Organizers from the cruise festival have confirmed that Jag Panzer and Ad Infinitum are the newest acts added to the lineup for the 2026 edition of 70000 Tons Of Metal, The Original, The World’s Biggest Heavy Metal Cruise. The announcement brings the festival even closer to a full roster as anticipation continues to build for next year’s sailing.
With 53 of the 60 bands already revealed and tickets currently on sale, metal fans from more than 80 nations are expected to be part of the event. Attendees are encouraged to prepare early so they don’t miss what is being promoted as a once-in-a-lifetime experience aboard the massive floating festival in the Caribbean, where fans are invited to join what organizers call The United Nations Of Heavy Metal At Sea.
The currently announced lineup for the 2026 sailing includes Ad Infinitum, Amorphis, Anthrax, Arkona, Beast In Black, Bloodred Hourglass, Cemetery Skyline, Darkane, Dark Tranquillity, Dodheimsgard, Dragonland, Dust Bolt, Eluveitie, Ereb Altor, Firewind, Gama Bomb, Groza, Haggard, Harakiri For The Sky, Heathen, Hiraes, Hirax, Hour Of Penance, Ignea, Illdisposed, Illumishade, In Mourning, Insomnium, Izegrim, Jag Panzer, Kamelot, Kanonenfieber, Orden Ogan, Paradise Lost, Persefone, Rhapsody Of Fire, Royal Hunt, Satan, Saturnus, Seven Spires, Skeletal Remains, Skyclad, Soen, Soilwork, Suidakra, Tribulation, Tyr, Vader, VBO (Vice Business Only), Vio-Lence, Wind Rose, Wolf, and Xandria.
Seven additional acts are still set to be announced, leaving room for more surprises as the cruise approaches.
Tickets for the 70000 Tons Of Metal 2026 cruise, which features an international lineup of metal bands and exclusive onboard performances, are available now through the event’s official website.
There are times when a band comes along and becomes an instant success, the music industry takes note and churns out its successor. Mongolian Folk band UUhai follow the success and signature sound of fellow countrymen The Hu. The band’s use of traditional elements, such as horsehair and throat singing, aligns with the previously mentioned hu. However, the band’s sound is more melodic and easier to listen to, in contrast to the commercially accessible features of the former.
This Friday (5th January), UUhai will finally explode onto the international stage with their debut Human Herds, set for release via Napalm Records.
The seven-piece first gained notoriety after their first songs gained millions of views on YouTube. They have created an album inspired by folklore and societal themes in the Mongolian language. The band blends traditional Mongolian music with heavy metal. Formed in 2020, the band were formed by the former member of Hurd, Otgonbaatar Damba. The band’s name, Uuhai, translates as ‘Hoorah’, a chant which represents a sign of goodwill, leading to fortune and a release of energy.
Photo: Altankhuyag Erdenebat
Hopefully, the release of the ten tracks will bring the band good fortune. The album sets the mood with the opening instrumental piece, titled “Beginning,” which blends traditional folk with hard rock. This introduction creates a scene of peace and prosperity. The album transitions into the energetic rock anthem “Human Herds,” an anthemic track featuring fiddles and heavy, thunderous guitar lines. It’s infectious.
I had to download the English translation of the songs to understand the meaning behind this atmospheric music. The band’s use of descriptive poetry paints a beautiful picture of Mongolia. Additionally, the inclusion of fiddles and throat singing conveys the emotion and sincerity the band feels toward their homeland. This sentiment is evident in each track, which feels less commercial and more like an effort to educate the world about their land. Tracks such as ‘Ancient Land‘ and ‘Uuhai’ have a more metallic sound than others, featuring raging guitar riffs and an uptempo beat. The guttural mutterings of vocalists Zorigoo Battsooj and Khurtsgerel Damiranjav add to the urgency of the musicianship.
All the songs are rich in timbre and texture, blending the light melodies of folk with a more aggressive and rapid dose of metal. For example, “Dracula” feels like it borrows from classic rock bands like Guns ‘n’ Roses, while “Khurai” serves as an ode to Mother Earth. The album concludes with a flourish, featuring the sing-along passages of “Khar Khultz” and the uplifting chimes of “Paradise,” a folk song that will leave you feeling good about yourself.
