Ukrainian alternative metal band Ignea have premiered a Lame Perfect-directed music video for their new single “Darkness.” The track will appear on the band's upcoming studio album “Monumental,” due out October 23rd via Napalm Records.
Vocalist Helle Bohdanova said of the song: Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com
“Revenge” has arrived as the final advance single from John Carpenter's upcoming multimedia project “Cathedral.” The legendary filmmaker and composer behind classics such as ‘The Thing’ and ‘Halloween’ is pairing a graphic novel with a metal-leaning companion album for the release.
The album features Carpenter alongside his son Cody Carpente… Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com
A concert ticket usually promises songs, lights, and a crowded journey home. Lucy Dacus added marriage licenses to the evening. During her headline performance at All Things Go in New York City on September 26, 2025, she officiated weddings for nine couples onstage at Forest Hills Stadium.
The ceremonies unfolded during “Best Guess,” a love song from Forever Is a Feeling. Actress Havana Rose Liu appeared as flower girl, carrying roses for the newlyweds. The scene looked spontaneous from the audience, yet careful planning sat behind it.
According to coverage of the festival weddings, couples had applied beforehand, arranged the required paperwork, and arrived ready to make a legally meaningful commitment in front of thousands of strangers.
By the end of Dacus’ wider wedding project, she had officiated 154 couples during her tour. The nine ceremonies in Queens became one of its most memorable chapters.
What Happened During the All Things Go Set?
Dacus began her Friday night headline performance at 9 p.m. at Forest Hills Stadium. During “Best Guess,” nine couples walked onto the stage and slow-danced while the band played. Dacus exchanged her guitar for a bouquet and a prepared ceremony script.
Havana Rose Liu, known for Bottoms and for appearing in Dacus’ “Ankles” music video, handed roses to the couples. Dacus then recognised the vows and pronounced the pairs married as the stadium erupted in cheers.
A typical wedding relies on controlled details: assigned seats, quiet entrances, carefully timed speeches. Forest Hills offered a louder setting. Festivalgoers became witnesses, phones rose into the air, and nine private relationships briefly occupied the largest space in the building.
A Ceremony Inside “Best Guess”
The ceremony was integrated into the song rather than presented as an unrelated interval. Couples danced first, allowing the music to establish the mood before Dacus moved into her role as officiant.
“Best Guess” approaches commitment as a hopeful decision made without perfect knowledge of the future. Bodies change, circumstances shift, and love still gives two people a reason to place a bet on one another. A collective wedding fitted naturally into that idea.
The moment arrived during a particularly significant performance for Dacus. Her All Things Go appearance marked her first time headlining Forest Hills Stadium, despite previous appearances there with Boygenius and as a supporting performer.
Her set also included a cover of Sufjan Stevens’ “Chicago,” the song that inspired the festival’s name, as reported in BrooklynVegan’s festival recap.
Were the Weddings Planned in Advance?
Yes. Dacus had invited fans to apply months before the All Things Go performance.
In July 2025, she announced that she was ordained in the United States and wanted to officiate weddings at selected tour dates. Interested couples completed a Google form and received location-specific instructions.
Her plan generally required participants to obtain a marriage license before the concert, bring it to the venue box office, and collect it later after the necessary signatures had been handled.
The original tour announcement noted that local regulations created extra steps in some cities. Several stops could not support an identical process, so couples needed to follow guidance for the state where their ceremony would occur.
Dacus offered her officiating service free of charge. Cost and logistics formed part of her reasoning, along with concern among LGBTQ+ couples who feared that marriage protections might become less secure.
The few tender minutes seen by the audience therefore depended on venue staff, management, licensing paperwork, applicant screening, and plenty of communication away from the spotlight.
Who Were the Nine Couples?
Each couple brought a personal story shaped by love, music, and shared experience
Reports identified several of the newlyweds, including Mac Craighead and Frankie Terrone of Brooklyn, Ashley Huynh and Matt Moore from Atlanta, Maria Botero and Bella Langlois of Norwich, Connecticut, and Grace Messimer and Jessica Bajorinas.
Craighead and Terrone carried a particularly fitting connection to Dacus’ music. Craighead said the first love letter written to Terrone included a lyric from “Trust,” a Dacus song. They had met at a drag show where Terrone was performing and later applied for the onstage ceremony on a whim.
Modern relationships begin in remarkably varied settings, from live performances and shared fandoms to international dating platforms such as Ladadate.com, where people can connect around the possibility of a serious commitment.
A detail like that explains why the event resonated beyond celebrity novelty. The couples were fans whose relationships already contained Dacus’ songs. Her work had formed part of their shared language before she became their officiant.
Other participants had different reasons for joining. Some wanted an affordable and uncomplicated ceremony. Others had waited for an opportunity that felt accepting, especially when relatives had been unsupportive of their relationships.
