🔥 Who Will Rise as This Week’s Champion on the MDR Battle Of The Bands? 🔥 And who will dominate next month as Band of the Month on Metal Devastation Radio?
Last month’s winners, OKL’S FRUITLOOPS, crushed the competition with a staggering 5,083,542 VOTES , claiming the title of Band of the Month on Metal Devastation Radio! You can check them out HERE !
This is the weekly championship edition of the Band Of The Month – Battle Of The Bands that we host every month on MDR!
How does it work? Every Monday, we launch a new poll featuring bands that submit music each week on metaldevastationradio.com. Voting runs until Friday at 9PM EST .
Each Friday night , at the start of The Zach Moonshine Show , I’ll be spinning the Top Six weekly winners , and announcing the #1 band of the week live on air — getting thousands of listens on Mixcloud !
At the end of the month , all weekly votes are added up, and the band with the highest total votes becomes our Band of the Month !
Winning Band of the Month gets:
A featured post on our Facebook page, reaching thousands of fans
A front-page spotlight on metaldevastationradio.com , which pulls in hundreds of thousands of views every month
A free PR email blast from Metal Devastation PR, hitting 40,000+ contacts including labels, zines, stations, and more
Airplay every hour during general rotation
Tons of social media shares and exposure across our network
If you want the world to know who your band is, this is the easiest way to make it happen!
💥 Want in on the next battle? Comment below with your band name and we’ll add you to next week’s poll — or email me at zach@metaldevastationradio.com with “Battle Submission” in the subject line.
Bands can compete as many times as they want , and if you enter multiple weeks in the same month, your votes combine toward the Band of the Month title!
👇 Click on the bands below to vote as many times as you like, or add your own! Poll closes Friday, September 25th at 9PM EST!
Who Will Rise as This Week’s Champion on the MDR Battle Of The Bands? 09/22/26 – 09/25/26
Leprous singer Einar Solberg began his first-ever solo tour at The Garage in London this weekend, with a powerful cinematic performance that showcased a wide range of emotions, along with great arrangements and, of course, his exceptional vocal ability.
Tonight’s headliner takes the stage as the closer of a four-act bill. More on the other three a little later. Despite Leprous’ popularity, The Garage is not full tonight. However, progressive music fans who have missed this performance have many reasons to regret it.
Einar Solberg – The Garage, London – 18 September 2026. Photo: Rich Davies (Live Wire Music)
While Solberg’s solo career is, inevitably, in part related musically to what he does in his day job, those having seen both live will agree that this is a completely different proposition.
This tour is meant to promote his latest solo release, the exceptional Vox Occulta, an album featuring the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. And, if I may say, an album that puts wide cinematic musical landscapes first. Huge symphonic arrangements take precedence (together with Einar’s voice), rather than taking the somewhat traditional route of an orchestra complementing a traditional Metal band.
This is exactly the thing that makes Vox Occulta so special. If you have not yet listened to it, I can only recommend it. The record is an experience in itself.
Einar Solberg – The Garage, London – 18 September 2026. Photo: Rich Davies (Live Wire Music)
However, while Vox Occulta as a studio project must have been a very complex endeavour, one could only wonder how much more challenging it would be to do justice to those songs live. There was no need to have worried, even if the new record makes up the bulk of a set that lasts around an hour and a half.
In order to make this happen, no less than seven other musicians joined Einar Solberg on stage for this tour. Interestingly enough, some of them are also part of the opening acts. Bass player Eero Maijala is also a member of Royal Sorrow, and Raphael Weinroth-Browne has played a short cello set earlier in the evening. It is a phenomenal band, one that completely fills The Garage’s rather small stage.
Einar Solberg – The Garage, London – 18 September 2026. Photo: Rich Davies (Live Wire Music)
They come on dressed in monk-like hoods, and get straight into Stella Mortua, from the new opus I was mentioning. At which point any doubt as to how the arrangements would work is dispelled. It sounds full and powerful, the electric instruments and keyboards making up for any missing sounds.
I can only imagine the amount of rehearsal that this has involved. The band is tight, and Einar’s voice sounds as amazing as everyone remembers it.
