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The story of AVANTASIA begins much like any other fairy tale, with a young protagonist not unlike you, average reader. Picture a young boy from a small German town going far and beyond to fulfill his dreams of fronting a…
Forty years is a long time to keep the fire alive, especially in heavy metal, where even the most tenacious bands fade into repetition and irrelevance. For me, that fire’s always been personal. There were years when I quite literally…
I thought I knew what to expect from Helloween. I’d followed them through lineup changes, reunion tours, and every iteration of their increasingly elaborate stage shows. But standing in front of O2 Arena Prague on October 24th, watching album covers…
“Personally, I think that pure art comes from people, not from the machines,” says Tomi Joutsen, frontman of Finnish metal titans Amorphis. His voice is calm, measured, the kind that’s lived through countless shows, tours, albums, and expectations. “What machines…
“Five years ago, I played my last show… Shortly after this show I was declared dead, but doctors brought me back to life,” Mat Sinner revealed in a frank social media update earlier this year. The Primal Fear co-founder and…
“Just hope nobody dies,” Michael Kiske, Helloween singer, mutters with a nervous laugh. It’s a casual sentence, maybe even a joke on the surface. But the pause afterward betrays the weight beneath it. The weight that creeps in when your…
The Vienna Metal Meeting is back for another skull-rattling edition in 2025, and this year’s lineup is nothing short of monumental. Taking place on October 4th, at the iconic Arena Wien, the one-day metal pilgrimage will be headlined by none…
Originally published in Nocturne Magazine Before Eluveitie, Ensiferum, Turisas and the likes dominated the heavy metal world with their folk-infused metal, one band had the idea to expand their thrash metal foundation with enticing violin sounds, atmospheric keyboard layers, and…
The screen pulled us in before a single chord struck the air. We were gliding through a CGI vision of Thatcher-era London: grimy alleyways, flashing red lights, a shadow of Eddie lurking around every corner. The intro to “Murders in…
Finnish prog-metal mainstays Amorphis have released “Bones”, the second single from their upcoming album, Borderland, due out September 26 via Reigning Phoenix. Where “Light And Shadow” offered a shimmer of optimism, “Bones” drags us into heavier, bleaker terrain – complete with doomy riffs,…