Mannequin Pussy has been one of my go to comfort bands since around 2017, so it was honestly a very humble honor to just be in attendance. Their music has gotten me through breakups, moments of figuring myself out, getting through the current state of the world, and some of the harder chapters of my life. Having first seen them back around that time in smaller venues like Johnny Brenda’s and Boot & Saddle (RIP) in Philly, there’s something really special about watching that same feeling and energy carry over to a way larger space. While the scale of the venue has changed… their intimacy, honesty, and advocacy behind their words haven’t.
The Brooklyn based quartet Lip Critic opened the night with a setup that caught my attention off the bat; two drum kits, two samplers/vocals. There was no amp walls or elaborate stage production, just four people surrounded by their gear, ready to make as much noise as possible and I really dig that. I’ll be checking them out live again for sure.
As far as MP’s setlist went, it was stacked start to finish. From opening with I Got Heaven and a lot of songs off of their most recent album I Got Heaven, to some classics mixed in like Everything from their second full length album Romantic bringing me back to the small-venue-Philly-days.
I was also really stoked to hear them play a new unreleased song I Stuttered, meaning that there will be an upcoming album release in the near future, woohoo!
As mentioned earlier, the jump in scale has not taken away a single thing from their performances. If anything, I’m genuinely proud to see how much recognition they’ve gained over the years. Watching a band that you’ve loved for 10+ years grow from playing smaller rooms in Philly, to selling out a venue like Starland Ballroom feels like a proud parent moment? They’ve earned every bit of that recognition. It was such a moment for me seeing so many people alike come together for this show.
They’ll be resuming their tour with The Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age (major!), following another tour with Amyl and the Sniffers, following another tour with Wednesday… all before the year ends!
Ghost has confirmed the release of 2 Big To Rig (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), the accompanying audio release for the theatrical rock outfit’s second feature film. The Grammy winners will drop the soundtrack for streaming and download on Aug. 27 via Loma Vista Recordings, with a live performance of “Umbra” — featuring Papa V Perpetua and the nameless ghouls tearing through the cowbell-heavy penultimate cut from chart-topping album Skeletá — arriving first to whet appetites.
Filmed across two sold-out nights at Mexico City’s Palacio De Los Deportes in front of nearly 40,000 fans, 2 Big To Rig takes its name from Ghost wrapping its massive Skeletour world trek back in February 2026. The film was built to bring that touring experience to audiences in markets where the live show itself wasn’t a logistical option, and it also captures fans who had tickets to the first of three originally planned Mexico City dates — a run that shrank to two shows after opening night was scrapped due to illness.
2 Big To Rig plays as a tribute to everyone who’s taken part in the Ghost live experience, whether in the room or watching from afar. Screening in IMAX where available, the concert film is built for die-hards looking to relive the Skeletour run as much as it is for newcomers catching the spectacle cold. Papa V and his ghoul coven turn in career-best performances here, tearing through cuts spanning Ghost‘s six studio albums — including 2025 global chart-topper Skeletá — with staples “Satanized” and “Lachryma” sitting alongside non-album favorites “Mary On A Cross,” “Kiss The Go-Goat” and “The Future Is A Foreign Land.”
2 Big To Rig opens in cinemas and IMAX screens worldwide starting Wednesday, Aug. 26, for a limited run.
Screening details, showtimes, and sign-up information are available here.
Speaking with Metal Hammer recently, Ghost ringleader Tobias Forge opened up about the food poisoning that torpedoed the first of the three Mexico City shows slated for filming.
“We flew into Mexico City five days before, just to get acclimatized to the elevation and jet lag. Everything was dandy, and then came the show day. I woke up and felt weird. It takes about an hour to go from the hotel to the venue, and throughout that whole trip, I just slept. I thought I was just tired. When I came to the venue, I couldn’t stomach anything — everything was just flowing through me — and for every hour that went by, I was getting more and more drained. And then, all of a sudden, I started puking violently. Everything, just, ‘Out, out, out!’ Everyone’s getting super-nervous: not only is the show dependent on this, but we also have a film depending on this! Fuck!” Forge said.
Forge explained that being physically unable to stand ruled out any chance of performing that night.
“Even if you get me up onstage, I will not be able to sing,” he said. “Then you just have to do the rational thing: ‘Fuck this, we need to pull the plug.’ The rest of the evening, I was just lying on a stretcher with intravenous liquid going in. And then you have to handle the defeat and hope for people to understand.”
The band’s second and third Mexico City shows went ahead without issue, and the production team reworked its filming approach to build 2 Big To Rig around footage from those two nights instead.