Einar Solberg – The Garage, London – 18 September 2026. Photo: Rich Davies (Live Wire Music)
As the show progresses into the next track, the monk attire comes off, and underneath it is the elegant suit on the cover of the album, complete with a bow tie. One can only imagine that this show would not be out of place in a theatre. The orchestrations are so beautifully cinematic (that word again), and the playing so tight throughout that you can only let yourself get carried away.
As I mentioned, this is a set that relies a lot on the new tracks, all sounding spectacular and showcasing the ridiculous range Solberg has. It goes from lower notes into his trademark falsetto, as well as the harsh vocals that are not as present in what he does with Leprous most recently.
Einar Solberg – The Garage, London – 18 September 2026. Photo: Rich Davies (Live Wire Music)
This is not as much a Metal/rock/symphonic show (you pick one) as it is a journey through a range of feelings and states of mind. They include those of the man relaxed and feeling good in his own skin, such as as Serenitas, an absolutely gorgeous, somewhat quiet, track. Another example is A Beautiful Life, possibly one of his best-known solo tracks.
He does mention at one point that playing such songs might not show him as a tortured artist, but that things are going well.
He does alternate it with forays into the dark side, like Splitting The Soul, featuring Ihsahn on the album version, which sounds as heavy as you would expect.
Einar Solberg – The Garage, London – 18 September 2026. Photo: Rich Davies (Live Wire Music)
One can not help but feel that this is a man baring his soul in front of his audience. This is more poignant than ever on The Last Milestone, coincidentally a Leprous song, a dense track, which the singer explains is about his father’s last year, and the time they spent together then, before his parents’ decision to end his life.
With the next track, an imagining of his last moments, I look around me and see tears in the eyes of some of those around me.
It is a powerful moment, part of an extremely powerful performance throughout. If you are able to see Einar Solberg live, whether you are a Leprous fan or not, you are certainly in for something very special.
Einar Solberg – The Garage, London – 18 September 2026. Photo: Rich Davies (Live Wire Music)
Royal Sorrow
Dressed in rag-like outfits that could remind one somewhat of the Mad Max series, the Finnish band is the last one of the night before the headliner. They give an energetic modern progressive performance. This is melodic progressive Metal with catchy choruses and riffs, as well as the occasional bout of electronica.
Royal Sorrow – The Garage, London – 18 September 2026. Photo: Rich Davies (Live Wire Music)
It is well played and, on occasion, crushingly heavy. I personally find Covert, their new single, a highlight of the set. As mentioned, their bass player is also doing a great job in Einar Solberg’s band.
They are very popular with a part of the crowd, which is singing their lyrics with them. A solid performance.
Royal Sorrow – The Garage, London – 18 September 2026. Photo: Rich Davies (Live Wire Music)
Raphael Weinroth-Browne
If Royal Sorrow was a good fit for tonight’s headliner when it comes to the heavier stuff, the Canadian cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne is the one covering the classical side of things somewhat, as his cello playing is as Metal as it gets.
Raphael Weinroth-Browne – The Garage, London – 18 September 2026. Photo: Rich Davies (Live Wire Music)
When he steps onto the stage, alone with his string instrument, I can not help but think that it would become very odd, very fast. That is not the case, as he loops sequences, building songs from superimposed repeating parts, as well as showing off his virtuosity. It is certainly a joy to listen to, and so is his latest album, Empyrean.
Jovian Moons
The French band is opening tonight’s show. It was very much worth getting there early on. I had listened to their record a few days prior and was impressed with their ability to move around a range of styles, while retaining a pop sensibility.
Jovian Moons – The Garage, London – 18 September 2026. Photo: Rich Davies (Live Wire Music)
The live show is no different. It is funky at times, trippy at others, even venturing into passages with a post rock feel, or cinematic ones (the word of the night).
Invisible is a highlight, with its interesting textures, at the crossroads where Air meets Steven Wilson, and with a driving bass line. An act to keep an eye on in the future.
