Norwegians Mortemia have revealed their version of the 1965 The Mamas And The Papas classic “California Dreamin”, featuring vocalists: Helle Bohdanova (Ignea), Caterina Nix (Chaos Magic) and Karmen Klinc (Venus 5). Arranged, produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Morten Veland at Audio Avenue Studios. Read more…
2000trees, the UK’s hottest festival, both figuratively and literally, is back for its 2026 edition. Four days of the finest rock covering everything from local legends to the next global superstars.
2000trees Festival 2026 – Wednesday
Split Dogs
Kicking things off for 2000trees 2026 is Split Dogs, who, despite their early billing in a reduced capacity on Wednesday, summoned an impressive crowd that neatly packed the Forest Stage.
The perks of such an early billing is a crowd brimming with enthusiasm and energy, perfect for Split Dogs’ raucous punk-rock attitude.
2000trees Festival 2026. Photo: Gareth Bull
Singer Harry Atkins captivates the early headbangers with rebellious rasping vocals alongside the imperious riffs of Mil Martinez, which could as well have been plucked straight from the basements of the ’70s.
Shouting out the early birds for bringing the energy, Mil leaves us with a vital note of wellbeing for what is to come – “Don’t get sunstroke, stay hydrated and stay in the shade.”
Love Rarely
We have a new and improved Word Stage for 2026, allowing even more of the Wednesday arrivals to pack in as Love Rarely have the task of christening their upgraded podium.
Love Rarely – 2000trees Festival 2026. Photo: Jez Pennington
The beauty of the first day of the festival is that there are no clashes, which means that despite the enlarged tent, the audience is still spilling out into the campsite. This is the band’s second appearance in a row at the festival, but with a new album dropped just in April, they come armed with plenty of new material.
No upscale audience is going to scare this glorious, chaotic racket with their booming basslines, complex melodic hooks and dyingly passionate vocals. The craftsmanship of the band only seemed slightly challenged by the early festival fine-tuning of the sound.
Love Rarely – 2000trees Festival 2026. Photo: Jez Pennington
There were moments in the set when the delicate harmonics of the guitar and intimate voice of Courtney Jade seemed swamped by the intense noise of the bass and drums. But the muddy mix could not bury them as Courtney’s desperate screams soared above the noise.
Karen Dio
We Brits love to moan about the weather, but when a Brazilian enters the stage with complaints of the heat, you have to feel somewhat validated.
Karen Dio – 2000trees Festival 2026. Photo: Joe Singh
Appropriately tempered for the fire of last year’s main stager, the experienced rocker arrives amidst calls to “be present, have fun”. The playful yet powerful set is the sort of performance you would expect to be used in a university class to show how it is done.
Karen Dio delivers her kick-ass punk-rock tunes with absolute ease whilst navigating from song to song with a humour and charm that makes the show ceaseless. Lost in the showmanship of the short but sweet performance, it seems over as quickly as it started, but at least we were present, and we had fun.
Karen Dio – 2000trees Festival 2026. Photo: Joe Singh
Bruise Control
There is just something about a shirtless man walking onto stage brandishing a likely warm can of Magners that tells you the next act is going to be quite the ride.
Bruise Control – 2000trees Festival 2026. Photo: Jez Pennington
Existing somewhere on a spectrum between Soft Play and early Arctic Monkeys, the four-piece taste of a brawl down at your local boozer and bring the antics with their lively stage show.
Hyphen
This festival, from time to time, will serve up a show that transcends any expectations, and Hyphen’s set at 2000trees 2026 was exactly that. The breakout act summoned a huge crowd to the Neu Stage for the last edition of the festival, most of whom were already well versed in the back catalogue of the artist.
Given the roaring success of his last appearance, it is not hard to see why he was invited back for another shot, and this time to the most dedicated of the 2000trees community.
Unsurprisingly, the Forest is jam-packed ahead of this one for someone who is quickly becoming a festival favourite alongside the likes of the Nova Twins, Holding Absence and his recent tourmate Bob Vylan.
2000trees Festival 2026. Photo: Gareth Bull
LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE. The sound system blares, introducing our fighter like a hometown hero to the backing track of ABBA’s Gimme Gimme Gimme. Hyphen has a talent that few can master. His music challenges the political injustice of the modern world with ferocity, but he does so with no deterioration to his optimism.
