Last week, we polled our readers on their most anticipated albums of 2026, which revealed that they’re eager to hear more music from a number of notable veteran heavy-hitters. That said — and just like us — those same music fans have their ears attuned for the next wave of artists primed to make a big splash.
The class of 2026 seem to be pulling from all corners of the heavy world, flexing anything from throwback screamo theatrics, to god-level djent-pop, to TikTok-dominating beatdowns. Those aesthetics may differ, but the thing that unites them is their ability to get the fans talking — and ready to crank it up loud.
With all that in mind, these are the top 5 up-and-comers that our readers predict will make big moves in 2026.
Moodring
Moodring leader Hunter Young faced a tough road while making the project’s latest album, death fetish.
This included receiving “a life-changing medical diagnosis” that forced him to stop actively touring with Moodring, as well as with his other band, deathcore extremists PSYCHO-FRAME. He’s also said that death fetish singles like “Masochist Machine” reflect the feeling of being “used by your own addictions and obsessive compulsions.”
Young’s self-described “dark, honest record” apparently comes from a troubled place, but the cathartically grooved previews readers have heard so far have uplifted their moods exponentially — and hopefully his, too.
Fox Lake
Denver foursome Fox Lake fire-stormed the heavy scene last year with the punitively rap-rocking flows and incendiary breakdowns of their New World Heat album. Then the record body-bagged the Zeitgeist when Nathan Johnson’s dirt-born mosh call on “Freestyle” became a hot topic on TikTok. This led to a cavernously booming EDM remix from Phaseone.
How Fox Lake run it back in 2026 remains to be seen, but it’d be a grave mistake to keep your eyes off ’em this year.
Vana
Auckland, New Zealand’s Vana announced she’d signed to Sumerian Records late last year at the same time she dropped her heavenly cooed and hellaciously screamed single “Pray.” Mixing a Spirtibox-ian sound with spikily noise-wrecked production tics and more, the song had much of our readership dropping to their proverbial knees to plead that more new music arrive ASAP.
Vana, who implied on Instagram that one of her many goals is to “bring back catchy choruses,” launches her first-ever U.S. headline tour in April. It’s fair to say that many will be in attendance to worship the djent-pop rising star.
Vianova
It seems like there are at least a couple things you can bank on with each Vianova drop: The sartorially sleek quartet will be dressed up to the nines, and they’ll be serving up an absurdly fun amalgam of progressive metal, diamond-glittering neo-soul and so much more.
Ahead of the fusionist fever dream that was last year’s Hit It! LP, we’d said that their saxophone-steamy, balladic-but-djent-banging “Obsolete” single sounded like “Benson Boone on a Bad Omens bender.” It’s only gotten more delightfully weird, and Revolver readers came out hard in this poll to show their support for the German genre-splicers.
I Promised the World
Fort Worth, Texas, screamo revivalists I Promised the World impressed many when they were out on tour with Deafheaven last fall, and that’s only continued into 2026 through a series of sold-out shows on their first formal headlining tour.
What’s helped them stand out as a band to watch is the way they both gracefully and chaotically sway through teary melodicism, bone-crunching grit and furious passion on their recent self-titled EP — which both honors and modernizes the jet-black bowl-cut aesthetic of Aughts icons like From Autumn to Ashes and Misery Signals.
They promised the world, but first they have to conquer it.