A recording from 2018 forms the basis of NUCLEARHAMMER’s newly unveiled EP, Xaos 333. The Toronto trio’s three-track release is now streaming in full through the No Gleaming Light YouTube channel, ahead of its September 25, 2026 arrival on CD and 12-inch vinyl via Iron Bonehead Productions. Xaos 333 is the band’s first recording to […]
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from the proudly messy Philadelphia DIY crew Empath, but they’re still going, and we think of them fondly. We recognized their last LP, the 2022 sophomore joint Visitor as an Album Of The Week. Empath haven’t released any new music in a few years, but they toured earlier this year. They haven’t broken up or anything. I’d assume that they’ll make another record at some point. In the meantime, bandleader Catherine Elicson has something else on deck — her first-ever solo album, which bears the viscerally tangible title River Of Fat.
Helldrifter Begin Preparing New Material Following Busy Touring Cycle
German melodic death metal outfit Helldrifter are already looking toward their next chapter, with the band confirming that work on new material will officially begin after the summer.
German melodic death metal band Helldrifter are gearing up for the next phase of their career.
Following an extensive period of touring and live activity, the southern German outfit has announced that they will begin working on new material after the summer. While the songwriting process remains in its early stages, the band has revealed that a substantial amount of new music is already beginning to take shape behind the scenes.
The announcement comes as Helldrifter approach the end of a particularly active touring cycle supporting their latest release, Shell of Inexistence .
Over the past year, the band has taken their melodic death metal attack across Germany, including an extensive support run with Dutch death metal veterans Sinister . Helldrifter subsequently continued their campaign with a series of club shows throughout Germany, building on the momentum generated by the release.
The band are now preparing for their final festival appearances of the summer before turning their attention toward songwriting and the creation of what will become their next release.
Although Helldrifter aren’t revealing many details about the new material just yet, their latest announcement suggests that the band isn’t short on ideas.
Lead vocalist Billy Kolins comments:
“Something new is brewing, and we’re incredibly excited about what’s coming. It will take some time, but one thing is for sure: there will be a lot of new material.”
That last part should certainly get the attention of anyone who has been following the band.
With the Shell of Inexistence touring cycle winding down, Helldrifter are entering a different phase. Rather than immediately rushing another release into production, the band will have time to develop the material and determine where they want to take their sound next.
For a band operating in the melodic death metal territory occupied by acts such as Carcass, At The Gates, Benediction, and Death , expectations will naturally be high. For now, however, the details remain firmly under wraps.
What is known is that Helldrifter have new music brewing, the writing process is set to begin in earnest after the summer, and according to Kolins, there will be a lot of new material coming out of the process.
For fans who have been following the band through their recent touring run, the next chapter is already beginning to take shape.
Listen To Shell of Inexistence
Bands with no original members are all over metal, and most fans only notice when it’s a name they grew up with. These are 23 metal and hard rock bands still playing live with nobody left from the lineup that started them. Some lost their founders to death, some to lawsuits, and some to a rehearsal-room coup before they’d recorded a note.
I’ve ranked them from the weakest claim to the name up to the strongest. Two of the biggest bands in heavy music are on this list, and the one at number one has a frontman most people would swear started it.
Last Updated: September 2026
How We Decided Who Counts
The rule is strict. An original member is someone who was in the band when it formed, either under the name it uses now or the name it started with. Anyone who joined afterwards doesn’t count, even if it was two weeks afterwards and even if they wrote every song you know.
The list runs across nearly every corner of the genre, from grindcore and thrash to folk metal and metalcore. That rule puts some bands on it that will make people angry, and I’m fine with that. Where a band only qualifies on a technicality, the entry says so.
The ranking comes down to one question. Has the current lineup earned the name? That means how many of the records you love were made by the people on stage now, and how long they’ve carried it. At the bottom are the bands playing on the name. At the top are the bands where the name belongs to the people using it.
23. Iron Butterfly
Iron Butterfly started in San Diego in 1966, formed by Doug Ingle, Jack Pinney, Greg Willis and Danny Weis. Ron Bushy came in that year, and Lee Dorman and Erik Brann arrived in 1967. That’s the lineup behind In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, the 17-minute proto-metal slab that went four times platinum.
All four of them are gone. Brann died in 2003, Dorman in 2012 and Bushy in 2021. Ingle, the last survivor of that classic lineup, died on 24 May 2024.
