Over the past few years, the British musician Yungblud has cultivated a classic rock-star image, collecting co-signs from originators like Ozzy Osbourne and Aerosmith and indulging in the kinds of tongue-out leather-pants poses that we don’t see so often anymore. He has been a major-label artist for his entire career, at least since his time on the Disney Channel show The Lodge, so it’s not exactly surprising that there’s been a lot of “industry plant” chatter around him. It seems that those accusations have weighed heavily on Yungblud.
MANIFEST Unleash New Single “Hazard of the Die” Ahead of Crushing Sixth Album Nothing Left To Kill
Norwegian Thrash/Death Metal Veterans Return With A Brutal First Taste Of Their Most Raw And Uncompromising Record Yet
Album Pre-Sale: https://manifestmetal.bandcamp.com/album/nothing-left-to-kill Album Pre-Save: https://orcd.co/vm002
Norway’s veteran metal wrecking crew MANIFEST have returned with a vengeance, unleashing their explosive new single “Hazard of the Die” from their upcoming sixth studio album, Nothing Left To Kill , due out September 18, 2026 via ViciSolum Productions and Violent Media , with distribution handled by Sound Pollution .
Available now across all streaming platforms, “Hazard of the Die” serves as the first strike from the new album, delivering everything fans have come to expect from MANIFEST: crushing thrash riffs, death metal intensity, relentless grooves, and an attitude forged in the underground.
Listen to “Hazard of the Die”: https://orcd.co/vm002s1
Driven by an unstoppable rhythm section, razor-sharp guitar work, and aggressive vocal delivery, “Hazard of the Die” wastes no time setting the tone for Nothing Left To Kill . The track erupts with high-speed thrash fury before dropping into a massive headbanging groove section, complete with a blistering guitar lead that pushes the song into full-throttle territory.
The band comments:
“Hazard of the Die was one of the very first songs that we wrote for this album, and it was the first track to be recorded. It sets a brutal and uncompromising tone for the rest of the album. The title refers to the uncertainty and risk involved in chance or fate, much like rolling a die where the outcome is unknown and uncontrollable.”
Produced, mixed, and mastered by Rune Stavnesli , Nothing Left To Kill marks a powerful return to MANIFEST’s raw metal foundation. The album captures the band’s trademark collision of thrash and death metal with a renewed sense of aggression, precision, and intensity.
The band states:
“We are ready with album number six. This upcoming release signifies a massive return to a raw metal expression, defined by our trademark mix of thrash and death metal. Rune Stavnesli is back in the producer’s chair, and the collaboration has forged a bone-crushing, intense, and uncompromising album. Can’t wait to get it released!”
Formed in Norway in 1999 and releasing their debut record in 2005, MANIFEST have spent decades building a reputation as one of the country’s most relentless underground metal forces. Their ferocious live performances have taken them to stages around the world, including appearances at major international metal festivals and performances alongside legendary acts such as Entombed , Meshuggah , and Napalm Death .
With Nothing Left To Kill , MANIFEST prove they remain as hungry, dangerous, and uncompromising as ever. Combining the savage energy of classic thrash with the crushing weight of death metal, the band continues their mission of delivering pure, no-frills extreme metal.
For fans of Slayer , Sepultura , and Entombed .
Nothing Left To Kill arrives September 18, 2026 via ViciSolum Productions and Violent Media.
Album Pre-Save: https://orcd.co/vm002
Single Streaming Link: https://orcd.co/vm002s1
Connect:
https://www.manifestmetal.com/ https://www.instagram.com/manifest.metal https://www.facebook.com/manifestnorway
Contact: Ole Marius Larmerud – ole@manifestmetal.com Violent Media – contact@manifestmetal.com
Photo Credit: Raymond Eide
How Silent Film Built the Visual Language of Gothic Horror
A vampire slowly ascends a staircase. His shadow stretches unnaturally across the wall, reaching the victim before he does. There is no dialogue. No orchestral sting warns the audience that danger is approaching. Yet more than a century later, the image remains unsettling.
This is one of the great achievements of silent cinema. Long before horror films could rely on sound design, jump scares, whispered voices, or monstrous growls, filmmakers learned how to communicate fear through purely visual means. They transformed shadows into threats, architecture into psychology, and darkness into a storytelling language that still shapes horror cinema today.
Modern audiences often think of silent films as ancestors of contemporary movies. In reality, many of the visual techniques that define Gothic horror were perfected during the silent era. The haunted castles, twisted corridors, looming silhouettes, tragic monsters, and dreamlike atmospheres that populate modern horror films all owe a debt to filmmakers working with little more than light, shadow, and imagination.
Silent cinema created many of the visual techniques that continue to define Gothic horror more than a century later.
To understand why Gothic horror still looks the way it does, we need to travel back to a time when cinema itself was learning how to dream.
When Fear Had No Voice
At the beginning of the twentieth century, cinema was still discovering its identity. Early filmmakers experimented with movement, editing, perspective, and visual illusion, often without fully understanding the possibilities of the new medium. Audiences were astonished simply to see images come alive on a screen. Yet some directors quickly realized that motion pictures could do far more than record reality. Film could manipulate perception itself.
