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In 2019 Jinjer lead vocalist Tatiana Shmailyuk explained how her discovery of Opeth helped her develop her performance voice and paint gloomy, dark images

“I discovered Opeth in around 2003 when I was 16 or 17. A friend of mine gave me a mix CD with a bunch of different bands on, and that’s when I first heard Damnation. I fell in love with it and I’ve been a huge fan ever since.

It’s my favourite album of theirs. Oh my God, it’s so atmospheric! And Mikael Åkerfeldt’s voice is so soothing – I’d never heard a male metal vocalist sing so clean before, but when he growled, it was the deepest shit I’d ever heard.

He’s also a wonderful composer; he really hits the jackpot. Mikael’s vocals have definitely inspired me to growl as deep as I can, but I try not to imitate other performers as I prefer to do my own thing.

I love all the songs on Damnation, but the one I like the most is Death Whispered A Lullaby [written by Steven Wilson]. I have goosebumps just talking about it!

I appreciate listening to the album all the way through, as one long song, and that’s how I used to listen to it when I was painting. I used to do these very gloomy and dark paintings, and Opeth’s music really inspired my creativity.

I found their 2016 album, Sorceress, very relaxing too. It’s an album that needs time to really appreciate and understand it. I like to have it on when I go to sleep. I find it very soothing – but I miss his growling!

Discovering Opeth was a revelation to me. At the time I was listening to mostly nu metal and alternative music, then through Opeth I discovered progressive metal. Tool came next, then Anathema, Porcupine Tree and Katatonia. I really like Soen and Riverside now as well.

The first time I got to see Opeth live was actually this summer. We were both playing at Rock The Coast Festival in Spain and I was lucky enough to be able to watch them from the side of the stage. I was singing along and it was so cool.

I didn’t go up to Mikael afterwards though. I don’t think he needs to hear what I think about his music. I would probably have been too paralysed with fear to talk to him anyway, because he’s my hero!”

APOCÆLYPSE makes its presence known today with the release of the band’s debut album, FÆNIX. Led by acclaimed guitarist and vocalist Ira Black (Vio-Lence, Lizzy Borden, Metal Church), APOCÆLYPSE marks the highly anticipated album’s arrival with a brand new music video for “FÆNIX…OUT OF FLAMES.”

Stream/Purchase FÆNIX: https://vyd.co/Faenix

“FÆNIX…OUT OF FLAMES” MUSIC VIDEO: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EKAKBJ7aKM

Built around themes of perseverance, rebirth and confronting the forces that threaten to consume us, FÆNIX introduces APOCÆLYPSE with a commanding collision of modern metal muscle, memorable hooks and cinematic ambition. Across the album, the band moves between deeply personal subject matter and a broader examination of an increasingly fractured world, channeling both into songs designed to hit with equal parts weight and purpose.

Mixed and mastered by Chris Collier (Korn, Whitesnake), “FÆNIX…OUT OF FLAMES” provides a fitting centerpiece for the record and its underlying message. Pairing towering riffs and melodic intensity with the album’s recurring ideas of transformation and survival, the track captures the spirit behind FÆNIX: emerging from destruction changed, but stronger.

The album arrives with APOCÆLYPSE already building considerable momentum. Debut single “INTELL-I-GENTS” continues its ascent on the Billboard and Mediabase radio charts, expanding the band’s reach following a breakout introduction that quickly put the new project on the metal world’s radar. Its cinematic music video has also amassed more than 1.4 million views.

Where “INTELL-I-GENTS” confronts the increasingly complicated relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence, follow-up single “BLACK BOX” revealed a far more personal side of Black’s songwriting. The song examines survival, trauma and the process of facing the experiences that shape us rather than keeping them buried.

Together, those songs helped establish the wide emotional and conceptual territory explored throughout FÆNIX. The album combines the experience of veteran musicians with the urgency of a band beginning an entirely new chapter, moving between aggression, melody and atmosphere without losing sight of its central theme: the ability to endure, evolve and rise again.

FÆNIX was spearheaded by Ira Black, whose decades-long career has included work with Vio-Lence, Lizzy Borden and Metal Church among others. The APOCÆLYPSE lineup is completed by Black’s son Ira Black IV on guitar, Matt Snell on bass and Lonny Pasillas on drums.

With FÆNIX now unleashed, APOCÆLYPSE transforms its early momentum into a full-length statement of intent and one rooted in classic heavy metal power while pushing toward something distinctly its own.

FÆNIX is OUT NOW.