The show is a rallying call to all those of like-minded opinion, fueling rebellion but never losing sight of the beauty of the loving chosen community that we share.
Jacked on the adrenaline of the stellar support, Hyphen is euphoric, storming around the stage and even taking a dive into the circle pit to get a taste of the action for himself.
2000trees Festival 2026. Photo: Gareth Bull
There are several occasions throughout the set that Hyphen naively tries to teach his lyrics of songs, such as Marching Powder and Hate Yachts Not Dinghys, to the crowd, before immediately being interrupted by a chorus of those already in the know.
It is no wonder that he proudly proclaims, “I fucking love this place.”
BLACKGOLD
Another of last year’s main stagers are the masked mob of BLACKGOLD. It cannot be easy taking to this heat in full mask, but they do not let it take anything away from their furious Nu-Metal.
BLACKGOLD – 2000trees Festival 2026. Photo: Jez Pennington
At a time when the touring circuit is being led by the likes of Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and Korn, it could not be a better moment for this curious band to grab the opportunity by the throat.
Seemingly constantly on tour since their last 2000trees appearance, despite a slightly premature ending to their CKY support appearances, the group are in top form, bringing heaps of energy to a slot that could easily have suffered a post-dinner dip.
BLACKGOLD – 2000trees Festival 2026. Photo: Jez Pennington
The Dirty Nil
Arguably, James Scarlette’s most hyped band of the festival this year, barely a week has gone by on the Two Promoters One Pod podcast without them getting an honourable mention. Wednesday offers an early glimpse at what the highly recommended have to offer, but not through the lens of their own music. Tonight, we have a covers set.
Taking us on a whistle-stop tour from Metallica, to Van Halen, to AC/DC and Thin Lizzy, the band boldly claims “we wrote all these songs”, and while that may not be true, they certainly showed true musicianship by bouncing between these songs with ease.
As a covers set should be, this was a pure and simple good time gathering with plenty of smiles left on faces going into the final few acts of the opening day.
Split Chain
A breakneck change in atmosphere from the previous performance as frontman Bert Martínez-Cowles paces menacingly around the Word stage to a backdrop of twanging guitar and booming drums.
Split Chain – 2000trees Festival 2026. Photo: Jez Pennington
The mood of the music may be brooding, but the mood in the tent still has plenty of vibrance thanks to persistent calls for crowd surfers and mosh pits from Bert.
The band bring their everything to make this show a set to remember, the music is scalding and churns up plenty who surf their way to free band t-shirts whilst beachballs are released into the crowd for an additional cathartic outlet.
Split Chain – 2000trees Festival 2026. Photo: Jez Pennington
Lake Malice
Hands up if you have not seen Lake Malice in the last year? The unstoppable touring machine seemed to be attached to every support slot in the Metalcore scene, and it shows.
Lake Malice – 2000trees Festival 2026. Photo: Jez Pennington
Performance looks easy for the three-piece, fully clad in white to pop from the darkness of the stage. The trademark kick-jumps of Blake Cornwall are plentiful while Alice Guala bares her soul in emotional defiance.
The early part of the show sets the mood perfectly with atmospheric lighting and impactful presence from the band, but it feels as though some of the big moments could hit harder with a bit more bite to bring us along with them.
Lake Malice – 2000trees Festival 2026. Photo: Jez Pennington
Thankfully, as the set goes on, the power elevates, and with it, a flurry of activity in the centre of the tent, which Blake takes a stroll to experience, while Alice prefers the aerial approach with a bit of crowd surfing.
PUP
Closing the first day out, all the way from Toronto, are PUP. The longstanding Canadian quartet will be making two appearances over the weekend and took this extra special moment in the idyllic forest to pay tribute to their album, The Dream Is Over, which is 10 years old.
PUP – 2000trees Festival 2026. Photo: Jez Pennington
Before launching into a full play of the album, lead singer Stefan Babcock shared a perfectly Trees thought on the current state of the world, that “Out there it sucks, but in here we have an opportunity to make it suck a little less.”