The band playing today is Eric Barnett, Jawn Star, Dave Whiston and Bernie Pershey. They first played together at HRH Prog in October 2024 and have done occasional shows since, including a cruise. They aren’t really touring. They turn up now and then.
It sits at the bottom because nobody alive today played on the record that made the name worth anything.
22. Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot formed in Los Angeles in 1973 around Kevin DuBrow, Randy Rhoads and Kelly Garni, and took the Quiet Riot name in 1975. Rhoads left for Ozzy at the end of the decade, and his story is its own tragedy.
DuBrow was the band. He sang Metal Health, which in November 1983 became the first heavy metal album to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200. He died in November 2007. After that, drummer Frankie Banali kept it going. He wasn’t a founder either, but he’d played on Metal Health. Banali died on 20 August 2020, and the band carried on at his request.
Today it’s Rudy Sarzo on bass, who first joined in 1978, with Alex Grossi on guitar, Johnny Kelly of Type O Negative on drums, and a singer’s seat that keeps changing hands.
Sarzo is real history. But a Quiet Riot with neither DuBrow nor Banali is a tribute band with a trademark.
21. Saliva
Saliva came out of Bartlett, Tennessee, just outside Memphis, in 1996. The founders were Josey Scott, Wayne Swinny, Chris D’Abaldo, Dave Novotny and Todd Poole. Every Six Seconds broke them with ‘Click Click Boom’, and ‘Always’ made them a radio fixture.
Scott left, and Bobby Amaru has fronted the band for more than a decade. Swinny was the last founder standing. He died on 22 March 2023 after a brain haemorrhage, in the middle of a tour.
Now there are two Saliva-shaped things on the road: Amaru’s lineup, which owns the name, and Josey Scott’s Saliva, launched a couple of months after Swinny’s death. Amaru has worked hard and he’s a good singer. But when the voice on the hits is touring his own version in the same market, it’s hard to argue this is the real one.
20. Vixen
Vixen was Jan Kuehnemund’s band. She started it in St. Paul, Minnesota, and built an all-female hard rock band that major-label radio couldn’t ignore, which they proved with the 1988 debut and ‘Edge of a Broken Heart’. Kuehnemund died of cancer on 10 October 2013, while she was planning a classic-lineup reunion.
Drummer Roxy Petrucci has kept it going. You’ll see her called a founding member, but she joined in 1986 from Madam X. She belongs to the classic lineup, and she arrived years after the band began. Around her now are Britt Lightning on guitar, Julia Lage on bass and Rosa Laricchiuta on vocals.
Petrucci earned her seat on the records that mattered, and the band is fun live. But Janet Gardner’s voice and Kuehnemund’s vision were the band, and neither is on stage.
19. April Wine
Hard rock rather than metal, but it’s the clearest case on this list of a band outliving the man it was built around. April Wine formed in Waverley, Nova Scotia, in 1969. The founders were Myles Goodwyn and the three Henman brothers, David, Ritchie and Jim. The Henmans were all gone by 1973.
Goodwyn was April Wine for five decades. He played his last show on 2 March 2023 and died on 3 December 2023, aged 75.
The band is still on the road, including a 2026 run opening for Triumph. It’s led by Brian Greenway, who first joined in 1977, with Richard Lanthier, Roy Nichol and Marc Parent.
Greenway played on The Nature of the Beast and he’s earned respect. But a band built around one songwriter carrying on without him is the definition of a heritage act.
18. Pantera
Pantera formed in Arlington, Texas, in 1981. The founders were the Abbott brothers, Darrell and Vinnie Paul, with Terry Glaze, Donny Hart and Tommy Bradford. Rex Brown joined in 1982. Phil Anselmo arrived in 1986.
Both of the men who started it are dead. Dimebag was shot and killed on stage in Columbus, Ohio on 8 December 2004. Vinnie Paul died on 22 June 2018.
So the Pantera that reunited in 2022 has no original members. It’s Anselmo and Brown with Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante in the Abbotts’ places. Anselmo and Brown made every record anyone ranks Pantera by, which is why this isn’t lower. But the guitar was the band, and I’ve already said where I stand on the celebration. Wylde plays those parts with love. He still isn’t the man who wrote them.