Why Did “Best Guess” Work as a Wedding Song?
“Best Guess” suits a wedding because its optimism leaves room for uncertainty. The song avoids presenting love as a guarantee. Commitment becomes a conscious choice to build a future with someone who will continue changing.
Traditional vows often use absolute promises. Dacus’ writing focuses on affection that accepts risk. A partner represents the strongest available hope for what comes next, even when neither person can predict exactly where life will lead.
The track appears on Dacus’ fourth solo album, Forever Is a Feeling, released in March 2025. Much of the record examines intimacy, desire, doubt, and the temporary nature of emotional certainty. A Guardian interview about the album described its relationships as choices shaped by change rather than obligation.
At Forest Hills, “Best Guess” became part soundtrack and part ceremony. Nine couples supplied living examples of the song’s central idea.
Why Did the Weddings Carry Political Weight?
Dacus framed the project around legal protection as well as romance. When she invited applications, she referred to people seeking the rights granted through marriage and acknowledged the anxiety surrounding their future availability.
Her eventual tour total reached 154 weddings, with 120 involving queer couples. Some participants acted from spontaneity, while others feared losing legal protections or lacked family support for a conventional ceremony, according to reporting on the tour project.
The scale turned a recurring concert feature into a public statement about chosen family and belonging. Audience members who had never attended a same-sex wedding could unexpectedly find one unfolding in the middle of a show.
All Things Go provided a fitting environment. The festival’s official New York page presents the event as a space built around connection and community. Dacus gave that language a literal expression: couples entered the stage as partners and left as newlyweds.
Forest Hills Added Its Own History
The weddings became another unusual chapter in the stadium’s century-long cultural history
Forest Hills Stadium gave the ceremony a memorable backdrop. The 13,000-capacity venue opened in the 1920s as the home of the U.S. tennis championships before developing into a major concert location.
Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan have all performed there. Dylan’s 1965 Forest Hills appearance came shortly after his famous electric set at the Newport Folk Festival.
The stadium’s official history traces its evolution from a tennis venue into one of New York’s distinctive outdoor music settings. Nearly six decades after Dylan’s appearance, nine weddings joined its collection of unusual musical memories.
Concert weddings also have a longer history in New York. On June 5, 1974, Sly Stone married Kathy Silva onstage at Madison Square Garden before his concert. The ceremony featured an enormous audience and the extravagance associated with 1970s rock stardom. A contemporary New Yorker report recorded the elaborate preparations surrounding the event.
Dacus approached the idea from another direction. Attention stayed on ordinary fans rather than on the artist’s private life. Nine couples shared the stage, and their relationships remained the emotional centre.
A Festival Surprise With Lasting Meaning
Nine weddings during one set sound like a story created for social media. The fuller account feels warmer and more deliberate. Dacus developed a process that allowed fans to complete real paperwork, step into a favourite song, and mark a major life event before a supportive crowd.
The ceremony also changed the role of the audience. Festivalgoers became witnesses to commitments involving people they had never met. For several minutes, a headline show turned into a public celebration of lives that would continue long after the final encore.
In a May 2026 interview, Dacus said she had rarely felt as present onstage as she did while officiating the tour weddings. Familiar songs could be performed again at another venue. Each marriage represented a singular moment in someone else’s life, according to her later interview.
Nine happened side by side at All Things Go, accompanied by roses, an indie love song, and several thousand unexpected wedding guests.
Sun Guts, the solo project of Car Bomb guitarist Greg Kubacki, have released the title track from the upcoming sophomore album “Supervoid.” The song marks the third advance single from the record, which is set to arrive in full on September 4th.
Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com
Linkin Park have unveiled additional details about their upcoming live documentary film “UNSHATTER.” Directed by the nü-metal band's own Joe Hahn, the film is scheduled for a limited theatrical release beginning September 30th. Tickets go on sale August 13th. A live performance video for “Somewhere I Belong” has also premiered, both of which no… Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com
There are comeback gigs, and there is Through Storms And Stars: An Evening with Voyager. After illness forced Voyager off the road at the height of their Eurovision-fuelled rise, the Australian Prog Metallers return with a heartfelt, theatrical and thunderously joyous London show at the Islington Assembly Hall.
Australian Prog Metallers Voyager have quite the story. Formed in Perth and recording their first album in 2003, the band made a steady climb, picking up increased accolades and fans along the way.
With a line-up unchanged since 2011, a blistering live show, plenty of touring including with Nightwish, Epica, Children Of Bodom, Alestorm and Queensrÿche, and ever-better albums, Voyager established themselves as a real force to be reckoned with.