This discovery proved especially important for Gothic storytelling. By the time cinema arrived, Gothic literature had already spent more than a century exploring fear, madness, isolation, death, and the supernatural. Writers such as Horace Walpole, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, and Edgar Allan Poe had created worlds filled with haunted mansions, forbidden knowledge, cursed families, and psychological torment. Silent filmmakers inherited these themes, but they faced a challenge their literary predecessors never encountered.
How do you communicate dread when nobody can hear the characters speak?
The answer forced filmmakers to become visual innovators. Without dialogue, every element inside the frame suddenly carried emotional weight. Lighting was no longer merely practical illumination. Shadows could suggest hidden danger. Set design could reveal a character’s state of mind. Even the placement of a doorway or staircase could create tension.
Rather than describing fear, silent cinema learned how to embody it. The audience did not simply observe terror unfolding. They experienced it through the environment itself.
German Expressionism and the Invention of Visual Dread
The true breakthrough arrived in Germany after the First World War. In a nation struggling with political instability, economic collapse, and collective trauma, artists began abandoning realism in favor of emotional expression. Pain, anxiety, alienation, and psychological fragmentation became more important than accurately reproducing the physical world.
This artistic movement became known as German Expressionism, and its influence on horror cinema cannot be overstated. Expressionist filmmakers deliberately distorted reality. Buildings leaned at impossible angles. Streets twisted through unnatural landscapes. Windows appeared warped and threatening. Shadows were often painted directly onto the sets rather than created through lighting.
The goal was not realism. The goal was emotional truth.
Perhaps the most famous example appears in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). Watching the film today feels like entering a nightmare. Nothing appears stable. The architecture itself seems infected by madness. Sharp angles cut across the screen like wounds. The city becomes an extension of the characters’ fractured minds.
This was a revolutionary idea. Earlier films treated settings primarily as backgrounds for action. German Expressionism transformed the environment into an active participant in the story. Fear no longer depended solely upon a villain or supernatural threat. The world itself became unsettling.
Modern horror still relies heavily upon this principle. Consider the endless corridors of haunted hotels, the impossible layouts of Gothic mansions, or the oppressive architecture found throughout psychological horror. These environments are not simply locations. They reflect emotional and psychological realities. Their ancestry can often be traced directly back to the painted shadows and distorted landscapes of Expressionist cinema.
For the first time, filmmakers discovered that architecture could frighten audiences as effectively as any monster.
The Shadow of Nosferatu
If German Expressionism taught horror how to shape space, Nosferatu taught it how to weaponize absence. Released in 1922 and directed by F. W. Murnau, the film remains one of the most influential works in horror history. While technically an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Murnau transformed the familiar vampire into something entirely new.
Count Orlok is not the seductive aristocrat later popularized by Bela Lugosi. He resembles a walking plague. His elongated fingers, bald skull, skeletal frame, and rodent-like features evoke disease, decay, and mortality. Watching him move through doorways feels less like encountering a human being and more like witnessing death itself take physical form.
Yet the film’s most famous image is not Orlok’s face.
It is his shadow.
In one of cinema’s most iconic sequences, Orlok’s silhouette slowly climbs a staircase before extending its hand toward a terrified victim. The audience sees the shadow before the monster arrives. Murnau understood something fundamental about fear that horror filmmakers still exploit today: what remains partially hidden often becomes more terrifying than what is fully revealed.
The sequence lasts only moments, yet it permanently changed the visual language of horror. Shadows ceased being passive effects created by lighting. They became symbolic presences capable of carrying psychological meaning. Darkness itself became a character.
More than a century later, horror directors continue to build upon this discovery. Every silhouette emerging from darkness, every figure glimpsed at the edge of a frame, and every monster concealed by shadow owes something to that staircase in Nosferatu.
When Monsters Became Human
As the 1920s progressed, horror cinema began moving beyond simple fear. The earliest Gothic films often relied upon atmosphere, supernatural imagery, and visual shock, but filmmakers gradually discovered something more powerful. Audiences were not merely frightened by monsters. They were fascinated by them.
This shift can largely be traced to the extraordinary work of Lon Chaney. Nicknamed “The Man of a Thousand Faces,” Chaney transformed himself into some of the most memorable figures in silent cinema through elaborate makeup techniques that he frequently designed himself. Long before modern prosthetics existed, he manipulated wire, putty, greasepaint, and physical contortion to create appearances that were often uncomfortable both for audiences and for the actor himself.
Yet Chaney’s true innovation was psychological rather than technical. Unlike many villains who came before him, his characters rarely existed as pure embodiments of evil. Beneath the disfigurements, scars, and grotesque appearances, there were recognizable human emotions: loneliness, rejection, shame, longing, and heartbreak.
For Gothic storytelling, this was a crucial evolution. Since the publication of Frankenstein in 1818, the genre had repeatedly asked a difficult question: who is the real monster? The creature society fears, or the society that rejects the creature? Chaney brought this ambiguity to the screen with remarkable effectiveness, creating characters who inspired both horror and sympathy at the same time.