“Luckily, Amir [Chamdin, 2 Big To Rig director] is a very controlled, very nice person,” Forge said. “He was like, ‘Just relax, we’ll figure it out,’ and the next day I felt better and ready to do it. So we had to deal with what we got, but obviously, it goes without saying: ‘We better not fuck up now!’ If you’re going to go up and do that thing, you need to nail it.”
Every now and then, a track lands on the HEAVY desk that doesn’t just ask for your attention—it kicks the front door off its hinges, grabs you by the collar, and demands you sit down and listen. That is exactly what happened this week when the absolute powerhouses in KALATONE dropped their blistering new sonic […]
Black Sabbath guitar icon Tony Iommi has pulled back the curtain on the making of the “World Alone” music video, the lead single from his forthcoming solo record From The Dark.
“World Alone” made its first appearance on July 29 during a global streaming premiere staged in Iommi‘s home city of Birmingham, England — a short walk from the Black Sabbath Bridge, the canal-side landmark the city unveiled in 2019 as a tribute to the band.
The track itself is a full-throttle rocker, stacked with soaring guitar work and driven hard by the rhythm section, with Norwegian powerhouse vocalist Jorn Lande supplying the operatic muscle up top. Its accompanying video drops viewers into a bleak, retro-futuristic game world, where the central figure, The Believer, must fight through a twisted simulation just to survive.
Throughout From The Dark, Iommi is joined by Lande, who co-wrote every track on the record, along with bassist Becky Baldwin and drummer Karl Brazil. Iommi shares production duties with longtime right-hand man Mike Exeter, who also co-writes and engineers, and the finished record carries a big, modern sheen without losing any weight.
Iommi has described the sessions in simple terms, saying: “It’s an album we’ve really enjoyed making. We’re not trying to prove anything — it’s a great album, it rocks!”
Opener “Over The Violent Sun” sets the tone fast, built on a down-tuned riff that is unmistakably Iommi and paired with Lande‘s theatrical delivery — it is an immediate reminder of why this catalog still matters. “Black Times” keeps the pressure on before “World Alone” arrives as the record’s clear centerpiece, and fourth cut “Beyond The Dead” slows things down into something darker, its orchestration adding real menace to the riff underneath.
Lande‘s lyrics lean hard into dystopian territory and questions of mortality, a thread that runs through the whole album and comes to a head on “Stormwatcher,” which leans on sea imagery and the idea of chasing a way out. “Death Wake” picks up right where it leaves off, painting an equally bleak picture of life stripped of love and connection.
The album closes with two of its strongest statements: the all-out sprint of “Return Of The Arbalist” and the sprawling “Legacy,” a fitting capstone that pulls together every mood the record has touched on. Landing a year after Black Sabbath‘s farewell performance at 2025’s Back To The Beginning in Birmingham, From The Dark stands as proof Iommi still has plenty left to say, and it ranks among the year’s better rock releases.
A limited seven-inch pressing of “World Alone” is on the way September 4, backed with an instrumental version and packaged in a foil-stamped sleeve. The song is also being added to Gibson‘s guitar-learning app.
From The Dark will arrive in a handful of deluxe vinyl and CD configurations. The double LP comes in four colorways depending on retailer, cut at 45 rpm for maximum dynamic range and housed in a black gatefold sleeve die-cut with Tony‘s signature cross logo, revealing a detailed illustrated scene as the inner sleeve slides out. An Amazon-exclusive CD edition carries the same die-cut treatment, and a 32-page CD book edition adds two bonus cuts to the tracklist.
Lande has stood alongside Iommi before — the two performed together with surviving Heaven & Hell members Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice at a 2010 tribute to the late Ronnie James Dio during the High Voltage festival at London’s Victoria Park, a set that also brought out former Deep Purple vocalist and bassist Glenn Hughes.
From The Dark marks Iommi‘s third solo album, following 2000’s Iommi and 2005’s Fused.
Fused brought in former Deep Purple bassist and vocalist Glenn Hughes alongside drummer Kenny Aronoff, who also played on Iommi and spent years behind the kit for John Mellencamp.
Iommi pulled from a deep guest list, including Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan and Foo Fighters‘ Dave Grohl, plus Pantera‘s Philip Anselmo, Henry Rollins, System Of A Down‘s Serj Tankian, Skunk Anansie‘s Skin, Type O Negative‘s Peter Steele and The Cult‘s Ian Astbury.
Iommi remains one of the most important guitarists modern music has produced. As the founding member and chief songwriter of Black Sabbath, he is widely credited with laying the groundwork for heavy metal as a genre.
His résumé includes multiple Grammy wins, a spot in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and a string of academic honors in the U.K., including a doctorate from Coventry University, a Lord Mayor’s Award and the Freedom Of The City of Birmingham. In June 2026, he added an MBE to that list, one of the highest civilian honors Britain hands out.
