23rd October 2026 Support: Mural Heart, Mild Words: Patrick O’Reilly
Down in the depths of the Akedo bar, a tiny venue probably slightly bigger than your living room, with a stage that can only just about fit a drumkit let alone a full band, we are gathered for the occasion of local band Bat Flattery’s album launch. With all tickets sold it reckons to be a good night of local live music.
Mild hit the stage first, a four piece also from Lincoln, setting up half on the diminutive stage and half in the audience.
They immediately rushed into some very tasty sludge metal with more than a hint of stoner rock. Massive riffs filled the subterranean space and got plenty of heads banging. Mild have a really strong grasp of dynamics, moving seamlessly between downtuned sludgy trawls and bouncy stoner highs (pun intended). Vocals vary from shrieks to creepy quieter whispers, and magical effects abound on the guitar and bass. Their demeanor very much matched their music, with some songs seeing the band members seething and about to leap into the pit whilst others lost in the jam, heads bobbing with the rhythm. For most bands a schizophrenic approach of styles can be their undoing but for Mild it is probably their strongest feature. With recent releases out there and a promise of new material to come, this is definitely a band to watch.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to catch the second band Mural Heart but was reliably informed that they played catchy pop influenced indie rock. Of note was drummer Emily who we would also see behind the kit for the headliners.
Out came Bat Flattery, clearly stoked to be here. The venue that they told us about was the scene of their first ever show. The sell out had both humbled them and inspired them to what was a triumphant night.
Showcasing the whole of their new self-titled album, this was a whirlwind of short sharp shocks. Songs whizzed by but still managed to leave an impression, Onibaba Mask roared out of the traps and laid waste, a brutal sensory overload whilst Sweet Thomas showcased a sensitive side.
Bat Flattery in a live setting is a much different proposition to listening to them on record. The fragile elements of their music are lost but in place of subtlety and guile there is extra emotion and energy. The band seemed to be having a lot of fun, and this fueled the energy of the crowd. There were surreal moments too as the crowd meowed like cats and demanded songs about horses and vocalist Paul seemed to have an attack of PTSD whilst on stage viewing bassist Rob as a scary theme park attraction from his youth, but this was all tongue in cheek, when it came to the music they certainly delivered.
After the album tracks, we were treated to some new tracks, which I was surprised sounded quite different to the album tracks. Hints of new directions for the band maybe? Finally, an epic rendition of the Deftones ‘Be Quiet (And Drive)’ captured the band at their pomp and left the crowd wanting more, which will hopefully be coming our way soon!
Barker’s BlastFest took place at the Manchester Rebellion on Saturday October 3rd. The bands on show showcased some of the best bands on the UK underground and set up by current Absolution bassist Phil Moss-Brown and his wife Katy. All the bands absolutely nailed their sets and the crowd that attended that day watched something … Continue reading Barker’s BlastFest interview: Aortic Rupture
Aemia are a Persian-Canadian alternative rock band led by vocalist Mia Ravangar and guitarist Kourosh Zarandooz. The two started making music together in Iran, long before moving to Canada and forming Aemia. With several singles released, including their latest, “Nowhere To Hide,” the band are now working on their debut EP. I had the pleasure of speaking with Mia about growing up with a passion for rock music in Iran, the challenges that came with it, her songwriting, working with Kourosh, her musical influences, and what’s next for Aemia.
Reuel
Hello Mia! I’m very excited for this interview! How are you and Kourosh doing?
Mia Ravangar
Hi! We’re doing amazing thank you, we’ve just done our debut headlining shows in Toronto and Vancouver which both sold out and we’re working on our first EP, so we’re super excited!
Reuel
This sounds amazing! Coming from Lebanon, I have a deep appreciation for the resilience it takes to keep a rock scene alive in our region, but the level of censorship you faced in Tehran was on another level. What was it really like trying to find your voice in a place where women were legally forbidden to sing?
Mia Ravangar
This is a very emotional topic for me. For years back in Iran, I dreamed of singing and dancing and performing. I sneaked into other bands’ rehearsals and sang back vocals and played the keyboard and tried to be involved in the forbidden rock scene in Iran in any way that I could; even those bands rehearsing weren’t fully allowed to have performances and express themselves, and studios would get raided by the police all the time. After all for me it was a literal dead end; there was no social media back then and no “follow this dream” or “use your willpower and work hard, and it will work out” because you will end up detained. I gave up on that dream 15 years ago and studied design, and now that I have reached a point in my life where I can pursue it and have a voice, quite literally use my voice, it still pains me that a lot of talented people back in Iran still can’t.