The show is filled with euphoria to leave the spectacular opening day on a high, with the final reserves of energy producing a handful of crowd surfers and mosh pits. The album is closed out with a song that the band admit they have only ever played once before, not out of dislike but because it is a bit of a mood killer.
Stefan knows his crowd, though, and yells out, “You motherfuckers like being sad?” before launching into the track. Having covered their album in speedy time, the band have a quick meeting before returning with a fanfare of Reservoir and Hunger For Death before the crowd disperses into the campsite for the late-night antics to begin.
April breezes are blowing across the AMG estates even though the summer heat reigns supreme. With several big-ticket releases and a collection of killer platters from lesser-known acts clogging the April voting sheets, it was a pretty fat month for extreme music. This caused consternation among staffers as loyalties to iconic bands clashed and lengthy histories of excellence were rehashed, compared, and contrasted. In the end, hard decisions were made, office furniture was hurled, and curses were invoked. This is the AMG way. Welcome back to April!
If one band exemplifies death metal majesty, decay, and consistency over 30-plus years, it’s New York’s own Immolation. Since launching their crusade of brutality way back in 1989, the band have become one of the most influential acts in the genre, with a sound that evolves and mutates but is always recognizably Immolation. April brought us the 12th installment in their legacy of ugliness, and Descent [out April 10th from Nuclear Blast (Bandcamp)] is another statement on what death metal should be. Wickedly heavy, technical as hell, and ugly as fook, it’s the kind of album that feels like a tanker full of anvils. It highlights the inventiveness of Immolation even as it revisits past eras of the band’s enormous catalog. As a well-impressed Steel Druhm pointed out, “Immolation remain a rare, altered beast among other repellent horrors, painting their uniquely disturbing soundscapes across history and time.” An equally gobsmacked Kenstrosity added, “This twelfth album, soon upon us, perpetuates that standard and may even prove, with time, to have elevated it once again.” Strong words for the Grand Titans of Death. All hail Immolation.
Runner(s) Up:
At the Gates // The Ghost of a Future Dead [April 24th, 2026 | Century Media | Bandcamp] — It’s very difficult to review an album that you know will be the last for a metal luminary. It’s the end of a life, an era, and a musical companion you’ve traveled with for years, even decades. Such was the dilemma facing Grymm when The Ghost of a Future Dead was released in the aftermath of the tragic passing of legendary vocalist Tomas Lindberg. At the Gates have had plenty of genre-defining moments over their career, and fortunately, what Tomas left us with here can stand proudly among their very best. It’s a vicious, face-melting slab of thrashy melodeath with hooks and fangs aplenty, showcasing the classic At the Gates sound and the caustic, corrosive vocals of a brave and ever-defiant Tomas. As Grymm astutely summarized, ” If this ends up being At The Gates’ swansong, this is a hell of a way to go out, as they dropped another classic on our sorry asses. Awesome job to all those involved. Rest in power, Tompa.” Journey on, metal brother.
Green Carnation // A Dark Poem Part II: Sanguis [April 3rd, 2026 | Season of Mist | Bandcamp] — Successor act of Norway’s In the Woods..., Green Carnation traveled a strange musical path since 2000, passing through death and Gothic metal to eventually arrive at a kind of progressive metal-lite. A Dark Poem Part II: Sanguis finds them continuing their Poem trilogy, offering hard-edged moments alongside plenty of sad, sullen set pieces sure to bring the feelz to the coldest of hearts. Musically, Sanguis explores some older Green Carnation sounds while also pushing their style forward into new spaces, always with quality songcraft at the forefront. There are some genuinely tear-jerking moments here if you like to feel unhappy. As the usually jaded, cynical, and cranky-assed Doc Grier gushed, “For those who need something in these trying times to bolster their spirits or tear them apart (if only for a moment to reset), Sanguis is here for you.” Flower power!
