Beauty School

From rising bands like Guilt Trip and Pest Control crushing it to Knocked Loose and Malevolence bringing the mosh, hardcore and metalcore ruled Slam Dunk

The Barbarians of California want to school you on all things gnarly. In conjunction with the announcement of their sophomore LP, MEGATONS, the west coast hardcore faction featuring AWOLNATION vocalist Aaron Bruno have delivered a new single called “The Gnarlycore Class.” The track arrives in a new music video where Bruno leads an elementary lesson on the Barbarians’ explosiveness, video clips of Shaquille O’Neal, Eraserhead actor Jack Nance and various world leaders headbanging on a screen behind him to support his point. By song’s end, his students — ie the rest of the band — pick up on the lesson plan and start leaning into chromatic chunk-ups and effects-blown guitar work. They then pick up the tempo for a short, thrashing finale. “Sometimes when writing a new song, the goal is to land on a tempo that hasn t been used anywhere else on the album. ‘Gnarlycore’ was just that,” producer and bandmember Eric Stenman says in a statement. “I think Aaron has been wishing for something in this vein for a while now. This was the second to last song that we came up with for MEGATONS, and it seemed to come together quickly and effortlessly.” The impending MEGATONS follows 2024 debut LP And Now I’m Just Gnashing My Teeth, and will include semi-recently delivered Barbarians singles like last year’s “MODERN FASHION” — though not their Keith Buckley-assisted “PSEUDO INTELLECTUALS ARE HATING ON MY BAND!!! (pure power).” “Making a second album can be a fraught process full of overthinking and self-doubt,” Stenman adds. “Perhaps, the benefit of us starting this band, at this later point in our lives, relieves some of that pressure. This felt so easy, and is a seamless continuation of whatever we started with the first batch of song — just bigger and better.” MEGATONS is set to arrive in full August 21st. They have a gig supporting Guns N’ Roses just ahead of that, and a series of headlining dates in September. You’ll find the tour dates plus MEGATONS’ cover art and tracklisting down below. MEGATONS tracklisting:BACK TO THE VALLEYTHE GNARLYCORE CLASSVANILLA LATTEBOMB TO A KNIFE FIGHTREALLY REALLY RADMEGATONS SEGUEEARTHQUAKETHIS IS SHREDICALHIDE ALL YOUR RECORDSMODERN FASHIONSHARK OUT OF WATERI AM THE SUBMARINEBarbarians of California tour dates 2026:8/19 Kansas City, MO Morton Amphitheater*9/6 Pryor, OK Rocklahoma Festival^9/8 Nashville, TN Exit In9/9 St. Louis, MO Blueberry Hill Duck Room9/11 Omaha, NE Waiting Room9/12 Ridgedale, MO Thunder Ridge Nature Arena*9/14 Minneapolis, MN 7th St. Entry9/15 Milwaukee, WI Cactus Club9/17 Chicago, IL Cobra Lounge9/18 Cleveland, OH The Foundry9/19 Louisville, KY Louder Than Life Festival^* with Guns N’ Roses^ festival