An industrial accident in his youth cost Iommi the tips of two fingers, a setback that forced him to rethink his approach and ultimately led to the heavier, darker guitar tone that came to define Black Sabbath. The band, rounded out by Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward, spent the 1970s releasing genre-defining records and became one of Britain’s most influential musical exports.
Iommi has kept working, touring and collaborating across six decades since. He spent years alongside the late Ronnie James Dio, built a respected solo catalog, and reunited with Black Sabbath‘s original lineup for 2013’s chart-topping 13 before closing things out with the The End farewell tour, which ran from 2016 to 2017 and drew 1.6 million fans worldwide.
More recently, Iommi‘s reach has extended well beyond music. In 2023 he partnered with the Birmingham Royal Ballet on Black Sabbath – The Ballet, a production built around his early material. Black Sabbath capped things off headlining 2025’s Back To The Beginning in Birmingham, a full-circle send-off that took place just weeks before Ozzy Osbourne‘s death.
Mike Portnoy, the Dream Theater drummer frequently touted as a possible replacement for the late Neil Peart should Rush tour again, has shared his thoughts after attending two shows on the band’s Fifty Something reunion tour.
Portnoy, who shared a picture of himself standing backstage with Anika Nilles, the drummer whom Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson selected to fill Peart’s seat behind the kit, clearly enjoyed himself.
“Went and saw Rush again last night for the second time on this tour (NYC #2 & Philly #2),” says Portnoy. “Absolutely amazing show once again! I got lucky as the sets were very different, last night’s being a new, unique variation which had them playing both La Villa Strangiato and A Farewell To Kings back to back (the two songs I was hoping to hear the most!)
“Was able to spend some time with the Queen before the show! Thank you so much, Anika, for the hospitality. I cannot express enough how happy I am for her and the band. She is absolutely perfect for this gig! Handling most of Neil’s nuances while still bringing her own style and swing to the music (but always with the utmost respect). You can feel the whole audience rooting for her through the whole show, and I love that!
“Congratulations to her and Geddy and Alex on this tour. The amount of time and dedication they’ve put into the show(s) is incredible, and I think they’ve gone above and beyond anybody’s expectations, delivering a show that is worthy of the band’s legacy and also honours Neil’s memory with the utmost respect. I am so proud to be a Rush fan!”
The next show on Rush’s Fifty Something tour is tomorrow (August 26) at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, MI. Full dates below.
Aug 26: Detroit Little Caesars Arena, MI Aug 28: Detroit Little Caesars Arena, MI Sep 02: Montreal Bell Centre, QC Sep 04: Montreal Bell Centre, QC Sep 12: Boston TD Garden, MA Sep 14: Boston TD Garden, MA Sep 17: Cleveland Rocket Arena, OH Sep 19: Cleveland Rocket Arena, OH Sep 23: San Antonio Frost Bank Center, TX Sep 25: San Antonio Frost Bank Center, TX Oct 05: Denver Ball Arena, CO Oct 07: Denver Ball Arena, CO Oct 10: Seattle Climate Pledge Arena, WA Oct 12: Seattle Climate Pledge Arena, WA Oct 15: San Jose SAP Center, CA Oct 17: San Jose SAP Center, CA Oct 25: Washington Capital One Arena, D.C. Oct 27: Washington Capital One Arena, D.C. Oct 30: Uncasville Mohegan Sun Arena, CT Nov 01: Uncasville Mohegan Sun Arena, CT Nov 05: Hollywood Hard Rock Live, FL Nov 07: Hollywood Hard Rock Live, FL Nov 09: Tampa Benchmark International Arena, FL Nov 11: Tampa Benchmark International Arena, FL Nov 20: Charlotte Spectrum Center, NC Nov 22: Charlotte Spectrum Center, NC Nov 25: Atlanta State Farm Arena, GA Nov 27: Atlanta State Farm Arena, GA Dec 01: Glendale Desert Diamond Arena, AZ Dec 03: Glendale Desert Diamond Arena, AZ Dec 10: Edmonton Rogers Place, AB Dec 12: Edmonton Rogers Place, AB Dec 15: Vancouver Rogers Arena, BC Dec 17: Vancouver Rogers Arena, BC
Rush: Fifty Something tour dates 2027
Jan 15: Buenos Aires Movistar Arena, Argentina Jan 22: Curitiba Arena da Baixada, Brazil Jan 24: São Paulo Allianz Parque, Brazil Jan 26: São Paulo Allianz Parque, Brazil Jan 30: Rio de Janeiro Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos. Brazil Feb 01: Belo Horizonte Estádio Mineirão, Brazil Feb 04: Brasília Arena BRB Mané Garrincha, Brazil
