Hard rock (or heavy rock) is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock. It is typified by a heavy use of aggressive vocals, distorted electric guitars, bass guitar, drums, and often accompanied with pianos and keyboards.
Seattle metal obscurity TEACHER’S PETT finally gets dragged out of the demo-tape underground with “Tearing Up The Night”, a 12-track archival collection built from recordings made during the band’s late-’80s and early-’90s run. Raw, melodic and proudly old-school, this is US heavy metal before grunge slammed the door shut.
Twenty years after their debut first burst out of Modena in a shower of double-kick drums, candy wrappers and HELLOWEEN-sized choruses, TRICK OR TREAT return to “Evil Needs Candy Too” and rebuild it from the ground up. Same songs, same mischievous spirit — but played with two decades of stage scars, tighter muscles and a much bigger sonic punch.
Spanish heavy metal veterans WARCRY return with “Entre La Niebla”, a compact nine-track album built on sharp riffs, soaring melodies and Víctor García’s unmistakable voice. Twenty-five years in, the band sound seasoned rather than softened — still heroic, still melodic, but with more shadow around the edges.
SCOTT HEPPLE AND THE SUN BAND – Wyrd Seasons (2026)
Scott Hepple and The Sun Band return with “Wyrd Seasons”, a heavier, moodier and more inward-looking record where psychedelic rock, fuzz, folk and hard-rock weight all bleed into one another. The ’70s spirit is still there, but this time it feels less like nostalgia and more like something dragged through present-day dirt.
Greek progressive metallers FEED MY DAEMONS return with “A Symphony Of Lust”, a darker, heavier and more focused second album where prog complexity meets hard-rock muscle. The songs twist and turn, but the hooks never get buried under the machinery.
VOODOOLAND return from the vaults with a remastered collection built around the late Karl Cochran’s finest hard rock work. With John Corabi, Joe Lynn Turner, Bob Daisley, Ace Frehley and Eric Singer in the cast, this thing arrives carrying enough pedigree to flatten a small club before the first chorus lands.
Aubrey Stewart returns with “Second Chance at a First Impression”, a self-made hard rock record built on thick guitars, direct songwriting and the feeling that every song has something personal to prove. There is nothing overdecorated here — just riffs, melody and a songwriter putting his own name on every moving part.
WIDESPREAD PANIC’s legendary Halloween 2000 Austin City Limits performance finally gets a proper 2026 reissue, catching the classic Michael Houser-era lineup at full boil. Loose, greasy and fearless, this is Southern jam rock stretched until the seams start smoking.
Hamburg hard rockers VELVET RUSH give their debut EP a second life with an expanded Frontiers edition, adding two fresh tracks to the original five-song set. It is dirty, bluesy and gloriously loud — classic ’70s hard rock dragged into the present with Sandra Lian’s untamed voice right at the center.