Reuel
In Iran, making music was inherently tied to resistance and survival. When you arrived in Canada and that immediate threat was lifted, did your approach to songwriting change? And without that constant, real-world pushback, where do you find that creative tension now?
Mia Ravangar
It was all flooded in me, the singles that we have released are all words that were in my head for years, so when I found myself in a rather more stable and safe position mentally and physically here in Canada, it all burst out of me. I found myself singing these words whenever I was with my instruments, I didn’t even think about rhymes or structure I just had to get it out, and it came so naturally to me, and I feel I still have an ocean inside that I can write about and a lot of people could resonate with, topics that are maybe less mentioned or expressed in modern music. #Such a great feeling!
Reuel
“Nowhere To Hide” carries a very intense sense of tension. What was going through your mind when you were writing the lyrics, and what did you want the song to express?
Mia Ravangar
Nowhere To Hide is a tricky song, both for me and for the listener, it is the abuser filling your ear with seemingly sweet words, luring you inside a mental cage and closing all doors and escape routes. It is a situation which I have witnessed a lot of my loved ones go through, when you’re hearing those words from the outside you realize oh, that’s not okay! I need to get out of this! But when that person is telling them in a sweet way, you sometimes tend to get fooled, so I wanted people to hear these words in the song, and feel the need to break the chains, the mental chains, the abusive and deceptive chains, that’s why the song holds tension.
Reuel
You brought JT Daly in to produce this song. What was it like working with him and how did his approach impact the final arrangement of the track?
Mia Ravangar
JT is one of the most creative wonderful people in this industry and definitely our dream producer to work with when we started our band, so it was an amazing opportunity to be able to craft and weave our thoughts together in NTH and more songs that we’ve worked with together. He is an inspiration booster, a creative mastermind and a genius artist. Working with him is like the best shot of artistic espresso you’ll ever have!
Reuel
You and Kourosh have built Aemia together across two continents. At this point, how much of your songwriting process depends on the kind of unspoken musical understanding that comes from working together for so long?
Mia Ravangar
Unintentionally, from the very first song Aemia became the sound of the two of us combined, my vocals intertwined with Kourosh’s guitar sound , our shared backgrounds, we met in one of those studios that I sneaked in and in our own way we have both dreamed of doing this so it came so naturally to us to write, record and release these songs, long long before having Aemia we would discuss poems, chord progressions and play songs together, even on our Youtube channel and on twitch we have always had our musical side and at one point, we were both like : it is time…!
Reuel
Which musicians would you say have inspired you personally throughout your life and career?
Mia Ravangar
When I was like 7 or 8, seeing Shakira’s “Whenever, Wherever” on an illegal Turkish channel on TV, was a blessing to my eyes. I somehow recorded it and watched it about 6 million times, then I memorized the lyrics. I had no idea what she was saying. I just, syllable by syllable, memorized the wording and the dances and performed it for my parents. Growing up, I played the piano, so Chopin is a huge influence. My teen years were heavily inspired by Korn, Evanescence, Deftones, Muse, System of a Down, that was the most rebellious time in my life and that nu metal scene literally saved me as a depressed teenager in Tehran. Persian pre-revolution musical queens like Hayedeh and Googoosh are also engraved in me, and anything I ever do artistically is because of having heard their influence and voice in our home all the time.
Reuel
A quick look at the comments on Nowhere to Hide or any of your older songs shows just how passionate your fanbase is. What’s it like knowing your music connects with people that strongly?
Mia Ravangar
My fans, whom I rather call my “Hearts” are everything to me. We grew up together, I decided to make videos in 2017 when I didn’t have many friends to share my interests with, I was shy and awkward and they believed in me and made me do better every day and improve myself and my work, we are not separate entities, after 10 years of creating content online, we read each other’s minds at this point!
Reuel
I ask this question in many of my interviews, but given your story, it feels especially relevant here. We have readers from all around the world, including women who still face barriers and even persecution in the music industry. What would you like to say to women who dream of pursuing a career in music?
Mia Ravangar
I am in no position to say anything to them because I am lucky to be where I am, and they are persevering every day to carry this goal with them, singing and dancing and expressing their art in the streets despite it being illegal; they’re the heroes that inspire artists like me, not the other way around.