17. Finntroll
Finntroll started in Helsinki in 1997 as the idea of guitarist Teemu “Somnium” Raimoranta and vocalist Jan “Katla” Jämsen: black metal crossed with the bouncing folk of humppa. It worked. Jaktens tid in 2001 made them the reference point for folk metal.
Somnium died on 16 March 2003. The same year Katla had to stop performing because of a tumour on his vocal cords. Some sources say he kept writing lyrics afterwards, which is the one wrinkle here.
The core of the band now is Skrymer, Trollhorn and Tundra, all in since 1998, one year after the start. That’s close enough to the beginning that it’s their band too. But the two men who invented the sound are gone.
16. Riot V
Riot formed in New York City in 1975, built around guitarist Mark Reale, with drummer Peter Bitelli, bassist Phil Feit and singer Guy Speranza. Reale was Riot for 37 years. He died on 25 January 2012 from complications of Crohn’s disease, and Speranza had died in 2003.
The band came back in 2013 as Riot V, and it’s been a proper band ever since. Mean Streets came out in 2024.
The claim rests on two men. Bassist Don Van Stavern first joined in 1986 and played on Thundersteel. Guitarist Mike Flyntz has been there since 1989. Thundersteel is the album that matters most to most Riot fans, and one of the men who made it is still on stage. That lifts Riot V above most of the heritage acts. Reale’s name is still on every note, though.
15. GWAR
GWAR came together in Richmond, Virginia, in the mid-1980s. Dave Brockie’s punk band Death Piggy crashed into the Slave Pit, an art space run by Hunter Jackson and Chuck Varga. The costumes and the blood came from the art side, and the songs and the mouth came from Brockie.
Brockie, as Oderus Urungus, died in March 2014. Jackson left in 2000.
The GWAR on tour today has Michael Bishop fronting as Blöthar. He first played with the band in 1987 and came back to lead it after Brockie’s death. Around him are Mike Derks as Balsac, in since 1988, and Brad Roberts as Jizmak, in since 1989.
GWAR might be the only band on this list built to survive this. The characters are the band, and the characters are still out there spraying crowds on multi-month tours. But nobody replaces Oderus. They didn’t try, which is the right call.
14. Stratovarius
Stratovarius began in Helsinki in 1984 as Black Water. The founders were Tuomo Lassila, Staffan Stråhlman and John Vihervä. Timo Tolkki joined in 1985 and turned it into his band, writing the power metal records that defined it. Lassila, the last founder, left in 1995.
Tolkki quit in 2008 and now plays the old songs as Timo Tolkki’s Strato.
That leaves Stratovarius without its founders and without its main songwriter. It still has singer Timo Kotipelto, in since 1994, and keyboard player Jens Johansson, in since the mid-1990s. Both played on Episode and Visions. Matias Kupiainen has spent nearly two decades writing a new chapter.
This is a working band that still makes records. The founders had checked out before anyone knew the name.
13. Of Mice & Men
Of Mice & Men was formed in 2009 by Austin Carlile and Jaxin Hall. Hall was gone within a year. Carlile, the voice and the face, left on 30 December 2016 because of his health.
The current lineup qualifies on a technicality. Drummer Valentino Arteaga and guitarist Phil Manansala were both recruited in 2009, straight after Carlile and Hall started the band. They aren’t founders by the strict rule, but they’ve been there from essentially day one.
Aaron Pauley, in since 2012, took over lead vocals, and Alan Ashby has been on guitar since The Flood. They’ve made more records without Carlile than with him, including Another Miracle in 2025.
This is the rare case where losing the singer made the band. Pauley’s era is a band that knows exactly what it is.
12. Norma Jean
Norma Jean started out in Douglasville, Georgia, in 1997 as Luti-Kriss. Josh Scogin, Scottie Henry, Chris Day, Josh Swofford and Daniel Davison were in that first lineup. Scogin sang Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child and then left to start The Chariot.
Cory Brandan took over in 2004, and his first album with them was O God, the Aftermath, which picked up a Grammy nomination for its packaging. Guitarist Chris Day was the last founder left, and he was gone by the mid-2010s.