The album concludes with a track titled after the oldest literary novel in Mongolia, “Secret History of Mongolia.” This ominous heavy metal piece features haunting guitar solos, thunderous drums, and powerful chants. The dark atmosphere of the track is sure to give you goosebumps.
Uuhai impresses on their first outing with captivating tales of Mongolian folklore and vivid descriptions of their ancient land. The band skillfully blends metal with traditional music, creating an enriching experience. They distinguish themselves from their contemporaries and forge their own sound and identity.
‘Human Herds’ will be available via all major streaming platforms and retail outlets on January 5th via Napalm Records.
For further reading, please click on the link below
Good Day Noir Family,
Listening to Hour of Pearl and their single Dead Mohawk for the first time feels like getting hit by a wall of raw momentum that refuses to slow down.
Dead Mohawk is hour of pearl’s Single out now
The track doesn’t ease you in; instead, it charges forward with a surge of punk energy that instantly sets expectations high.
Right away, you sense that this will be an intense ride rather than a polite introduction.
The distorted guitars sound sharp and aggressive, yet they remain focused. At the same time, the drums push relentlessly, driving the song with a pulse that feels urgent and alive. Meanwhile, the vocal delivery carries that unmistakable punk attitude, leaning closer to the British punk tradition than the American one. Because of that choice, the song gains a gritty edge that feels authentic rather than nostalgic.
The band’s chemistry stands out. You can tell these musicians have spent countless hours together in rehearsal rooms, refining their sound through sweat and repetition. The performance feels tight but never sterile. It breathes with the kind of energy that only comes from playing loud, fast, and together. In addition, the acidic guitar tones add personality, giving the track a sharp bite that cuts through the mix.
Lyrically, “Dead Mohawk” carries a direct and empowering message. The words encourage listeners to stay true to themselves, no matter the pressure around them. Because of that, the song feels personal without becoming preachy. The shifts in tempo and the rhythmic changes keep the listener engaged, preventing the track from becoming predictable. Each variation adds tension, and then releases it just in time.
At the same time, the song never loses its forward drive. Even during its changes, the momentum stays intact. That balance between chaos and control defines the track’s character. Ultimately, “Dead Mohawk” proves that punk still thrives when bands focus on honesty, energy, and connection rather than trends.
Hour of Pearl deliver a song for anyone craving modern punk with a classic spirit.
Dead Mohawk is hour of pearl’s Single out now!
Unfiltered!
Hour of Pearl is a California rock ’n’ roll band born from long-standing friendships and past collaborations in San Jose. Evan, Bird, and Craig reunited to reconnect with the music that first brought them together, later solidifying the lineup with Mark on bass.
Raised on the same records and driven by a deep love for rock — with punk at its core — Hour of Pearl channel a throwback energy through a modern lens. Their sound is raw, direct, and built on the belief that music should unite people. This is the music they always meant to make — and now, the time is right.
In late autumn of last year, the Ukrainian death metal band Dying Grotesque released their sophomore full-length album Celestial via the local label Archivist Records, both digitally and on CD. This Kyiv-based trio plays a decidedly old-school brand of death metal – somewhere between the overloaded, non-melodic American sound of the 1990s and the Swedish strain that borders on melodic death metal. Continuing the path they set out on four years ago with the very solid debut Sunflower Tide, released during the first pandemic lockdown in 2020, Celestial reveals a few additional facets of non-linear perception, forming new, almost elusive layers even within such a straightforward genre as death metal.
Formed in 2018 in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, Dying Grotesque first emerged with the demo Hunter’s Daughter, followed by the single “Helga”, the EP Creator Plan, and a split with Dissolution. Over the course of two years, these releases led them to their independently released debut Sunflower Tide. While the lyrics back then leaned toward Slavic mythology, the band has now shifted to more traditional death metal themes – darkness, death, war, and suffering. Still, these topics are approached in a notably emotional and poetic way, with a stronger metaphysical inclination than a social or political one. A year later came the EP Before the Imminence, followed by the single “Red Alert” another year on. After two years of silence, the band began teasing with new material from the upcoming album titled Celestial, hinting at something elevated and unearthly despite the very traditional musical framework.