On September 25th 2026, Irish death metal crew Zealot Cult will release their second full-length effor dubbed Psalms Of Filth (Awakening Records). Vocals, acoustic guitars, and drums were recorded at Wanderland Studios with Ben Wanders. Read more…
“Mental Butchery”, the first single from Filth‘s sophomore long player Death Exhibiton, has surfaced online. The new outing from Swedish death metallers arrives through Me Saco Un Ojo Records on September 11th, 2026. Read more…
Swedish rockers The Hellacopters and Norwegian hard rock collective Gluecifer will join forces for a string of shows in Australia next March. Read more…
In wake of their upcoming full-length release Operating Altar, set to land in stores on September 11th via Everlasting Spew Records, Cartilage present the first single titled “The Operating Altar”. Read more…
CITOVITZ AND THE FIREFLIES OF FEBRUARY Release Official Single
& Lyric Video ‘By The Time You Die, You’re Barely Human’ from
Upcoming Album “Acoustism”
In the middle of summer 2026 —
while the world outside grew louder and hotter and less certain of
itself — Andrzej Citowicz sat down in his home studio in Cairo and
finished a song that had been pressing against the inside of his chest
for a very long time.
The result is By The Time You Die, You’re
Barely Human — the first official single from Acoustism, the forthcoming
album from Citovitz and The Fireflies of February, scheduled for
release in autumn 2026. The single is available now on all major
streaming platforms. An official lyric video is available on YouTube.
It is one of the most direct, most unflinching, and most necessary pieces of music Andrzej has ever released.
THE WORLD THAT MADE THIS SONG
There
are songs that arrive from craft. And there are songs that arrive from
necessity — from the specific pressure of living through a moment in
history that demands a response. By The Time You Die, You’re Barely
Human is the second kind entirely.
The lyric does not soften its
diagnosis. It looks at what modern civilisation has done to itself — the
trading of truth for comfort, love for pride, humanity for the kind of
progress that turns out to be organised sinking — and it refuses to look
away. Every generation reaches farther, the second verse observes,
finding less within its reach. It is the most concise summary of the
modern condition Andrzej has ever compressed into a single line.
“The mirror never lied to us — we simply learned to celebrate.” — from By The Time You Die, You’re Barely Human
But
the song is not nihilism. It is grief — which is an entirely different
thing. Grief implies that something worth mourning was lost. That the
person doing the grieving once knew what it felt like to be more than
what they have become. The chorus does not condemn so much as mourn. And
the outro — perhaps the most quietly devastating lines Andrzej has ever
written — does not end in accusation but in hope worn thin:
“If tomorrow still remembers us — let it remember we tried.” — from By The Time You Die, You’re Barely Human
That line, Andrzej says, arrived last. And when it did, he knew the song was complete.
“I
did not write this song to point fingers. I wrote it because I looked
around at the summer of 2026 — at everything the world was carrying, at
everything my own life had been through in the past year — and I needed
to say something true. Something that did not flinch. This is that
song.” — Andrzej Citowicz
THE SOUND: WHERE ALTER BRIDGE MEETS UNPLUGGED BON JOVI
Musically,
By The Time You Die, You’re Barely Human exists in a space that Andrzej
has been approaching his entire career but has never quite occupied so
completely until now. The acoustic version carries the intimacy and
emotional weight of the great unplugged rock tradition — Bon Jovi’s MTV
Unplugged performances, the raw confessional energy of a guitar placed
directly against a lyric with nowhere to hide. Clean, wide open, and
devastating in its simplicity.
“The acoustic version asks you to sit with the words. Some people need the quiet to hear clearly…” — Andrzej Citowicz
ACOUSTISM: THE ALBUM THAT IS COMING
By
The Time You Die, You’re Barely Human is the first window into
Acoustism — the most ambitious and most personal album Andrzej Citowicz
has ever announced. Due for release in autumn 2026, the album is built
around the intersection of Andrzej’s acoustic guitar work and his
identity as a person on the autism spectrum — his ICD-11 diagnostic
code, 6A02, has already given its name to one of the album’s tracks —
alongside songs that document the extraordinary personal journey of the
past twelve months.
A life-changing year. The loss of a beloved
friend and mentor — H — whose memory lives inside the For The Hawk album
released earlier in 2026. The discovery of an adult daughter, Esther,
whose arrival Andrzej describes simply as a miracle beyond imagination.
The grief. The gratitude. The bittersweet, overwhelming experience of
finding that life, in its fifties, still has the capacity to rearrange
everything you thought you understood about yourself.