FÆNIX – Track List: 

1. INTELL-I-GENTS
2. BLACK BOX
3. LOVE TO HATE
4. HATE RESPONSE
5. THE LAMB & THE GOAT
6. THE AMERICAN WAY
7. MIND’S EYE
8. GRAVITY GAME
9. BLACK SUNDAY
10. FÆNIX…OUT OF FLAMES

“INTELL-I-GENTS”
MUSIC VIDEO

https://youtu.be/wmuct_tKPgg

“BLACK BOX”
MUSIC VIDEO

https://youtu.be/9LswZW5GjEE

Follow APOCÆLYPSE: 
Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | X| Spotify | Apple Music

Think Like A Key Music 2026 Too ’60s for the ’70s: Los Angeles ensemble’s legend-setting years outlined in their entirety. Formed in Chicago and taken west yet paradoxically sharing southern DNA with BIG STAR, whom connoisseurs compared them to, SKOOSHNY … Continue reading →

The post SKOOSHNY – The Recordings 1971-1981 appeared first on DMME.net.

Bad Wolves join millions of fans around the world in mourning the sudden passing of the one and only Dolly Parton, whose legacy has touched generations of artists and fans globally. In a poignant turn of events, Bad Wolves were recently in discussions with Parton‘s management team about a special collaboration. Just weeks ago, the […]

Australian-based metalcore outfit Patient Sixty-Seven have signed with SBG Records, marking a major new chapter for one of the scene’s most compelling and community-driven bands. To celebrate the signing, the Perth, Australia natives have released their new single A Stitch In Time Saves None, featuring Telle Smith of The Word Alive. A Stitch In Time […]

Pix by Sarah Gilpin Photography JON STEVENS BABY ANIMALS THE WHITLAMS FANNY LUMSDEN 19-TWENTY THE RADIATORS

The Axiom Divide begins with a grand premise: a doorway to hidden knowledge, an Egyptian afterlife reimagined as a psychological chamber where curiosity becomes a kind of initiation. On The Halls of Amenti: Remixes, that premise is handed to seven other producers and projects, each asked to rebuild the same architecture from a different angle. The result is a remix collection with enough stylistic range to work in a club while preserving the philosophical charge at the center of the original.

Jay Tye and Brent Heinze make an effective pairing because their histories already suggest two sides of the project. Tye, known for Soil & Eclipse, brings the gothic gravity and vocal drama; Heinze, whose work includes Probe 7 and the revived Darling Kandie with Franke “Groovie Mann” Nardiello, supplies a producer’s instinct for structure, movement, and electronic detail. Together, they push darkwave and futurepop toward something theatrical, with operatic and choral ideas hovering over machinery built for physical response.

The remixers have plenty of material to dismantle. Razed in Black, Pygmy Children, Frontal Boundary, Fermion, I Am Consumer, and Dread Risks approach the source from separate corners of the dark electronic spectrum, turning the EP into a broad survey rather than a stack of minor variations. The sequencing helps: repeated encounters with The Halls of Amenti begin to resemble successive chambers, each version changing the perceived dimensions of the same symbolic room. Across the collection, solemnity and propulsion remain in productive tension, with melody acting as the connective thread. Repetition becomes conceptual, each mix opening another passage through a chamber the listener already recognizes and understands.

The band explains the concept directly: “The symbolism behind…The Halls of Amenti references Egyptian lore to describe a metaphorical spiritual realm where a repository of forgotten knowledge welcomes an individual’s search for enlightenment,” says the band. “When the seeker of truth is deemed worthy, they are granted entry into this space to expand their mind and spirit. It speaks to our search for wisdom and personal discovery to enrich our lives.”

That language could easily collapse under its own metaphysical density, yet the remix format keeps the record moving. Ideas of enlightenment, forgotten knowledge, and spiritual worthiness are translated into tempo, repetition, pressure, and release. Closing with Probe 7’s remix of Unrequited is a smart choice because it breaks the recursive spell of the title track and gives Heinze a final opportunity to refract The Axiom Divide through one of his own established identities. As an introduction to the project, The Halls of Amenti: Remixes presents Tye and Heinze as musicians interested in philosophy without sacrificing the body, treating the dance floor as another possible doorway into altered perception.

Listen to The Halls Of Amenti: Remixes below and order the album here.

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The post “The Lions Lie Here Waiting” — Dark Electronic Duo The Axiom Divide Releases “The Halls Of Amenti : Remixes” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

“…The final nail in the coffin was the label’s decision to move forward with the upcoming Dolly Parton cover, after we blatantly expressed our opposition. “

The post Guitarist AJ Rebollo Steps Down From Bad Wolves, Blames Label Pressure To Release Dolly Parton Cover Despite Band Opposition appeared first on Theprp.com.

Rising rock force Bailey Spinn is hitting reset with her powerful new single, start again. Produced by hitmaker Scott Stevens (Shinedown, Halestorm, Daughtry), start again is driven by snarling guitar riffs, thundering energy, and Bailey’s emotive vocals. The track captures the complicated realization that sometimes the only way forward is to let go of and […]

Blues Rock Weekly highlights new music from Steve Cropper and the Midnight Hour featuring Brian May and Billy F Gibbons, plus new music from Kim Wilson and the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Texas Headhunters, Ruthie Foster, Eric Steckel, and Ben Poole.

The post Blues Rock Weekly – 8/28/26 appeared first on Blues Rock Review.