Modern audiences often take this complexity for granted because it has become one of horror’s defining characteristics. From misunderstood vampires to tragic antiheroes and psychologically damaged villains, contemporary horror remains deeply indebted to the emotional groundwork established during the silent era.
The Phantom Beneath the Opera House
No silent horror film illustrates this transformation more clearly than The Phantom of the Opera (1925). Based on Gaston Leroux’s novel, the film tells the story of Erik, a brilliant but disfigured musician who secretly inhabits the labyrinth beneath the Paris Opera House. On the surface, the story contains all the ingredients of classic Gothic fiction: hidden passages, obsession, forbidden love, masks, secrets, and isolation. Beneath that surface, however, lies something far more tragic.
The opera house itself functions almost like a Gothic castle transplanted into modern civilization. Its grand halls and elegant performances conceal an underworld of tunnels, hidden chambers, underground lakes, and forgotten spaces. The visual contrast between the beauty above and the darkness below mirrors the Phantom’s own existence. He inhabits the margins of society, close enough to observe beauty but forever excluded from participating in it.
One of the most famous moments in horror history occurs when Christine removes the Phantom’s mask. Modern viewers familiar with decades of cinematic monsters may find the scene relatively restrained, but contemporary audiences reacted with genuine shock. The power of the sequence lies not simply in the reveal itself but in everything surrounding it. For much of the film, the audience imagines what might be hidden beneath the mask. Anticipation becomes part of the horror.
This technique remains remarkably effective today. Horror often works best when it allows the imagination to participate. The unknown frequently feels more frightening than the fully revealed. Silent filmmakers understood this principle instinctively because their medium depended so heavily upon visual suggestion.
What makes the Phantom enduring, however, is not his face. It is his sadness. The film transforms a potential monster into a deeply human tragedy, and that emotional complexity continues to resonate a century later.
The Influence of Edgar Allan Poe on Silent Horror
Although Edgar Allan Poe died decades before the invention of cinema, his presence lingers throughout silent Gothic horror. Many of the visual and psychological techniques that silent filmmakers embraced can be traced back to ideas Poe explored in his fiction. He understood that terror emerges most effectively not from external threats but from internal instability.
Stories such as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat, and The Fall of the House of Usher focus on obsession, guilt, paranoia, and psychological collapse. The true horror often unfolds inside the mind of the narrator. Silent filmmakers faced the challenge of translating these invisible emotional states into visual experiences.
German Expressionism provided one solution. Distorted architecture externalized madness. Shadows represented hidden fears. Empty spaces suggested isolation. Rather than explaining a character’s psychological condition through dialogue, filmmakers could project that condition onto the environment itself. In many ways, they were visualizing ideas that Poe had already explored through language.
This connection helps explain why so many silent horror films still feel strangely literary. They do not merely present monsters or supernatural events. They create emotional atmospheres designed to immerse viewers in states of dread, anxiety, and uncertainty. The goal is not simply to frighten. The goal is to disturb perception itself.
That ambition links Poe’s stories, Gothic literature, and silent horror cinema into a single artistic lineage that continues influencing filmmakers today.
How Silent Horror Changed Cinema Forever
By the end of the silent era, horror filmmakers had created an astonishing visual vocabulary. Shadows could symbolize danger. Architecture could reflect psychological states. Monsters could evoke sympathy. Environments could function as extensions of the unconscious mind. These discoveries extended far beyond the horror genre.
Film noir would later borrow many of the same lighting techniques. Psychological thrillers embraced visual symbolism and emotional landscapes. Gothic fantasy adopted the dreamlike atmospheres pioneered by Expressionist filmmakers. Even contemporary directors working with sophisticated digital tools continue relying on principles established more than a century ago.
What makes these innovations remarkable is that they emerged from limitation. Silent filmmakers lacked dialogue, sound effects, and modern technology. Rather than weakening their work, those limitations forced them to become more inventive. They learned how to communicate complex emotions through imagery alone.
The result was not simply a collection of influential films. It was the creation of an entire visual language—one that continues speaking to audiences whenever darkness falls across a screen.
Wear the Darkness
The visual language created by silent horror filmmakers never disappeared. It evolved into Gothic cinema, noir aesthetics, dark fantasy, and modern psychological horror. The shadows that once stretched across Expressionist sets still linger in contemporary storytelling, reminding us that fear often begins not with what we see, but with what we imagine.
If you are drawn to Gothic culture, literary darkness, and the atmosphere that connects Poe, silent cinema, and modern horror, explore the official Edgar Allan Poets Noir Store. Discover apparel and artwork inspired by the enduring beauty of the Gothic imagination.
Join the Noir Newsletter
Receive Gothic literature, classic horror, dark history, noir psychology, Victorian mysteries, and cinematic explorations directly inside your inbox. Join readers who share a fascination with the strange territory where literature, film, dreams, and darkness intersect.
