Going Independent, Busting Myths: What Avenged Sevenfold and Gary Holt's Week Says About South America's Thrash and Death Scenes

Every so often the international metal news cycle throws up a handful of stories that, on the surface, seem to have nothing to do with the underground scenes bubbling up in São Paulo basements or Buenos Aires squats. But look closer at this week's headlines — Avenged Sevenfold cutting ties with major labels, Gary Holt dismantling thrash metal folklore, Walls of Jericho finally dropping a record after a decade of silence — and you find a throughline that speaks directly to how bands are built and sustained in South America: independence, patience, and mythology.

Avenged Sevenfold's Label Divorce and the DIY Blueprint South America Already Knows

M. Shadows recently confirmed on the podcast Delivering Happiness that Avenged Sevenfold has no interest in ever signing to a label again, framing the band's newly independent status as a permanent shift rather than a temporary arrangement. It's a headline that reads as revolutionary in the context of a band that spent two decades on major labels, but for anyone paying attention to the South American metal scene, self-releasing music, booking your own tours, and building an audience without corporate machinery isn't a bold new experiment — it's simply how the underground has always operated here.

Bands across the region have never had the luxury of label infrastructure to lean on in the first place. Death metal acts like Antropomancia and Abducción, or brutal death outfits like Fisura Craneal, have built their followings through relentless regional touring, physical tape and CD trading, and word of mouth at fests — the same independence that Avenged Sevenfold is only now publicly embracing. When a band the size of A7X declares that labels are obsolete, it validates a model that thrash, death, and black metal crews in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia have quietly proven for years.

Gary Holt's Thrash History Lesson Hits Different South of the Equator

Elsewhere this week, Exodus and Slayer guitarist Gary Holt spent time publicly correcting misconceptions about thrash metal's history and mythology, a story that made Metal Injection's weekly roundup alongside news of Thy Art Is Murder's new vocalist and Faith No More's return. Holt's myth-busting is a reminder that thrash was never a monolith invented in one Bay Area garage — it was a global reaction, and South America was very much part of that reaction from the earliest days.

That lineage is still very much alive. Panzzer and Nucleador both carry the crossover-thrash torch with the same riff-first, no-nonsense aggression that made the genre a global phenomenon rather than a regional footnote. It's worth remembering that when we talk about the best metal albums of all time, thrash's golden era owes plenty to bands outside the US and Germany who took the blueprint and ran with it in their own languages and their own political contexts — Brazilian thrash acts in particular were reacting to military dictatorship and social upheaval in ways that gave the genre a completely different weight than its American counterpart. Holt correcting the record on thrash's American mythology is a good excuse to remind readers that the genre's true history is far more international, and far more South American, than most retrospectives give credit for.

Walls Of Jericho's Decade-Long Wait and the Value of Patience

Walls Of Jericho revealed a November European/UK tour timed to their first new album in ten years, a stretch of silence that would sink most bands but instead built anticipation. That kind of patience — going quiet, regrouping, and returning with something substantial rather than rushing product to market — is a lesson that resonates with doom and death-doom acts in South America who often operate on similarly unhurried timelines. Bands like Necromanicider and In Void Sun aren't chasing algorithmic release schedules; the doom and death-doom underground has always understood that some records need years to properly ferment.

The same goes for heavier, more atmospheric corners of the scene. Hevnoraak's death-doom crawl and Denun's gothic doom textures both operate on the principle that heaviness is best served slow-cooked, not microwaved. Walls Of Jericho's comeback is a mainstream-adjacent validation of a philosophy South American doom bands never abandoned.

The Deathcore and Death Metal Conversation Continues

Thy Art Is Murder's vocalist change also made this week's news cycle, keeping deathcore and its death metal cousins in the conversation. South America's death metal underground remains one of the densest and most technically accomplished corners of the regional scene, with hundreds of active bands spread across Brazil, Argentina, and beyond. Legista and Bloody Vomit both represent the more visceral, old-school end of that spectrum, while grind-leaning acts like El Santo Asesino and Diabolical Hate push the tempo and brutality even further. Vocalist transitions are a universal metal band experience — ask any death metal act that's cycled through three or four frontmen trying to find the right growl — and it's a reminder that continuity in extreme metal often has less to do with any single member and everything to do with the songwriting DNA underneath.

Heavy Metal's Old Guard and New Blood

Faith No More's return and continued nostalgia-fueled activity from acts tied to the 80s metal bands era — plus Elastica's own comeback announcement — underline just how much appetite still exists for veteran acts reactivating after long absences. South America has its own relationship with that legacy. Traditional heavy metal bands like Vocifer and Evil Minds draw directly from the NWOBHM and classic 80s metal playbook, proving the old formulas — twin-guitar harmonies, soaring clean vocals, riffs built for driving — still resonate with a new generation of listeners. Accipiter and Brazilian heavy metal veterans Massacration both carry that torch forward with a wink and a riff, proof that heavy metal's classic songwriting instincts translate across decades and borders.

Black Metal's Quiet Persistence

None of this week's headlines directly touched black metal, but it's worth noting that the genre remains one of the most populated and least covered corners of the South American underground. Raw, atmospheric, and depressive black metal projects like Entherror, Drahg, Faithless Yell, Labyrinth Spell, Ecos Póstumos, and Glacies Draconis continue to release material with almost no press coverage outside dedicated tape-trading circles. As the global conversation keeps circling back to established black metal names, it's a good moment to remember that some of the most uncompromising black metal being made right now is coming out of small home studios across this continent.

Looking Ahead

Between Avenged Sevenfold's independence, Gary Holt's thrash history corrections, and Walls Of Jericho's patient comeback, this week's headlines all point toward the same conclusion: the traditional gatekeeping structures of the metal industry are eroding, and the bands who've spent years operating without them are increasingly the ones setting the template. South America's death metal scene, its thrash veterans, its doom crawlers, and its black metal underground have never needed permission from labels or industry consensus to keep pushing forward.

As we look toward new metal bands 2026 and which acts will be among the metal bands touring 2026 circuit, keep an eye on this region. Brazilian death metal exports like Crypta and thrash veterans Malevolence have already shown international audiences what South American extremity sounds like at full strength — and there's a deep bench behind them ready to do the same. Check upcoming shows across the region to catch these bands live, and if you're in a band that belongs in this conversation, submit your band to get on the radar.