Feb 19: Paris La Défense Arena, France Feb 21: Berlin Uber Arena, Germany Feb 23: Amstersam Ziggo Dome, Netherlands Feb 25: Munich Olympiahalle, Germany Feb 28: Cologne Lanxess Arena, Germany Mar 02: Hamburg Barclays Arena, Germany Mar 04: Stuttgart Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, Germany Mar 08: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK Mar 10: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK Mar 12: Manchester Co-op Live, UK Mar 14: Manchester Co-op Live, UK Mar 16: London O2 Arena, UK Mar 18: London O2 Arena, UK Mar 21: London O2 Arena, UK Mar 27: Kraków Arena Kraków, Poland Mar 30: Milan Unipol Dome, Italy Apr 01: Basel St. Jakobshalle Basel, Switzerland Apr 04: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark Apr 06: Oslo Unity Arena, Norway Apr 08: Stockholm Avicii Arena, Sweden Apr 10: Helsinki Veikkaus Arena, Finland
Rozz Williams Comes Home: “Romeo’s Distress” Screening and Live Performance in Pomona
On Saturday, August 29, 2026, Rozz Williams: Romeo’s Distress will be screened at Fox Theater Pomona. Presented by Cult Epics, the event brings the story and music of Rozz Williams back to the town where he grew up. After the documentary, former Christian Death members and special guest vocalists will perform an extended live set celebrating his legacy.
This is more than another stop on the documentary’s journey. Pomona is part of Rozz Williams’ personal history. Bringing the film to the city where he grew up gives the night the feeling of a homecoming—one shaped by memory, music, and the people who helped build the early Southern California deathrock scene.
Rozz left behind a body of work that still reaches outsiders across generations. His music was confrontational, poetic, theatrical, and painfully intimate. Therefore, returning his story to Pomona feels especially meaningful. The artist may be gone, but the city will hear his songs again.
The Artist Behind the Gothic Icon
Rozz Williams: Romeo’s Distress is a 102-minute documentary directed by Nico B. The film examines the life of Roger Alan Painter, known to the world as Rozz Williams: musician, poet, visual artist, and founder of Christian Death.
For decades, Rozz has often been remembered through unforgettable images: pale makeup, haunted eyes, religious symbols, and a stage presence that seemed both dangerous and fragile. However, the documentary moves beyond the icon. Through family memories, personal testimony, and rare material, it searches for the human being behind the mythology.
The result is an intimate portrait of an artist who helped shape gothic music and fashion while creating space for people who felt different, rejected, or impossible to classify. Rozz died in 1998 at only 34, yet his influence continues through deathrock, post-punk, dark art, queer underground culture, and new generations discovering his work.
Explore the Archive
Los Angeles Turned Gothic for the Romeo’s Distress Premiere
Once the screening ends, the evening will move from cinema into live ritual. Original Christian Death musicians Rikk Agnew on guitar, James McGearty on bass, and David Glass on drums will reunite for an extended performance.
They will be joined by Eva O, Gitane Demone, Patrik Mata of Kommunity FK, William Faith of Shadow Project, and Kenton Holmes, who will share vocal duties. Together, they will perform songs connected to the classic Rozz Williams-era albums Only Theatre of Pain, Catastrophe Ballet, and Ashes. The set will also include music from Shadow Project.
Those records did more than define a genre. They turned spiritual conflict, alienation, surrealism, and punk energy into a new form of dark theater. Hearing this music performed by figures who lived inside that history will give the event a rare sense of authenticity.
Throughout the night, DJ Mr. Chino of Prayers and Chologothnight will play darkwave, goth, and post-punk, carrying the atmosphere from the doors opening to the final song.
My Connection to Romeo’s Distress
I am Christian Mariotti, leader of Edgar Allan Poets, and I served as cinematographer on the documentary while also contributing during its final editing stages. I witnessed the film take shape from its earliest moments.
One of the defining experiences was traveling into the desert with director Nico B to visit the Painter family home. That journey opened the door to the film’s emotional core. It also revealed how much of Rozz’s story existed beyond the stage—in family memories, private wounds, and places that still carried traces of his presence.
Working on the documentary changed the way I saw the Los Angeles underground. Behind every record, photograph, and legend, there are human relationships. There are also contradictions, losses, and memories that rarely reach the audience. This film tries to bring those fragments together without reducing Rozz to a single explanation.
A Night for Those Who Remember—and Those Just Discovering Rozz
Longtime fans will recognize the musicians, songs, and histories gathered onstage. Meanwhile, younger listeners will have the opportunity to discover why Rozz Williams still matters. His work remains alive because it never treated darkness as decoration. For Rozz, art was a place where beauty, provocation, pain, sexuality, faith, and doubt could exist together.