Enter the Noir Atmosphere
Imagine sitting inside a silent theater in the 1920s as flickering shadows dance across the screen. A vampire emerges from darkness. A masked figure wanders beneath an opera house. A city twists into impossible angles under a moonlit sky. Continue that journey through the official Edgar Allan Poets playlist, where Gothic atmosphere and cinematic storytelling meet.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is considered the first Gothic horror film?
There is no universally accepted answer, but silent classics such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Nosferatu (1922), and The Phantom of the Opera (1925) established many of the visual conventions that still define Gothic horror today.
Why is German Expressionism important to horror cinema?
German Expressionism introduced distorted architecture, exaggerated shadows, symbolic environments, and dreamlike imagery. These techniques transformed visual design into an emotional and psychological storytelling tool that profoundly influenced horror films throughout the twentieth century.
How did silent films create fear without dialogue?
Silent filmmakers relied on lighting, composition, performance, symbolism, and atmosphere. By manipulating visual elements instead of spoken language, they created a cinematic vocabulary capable of expressing dread, anxiety, and supernatural terror.
Why do silent horror films still feel effective today?
Many silent horror films operate with the logic of dreams. Their emphasis on atmosphere, symbolism, ambiguity, and visual storytelling allows them to bypass realism and tap directly into deeper psychological fears that remain recognizable to modern audiences.
Metalcore crew What Lies Below drop new full-length, I Let It Consume Me, via Theoria Records. Check out their single “Bloom” ahead of the record drop.
The East Coast band keep it close to their melodic roots, but also branch out a bit on this new release.
“‘Bloom’ is about accepting the pain of letting go and finding beauty in someone else’s growth,” says vocalist Andrew Watson. “It explores sacrifice, transformation, and the realization that sometimes love means setting someone free, even when it leaves you searching for your own new beginning.”
You can also catch them on tour in Europe this fall. Dates below.
Long-running German thrash outfit EXUMER will release their new full-length, Death Mask Messiah, on August 28th through Metal Blade Records.
Death Mask Messiah, which marks the band’s first new studio output in seven years, further cements EXUMER‘s legacy as a dauntless thrash metal institution. A logical and compelling progression from the German legend’s three previous albums, the 11 ferocious songs, produced by Dominic Paraskevopoulos (Kreator, Caliban) and mixed and mastered by Arthur Rizk (Soulfly, King Diamond), take a more brutal and direct musical approach.
“We are a lot more aggressive than on Hostile Defiance and are returning to a more ‘in your face’ style on Death Mask Messiah,” confirms co-founding vocalist Mem V. Stein. “We’re furthering the process that began with our first offering for Metal Blade, 2012′s Fire & Damnation, where we wanted to sound like a contemporary band while maintaining the spirit and our musical heritage of the 1980s.”
Photo by Morgenrot Visions
Recorded from December 2025 through January 2026, Death Mask Messiah is EXUMER‘s sixth album and fourth for Metal Blade. It’s also the first EXUMER LP recorded with the rhythm section of drummer Jerome Reil and bass player Alex Voss. “They have formidably integrated themselves as musicians and friends into the EXUMER tapestry,” Mem says. “You can feel their young energy, coupled with our trademark aggression and experience. The band sounds more focused and yet raw, thanks to their addition to the lineup.”
Death Mask Messiah also surprises: There’s a guest and a cover song: Nasty Ronnie from American metal legends Nasty Savage sings on EXUMER‘s version of his band’s track “Unchained Angel.” EXUMER supported the band in 1988 on their first European tour.
The record is inspired conceptually by US politics of the last decade, the pandemic, the use of misinformation to stir up cultural divides, and the like. Mem also mused on the 30-year anniversary of Waco, Texas and the standoff with the Branch Davidians. “David Koresh was a false prophet and wore a death mask, manipulating and leading his followers to certain death,” Mem says. “Each song on Death Mask Messiah picks up an individual theme of these two strains of thought.“
For instance, the title track and lead single brings everything together with the Waco raid/siege and Koresh as the main character but also paints a universal picture of charlatans who lead the United States to hell with their lust for power.
Mem further elaborates, “We deliberately chose this track as the first single, as the sonic assault of its main riff and the lyrical concept represent the totality of our intentions for this album. It marks a clear step toward elevating the band to the next level of our career, leaving nothing to the imagination and reinforcing our place as one of the most powerful forces in the entire genre.”
Death Mask Messiah, which features front art and layout by Björn Gooßes of Killustrations (Sodom, Vomitory), will be released on CD-Digipak and digital formats as well as vinyl in the following color variants:
180g Black
“Galaxy” Red/Black
“Saturn” Grey/Brown Ripple (Ltd. 250)
“Onyx” Black Ice w/ White Splatter (Ltd. 250)
EXUMER Live:
10/23/2026 Nuclear Winter Festival 2026 – Hirschaid, DE
11/21/2026 Alcatraz & Pluto Festival – Deinze, BE
2/20/2027 Endzeit Festival 2027 – Essen, DE
“EXUMER is a legendary powerhouse with history to crush any stage they play. There is great history from 1988 with Nasty Savage touring Europe and I am honored to be a part of this project!” — Nasty Ronnie, Nasty Savage
“This is like jumping into a time machine set for 1986! Good old hard-nosed yet catchy German thrash metal the way it was always meant to be. Thank you to EXUMER for making me feel like I am 21 again!” — Danny Lilker, Anthrax, Brutal Truth, Nuclear Assault, SOD, etc.