Brandan has now been Norma Jean for twenty-plus years and most of the discography. The version of this band most people know has always been his. Metalcore’s revolving doors don’t usually end this well.
11. Asphyx
Asphyx was formed in Oldenzaal in the Netherlands in 1987 by drummer Bob Bagchus and guitarist Tony Brookhuis. Martin van Drunen came over from Pestilence in 1990 and sang The Rack, the doom-soaked death metal record the band is still measured against.
Bagchus stayed the longest. When he left in March 2014, Asphyx was left with no original members.
Van Drunen is the voice people hear when they think of Asphyx, and he’s still out front. His band has been Paul Baayens on guitar since 2007, Alwin Zuur on bass since 2010 and Stefan Hüskens on drums since 2014. Necroceros in 2021 proved it wasn’t a nostalgia run.
The drummer who started it is gone, but the voice of the album that made it matter is still screaming.
10. Dark Angel
Dark Angel began in Downey, California, in 1981 as Shellshock. The founders were Don Doty, Jim Durkin, Rob Yahn and Mike Andrade, and they renamed the band in 1983. Eric Meyer and Gene Hoglan joined in 1984. Darkness Descends came out in 1986, and it’s still one of the fastest, most punishing thrash records ever pressed.
Durkin stopped playing live in 2020 and died on 8 March 2023, leaving Dark Angel with no original members.
But look who’s left. Hoglan and Meyer played on Darkness Descends. Ron Rinehart, in since 1987, sang Leave Scars. Mike Gonzalez has been on bass since 1986. That’s most of the band’s classic era on one stage. Extinction Level Event came out in 2025, and they toured it.
Durkin was the founder. The records were made by the people still in the room.
9. Chelsea Grin
Chelsea Grin started in Salt Lake City in 2007, first under the name Ahaziah. The founders were Alex Koehler, Chris Kilbourn, Austin Marticorena and Michael Stafford, with Andrew Carlston on drums. Koehler lasted the longest, and his exit in April 2018 left the band with no founders at all.
Bassist David Flinn joined in 2009 and has played on every Chelsea Grin album. Tom Barber came over from Lorna Shore in 2018 and turned the vocals into something frightening. Stephen Rutishauser has been on guitar since 2015.
The Suffer in Hell and Suffer in Heaven double is the heaviest thing the band has made. The strongest period in its history came after the last founder walked out. That’s rare enough to rank them this high.
8. Accept
This is the most argued-over entry on the list. Accept’s roots go back to Solingen in 1968, when Udo Dirkschneider started a band called Band X. It became Accept in the early 1970s. Wolf Hoffmann joined at the end of 1975 when the band was looking for a new guitarist. He was 16.
Accept itself counts its history from 1976, and on that count Hoffmann is an original member. On the strict rule, the band was already running when he walked in, so he isn’t.
Either way, Udo is gone. He was fired in 1987, came back twice, and turned down the 2009 reunion. Mark Tornillo has fronted Accept since. Peter Baltes left in 2018 after 42 years.
Hoffmann is on every Accept album, including Balls to the Wall. Five decades of riffs is a claim nobody else here can match, technicality or not.
7. Possessed
Possessed formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1980s. The founders were guitarist Mike Torrao and drummer Mike Sus, with singer Barry Fisk and bassist Jeff Andrews. Fisk died in 1983. Jeff Becerra came in on vocals and bass that year.
So Becerra isn’t a founder, even though you’ll constantly see him called one. He was the voice on Seven Churches in 1985, the album that closes with a song called ‘Death Metal’. In 1989 he was shot during a robbery and paralysed from the chest down.
He brought Possessed back anyway. Revelations of Oblivion came out in 2019, and he’s taken Seven Churches around the world for its 40th anniversary, performing from his wheelchair.
The people who formed it didn’t define it. Becerra did, and he’s still out there.
6. In Flames
In Flames was founded in Gothenburg in 1990 by Jesper Strömblad, as a side project that became a proper band in 1993. Anders Fridén came over from Dark Tranquillity in 1995. Björn Gelotte joined the same year, as the drummer.