On August 29, the documentary and the live performance will bring those worlds together under one roof. In the town where Rozz grew up, the screen will hold his story and the stage will return his music to the night.
Do not miss this rare celebration of one of gothic music’s most singular artists.
Melbourne’s Lothario sounds as though somebody left the rehearsal-room door open during a small electrical fire, and their latest single IOU takes that sense of danger somewhere tender. The lead single from the band’s EP has the clipped guitar drive and propulsion of Blitz’s New Age, but its engine is a promise between people who have seen each other wrecked, furious, exhausted, spiritually bankrupt, and still worth coming back for in the end.
Annaliese Redlich sings where friendship has survived enough damage to become a private religion, built from favours remembered, wounds forgiven, and the knowledge that somebody showed up when everybody else disappeared.
“IOU is a love song to self, and to those who have stuck by you through thick and thin,” says Redlich. “Shameless cinematic optimism after wallowing in the pit of despair. An anthem for the dawning of a new day, and pledge to keep going.”
Punk has always loved survival, usually with the emotional subtlety of a brick through a pharmacy window – making it through another day can be messy, indebted work. IOU channels this chaos as linear guitars push against a pub-rock stomp sharpened into something wiry and menacing, while Redlich turns gratitude into a public declaration. There is love here with bruises on its knuckles and a tab it intends to settle.
This reckless fellowship spills into Maria Cecelia Tedemalm’s black-and-white video, where a woman drives through the wrong side of town collecting passengers as though she runs an after-hours ministry for the permanently disreputable. She becomes an oracle of rock ’n’ roll spirit, guitars for a pulpit, anarchy in the gasoline. The high-contrast photography recalls a lost seventies rock film, carrying the candid electricity of Godlis photographing people outside CBGB before anybody knew which faces would become history.
Watch the video for IOU below:
Lothario’s IOU EP also widens Redlich’s method after earlier material was recorded largely alone in her bedroom. Elsa Birrel, Beth Lockhart, and Will Clifford now enter more deeply into the process, with Redlich’s brother Matt recording the sessions.
“I’ve always been a deeply collaborative person, but Lothario’s inception marked a period of me going totally inward,” says Redlich. “A time when I kinda hid away and just let all this stuff pour out of me that had been building over a lifetime. I had so much to prove to myself and understand about my own process. It was immensely empowering but it leaves you nowhere to hide and no one to hide behind. In spite of how many men were automatically given credit for what I made.”
Lothario takes “IOU” to Europe for twenty-six dates across ten countries this autumn, carrying a song about being carried through hell into a van, across borders, and toward another dawn. The European tour begins September 13 at Leffingeleuren in Leffinge, Belgium, and concludes October 10 at Funtastic in Benidorm, Spain. Useless Eaters join the run beginning September 24 in Vienna, while the final show is a Lothario-only appearance.
September 13 — Leffinge, Belgium — Leffingeleuren
September 14 — Brussels, Belgium — La Chaff
September 16 — Arnhem, Netherlands — Cafe Bosch
September 17 — Tilburg, Netherlands — Hall of Fame
September 18 — Hamburg, Germany — Komet
September 19 — Berlin, Germany — Schockoladen
September 20 — Leipzig, Germany — Venue TBC
September 21 — Prague, Czech Republic — Klubovna Povaleč
September 22 — Brno, Czech Republic — Vegalite
September 23 — Linz, Austria — Kapu
September 24 — Vienna, Austria — Venster99
September 25 — Ilirska Bistrica, Slovenia — MKNŽ
September 26 — Castelgoffredo, Italy — Metapalooza Fest
September 27 — Rome, Italy — 30 Formiche
September 29 — Bologna, Italy — Freakout Club
September 30 — Biel, Switzerland — Quai Du Bas
October 1 — Winterthur, Switzerland — Kraftfeld
October 2 — Burghausen, Germany — Burgkeller-Bar
October 3 — Heidelberg, Germany — Carousel
October 4 — Paris, France — Venue TBC
October 5 — Nantes, France — Mosta
October 6 — Bordeaux, France — La Maison Allez les filles
October 8 — San Sebastián, Spain — Dabadaba
October 9 — Barcelona, Spain — Prison Fest
October 10 — Benidorm, Spain — Funtastic (Lothario only)
Elena Siegman is known for providing the unforgettable vocals for Call of Duty Zombies. Her new solo material, however, shows just how versatile she really is as an artist. She recently dropped “The Source” through her own label, Dollbreath Records. I had the chance to chat with Elena about the amazing fan reaction to her return, the emotion behind her gaming anthems, her take on AI in the industry, and her advice on dealing with gatekeepers.