“With Death Mask Messiah, EXUMER have elevated their craft. Tight and incisive riffing, pummeling drums, and Mem’s vocal attack at full force – the band is in top form. An extremely satisfying listen.” — Jeff Matz, High On Fire
“Classic German thrash with all the spirit and energy of their early days, but more focused and precise. EXUMER are one of the very few ‘legacy’ bands where modern production clearly enhances the musical aggression, without detracting from any of the original metal message. Well done, boys!” — Brian “Mitts” Daniels, ex-Madball
EXUMER:
Mem V. Stein – vocals
Ray Mensh – guitars
Marc B. – guitars
Alex Voss – bass
Jerome Reil – drums
For Steve Harris, Iron Maiden’s 2025 gig at the London Stadium, home of his beloved West Ham United, was one of the pinnacles of their 50-year career as a live band.
“Some people have joked that it was the best performance ever seen at the stadium,” the bassist says with a grimace, referring to the fact that the Hammers have just been relegated from the Premier League after a disastrous season. “Which is cruel but fair,” he adds wryly.
Results aside, how the hell do they top that? With Eddfest, a monster two-day celebration of all things Maiden at Knebworth, site of fabled gigs by everyone from the Rolling Stones to Oasis. Taking place on Friday July 10 and Saturday July 11, the main bill features flamboyant rockers The Darkness, Mongolian folk metallers The Hu, Aussie crew Airbourne and Brit warhorses The Almighty, along with Maiden themselves.
It’s more than just a gig. An area of the festival dubbed Maidenville features Eddie’s Dive Bar and fairground rides, plus there’s the Infinite Dreams Experience, a collection of Maiden props and memorabilia from over the years. And the Friday night will see a bunch of Maiden alumni performing with their current groups on the Maidenville stage.
It’s a fitting way of continuing the 50th anniversary celebrations that have already taken in lavish hardback book Infinite Dreams and this year’s Burning Ambition documentary, as well as the ongoing Run For Your Lives tour, which will finally wrap up at the end of the year after an epic 91 gigs in 11 months. This stretch alone, which runs from May to the tour’s conclusion in Japan in November, will see them play to 2.5 million people.
“Has it made me reflect on things? Not really,” says of his band’s Golden Jubilee, as we sit in the lounge of his 10th floor hotel room in Sofia, Bulgaria. In a few hours, Maiden will take to the stage at the 43,000-capacity Vasil Levski National Stadium, a vast bowl of a venue where the Bulgarian football team usually play. “I only reflect on things when journalists like you bring it up. I suppose when you think of the numbers and how old we are, it’s incredible.”
Iron Maiden onstage in Athens, Greece on May 23, 2026 (Image credit: John McMurtrie)
An hour earlier and a few floors below, a customarily garrulous Bruce Dickinson is sitting in the hotel’s lounge bar. He’s just met up with the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, whom he knows via his connections to the aviation world.
“He was the head of the Bulgarian air force – that Top Gun kind of guy,” Bruce says. “The next minute he became President. Now I meet him again and he’s Prime Minister.’”
Like his bandmate, Bruce is looking forward to Maiden holding their own festival, though he cheerfully admits he’s not sure of how it will all work.
“I think it’s like a big garden party,” he says. “It’s a bit of an experiment for us, because we’re planning various things, half of which I don’t fucking know about. I do know about the beer festival, though, which I’m very excited by.”
As always, the two of them are polar opposites. Steve is the pragmatic generalissimo who has kept the show on the road for half a century via a combination of hard work, stubbornness and sheer force of will. Bruce is the cavalier livewire with the hurricane-force personality who sometimes says things he knows he shouldn’t but goes ahead anyway. But today, as ever, they’re united by one thing: Iron Maiden itself.
(Image credit: John McMurtrie)
Whose idea was Eddfest? And who suggested holding it at Knebworth?
Steve Harris: “I think it was Rod [Smallwood, Maiden manager]. When he ran it past me, I said, ‘Yeah, that’s great’, because it’s something different. Playing the West Ham Stadium really captured people’s imaginations, and it was a very special thing for obvious reasons. But what do you do after that? We’ve done Knebworth before [headlining Sonisphere in 2010 and 2014], but it wasn’t our own show. We thought we could do something different with this one.”
Bruce Dickinson: “I just saw it on the poster and thought, ‘Knebworth – that sounds a bit like Knobworth.’”
Is Eddfest just another gig for you, or does it mean something bigger?
Steve: “I think it’ll be an event. There’s the exhibition [the Infinite Dreams Experience]. And we’ve talked about different things relating to the songs, which I don’t want to give too much away about. But it’s the same old thing – you talk about stuff, and then you have to actually put it into practice. You just hope it’s all going to work out. It usually does, but you never know, haha.’