Strömblad left in February 2010. That was the last of the man who started it.
But Fridén and Gelotte have been In Flames for thirty years. They made The Jester Race, Clayman and Come Clarity, and those albums are why melodic death metal sounds the way it does. They’re all over our ranking of the discography and the melodeath records that matter. Chris Broderick has been on guitar since 2022 and Liam Wilson on bass since 2024.
Strömblad wrote the early blueprint, but the band everyone argues about is Fridén and Gelotte’s.
5. Flotsam and Jetsam
Flotsam and Jetsam began in the Phoenix area in 1981 as Paradox, went through the names Dredlox and Dogz, and became Flotsam and Jetsam around 1983. Drummer Kelly David-Smith was there at the start and was the last founder to leave, in November 2014.
Singer Eric A.K. joined in 1982. That was after the band formed but before the Flotsam and Jetsam name existed, which is why this is disputed. He sang Doomsday for the Deceiver, the 1986 thrash record that took Jason Newsted to Metallica. Guitarist Michael Gilbert joined in 1985 at 17.
They’re still putting out records, and Rats in the Temple arrived in 2026. Eric A.K. has been the voice of this band for more than forty years. If you hear Flotsam, you hear him.
4. Cryptopsy
Cryptopsy formed in Montreal in April 1988 as O.C.D., started by drummer Mike Atkin, guitarist Steve Thibault and vocalist Lord Worm. It became Necrosis, fell apart when Atkin left in 1991, and was rebuilt around Thibault and Lord Worm. Flo Mounier joined that November, and the name Cryptopsy arrived in September 1992.
Lord Worm left for good in 2007. By the 1988 start date, no founder remains.
Here’s the thing, though. Mounier was there before the name was, and he’s on every Cryptopsy album, including None So Vile. He’s one of the most technically terrifying drummers death metal has ever produced. Christian Donaldson and Matt McGachy have been beside him for most of the last twenty years.
It’s disputed, but the band has only ever had one heartbeat, and it’s still playing.
3. Napalm Death
Napalm Death was started in Meriden, near Birmingham, in May 1981 by two schoolkids, Nic Bullen and Miles Ratledge, aged about 12 and 13. Ratledge left in 1985. Bullen went at the end of 1986, having sung on the first side of Scum.
Nobody on stage now was there. It doesn’t matter.
Shane Embury joined on bass in 1987. Barney Greenway took the vocals in 1989. Danny Herrera has been on drums since 1991. That trio has made grindcore’s most important body of work from the early 1990s through to Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism, and they still tour hard. John Cooke has handled guitar live since Mitch Harris stopped touring in 2014.
If the definition of a band is the people who made the music, Napalm Death has been Embury, Greenway and Herrera’s for more than three decades. The founders built the name as kids. These three made it mean something.
2. Trivium
Trivium formed in Orlando in 1999. The founders were singer Brad Lewter, guitarist Jarred Bonaparte and drummer Travis Smith. Lewter saw a teenage Matt Heafy at a school talent show and brought him in shortly after. Lewter was gone by 2000.
So yes, Trivium has no original members. Heafy wasn’t one of them.
Heafy is also the only reason Trivium is Trivium. He sang and played on Ember to Inferno in 2003 and Ascendancy in 2005, and he’s written the band’s whole story since. Corey Beaulieu has been beside him since 2003 and Paolo Gregoletto since 2004. Alex Rüdinger took over the drums in late 2025.
This is the technicality that proves the rule is silly. Nobody on earth thinks of Trivium without Heafy, and yet he joined a band someone else had started.
1. Opeth
Opeth formed in Täby, just outside Stockholm, in the spring of 1990. The founder was vocalist David Isberg, with Mikael Bergström, Dan Nilsson, Martin Persson and Rille Evén. At an early rehearsal, Isberg brought in a teenage Mikael Åkerfeldt on bass without telling the others. They walked out. Isberg left in early 1992.
So Opeth, one of the most distinctive bands metal has produced, has no original members. Åkerfeldt isn’t one.