Reuel
Hello Elena! I’m very happy to chat with you. How are you doing?
Elena Siegman
Hi Reuel! I’m – very busy pouring all of my heart and soul into a bunch of projects all at once, and very excited to talk to you! I’m so grateful for your questions – I am a big fan of your outlet. 🙂
Reuel
Oh I’m humbled!
‘The Source’ has been out for a month now. A quick look at the music video’s YouTube comments shows people saying things like “the Queen is back” and, overall, a lot of excitement for your new solo material. How does it feel to have such an enthusiastic fanbase behind you?
Elena Siegman
Honestly it’s like a fever dream. I’ve been wanting to release my own music like “The Source” for a very long time, but it’s not been an easy journey to get there. I was extremely nervous about it and wasn’t sure it would land with anyone, but it has been received incredibly well.
For a very long time, the songs I sang in Call of Duty Zombies, which garnered a huge number of fans, was like a weird alternate universe that part of my personality got to live in. It’s always lived that way in my psyche, this idea that people liked those songs (and of course my performance on them) but not necessarily me and my music. The super supportive reaction to my solo music has blown me away.
Reuel
While your longtime fans are used to the heavy metal music you’ve made in the past, your newer material blends elements from a variety of genres. What inspired this move toward a more fluid musical style?
Elena Siegman
I am a huge metalhead and fan of nearly every sub-genre of metal music – but in my bedroom, it’s not music I make by myself very easily. It’s not bedroom rock. It’s loud and it’s complicated and it requires many collaborators. But it is my true love and now it’s finally a tool in my toolbox.
When operating completely solo, I play the guitar, but I’m more comfortable on the piano. I also listen to so many different kinds of music and I always have. I have genres that I gravitate towards, metal and punk probably being the primary ones, but I also love R&B, soul music, alt country, classical music…
It has always been a major challenge for me to focus on a single genre, although I do think I have a “style”, or at least, I think I’m figuring that out. It makes it hard to explain what kind of music I make to people, but I could easily tell you when in the studio if something sounds like “me” or not. When I write it’s more about mood, picking the right sounds and tones that really convey a feeling. Those can come from anywhere!
What’s emerging now is a really interesting mix of heavy metal, synthwave, dark pop, industrial… and more.
Reuel
This sounds exciting! Many people know you through the Call of Duty Zombies soundtrack. Not every song fits the atmosphere a game is trying to create, yet your music became a defining part of that experience. What do you think it is about your vocals and performances that connected so well with the gaming world?
Elena Siegman
I’m a game developer by trade, so I could probably write an entire PhD thesis on this. Primarily, I think it’s because I sang the original songs for zombie mode in the recording studio AT the game studio, with the development going on all around us. I worked at Treyarch at the time, so I was making the song with my coworkers. I’m a gamer and a game developer, and I was regularly playing the game we were making music for – so I had a vivid and clear picture of the context the song would be heard in. I really think that makes a difference.
The songs were written specifically to pay the themes of the maps and the game mode off – so all I really had to do was submit to the song and perform it in the way the music made me feel (and the way that Kevin directed me to sing it!). The songs are written not just to elevate the tone of the experience, but to give you some inspiration to last a little longer against the relentless waves of zombies. It’s a battle cry!
When it comes to music, especially for games, you have to commit to the story the song is trying to tell and the emotions it wants to evoke. I think some people perform to lean into the tones and the sounds, which, of course is important, but nothing is more important than the emotion. You can make very ugly sounds and nail the emotion and it is perceived as beautiful.
Reuel
Wow! Thank you for sharing this wonderful experience. Going back to your new single and the excitement around it, what can fans expect next? Is there a bigger release on the horizon that you can share with us?
Elena Siegman
I’ve been holed up in my own head and home secretly writing and recording music all by myself for a long time. I’ve slowly been building the relationships with other artists and musicians and the infrastructure to get that music out there, to my quality standard, and now I’m finally releasing it. I am over the moon. In terms of what’s coming right up:
You may have heard that I’ll be in the next Call of Duty’s zombie map (Rex Infernus) coming out on Sept 20 – so folks will get to hear a new collab with me & Kevin Sherwood, which is pretty much the pinnacle of music making joy for me.
Personally – I am releasing music all year – and I’ll be releasing a new cover (of Faith No More’s “From Out of Nowhere”) on September 18. I also have some new originals in the pipe that will be coming out soon, I am VERY excited to release them – I have a fun, creepy song for spooky season in October, and some really exciting originals and covers coming up as well.
