Mike Shinoda says this film deliberately isn’t, and the question the documentary will either answer or conspicuously avoid. Download the free Loaded Radio App on Apple iOS and Google Play and take the show with you.
We told you about this one in June. Now it’s real.
Start With The Title
Most people are going to read “Unshatter” as a nicely chosen word for a film about a band putting itself back together. It’s more specific than that.
“Unshatter” is a song. It appeared on From Zero (Deluxe Edition) in May 2025, and we covered the visualizer when it dropped. At the time, Shinoda described it as an early track made during the From Zero sessions — one of the first things that came out of those rooms.
Which means the film takes its name from something written at the precise moment four men who’d stopped being a band were quietly, tentatively becoming one again. Before there was an album. Before there was a lineup. Before anyone had decided this was happening at all.
That’s not a marketing department picking a word. That’s a band naming a film after the thing that started it.
LIVE & LOUD: Stream the World’s Hardest Radio Station 24/7
What The Film Actually Is
Unshatter is directed by Joe Hahn, which matters more than a credit line usually does.
Hahn has been Linkin Park’s DJ and visual director since the beginning, and he’s been making films alongside the band for most of his adult life. Shinoda’s account is that even before Chester died, Hahn had wanted to make something that explained the band’s universe to people — and then Chester died, and everything went away, including any sense that there was still a band at all.
Hahn’s framing of the finished film is that it follows a path through loss, uncertainty, friendship and reinvention. His hope is that longtime fans see things they’ve never seen, that newcomers understand how the band arrived here, and that beyond Linkin Park entirely it works as a story about what it takes to move forward when you don’t have the answers.
Structurally it runs from private studio sessions in 2022 — before anything was announced — through the From Zero release and the launch concert in São Paulo, weaving vault footage, live performances and interviews with band members and with fans.
The Line That Tells You What This Isn’t
Shinoda gave the BBC the detail worth holding onto.
Asked what fans should expect, he said plainly: don’t think reality TV. Most of the filming was done by one person — their friend Mark, a guy they hang out with anyway. He was just there, recording things, because things were happening.
That’s the whole difference between a documentary and a product.
Nobody commissioned a crew. There was no release date to service, no arc to hit, no producer in the room shaping moments for a trailer. Someone they trusted had a camera running during a period when they genuinely did not know whether there would be a band at the end of it. The film got assembled afterwards, out of what happened to exist.
Shinoda’s own summary was that they didn’t even think they had a band anymore, and that as things came back together — meeting Colin, meeting Emily, the album becoming real — they had the good sense to have cameras rolling. He described the São Paulo launch show as one of the most celebratory and emotional moments of their lives.
Back in June, fans on Linkin Park’s European festival run started finding something odd on official tour merchandise: a hidden URL, unshattermovie.com, printed into the design. It pointed to a placeholder page.
We wrote it up at the time, and the open question was whether it would turn out to be a cinematic concert film or a raw documentary about the Emily Armstrong era.
The answer is both. A documentary, opening theatrically, with a live album from São Paulo attached to it.
Two months early, off a hidden line of text on a t-shirt. Sometimes the fanbase does the reporting for you.
The Question The Film Will Either Answer Or Avoid
Now the part worth watching for.
The 2024 return was not universally welcomed. There was significant public criticism of the band’s decision to continue, and of Emily Armstrong specifically — including from Chester Bennington’s son Jaime, who spoke publicly about how the announcement was handled. Armstrong addressed one element of the criticism herself in a statement at the time. Shinoda has repeatedly said the intention was never a redo or a rewrite, but a new chapter.
But a documentary about the years surrounding that return either engages with it or it doesn’t, and which one it chooses will tell you a great deal about what kind of film this is. A movie about loss, uncertainty and reinvention that skips the hardest fortnight of the whole story would be a strange omission. One that faces it directly would be genuinely brave.
There’s a smaller open question too. Brad Delson played on From Zero but hasn’t performed live in support of it, with Alex Feder filling the live guitar role — much as Rob Bourdon’s absence was addressed separately. Whether the film covers any of that is unknown.
From Zero produced the No. 1 single “The Emptiness Machine” and made Linkin Park the only rock band to pass two billion streams in 2024. This June they became the first female-fronted act ever to close the Download Festival main stage, which we covered at the time.
Whatever anyone thinks of how it happened, commercially and live this band is operating at a scale that very few acts of any era reach.
If any of this brings up something difficult for you, support is available — reach out to a local crisis line or someone you trust.
TL;DR
Film: Unshatter, opening in theatres September 30, 2026. Tickets on sale August 13
Director: Joe Hahn, Linkin Park’s DJ and creative director
Subject: the years following Chester Bennington’s death in 2017 and the band’s 2024 return with Emily Armstrong and Colin Brittain
Span: intimate 2022 studio sessions through the From Zero release and the São Paulo launch concert
Contents: vault footage, live performances, and interviews with band members and fans
Companion release: Unshatter Film Soundtrack (Live In São Paulo), including performances not in the film
How it was shot: largely by one friend of the band, Mark, over several years. Shinoda: “don’t think reality TV”
The title: taken from “Unshatter,” an early track from the From Zero sessions released on the Deluxe Edition in May 2025
Preview: a live performance of “Somewhere I Belong” is out now
FAQ
When does the Linkin Park documentary Unshatter come out?
It opens in theatres on September 30, 2026, with tickets going on sale August 13.
What is Unshatter about?
It covers the years following Chester Bennington’s death in 2017 and Linkin Park’s 2024 return with vocalist Emily Armstrong and drummer Colin Brittain, running from private 2022 studio sessions through the From Zero album release and its launch concert in São Paulo.
Who directed the Linkin Park documentary?
Joe Hahn, the band’s DJ and creative director, who has made films alongside Linkin Park for most of his career. Most of the raw footage was shot by a friend of the band, Mark, rather than by a production crew.
Is there a soundtrack or live album?
Yes. The Unshatter Film Soundtrack (Live In São Paulo) arrives alongside the film and features performances spanning the band’s career, including recordings that don’t appear in the movie.
Why is the film called Unshatter?
It takes its name from a Linkin Park song of the same title — an early track written during the From Zero sessions and released as a single on From Zero (Deluxe Edition) in May 2025.
A film named after a song written before anyone knew there’d be a band again. Are you seeing this one in a theatre? Let us know in the comments.
STREAM THE METAL BREAKDOWN DAILY NOW:
LIVE & LOUD: Stream the World’s Hardest Radio Station 24/7