HATEBREED To Headline 2026 Edition Of 'Summer Slaughter' Tour

Connecticut hardcore/metal veterans HATEBREED will headline the 2026 edition of the "Summer Slaughter" tour. Support on the trek will come from DEVOURMENT, INCANTATION (for last five dates only),SNUFFED ON SIGHT, BALMORA and FACE YOURSELF.

A special BLABBERMOUTH.NET presale will begin on Wednesday, March 25 at 2:00 p.m. EST and end on Thursday, March 26 at 10:00 p.m. local time. When prompted, type in the presale code "HBSLAUGHTER26" to access tickets before the general public. Check back here on Wednesday for ticketing links for individual shows. General on-sale will be Friday, March 27 at 10 a.m. local time.

The initial dates are as follows:

July 02 - Reading, PA @ Reverb
July 03 - Virginia Beach, VA @ Elevation 27
July 05 - Worcester, MA @ The Palladium
July 07 - Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s
July 08 - Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl
July 09 - New Orleans, LA @ Tipitina’s
July 10 - Houston, TX @ House of Blues
July 11 - Austin, TX @ Emo’s
July 12 - Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom
July 14 - Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall
July 15 - Omaha, NE @ The Admiral
July 19 - Saginaw, MI @ The Vault *
July 21 - St. Louis, MO @ Pop’s Nightclub *
July 22 - Fort Wayne, IN @ Piere’s Entertainment Center *
July 23 - Toronto, ONT @ Phoenix Concert Theatre *
July 24 - Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom *

* With INCANTATION

In a recent interview with Hardlore, HATEBREED guitarist Frank Novinec was asked if there is a new album from him and his bandmates on the way. He responded: "[It's] coming out this year, yeah. Most, of it's pretty much — I mean, it's done."

Referencing the fact that HATEBREED released its first new single in nearly five years, "Make The Demons Obey", last July, Frank continued: "The nice thing about in this era — I was telling somebody the other day that's not in the music business like we are — the nice thing about the way things are rolled out now, I think, is you can drop a single even if you have the whole record done, and be, like, 'All right, now there's all this time', where you can really review what you've done and you could really change something that you didn't like or even make another song and all that. It's not, like, 'Okay, there's the record, there's the two videos. Here's what are supposed to be the singles. And that's it.' So it's nice to be able to drop the single, which we had a great response for. We love the song. As far as the band's concerned, we're real happy with 'Make The Demons Obey'. And we'll probably leak another one here soon. And there'll probably be proper videos coming after that."

Novinec, who joined HATEBREED as a full-time member in 2006, was also asked if he has had any major writing contributions to the band's albums since he became part of the group 20 years ago. He responded: "No. I think I have one riff on one song. It was always [founding HATEBREED bassist] Chris [Beattie] and Jamey [Jasta, HATEBREED vocalist] writing the music. That's it. From day one, it's Chris and Jamey. They're the guys [who wrote all the music] from day one, for the most part."

Regarding how the recent departure of Beattie has changed the songwriting dynamic within HATEBREED, Frank said: "[HATEBREED guitarist] Wayne [Lozinak], I think, is… We all have our ideas about songs. Songs are presented, [and then we say], 'Hey, I think we should change this,' 'Hey, I think this riff should go longer.'

"I'm not a groove dude like that when it comes to writing," Frank explained. "I'm not somebody that's trying to show up and break something that's not broken."

At last year's Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky, HATEBREED drummer Matt Byrne spoke to The Kevin Powell Podcast about the band's next studio album. Matt said: "I think this new material is way thrashier. There's always a tinge of metal to HATEBREED. I think a lot of people try to kind of pigeonhole us as a hardcore band, but I think over the years we've just gone way more metal. There is still the hardcore punk vibe to us, but I think the new stuff is way more metal, thrashy, fast, SLAYER-esque, if I may use that term. That's kind of the direction we're going in right now, but there's still a lot of groove to it. It's definitely the heaviest stuff that we've written to date. I know that can be a cliché thing with bands — 'Watch out, everybody. It's the coolest stuff,' or whatever they say — but it's true. It's true. It really is. So I'm excited for everyone to hear the other stuff too."

Regarding what fans can expect from HATEBREED in 2026, Matt said:  "New record, new music. It's a new era of the band. We've had some lineup changes. We dealt with some curve balls this summer, some health stuff. So we're coming out on top, we're grinding through, we're coming out on top. And, yeah — new production. We're just stepping up the show 100% and just forging onward."

Last October, Byrne told Baby Huey of the San Francisco radio station 107.7 The Bone about HATEBREED's new music: "We just released a single ['Make The Demons Obey'] over the summer. We have a new record that'll be coming out next year — not sure when, but it's about 90 percent, 85 percent done. [We're] still tweaking some stuff, but next year's our target [release]. We released a single, 'Make The Demons Obey'. We've been playing it live. It's very fast. It's heavy. It's HATEBREED. It has HATEBREED all over it. So, it's a lot of fun to play. It's always fun playing the new stuff. We've been playing 'I Will Be Heard' since 2002, so as much as you love that song, it's fun to play newer stuff."

Released in July, "Make The Demons Obey" marked the first taste of new HATEBREED material after the group's "Weight Of The False Self" album which came out in 2020.

"Make the Demons Obey" is everything you know, love, want, and expect from HATEBREED. PMA lyrics, sick riffs, singalongs that will make you bumrush to the front of the stage, and some of the deadliest, most ignorant (in the best possible way!) breakdowns known to man.

"Lots of bands say that their newest release will be their heaviest and I guess we are no different," Jasta stated at the time of the song's release. "We've managed to push the envelope and surpass our expectations. We've become tighter, harder and more vicious than ever. This is the most excited I've been for any HATEBREED release."

"Very exciting things are happening in the HATEBREED camp," added Byrne. "It's time to unleash this beast — new music is here! This is the fastest, most vicious, and most aggressive music we have ever created and I'm pumped for the world to hear it."

When "Make the Demons Obey" was made available, HATEBREED was independent and was still deciding what direction it would like to go regarding a record label. But HATEBREED remained open to all options and ideas. In the interim, they will be releasing singles to keep fans satisfied and will self-fund the upcoming album.

Lozinak returned to the live stage at the Aftershock festival in Sacramento, California in early October. He was diagnosed with a meningioma in the brain while on tour in Europe but thankfully, it was benign. He underwent a craniotomy — a surgical procedure that involves opening the skull to access the brain — on August 4, 2025.

Lozinak has been a key part of HATEBREED's sound since rejoining the band in 2009.

While Lozinak was away, HATEBREED continued its European and American tours, with touring bassist Matt Bachand stepping in on guitar, and Carl Schwartz of FIRST BLOOD and TERROR joining the group on bass duties.

HATEBREED has released eight studio albums and has consistently sold out shows the world over. Over the course of its career, the band has gone from playing basements and backyards to being a featured attraction on countless festivals like Graspop Metal Meeting, Ozzfest, Warped and Download.To date, HATEBREED has sold over 1.5 million albums in North America alone.

Photo credit: Nicole Noy