Reuel
Those are powerful words!
What’s next for Aemia? Any new releases on the horizon?
Mia Ravangar
We have our first EP coming, which is super thrilling and emotional and exciting for us, and I have so many more songs and ideas, there is no stopping me now lol.
Reuel
Thank you for your time, Mia! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Mia Ravangar
Thank you for having me and giving me this wonderful opportunity, I really appreciate it!
Meshuggah return to North America in 2027, celebrating the groundbreaking band’s fortieth anniversary with an extensive tour that sees the genre-defying Swedes make their debut at Red Rocks Amphitheatre and includes outings at Oakland’s Fox Theater and the Brooklyn Paramount.
Tickets for the newly announced dates, produced by Live Nation, are on-sale this Friday, Oct. 30 at 10 a.m. local time, with an artist pre-sale beginning today at 10 a.m. pacific/1 p.m. eastern. Tickets are available at Meshuggah.net/tour. Special guests include Testament and Blood Incantation.
Citi cardmembers in the U.S. will have access to pre-sale tickets beginning Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 12:00 p.m. eastern through the Citi Entertainment program. For complete pre-sale details visit citientertainment.com.
Few bands have altered the vocabulary of heavy music as fundamentally as Meshuggah. Since forming in Umeå, Sweden, in the late ‘80s, the band has continually pushed the boundaries of metal, developing a sound built on complex rhythms, dissonance, repetition and crushing physicality that has influenced generations of musicians. Landmark albums including Destroy Erase Improve, Chaosphere, and Nothing helped redefine the possibilities of the genre, while songs such as “Future Breed Machine,” “Rational Gaze,” and “Bleed” have become touchstones for generations of musicians.
Meshuggah’s influence can he heard across progressive and technical metal, as well as in the work of countless artists inspired by their approach. Yet their music has always stood apart from the movements they helped shape. A 2018 GRAMMY-Award nomination for Best Metal Performance for “Clockworks” recognized their impact, while 2022’s Immutable reaffirmed their place at the forefront of modern metal, topping both the U.K. Rock & Metal Albums chart and Billboard’s Top Hard Rock Albums chart.
The Forty-Year Anomaly Tour dates:
February 12 Toronto, ON Coca-Cola Coliseum
February 13 Laval, QC Place Bell
February 16 Detroit, MI The Masonic Temple Theatre
February 17 Chicago, IL The Salt Shed
February 19 Minneapolis, MN The Armory
February 20 Kansas City, MO The Midland Theatre
February 21 Omaha, NE Steelhouse
February 23 Chesterfield, MO The Factory
February 24 Nashville, TN The Truth
February 26 Virginia Beach, VA The Dome by Rutter Mills
February 27 Baltimore, MD The Paramount
February 28 Pittsburgh, PA Citizens Live at The Wylie
March 2 Philadelphia, PA The Met
March 3 Brooklyn, NY The Brooklyn Paramount
March 5 New Haven, CT College Street Music Hall
March 6 Boston, MA MGM Music Hall at Fenway
April 15 Vancouver, BC PNE Forum
April 16 Portland, OR Theater of the Clouds
April 17 Seattle, WA Paramount Theatre
April 19 Salt Lake City, UT The Union Event Center
April 21 Morrison, CO Red Rocks Amphitheatre
April 24 Oakland, CA The Fox Theater
April 25 Inglewood, CA YouTube Theater
April 27 Phoenix, AZ Arizona Financial Theatre
April 30 Houston, TX Bayou Music Center
May 1 San Antonio, TX Boeing Center at Tech Port
May 2 Oklahoma City, OK The Criterion
May 4 Irving, TX Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
May 6 New Orleans, LA The Fillmore
May 7 Atlanta, GA Coca-Cola Roxy
May 8 Daytona Beach, FL Welcome to Rockville
May 9 Ft. Lauderdale, FL War Memorial
May 11 Greensboro, NC Greensboro Event Center
May 13 Columbus, OH Sonic Temple
May 14 Milwaukee, WI Milwaukee Metal Fest
Fat Dog|Lip Critic|Silverwingkiller|O. O2 Academy Brixton (London) 24th October 2026 Fat Dog’s second album, Cancel Me (I’m Tired), is just a few weeks old, hot on the heels of their impressive 2024 debut Woof. Now, the band is taking over Brixton Academy – their largest headline venue to date – proving that their rapidly growing […]