The bar was already set high with the debut, but the second album presents a more balanced and direct body of work – free from emotional swings or attempts to find its sound. Because that sound has already been found. Notably, Celestial also avoids the patriotic wave that has affected many local bands amid the prolonged military conflict, often saturating lyrics with overtly militaristic themes. Instead, the album reflects on the pettiness of human life and the trivial social problems people create for themselves when set against the infinite cosmic forces that exist independently of human consciousness.
At times, it feels as though melodic lines on Celestial are deliberately muffled, allowing chaotic layers of guitar chords, accented by noise and dissonance, to dominate the foreground. This reinforces the album’s heaviness and brutality. It doesn’t always work flawlessly, though, and occasionally melody tears away the mask of feigned aggression and restraint, exposing more human emotions beneath. These moments are rare but striking, and they are woven in organically, without attempting to dethrone the album’s dense, uncompromising death metal core. Even the band’s name makes it clear that this music is not about beauty or life, but about grotesque and death, though the name itself is controversial. If the grotesque is dying… perhaps aesthetics are born in its place. For now, however, anger, darkness, death, ugliness, and grotesque visions of an imperfect world remain tightly concentrated within these Ukrainians, finding effective expression through musical form.
Across just under forty minutes, the album condenses the power of old-school death metal, periodically veering into chaos, melody, or hints of a more modern sound. The slower tracks never drift into doom/death territory, while the faster ones lean convincingly towards thrash/death. The album opens with the classic “Nuclear Meadows” – an atmospheric, mature, and moderately chaotic track that serves as a strong representation of the album as a whole. Even the bridges, the transitions between brutal, raw old-school death metal and more melodic death-thrash, tend to sound restrained and almost unnoticeable. “Purification” moves closer to groove and modern metal, standing slightly apart from the overall flow, though this only becomes apparent if you listen very closely and dissect the layers to reach the song’s core. On “Satellites” strange, almost Eastern-tinged psychedelic riffs emerge, but they never become the foundation of the track or push the sound fully into psychedelia or ethnic territory. Naturally, the acoustic intro “Point of View” works wonders in terms of contrast – acoustic passages in extreme music almost always emphasize heaviness and depth, sometimes even producing a shock effect (though mostly for less seasoned metal listeners).
Overall, Celestial is fascinating in the way its noise and heaviness, bordering on rawness and chaos, serves to sharpen sensory impact. You practically choke on this merciless wall of sound, though not to the extent of bands like Incantation, where dissonance itself forms the core of the song-writing. Just as subtly, softer elements begin to creep in – melodic, clear, and harmonious, pulling you back from abstract madness into sober realism. The album closes with “Mortality” very much in the spirit of Dying Grotesque, yet featuring an atypical ending: atmospheric, sad, and contemplative. As if these were the final sounds of a dying grotesque.
The Ukrainian extreme metal scene continues to develop at a rapid pace, and Dying Grotesque demonstrate their skill and musical vision through a fusion of classical foundation and chaos. Celestial is a tribute to death metal legends, but with a clear gaze towards the future. Even within the music itself, there seems to be a small place of emptiness – space left intentionally for experimentation on the next release, which will likely be even more deliberate and multifaceted. The album artwork captures this nuance as well: it feels slightly unfinished (though the concept is clear and well conveyed), raw and cosmic in tone, offering the listener additional food for thought. When and where will the final point be placed? In life, or after death? And what awaits beyond death itself?
In the final days of last autumn, the Polish one-man band Intra Nigrum, which plays atmospheric depressive black metal with ambient elements, independently released its third full-length album Logos in digital format, followed by a limited CD edition via the underground label Putrid Cult. Continuing the path laid down on previous releases, the project once again praises darkness and nature through atmospheric black metal hymns and quiet, contemplative ambient passages. Brutality can easily be set against fragility here, and because of that Logos feels well balanced, without unnecessary excess – neither drowning in overblown black metal aggression nor slipping into the neo-classical mawkishness that sometimes plagues bands who don’t know when to stop with their dungeon synth experiments, ultimately alienating black metal listeners altogether.