He has written every Opeth album, from Orchid in 1995 through Blackwater Park to The Last Will and Testament in 2024. Martín Méndez has been on bass since 1997, Fredrik Åkesson on guitar since 2007 and Joakim Svalberg on keyboards since 2011. Waltteri Väyrynen has been on drums since 2022. If you want to see how much that catalogue covers, our Opeth ranking walks through all of it.
That’s why it’s number one. No other band here belongs so completely to someone who technically didn’t start it.
Near Misses: Bands That Still Have One Founder
These came up in the research and don’t make the list, because one founder is still in the band or the name is in dispute.
Nazareth. Founding bassist Pete Agnew, there since 1968, is still in the band, alongside his son Lee on drums. Singer Dan McCafferty died in November 2022, but Agnew keeps Nazareth on the right side of the line.
Helix. Brian Vollmer was in the original 1974 lineup in Kitchener, Ontario, and he’s still singing.
Venom. Mantas started the band in 1978 and isn’t in it. But Cronos joined within months and is almost universally treated as a founder. He’s still leading it.
Molly Hatchet. The 1976 recording lineup is all gone, but bassist Tim Lindsey was in the 1971 band and is back in it now.
Sepultura. It qualifies on the strict rule, since Paulo Jr. joined months after Max and Igor Cavalera started it. The band is ending with a final show in São Paulo in November 2026, though, so it’s no longer a band that’s carrying on.
Ratt. Nobody is performing as Ratt at all right now. Founder Stephen Pearcy is out playing the songs under his own name.
The Quireboys. Founding singer Spike was pushed out in 2022, then reunited with other early members and kept the name. The other lineup renamed itself Black Eyed Sons.
The Full Ranking
Opeth
Trivium
Napalm Death
Cryptopsy
Flotsam and Jetsam
In Flames
Possessed
Accept
Chelsea Grin
Dark Angel
Asphyx
Norma Jean
Of Mice & Men
Stratovarius
GWAR
Riot V
Finntroll
Pantera
April Wine
Vixen
Saliva
Quiet Riot
Iron Butterfly
TL;DR
23 metal and hard rock bands are still playing live with no original members in the lineup.
An original member here means someone in the band when it formed. Anyone who joined later doesn’t count, even weeks later.
Opeth, Trivium and Napalm Death top the list because the current members made almost every record that matters.
Pantera, Quiet Riot, Saliva and Iron Butterfly are near the bottom because the people who defined them are gone.
Nazareth, Helix, Venom and Molly Hatchet don’t qualify, because a founder is still in each band.
FAQ
Which metal bands are still touring with no original members?
Opeth, Trivium, Napalm Death, In Flames, Pantera, Quiet Riot, Accept, GWAR, Stratovarius, Riot V, Saliva, Vixen, Cryptopsy, Flotsam and Jetsam, Possessed, Dark Angel, Chelsea Grin, Asphyx, Norma Jean, Finntroll, Of Mice & Men, April Wine and Iron Butterfly all play live with nobody left from the lineup that formed them. Several qualify only because their best-known member joined shortly after the band began.
Does Pantera have any original members?
No. Pantera was founded in 1981 by Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul Abbott with Terry Glaze, Donny Hart and Tommy Bradford. Rex Brown joined in 1982 and Phil Anselmo in 1986. The reunited Pantera is Anselmo, Brown, Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante.
Does Quiet Riot have any original members left?
No. Quiet Riot was formed by Kevin DuBrow, Randy Rhoads and Kelly Garni. DuBrow died in 2007, and longtime drummer Frankie Banali, who wasn’t a founder, died in 2020. Bassist Rudy Sarzo first joined in 1978.
Is Mikael Åkerfeldt a founding member of Opeth?
No. Opeth was founded in 1990 by vocalist David Isberg. Åkerfeldt joined on bass at an early rehearsal later that year, and the other original members left soon after. Åkerfeldt has written every Opeth album and led the band ever since.
How can a band tour with no original members?
A band can keep touring as long as whoever controls the band name agrees to it. That is often a surviving member, a partnership or a company that holds the trademark. When that’s contested, it can end up in court, as it did with Ratt in 2016.
Which band on this list has earned its name, and which one should have retired it years ago? Tell us where the ranking got it wrong in the comments. Follow Loaded Radio for daily rock and metal news.