Bruce: “We’re not trying to go out and have the biggest ever crowd anywhere. Doing London Stadium and selling it out – I think that got it out of everybody’s system: ‘Yeah, we can do big stadiums… big deal.’ If it’s just a pissing contest about who can do the biggest stadium, then that’s bollocks. It’s all about leaving people with something memorable.”
The Darkness are one of the support bands on the Saturday. That’s an unusual choice for Maiden.
Steve: “I personally chose The Darkness. I think they’re a great live band. I’ve seen them a couple of times on the Monsters Of Rock cruise, and they’re just really entertaining. It’s not the norm for us, and it’ll be interesting to see how they go down. I think they’ll win over a Maiden crowd. I hope they win over a Maiden crowd! Ha ha ha! And The Hu, too – they’re just a really unusual band.”
Friday night’s line-up features several ex-Iron Maiden members, including Blaze Bayley, ex-guitarist Dennis Stratton’s current group, and onetime keyboard player Tony Moore. Steve’s pre-Maiden band, Gypsy’s Kiss, are on the bill too. Any plans to get up and join them?
Steve: “No. I suppose I could get up with all of them – Gypsy’s Kiss, Blaze, whoever. But I’ll let them get on with it. If I get up, it’s just going to become a thing about me, and I don’t want that. I want them to have their time.”
Bruce, did you think about re-activating your very first band, Speed, for Eddfest?
Bruce: “Oh God, no. You can go down the rabbit hole, but eventually you get to the bottom.”
If Paul Di’Anno was still around, would he be on the bill?
Steve: “Yeah. Of course he would.”
(Image credit: John McMurtrie)
You’ve added Infinite Dreams to the setlist on this leg of the Run For Your Lives tour – the first time you’ve played it in 38 years. How on earth do you decide which songs to play and which songs to drop?
Steve: “A lot of it is governed by what Bruce wants to sing. He’s singing better than ever in my view, but none of us are getting any younger and it gets tougher. He really wanted to do Infinite Dreams. I wasn’t that bothered about it, even though it’s my song, but we did it and it sounded great. I’d have loved to have a couple of deep cuts on this tour, like Only The Good Die Young [a song that Maiden have never played live].”
What do you prefer: big gigs like this or smaller, more intimate gigs like Maiden played in the early days?
Steve: “People might think I have to say this, but I like both. Any gig is exciting to me. The only bugbear I’ve got with bigger gigs these days is the barrier and the distance from the crowd. I understand the health and safety stuff, it’s important, but it makes it a bit more difficult. Sometimes when I throw my wristband, I can’t even reach the crowd ’cos they’re standing so far away. But it’s worth putting up with at the end of the day,’cos what else can you do?”
Bruce: “Performing is performing. I don’t give extra because I’m in a little venue, and if I’m in a big venue, you get the same intensity and energy. There are things you do on a big stage that nobody will see, but if you do them on a small stage, everybody will see. In that sense, people have more of a connection with you in a small venue. Unless you’ve got a camera stuck in front of your face, in which case you’re not in the moment at all. But that’s another story.”
What’s your favourite ever Maiden tour?
Steve: “It’s difficult to say because I like different tours for different reasons. If you’re talking about audiences, it’s in South America. If you could rent a crowd from anywhere, it’s there. The downside is that they’re so crazy that you can’t really go out much when you’re down there, ’cos you just wouldn’t get very far. But when that passion transfers to the gig, it’s incredible. Greece is a good one too, and Italy, Spain, Portugal and France give them a run for their money.”
Bruce: “The Brave New World tour. Why? Because it was that lovely hybrid moment of yes, some old stuff, and yes, some great new stuff, with an energised band. Everybody was at the top of their game, and everybody loves a comeback story.”
What’s your all-time favourite Iron Maiden stage prop?
Steve: “The Somewhere In Time stage set was incredible, where the hands came up [either side of the drum riser] and I stood in the palm of the hand. And the Piece Of Mind one, where the eyes lit up, was a good one too, because it was one of the first ones.”
Bruce: “My two-fisted flamethrower. Sadly, there’s nowhere on this tour where it’s been appropriate.”
(Image credit: John McMurtrie)
Have you had any ideas for props that have just been too mad to make?
Bruce: “I wanted to have a zip line from the PA tower to the stage, and that’s how I would enter the stage. It was just too fucking complicated. And it would also be really nice to levitate and fly and all that stuff, but we would only be told it’s too difficult and not to bother with it.”
Have you ever been onstage completely trolleyed?
Bruce: “Yes. In the early days of [his pre-Maiden band] Samson, we thought we’d play better when we were completely fucked up. We listened back to it a few days later with a degree of horror and went, ‘Oh fuck, it doesn’t work like that, does it?’”
Steve: “No, not really drunk. But we did ChicagoFest in ’82, which was a free festival. We were just hanging around getting a bit bored, and I had a few drinks before we went onstage. At the time, I was having a wonderful time, but I realised I didn’t play very well and I was really annoyed with myself. But I wasn’t trolleyed like some people I’ve seen in bands, mentioning no names. Some people thrive on it, but I just think, ‘God, how can you do it?’”