Intra Nigrum is a distinctly underground act, and the lack of information about its creator only makes it more elusive when viewed through a social or biographical lens. In a way, this anonymity makes criticism more neutral, detached from personality and imposed clichés. All we really know is that the project, created by someone known only as W, first appeared in 2020 with the debut full-length album Against the Sky, followed two years later by sophomore release Night’s Mirror. Romantic and nostalgic to a degree, yet carrying the soul of a black metal artist who has clearly lived through much, Logos belongs to the same lineage – unpredictable and far from superficial, revealing subtle musical layers behind walls of noise and raw violence. There is little in the way of undisguised experimentation or exploratory intent on this album, yet the song structures are not overly polished either, retaining a sense of randomness and controlled impulsiveness. And since the band defines itself as atmospheric black metal, the music alone is not the only focal point during listening. Logos is more about the emotions evoked by the monotony of black metal riffs, their synchronicity with ambient elements, the mystical whisper, or the defiant scream of despair. In atmospheric music, a single track can last fifteen minutes, revolve around just one or two guitar riffs with cosmic synthesizers in the background, and still lodge itself in the listener’s soul as something unique. Intra Nigrum’s music is therefore not only meant for the ears, it is a story meant to resonate.
Poland is rich in extreme metal bands, most of which never reach the mainstream, and frankly, that’s a good thing. Two or three bands are more than enough for that role (those you can always accuse of selling out or turning into posers after each new album without hesitation). Atmospheric black metal remains a niche in Poland, and Intra Nigrum further embellishes its sound with restrained, non-aggressive ambient elements, so it’s not easy to stumble upon this project by chance. But once you do – and if something catches you from the very first notes – it’s worth keeping a close eye on this one-man formation, which so far has been releasing a new album with disciplined regularity every two years. Following this logic, the next release should arrive in 2026, which isn’t that far away.
The main characteristic of Logos is its intellectual quality and mystical spirit. It’s surprising that without progressive elements, non-experimental and largely monotone, the album still sounds polite and refined, despite its classic black metal foundation. Essentially, W follows genre’s canon, occasionally leaning too far into depressive or ambient territory, but never resorting to blunt trueness or aggression for the sake of aggression. There is nothing here that actively complicates perception, yet this is also not music you’ll sing along after a first listen. Logos demands thoughtful, attentive engagement, though it can also function as background sound, heightening sensitivity and creating a kind of mystical aura. Without oppression or fear, not expressive but harmonious and unobtrusive. Those expecting pure black metal ferocity, relentless blast beats and buzzing guitars, may find Intra Nigrum’s latest album too aesthetic and convoluted.
The album opens with the dark, slow intro “Midnight Shadow”, monotone and grey, before erupting into slightly dissonant black metal with hints of melody – depressive, yet driven by an underlying warrior’s spirit. At times W is tired of screaming and shifts to whispering, which, combined with gloomy ambient textures, sounds like an echo from a night forest wrapped in unsettling fogs, particularly evident on the tracks “A Veil of Fog” and “Shuddering Star”. On “Above Night’s Altar” one can even hear elven echoes from fairy-tale realms, which not only soften the music but make it more mysterious and unattainable. The more noise appears over the course of the album, the more standard and predictable the black metal becomes, at times sounding overly raw and dissonant. “Shuddering Star” even flirts with post-rock, or rather post-black, muting the despair of DSBM-style screams. These forty minutes conclude with the slow, contemplative “From Blood and Blue Sky” featuring long acoustic passages – monolithic, measured, and enigmatic. The lyrics, or rather poems, though very brief, perfectly emphasize black metal tradition: darkness and pain imbued with a sophisticated touch of natural beauty and mystery.
In the world of Intra Nigrum, darkness and light are not strict opposites; they intertwine so closely that it becomes impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins, hidden beneath dense fogs of enchanted forests. The album artwork conveys this state perfectly, washing away silhouettes and turning them into shadows, revealing countless shades of grey. It is remarkable how, through this noisy and raw album, one can hear silence itself – a state where music transforms into atmosphere, only occasionally resurfacing into reality during moments of the most desperate screams. Without excessive pomposity but with an innate grace, Logos exists simultaneously as the background itself and as the sound that emerges from it.
