The Hottest Metal Band of the Year Is Coming to Denver

Cold Steel is on an epic come-up, riding a cresting wave of momentum en route to what’s sure to be a breakout year, as the Tampa group is quickly becoming one of the hottest young metal acts of 2026.

Since releasing its debut album, Discipline & Punish, in November, the six-piece is going national, first touring up the East Coast and now making its maiden march West. The Denver date is Thursday, April 9, at Black Sky Brewery. Local groups the Great Regression and War Ends in Silence are also part of the party.

“It’s been kind of freaky. I can’t lie to you,” says bassist Janpierre “JP” Mojica. “I feel like we’re still trying to understand the scale that’s been happening, not just in the last six months with the record coming out, just being in the group and seeing everything that’s been happening naturally the last couple of years. It has just been really insurmountably cool.”

Hot out of the gate, Cold Steel loudly announced itself in 2021 with EP Will of Spiritual Cleansing, followed by 2023 mini-album, Deeper Into Greater Pain, further establishing its slurry of heavy sounds rooted in 1990s thrash, 2000s nu-metal and 2010s metalcore. Simply put, it’s what the band calls “aggressive metal.”

“When we came together, I don’t think we wanted to put ourselves in a singular bubble. We just really wanted to make some angry shit,” Mojica shares. “We couldn’t even decide what genre of metal we are in, that’s where the ‘aggressive metal’ comes in. We can bring in all these different influences. That’s the sweet medium we found.”

For Discipline & Punish, the Cold Steel crew teamed up with producer Arthur Rizk, whose extensive studio credits include Power Trip, Cavalera Conspiracy and Denver’s own Blood Incantation. He’s also a member of Eternal Champion and Cold World.

“The last thing we want to do is spoil the broth,” Mojica says. “He helped us actualize the sound that we want and, in a way, help us understand that as much as we want to try to be unique, we want to make our sound ourselves.

“Everybody wants to be unique and original and have our own thing, I feel like we accomplished that without trying to,” he adds.

Rolling with three guitarists — Rafael “Rafi” Carbonell, Shawn Wallen and Rafael Calderon — certainly gives Cold Steel an added edge. Plus, vocalist Aaron Heard, formerly of Je$us Piece, contributed to “Front to Enemy,” while “Smoking Mirrors” features Florida hardcore hip-hop duo Two-Piece. Being from such fertile extreme music territory — Tampa became known as the epicenter of American death metal in the 1990s, behind genre originators Death and the output of Morrisound studio — the band, which includes vocalist Jose Menendez and drummer Brandon Thrift, is leading a new generation.

“Death metal is still definitely a landmark within Tampa and very much respected,” Mojica says. “It may be a little bit different of a mold that’s being shaped, but the influence is still definitely there. It’s a beautiful thing.”

Cold Steel has had the chance to play with hometown legends Obituary before on a bill that represented both the old guard and current flagbearers, and recently landed another big spot opening for Kreator and Carcass this summer on a North American run that will bring the Tampa thrashers to even bigger venues.

“We got the inkling that it was going to happen our first day that we left for the tour back in November,” Mojica explains. “You should have been in that van. The energy was palpable. I don’t think we’re going to be able to calculate touring with them. It’s like something out of a dream.”

Cold Steel, with the Great Regression and War Ends in Silence, 6 p.m. Thursday, April 9, Black Sky Brewery, 490 Santa Fe Drive. Tickets are $15.