Though 2026 has provided plenty of headbanging hits from the biggest names in heavy music, fans are also excited over the fresh sounds that have been coming out of a new generation of noisemakers.
After asking our readers to highlight their standout picks for the top albums and songs of the year thus far, we reached out last week to find out who’s truly on the come-up in 2026. From adventurous heavy hybridists to boldly polka-dotted duos, these were the names they shouted out the loudest
vianova
You can’t keep vianova down.
While the band have been faced with some exhausting challenges throughout their current tour cycle behind breakthrough album HIT IT! — including two separate drummer hospitalizations in June alone — the Berlin-bred outfit continue to give it their all to the crowds with their fusion-freaked fervor.
Whether sliding into cocoa-butter soul-jazz or djent-demonic metalcore, vianova are impressing the masses — and inspiring them to hit their local haberdasher to don something similar to Alexander Kerski’s now-iconic fur hat.
Angine de Poitrine
Few acts have captured the collective imagination in 2026 quite like papier-mâché-masked and prolifically polka-dotted microtonal funk-rockers, Angine de Poitrine — and this fascination with the anonymous Quebecois duo extends to Revolver readers, too.
Though their first album came out in 2024, the group went absolutely supernova earlier in the year over their KEXP in-studio performance (clocking in at more than 20 million views and counting).
They look as if Slipknot, a Mardi Gras float and Dusty Rhoads’ WWF singlet got sprayed out of a soda bottle. The skronked-and-swerved sonic aesthetic suggests flavors of King Gizzard, Seventies prog and perhaps even Primus at their soupiest. And all of it has made guitarist-bassist Khn de Poitrine and drummer Klek de Poitrine the talk of the town — selling out dates all over the world and even inspiring Russian knockoff bands to capitalize on their anonymity.
156/Silence
Revolver readers were hardly holding their tongues when it came to telling us about how much they’re feeling the new 156/Silence songs.
Though the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, natives have been going strong for a decade plus, the Steel City wrecking crew have been on a tear since delivering 2024’s People Watching, and countless eyes are on ‘em en route to this September’s eagerly anticipated follow-up, From a Distance.
They impressed as part of the stacked lineup of Thornhill’s “Mercia Tour,” and fans have been plenty vocal in our comments over their love of the new record’s “Blind”-recalling grooves (“No Arms”) and storm-clouded metalcore (“Proxy Idols”).
sace6
sace6 built up plenty of hype in the lead-up to this spring’s brutalist album, a record that hypnotized listeners though its complex layering of R&B production swirls, jagged-edge metalcore riffage and guitar pedal-exploding sonic glitch-outs.
On top of all that, you’ve got an alluring vocal dynamic being maintained between Swarovski-crystal crooner sace and gravel-spittin’ ragemaxxer Noah Thomas.
The band hit the road to support Dayseeker earlier this spring. sace6 fans have been showing up en masse in the comments, suggesting it may not be long before the act position themselves at the top of the marquee.
Vana
Earlier this year, the fans voted New Zealand metalcore-expander Vana as the artist to watch in 2026. This week, they doubled-down on this assertion, crowning the “In Your Name” singer the No. 1 breakout star in the contemporary heavy-music scene so far this year.
Her following is only growing. She recently took on massive crowds while opening for Linkin Park, and likewise mounted her successful first U.S. tour.
Vana’s climb to the top has, in part, been steered by her goal to “bring back catchy choruses,” That she’s done so while incorporating elements of metal, industrial and R&B — not to mention while adding the occasional dragonfire-furious scream — has only sealed the deal for her devoted fans.