Ever since “Remember Us” in 2024, I’ve been working with Pete Adams, the producer Activision hired to record and produce my vocals for it – and we have been cooking up so much good stuff. I really am bursting at the seams for people to hear it all.
Reuel
Wow that’s a lot of things to look forward to!
Besides the shift in musical styles, you’re also releasing music now through your own label, Dollbreath Records. Having your own label gives you more control over your music, but it also comes with more responsibility. How has that balance been for you?
Elena Siegman
I honestly kind of love responsibility… with great responsibility comes great power? Does it work backwards? I guess we’ll find out.
I have a lot of crazy ideas. It is hard for me to explain them to people. It’s easier for me to just get started on them and see if I can get anybody else involved in my wild schemes. Having a label makes that a LOT easier. I’ve been sketching and making things for so long, and releasing things for other people for so long. I finally figured out to cross the streams – make my own record label!
It’s been a dream of mine for a long time. I grew up in the era of Kill Rock Stars and Righteous Babe Records – DIY record labels created to showcase music that didn’t get released on major labels but had a very serious and devoted audience. I want that! I hope to expand the label in the next year or two. There are a lot of artists like me – they’ve been introduced to an audience who is dying for more music from them, but it’s a real brain buster to figure out how to connect. That was me for ages. I think I’m finally figuring it out!
Reuel
Brilliant! While you’re heading towards a more indie music ground, people are using AI to say hello to each other. What dangers does AI pose to musicians in particular, and what do you think needs to be done to counter it?
Elena Siegman
When I think about dangers posed by AI, I don’t actually fear the tool. I think there is something really amazing about a technology that you can interface with using human language. That’s really cool, in fact. The problem arises in using it as a way to “measure” value of actual human output and experience. Who gets to decide? There is so much danger in assigning “financial value” to human expression – and we’ve all lived our entire lives under that paradigm, and now it’s changing faster than we can adjust to. Of course that introduces more difficulty in being a creative human trying to make a living with their talents. It’s a profound change.
There was a huge earthquake in the music business in the late 90s/early 2000s, when Napster threatened to make music “free”. The reason it got to that point in the first place is that the entire industry that connected music to people was exploiting the only two pillars of the whole thing: the fans and the artists.
Personally, I just think we’re there again. The technology is one thing, but the inputs, the training, they aren’t being appropriately accounted for. If we were actually interested in creating a system that didn’t exploit the most important people in the system, we could create a new way to use this technology that benefits the artists and the consumers today. I believe that people make and listen to music to connect to other people. Nobody is using generative AI to connect to other people in the same way. It might be good to get your ideas out, to find someone to collaborate with, but it shouldn’t be the end product.
Elena Siegman
`When I write a song, and I perform it, and I record it, and I do all of the work to get it on the internet, I have paid a fair price for every tool I used to do that. I have paid the people I collaborated with to make the music. And if someone uses that song in their commercial work, they have to compensate me for it. If we had a system where generative AI fairly compensated for what it learned from something you made or created or was trained on your voice, for example, things might be different.
There’s also a huge problem in conflating the tool with the output. The process is important to most art, but at the end of the day, if you’re trying to share your point of view with someone, the process of creating it is not as important as the impact. The impact of creating artwork with AI is now mixed up with the economic, environmental and moral impact of it. We haven’t got a map! We really need one. As consumers, I think people do need to be more thoughtful than they have in the past. As artists, I think we need to be more principled.
Elena Siegman Cover me Photo Shoot at El Rey Theatre by Monica Orozco
Reuel
Thank you, again, for sharing your great insight!
We have readers from all around the world, including women who still face barriers, and even persecution, in the music industry. As an inspiration to many aspiring musicians, what message would you like to share with those who dream of pursuing a music career?
Elena Siegman
I think the typical advice is “don’t listen to the gatekeepers.” I heard that when I was younger and I took the wrong message away. Because the gatekeepers were extremely powerful. When your safety is in question, “don’t let the bastards get you down” is actually terrible advice. If they’re tearing powerful icons like Madonna and Beyonce down, if Ke$ha and Halsey find themselves in label purgatory, if Pussy Riot and Mai Khôi can be targeted by the state for expressing themselves… “don’t get discouraged” is incredibly unhelpful for a vulnerable person with a marginalized identity and absolutely zero power.
Instead, I think it’s better to remember that if there’s a gatekeeper, that implies there’s a gate. Who built it and why? And is it actually blocking anything? What do you want to do? And who is stopping you? Can you get around them? I confused fearing for my safety (actually smart) with believing I wasn’t supposed to be making music (incorrect).
These are questions I only started asking myself once I stopped believing that anybody had a right to tell me if I was entitled to make music or not. I had internalized the idea that I was interloping on territory that wasn’t meant for me because of the treatment I experienced, or saw other women experience. I took exactly the wrong message away from that.