On Rick Rubin’s “Tetragrammaton,” Daron Malakian went deep on what he listens for in metal: riffs, mood, aggression, atmosphere, and how that shaped his own playing and writing. Then he got into the memory that still gives him a jolt: stepping in with Metallica when James Hetfield got hurt.
“When I was 12 or 13, at that point I had been playing the guitar for a year,” he said. “I was with these guys in my school that, in their dad’s garage, we would play Metallica covers. That’s pretty much all we’d play — a bunch of Metallica covers. And a big part of how I learned how to play the guitar was playing either Black Sabbath, Metallica, Iron Maiden, sometimes Slayer,” he added (via Blabbermouth).
“My friends really didn’t get Slayer, but they loved Metallica. But I loved Slayer, and I would fight with them over it. [Laughs]. But we would play these Metallica covers, so I knew all these Metallica covers,” he said. “When I got older, I knew them, and so we were on tour with Metallica on the “Summer Sanitarium” tour.”
“I met Metallica on stage, playing with them. I never met them before,” Malakian remembered. “We’re the first band. Nobody knows us. It’s 1999, maybe, at this point. [System Of A Down‘s] Toxicity‘s [See image gallery at www.sonicperspectives.com] is not out yet. We’re on our first album. And we are on the “Summer Sanitarium” tour,” he continues. “It’s us, a band called Powerman 5000, Kid Rock was on there, I think Korn was on there, and Metallica. It was, like, five bands on the bill. We were the first band that opened up [when people are walking in]. Nobody knows who System Of A Down is at this point.”
“And so we’re on that tour, and James Hetfield, along the way, gets injured,” he recalled. “I don’t know. They told me he was going water skiing or something, and he got injured. So they didn’t cancel the show. So all the opening bands played, and then Metallica still went on stage. And [then-Metallica bassist] Jason Newsted was singing. And then they brought the guys from Korn on, and they kind of played like this Cheech & Chong cover song or something. They didn’t know what to do, because James wasn’t there.”
“And I turned to my tech, and I go, ‘Listen, man. I go, ‘Go tell their tech that I know a lot of their shit,’ ’cause I’ve learned it playing it in this garage with these other guys. I go, ‘I know a lot of their shit from, you could say, …And Justice For All and back.’ Next thing you know, my tech goes and talks to their guitar tech, and then my tech comes back to me,” he added. “He’s, like, ‘All right, come with me.’ [I’d] never met Metallica before,” Malakian continued.
“And I’m telling you, Metallica was the first concert I ever went to in my life,” he said. “I was a huge Metallica fan. Faith No More opened up for them. Justice For All tour. So next thing you know, I go on the other side of the stage,” he added. “I get handed a Les Paul; I think it was one of [Metallica guitarist] Kirk Hammett‘s Les Pauls. And they’re, like, ‘All right. Go.’”
“60,000 people. [Laughs] Yeah. 60,000 people,” he remembered. “I’m in my after show. I am wearing Lakers fucking sweats. I’m not even ready to get on stage. I’m wearing a white tank top and Lakers sweats, and I was just completely there, just watching Metallica. Next thing you know, I get handed a guitar, and they go, ‘Go.’”
“You gotta understand. Our band’s not big yet. I’m still a kid. I’m 22 years old,” Malakian continued. “I can’t even believe that we’re even allowed to open up for Metallica. So this is all new to me at this point in my life. And they put me out there, and I turn, and I’m, like, ‘Hey,’” he said. “It’s Lars [Ulrich, Metallica drummer], it’s Kirk, it’s Jason Newsted, who was the bass player at the time. They’re, like, ‘What do you know?’”
“I go, ‘I don’t know. “Master Of Puppets”. ‘Okay. Count it in,’” he said. “We’re playing fucking “Master Of Puppets’. I’m up there with Metallica playing “Master Of Puppets” in front of 60,000 people. And I’m, like, ‘Who’s gonna sing?’ I said, ‘Fuck it. I’ll go sing.’ And I sang,” he added. “And then there’s this thing that happened where in the middle of “Master Of Puppets”, it has this slow part.”