What’s the worst damage you’ve ever done to yourself onstage?
Steve: “Nothing major. I’ve tripped over in my own sweat. I was running across the stage and just slid. I managed to throw myself around and land on my shoulder so I didn’t do much damage. The most recent time was in Leeds. We were playing Stranger In A Strange Land, and there was a gap between the catwalks that wasn’t supposed to be there. I nearly went down this gap but I managed to throw myself sideways. That could have been nasty. I just got up really quick and got on with it. Is that embarrassing? You don’t have time to be embarrassed.”
Bruce: “I fucked up a disc in my neck on the Number Of The Beast tour [Beast On The Road, 1982], basically by shaking my head around and headbanging. Rattling my brain around made me feel good at the time, but it definitely didn’t make me feel good after a while. It hit me in America. I basically lost the use of my left arm because of it – I couldn’t feel three of my fingers, I had muscle spasms everywhere. I wore a neck collar during the daytime, took it off for the shows and basically faked it in terms of using my left arm.”
Have any support bands really lit a fire under your backsides and made you up your game?
Steve: “I thought [veteran Southern rockers] Blackfoot were great back in ’82. They’re still one of the best bands that ever supported us. I always say that it’s the support band’s job to go out and try to take the audience. They’ve got to go out, give it large, and make the main band work hard. But it’s sometimes hard with Maiden because our fans are so partisan. I’ve seen it a couple of times where I’ve felt sorry for the support band. They can’t bottle it. The audience can smell fear.”
Bruce: “Back in the day, the toughest support act we ever had was Guns N’ Roses in America [in 1988]. They’d just released their first album and were reaching this huge wave of popularity. They were full of angst and venom, where Maiden were a bit proggy – it was around Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son.”
(Image credit: John McMurtrie)
Are there any live bands out there that are better than Iron Maiden?
Steve: “That’s a difficult question because there are so many great bands out there. AC/DC are a great live band. Slade back in the day. But as to whether Iron Maiden are one of the best in the business, we must be up there.”
Bruce: “We’re not out there to emulate anybody or beat anybody. Like I say, it’s not a pissing contest. We’re just trying to be the best version of us.”
Maiden are finally getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame later this year. Did you have any discussions about turning it down?
Steve: “No, there have only been comments from a couple of members of the band here and there. Bruce has his own strong feelings about it, which is his opinion. It’s never really bothered me one way or the other, because awards aren’t what we do this for. But in a weird way I’m glad it’s happened so the Americans will stop banging on about it. To me, if you get offered something, you say, ‘Thank you very much.’ But did I lose sleep over getting it or not getting it? No.”
Bruce: “I can’t even summon the energy to be vitriolic about it. I appreciate that a significant number of people are happy for us. That’s nice. It’s not something we’re bothered about.”
If you weren’t on tour in Australia at the time, would you go to the ceremony?
Bruce: “No.”
Steve: “I don’t do those sort of things. I didn’t even go to the recent red carpet thing for the documentary. It’s not me.”
Can we expect a big, Live Aid-style singalong at the end of Iron Maiden’s set, with all the current and former members onstage?
Steve: [Looking pained] “No. That’d just be cheesy.”
Bruce: “No. Those kind of things make some people feel, ‘Oh great, what an event’, but musically usually it’s a mess. I absolutely don’t have any problem with Blaze or any of those other guys on the bill – I love Blaze, he’s a fantastic guy. But we’re not planning on having Nicko playing three drums during the show or anything like that. No, people have paid money to see this incarnation of Iron Maiden. It will be an Iron Maiden set. This is the band, this is what you get.”
Any plans to start work on a new Maiden album?
Bruce: “Would I like to do a new Iron Maiden album now? Yes. Would I like to do one starting next year? Yes. So over to you, Steve.”
Steve: “No. We haven’t had a band discussion about it yet. I know Bruce wants to do one. He said in an interview that I didn’t want to do one, which is not true. When he told me about it, I just said, ‘Yeah, maybe, we’ll see.’ At the moment it’s more important that we focus on playing live. Plus, Bruce is doing stuff with his solo project next year, so we’ll see.
(Image credit: John McMurtrie)
What keeps you touring and playing so intensively at this point in your lives? You could be at home with your feet up…
Bruce: “I could be at home, you’re absolutely right. But it’s a very simple thing; when I walk out onstage, it’s one of the few moments during my life when the rest of the world can go to hell. On a really good night, you completely lose yourself in some weird higher power that takes you over. You inhabit the song, your voice just seems to anticipate everything, and that’s why I do it. Simple as that.”
Steve: “It’s the love of playing and the feeling you get being in front of an audience. I don’t care about the size of that audience – I’ll happily go out and play with British Lion in front of a few hundred people. I love it all. You have to keep going as long as you can. Maybe I’ll do a Tommy Cooper [British comedian who died onstage on live TV] one day and just go out right on a football pitch or at a gig, I don’t know. Until then, I’ll just carry on playing.”