You only get the one life. You only get the one belly and the one fire in it! Nobody gets to tell you what to do with it. It may scare some people. It may upset some people. You might actually have to worry about that if it does. But you can do hard things! And people being upset is not evidence that it’s not your right to express yourself, and to follow in the footsteps of others that have inspired you. It is really, really important not to get that twisted.
Reuel
That was quite inspirational! Thank you for your time, Elena! It was genuinely educational getting to chat with you! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Elena Siegman
Just that I have many originals and many covers in the pipe that I’ll be releasing for the rest of this year and well into 2027. I don’t want people to miss out! I have an email list at elenasiegman.com where I give people early access to the songs before they release, and also release demos and b sides and things they can’t get any where else.
And that if you’re a musician reading this that has a fan base from a game or a soundtrack and no idea how to reach them, that’s a problem that I’m building Dollbreath to solve and I am very interested in hearing from you.
Well, that, and! That it is very meaningful to be interviewed by y’all at FemMetal. You are right at the intersection of things that matter a lot to me and being recognized by you and your readers is a big deal for me! <3
Marrow Deep is likely the most important and highly anticipated albumprogressive/stoner metal troupe Mastodon has made in at least two decades. Beyond being the follow-up to 2021’s superb Hushed and Grim, it’s the band’s first record without late guitarist/singer Brent Hindsand their first as an official quintet thanks to the additions of guitarist/singer Nick Johnston and keyboardist João Nogueira (who appeared on Hushed and Grim). Thus, it needs to prove not only that Mastodon can still kick ass after almost 30 years, but also that they can carry on without the signature input and presence of Hinds.
Thankfully, the set does all of that (and more) by the time its characteristically intense final moments fade away. Sure, Hinds’ absence is strongly felt (especially vocally), but the returning trio (Brann Dailor, Troy Sanders, and Bill Kelliher) – plus the two newcomers – excel at building upon Mastodon’s beloved formula while tossing in a few surprises along the way. In other words, their guttural heaviness, affective gentleness, and cosmic complexity are totally intact, making Marrow Deep a wholly fitting, satisfying, and promising first step on Mastodon’s next path.
In many ways, the record feels as much like a tribute to the Hinds era as it does an indication of where Mastodon are going next.
For instance, tunes such as opener “Barbarians Blood,” “A Vampire’s Demeanor,” and “Out Like a Lamb” harken back to the extra harshness of the group’s first three records (especially 2004’s Leviathan). In contrast, “Poisonous Weapons,” “In the Ruins,” and “Golden Spires” find Sanders and/or Dailor evoking the spacier, softer, and sadder blueprints of 2009’s Crack the Skye and beyond. Whether they’re joining their voices or leading the charge, both men sing as well as ever, and with plenty of idiosyncratic riffs, rhythms, eccentricities, and smooth changeups fleshing out their performances, these tunes – among others – showcase just about everything that’s long made Mastodon special.
That said, several of the album’s best moments are its most refreshing ones (undoubtedly due in part to the inherent newness brought by Nogueira and Johnston).
Namely – and with purposeful vagueness to avoid spoilers – Nogueira steers a few intergalactic detours that wouldn’t have been out of place on one of Opeth’s 2010s (jazz fusion-esque) “observations” or a classic ‘70s outing from Camel, Pink Floyd, or King Crimson. Likewise, there’s lovely acoustic guitarwork and vocal harmonies strewn throughout that easily rank as some of the group’s most beautiful and/or hypnotic material to date.
The official press release explains that the collection is “inspired by . . . the fragile threads connecting life, loss, and destiny” as it “channels . . . intense personal experiences . . . into some of the [band’s] most expansive, adventurous, and emotionally resonant music.” That’s absolutely what the revised and reinvigorated Mastodon accomplish here. Aside from the lack of Hinds’ irreplaceable quirkiness, virtually everything that fans love about the band’s ability to shift between strangeness, sensitiveness, and sinisterness is fully present.
As such, Marrow Deep is on par with most of its predecessors, and it might even be the group’s best album since 2009’s Crack the Skye. Most importantly, it thoroughly and irrefutably proves that although Mastodon will never be the same without Hinds, they’re more than capable of carrying on with an irresistible blend of familiarity and freshness.
Release Date: August 28th, 2026 Record Label: Loma Vista Recordings Genre: Progressive Metal/Stoner Metal
Every now and then, a track lands on the HEAVY desk that doesn’t just ask for your attention—it kicks the front door off its hinges, grabs you by the collar, and demands you sit down and listen. That is exactly what happened this week when the absolute powerhouses in KALATONE dropped their blistering new sonic […]