“Instead of going into that slow part, they went into “[Welcome Home] (Sanitarium)”,” he recalled. “And I didn’t know they were gonna do that. And we went in, and we did the middle part of “Sanitarium” and then came out of it and went back into “Master Of Puppets”. I mean, you would think we had rehearsed it, but we didn’t rehearse it. And I didn’t even know it was gonna happen. And it happened. And I’m up there, and I am playing Metallica with Metallica in front of an audience where I would’ve been in the fucking cheap seats just three years ago,” he explained.
“I got off stage. Next thing you know, they’re coming to me. They’re, like, ‘Hey, dude, James isn’t gonna be able to play for a few nights. They want you to come and play with them fucking everything,” he added.
“And next thing you know, Kirk Hammett‘s in front of me with a guitar and I go, ‘Hey, bro, I know all your old stuff, but I don’t really know the Load and the Reload and all that stuff,’” he said. “So Kirk‘s trying to teach me stuff off Load. And then next thing you know, they’re, like, ‘Hey, get your shit from your bus, ’cause you’re flying on the private jet with us now,’” Malakian continued.
“So the first plan was to have me play a whole set with them,” he explained. “And I was preparing for that, and I was relearning all the old stuff and trying to learn all the Load stuff. And so I flew with them and everything, and then they decided, ‘Hey, it would be a cooler thing if we invited different bandmembers from the different bands that were on the gig,’” he said. “So the next night I was up on stage with Metallica again.”
“And I knew I was supposed to play ‘One’. And I got there, and I was ready to play ‘One’, and I turned to — I forgot — maybe Jason or Kirk or someone, and I’m, like, ‘Who’s gonna sing?’ Because I had no idea. They turned to me, and they were, like, ‘Bob,’” Malakian said. “And I’m, like, ‘Who the fuck is Bob?’ And I see Kid Rock come up. And I didn’t know Kid Rock‘s name was Bob.”
“And so Kid Rock comes up, and he sings the first night, and we did ‘One’, and it’s really fucking cool because ‘One’ has the whole [middle section], and I’m thinking, ‘Dude, you’re playing this shit with fucking Metallica. You’re turning around, and it’s, like, Lars,” he said. “It was crazy. I’ll never forget it.”
“And even after that, their techs would come up to me in different tours and be, like, ‘Dude, don’t think we forgot what you did. You brought it that day. I don’t wanna say, like, ‘You saved the show,’ but they were kind of, like, ‘You fucking brought it. They were struggling. And then you got up, you did ‘Master Of Puppets’”.
“Yeah, man. That happened. Oh, man. I’ll never forget it,” Malakian finished. “Even though my band is where we’re at right now, it still brings goosebumps to my… that I had a chance to experience that at that point in my career.”
If you pictured Megadeth’s farewell tour turning into a rotating-cast reunion, old lineups swapping in and out every few songs, Dave Mustaine made it clear that isn’t the plan. He addressed the idea again recently, and the message is simple: keep the focus on the set, the band onstage now, and the fans hearing the songs the way they came to hear them.
In an interview with Guitar World, Mustaine got asked straight up about inviting former members to join the band during the upcoming final run. His first point: the door already opened for the right moment, with one of the most famous former members stepping back into the spotlight: “We’ve already done that with [former Megadeth guitarist] Marty [Friedman].”
From there, he widened it out to the bigger picture, because the band’s history is deep, and a full-on “everybody gets a turn” concept becomes a massive logistical mess fast: “And I mean, let’s look at the other people we’ve played with… there’s a lot of people. [Laughs] That would be a huge undertaking. I don’t think I want to do that. I’d rather keep doing what we’re doing and let the fans [experience] Megadeth music and be happy about it. It’s not ‘puppet show Megadeth.’”
This also connects to what he said earlier on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” on December 5, 2025, when he was pressed about the ultimate fantasy scenario: one final gig with an all-surviving-members lineup. He explained why that idea doesn’t work in real life, even if it sells a lot of daydreams online.