Voyager – Islington Assembly Hall, London – 31 July 2026. Photo: Ryan Hildrew/MetalTalk
Their profile in the UK was raised greatly on their 2018 European tour, with appearances at Ramblin’ Man Fair and Bloodstock, their trademark blend of Metal and ’80s synth-pop hitting a sweet spot.
Following the pandemic, the news broke in 2023 that Voyager were chosen for the Australian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. As a diehard and unironic fan of Eurovision, I actually shrieked when I heard this news, and I am not sorry.
The resulting song, Promise, was three minutes of prog perfection, slaughtering the opposition in the semi-final by a country mile and then coming ninth in the grand final, which is an almighty success by anyone’s standards. Not to mention the presence of a real 1988 Toyota MR2 AW11 on the stage at Liverpool, making this event truly iconic.
Voyager – Islington Assembly Hall, London – 31 July 2026. Photo: Ryan Hildrew/MetalTalk
With a new album, Fearless In Love, and a huge European tour lined up for the latter half of 2023, if there was any fairness in the world, Voyager would have gone stratospheric, reaping similar benefits to Måneskin two years earlier.
Unfortunately, fate played a cruel hand, and frontman Danny Estrin was diagnosed with serious Stage 4 cancer necessitating the cancellation of all dates and activities.
Thanks to the miracles of modern medicine, however, after lots of gruelling treatment, the cancer, while not curable, has been managed to the extent that shows are possible once more. Voyager are back – and how.
Voyager – Islington Assembly Hall, London – 31 July 2026. Photo: Ryan Hildrew/MetalTalk
Before the band took to the stage at the packed and very hot Islington Assembly Hall, the backdrop showed a ten-minute countdown clock along with a slide show of candid snapshots of the band throughout the ages.
As soon as the clock hit zero, an almighty roar went up, and out came Jerry Ewing, esteemed editor of Prog Magazine, to formally introduce the band and get everyone to sing happy birthday to guitarist Scott Kay, who would be celebrating the next day.
Jerry Ewing at Voyager – Islington Assembly Hall, London – 31 July 2026. Photo: Ryan Hildrew/MetalTalk
It took about five seconds after all the members had entered the stage and burst into Prince Of Fire to realise that this was going to be a special show. The band (Estrin on vocals and keys, Simone Dow and Scott Kay on guitars, Alex Canion on bass and Ash Doodkorte on drums) are seriously talented musicians, and their vibe together is irresistible.
We got theatrical flourishes, solos to die for, and showmanship from the entire gang as they delivered one dynamic anthem after another. Danny Estrin’s clean, soaring vocals sounded wonderful, and he entered the stage resplendent in a full-length blue furry coat.
I know it’s midwinter in Australia, but this is the middle of a London heatwave. Talk about dedication to your art. It only lasted three tracks before he changed into something a bit cooler and more sparkly.
Voyager – Islington Assembly Hall, London – 31 July 2026. Photo: Ryan Hildrew/MetalTalk
The evening was split into chapters, taking in the highs and lows experienced by the band, and these have been extreme.
During one interlude Danny spoke candidly and honestly about his illness and making a plea for people to go and see a doctor if something is not right, a sentiment that we wholeheartedly agree with. Get yourselves checked, do not be an idiot in denial, it could well save your life.
Voyager – Islington Assembly Hall, London – 31 July 2026. Photo: Ryan Hildrew/MetalTalk
With last year’s single Seen Better Days coming immediately after this speech, the song landed with poignancy and power.
It is not all seriousness, far from it. There is plenty of humour and banter even within the songs, such as Hyperventilating, with a hilarious karaoke-style coda using wordplay on the song’s title, or the recovery when the occasional mistake was made, or the two interludes with Alex Canion acting out his mock children’s book telling the Voyager story, which was the epitome of the laid-back lunacy that the band delight audiences with.
Voyager – Islington Assembly Hall, London – 31 July 2026. Photo: Ryan Hildrew/MetalTalk
This career-spanning set included Everwaiting from the 2007 album UniVers, making its live debut in these shows, fitting perfectly with more recent cuts such as Dreamer.
The synth pop aspect is done to perfection, but make no mistake. When the breakdowns hit, they hit hard, heavy and deep. Voyager have pure Heavy Metal hearts, and it is thrilling.
Production elements were high, and as well as good lighting, throughout the set inventive use was made of the backdrop with some genius touches such as playing The Meaning Of I in front of a video replay of their much younger selves.
Voyager – Islington Assembly Hall, London – 31 July 2026. Photo: Ryan Hildrew/MetalTalk
Unsurprisingly, the whole hall went completely insane for Promise, but there was no sense that the rest of the show had been a build-up to this.
It was all nothing short of magnificent. The encore of White Shadow, or “a song about a horse,” ended proceedings on just the right light-hearted note.
What a show, what a band. As Danny Estrin declared at the closing bow, “we will do this again,” and that is a promise we will be there for.