Iron Maiden are on the cover of the brand new issue of Metal Hammer – which comes with an exclusive Maiden Eddfest water bottle! Order your copy online here and have it delivered straight to your door. You can also get an alternate cover version of the magazine with a glow-in-the-dark Maiden shirt in an exclusive bundle here.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BEYOND DEFIANCE UNLEASHES DEBUT ALBUM “UTOPIA” ON AUGUST 14
Swedish Melodic Death Metal Newcomers Channel the Spirit of Gothenburg with Crushing Riffs, Dynamic Melodies, and Relentless Aggression
FFO: Dark Tranquillity, Arch Enemy, Sylosis
Sweden’s newest force in melodic death metal, Beyond Defiance , is set to unleash its highly anticipated debut album, “Utopia,” on August 14, 2026 . Independently released, Utopia introduces a powerful new voice in modern melodic death metal, combining blistering aggression with soaring melodies, layered harmonies, and uncompromising intensity.
Founded in the spring of 2025 by Lars Karlsen , Torbjörn Andersson , and Sven Erik Fritiofsson , Beyond Defiance was built on a simple but ambitious vision: to create music that is brutally heavy while remaining melodic, dynamic, and emotionally engaging. Drawing inspiration from the legendary Gothenburg sound while incorporating elements of thrash and black metal, the band delivers an explosive debut that honors the genre’s roots while forging its own identity.
Utopia showcases crushing guitar work, ferocious growls, memorable melodic vocal passages, and atmospheric songwriting that balances brutality with depth. Every track reflects the band’s commitment to crafting songs that are both technically engaging and emotionally impactful.
Building anticipation ahead of the album release, Beyond Defiance will premiere the official music video for “Cry” on July 24 , followed by a second video for “Imposter” , arriving alongside the full album on August 14 .
Speaking about the production of the record, the band shared:
“The album was recorded at the band members’ own home studios, mixed and mastered by Sven Erik Fritiofsson under strict supervision from the other guys.”
Despite being independently produced, Utopia delivers a polished and powerful sound that rivals major label releases, capturing the energy and precision that melodic death metal fans demand.
Produced entirely by Beyond Defiance and mixed and mastered by Sven Erik Fritiofsson , Utopia represents the beginning of an exciting new chapter for a band poised to make its mark on the international metal scene.
Release Information
Artist: Beyond Defiance
Album: Utopia
Release Date: August 14, 2026
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
For Fans Of: Dark Tranquillity, Arch Enemy, Sylosis
Label: Independent
Production Credits
Produced by Beyond Defiance
Mixed & Mastered by Sven Erik Fritiofsson
Anthology of Sombre Reflections is an expansive and comprehensive collection of the early and much-celebrated works of the Doom Gods, from the formative deathly rawness of the revered Towards the Sinister demo, God is Alone 7” tracks and subsequent debut album, As the Flower Withers, through to the gothic-tinged funereal seductive delights of 1996’s highlight, Like Gods of the Sun
With the addition of all-time genre classic opuses ‘Turn Loose the Swans’, and ‘The Angel and the Dark River’ also representing My Dying Bride’s much-loved early to mid-90’s period, the band’s three cult EPs are also featured in this deluxe eight-vinyl boxset, with each record presented on 180gm heavyweight black vinyl. The four studio albums themselves have also been treated to new half-speed masters courtesy of Air Studios.
Accompanying the audio is a 48-page book featuring photographs and artwork, plus new interviews with Andrew Craighan and Aaron Stainthorpe conducted in 2025 exploring some of the influences and thought-processes behind the creation of such cherished works of the 90s, as well as reflections of their output over this period.
Anthology of Sombre Reflections also contains 2 large posters depicting the ‘Turn Loose the Swans’ CD artwork image, plus the original poster included in ‘As the Flower Withers’. A selection of photo prints of the band from this era are also included.
After a career spanning over thirty-five years, from UK underground upstarts and outliers, to major success on the international stage – including tours with UK icons Iron Maiden and genre legends Dio – My Dying Bride have themselves become a firmly established pillar of metal history with a refined and influential brand of Death/Doom metal. With enduring popularity across subsequent decades, My Dying Bride remains a productive and captivating vessel for tragedy and despair, with their studio output spanning fourteen full-length albums to date.
As part of the Peaceville Three, along with fellow countrymen Paradise Lost and Anathema, My Dying Bride truly became a primary force in highlighting Britain as an epicentre of this Doom revolution of the time, creating a highly distinguishable sound assisted by the inclusion of violin & a more poetic approach to the delivery of morbid and salacious topics, lending an additional air of eccentricity and eloquence to the darkness.
Getdown Services just get it. They get that music can be funny and sad. It can be a way to vent about your shitty pub job or the latest depressive episode, or how you love crisps, quiche and a good night’s rest. “Cha Cha Slide,” the latest single from their forthcoming album Massive Champion, might be one of their strongest songs yet. Not only does the accompanying visual embrace the Minions revolution and nod to the artistic genius of WordArt fonts from the ’90s, but the song itself captures the scary isolation and routine of the child mind that never leaves us.