“Well, I can’t really do that, because of the behavior of one of the bandmembers in the past. I just can’t — I can’t. Because, first off, it would be unfair to the other bandmembers if I didn’t play with them as well. But the thing about what we did with Marty [Friedman] in Japan [in early 2023], that was a no-brainer. That was brilliant. And I love Marty. We had our separation, and he went his way, and we went our way. But it was a very, very intense relationship I had with Marty, because that was the first relationship I had with a guitar player.”
“My relationship with [former Megadeth guitarist] Chris [Poland] was really great, but it wasn’t as good as it was with Marty. My relationship with [former Megadeth guitarist] Jeff [Young] was good, but it wasn’t as good as it was with Marty. And I probably wouldn’t have a problem playing with any of the members of those two lineups, except the fact that [former Megadeth drummer] Gar’s [Samuelson] is deceased, and [I’m] just not gonna do anything that is gonna, in any way, seem unfair to the other bandmembers,” he added.
He also got asked whether the final show gets promoted as the last-ever Megadeth gig, or whether the band might “quietly end” touring without a big red-circle date. His answer was half-honest, half-dark humor, because “the last one” carries weight, and he knows it.
“I don’t know. I was joking around with our management and said, ‘You guys should probably book some fake dates at the end of the tour that I don’t know about so I won’t go out there on the last date and just blubber like a fucking 175-pound wuss.’”
Good Day Noir Family,
Listening to Ulrich Jannert and his single “Two Men by the Harbor” for the first time feels like watching a cinematic night scene where memory, choice, and restraint quietly collide.
Two Men by the Harbor is Ulrich Jannert’s Single out now
The track establishes a noir atmosphere that nods to the 1980s, and the saxophone line plays a crucial role in shaping that mood.
Its phrasing feels intimate and reflective, almost as if it were breathing alongside the listener.
Soon after, the groove settles in with a steady pulse that mirrors a heartbeat. Because of that rhythmic foundation, the song feels grounded and human. Then the vocal enters with a tone that recalls Joe Cocker, although the phrasing carries more contemporary inflections. That balance between classic grit and modern control performs a strong identity. Moreover, the vocal never overwhelms the arrangement, which allows the story to unfold naturally.
Soon after, a warmer and more luminous atmosphere begins to surface. However, it never abandons its reflective core. Instead, the production blends modern tools with traditional instrumentation, creating a bridge between eras. At the same time, subtle details in the arrangement keep the track evolving without breaking its calm flow.
“Two Men by the Harbor” tells a quiet but powerful story about life choices. It explores the tension between safety and freedom, not through dramatic gestures, but through suggestion and nuance. Because of this approach, the listener feels invited rather than instructed. In addition, the gradual emotional rise mirrors the internal conflict at the heart of the song.
Later on, the saxophone returns with greater intensity. This final solo acts as the emotional resolution, summarizing everything that came before. It feels less like a technical showcase and more like a final thought spoken out loud.
Overall, Ulrich Jannert delivers a song that values atmosphere, storytelling, and emotional pacing. While it draws inspiration from the past, it speaks clearly in a modern voice. For listeners who appreciate reflective songwriting wrapped in noir textures, this single offers a rich and rewarding experience.
Two Men by the Harbor is Ulrich Jannert’s Single out now!
Nocturne!
Ulrich Jannert is an independent artist based in Northern Europe, creating melodic, soulful music rooted in reflection, warmth, and emotional honesty. His songs arise from personal experiences, with lyrics that mirror his inner world and life journey.
Originally from Germany, Ulrich began his musical path in the 1980s, learning several instruments before discovering the saxophone, which sparked his passion for composition. For years, he wrote music privately as a space for balance, calm, and positive energy.
Today, he blends soul, soft rock, R&B, and folk influences, combining acoustic elements with modern production. While his audience continues to grow globally, Ulrich remains focused on writing and studio work, with no plans for live performances at this time. His music invites listeners to slow down, trust their inner compass, and enjoy the journey.
Cineastre emerged from the heart of the Lower Saxonian woodlands. Since then, their aim has been to capture the quiet poetry of moonlit passages, the mysticism of folklore, and the scents of nature, woven through a blend of Atmospheric and Melodic Black Metal with Dark Folk influences. After three years of work, Cineastre release their sophomore album: “Hymnen an die Nacht”.