All of that
is inside Acoustism. By The Time You Die, You’re Barely Human is its
opening declaration — the song that sets the emotional and philosophical
stakes for everything that follows.
“This album is unlike
anything I have made before. Not because I planned it that way. Because
life made it that way. I am a different person than I was twelve months
ago. The music had no choice but to reflect that.” — Andrzej Citowicz
ANDRZEJ CITOWICZ: THE LIVING ROOM ROCKSTAR
Born
in Wałbrzych, Poland, and now based in Cairo, Egypt, guitarist and
songwriter Andrzej Citowicz has spent his career building one of the
most quietly determined independent music projects in contemporary rock.
Recording under the name Citovitz and The Fireflies of February, he
operates entirely without label support — writing, performing,
producing, mixing, and mastering from his home studio, with Suno AI
serving as his virtual band alongside his own guitar work and the
lyrical contributions of his wife, Shereen Shoukry Citowicz.
His
musical DNA runs deep in the classic rock and power ballad tradition —
Bon Jovi’s New Jersey and Blaze of Glory eras, Def Leppard’s Hysteria
and Adrenalize, Desmond Child’s songwriting architecture, the
neo-classical guitar vocabulary of Joe Satriani’s The Extremist. These
are not influences he has moved on from. They are the foundation
everything else is built on — and By The Time You Die, You’re Barely
Human demonstrates exactly what that foundation looks like when it is
carrying the full weight of a life examined honestly.
2026 has
been Andrzej’s most prolific and most personal year to date. Beautiful
Damage: 1990–1996 — released April 13th — completed songs written
between the ages of 14 and 20, discovered on old tape cassettes. For The
Hawk — released May 4th, Star Wars Day — honoured the memory of a
beloved friend and mentor. And now Acoustism arrives in autumn, carrying
everything the year has taught him about loss, identity, love, and what
it means to still be here.
“The guitar is always first. It has
always been first. Modern technology helps me build what I hear around
it. But what I hear — I have been hearing since the early 1990s. That
has never changed. And it never will.” — Andrzej Citowicz
SINGLE & ALBUM DETAILS
Single: By The Time You Die, You’re Barely Human Versions: Acoustic Version Music, Guitars & Lyrics: Andrzej Citowicz Available: All major streaming platforms — now Lyric Video: YouTube — now Album: Acoustism — Autumn 2026 Artist: Citovitz and The Fireflies of February
At the Gates // The Ghost of a Future Dead [April 24th, 2026 | Century Media | Bandcamp] — It’s very difficult to review an album that you know will be the last for a metal luminary. It’s the end of a life, an era, and a musical companion you’ve traveled with for years, even decades. Such was the dilemma facing Grymm when The Ghost of a Future Dead was released in the aftermath of the tragic passing of legendary vocalist Tomas Lindberg. At the Gates have had plenty of genre-defining moments over their career, and fortunately, what Tomas left us with here can stand proudly among their very best. It’s a vicious, face-melting slab of thrashy melodeath with hooks and fangs aplenty, showcasing the classic At the Gates sound and the caustic, corrosive vocals of a brave and ever-defiant Tomas. As Grymm astutely summarized, ” If this ends up being At The Gates’ swansong, this is a hell of a way to go out, as they dropped another classic on our sorry asses. Awesome job to all those involved. Rest in power, Tompa.” Journey on, metal brother.
Green Carnation // A Dark Poem Part II: Sanguis [April 3rd, 2026 | Season of Mist | Bandcamp] — Successor act of Norway’s In the Woods..., Green Carnation traveled a strange musical path since 2000, passing through death and Gothic metal to eventually arrive at a kind of progressive metal-lite. A Dark Poem Part II: Sanguis finds them continuing their Poem trilogy, offering hard-edged moments alongside plenty of sad, sullen set pieces sure to bring the feelz to the coldest of hearts. Musically, Sanguis explores some older Green Carnation sounds while also pushing their style forward into new spaces, always with quality songcraft at the forefront. There are some genuinely tear-jerking moments here if you like to feel unhappy. As the usually jaded, cynical, and cranky-assed Doc Grier gushed, “For those who need something in these trying times to bolster their spirits or tear them apart (if only for a moment to reset), Sanguis is here for you.” Flower power!