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Panama-based artist Rahul Mukerji released his new album "Mridhangit"on March 23, 2026. The LP is an instrumental indo-fusion that features several musicians like progressive metal drummer Leo Margarit (of Pain of Salvation), South Indian Mridangam player (an Indian percussion instrument) Praveen Sparsh, Spanish bassist Ruben Rubio, and Chaplin a pianist from South Africa. "Mridhangit" came to life during the pandemic as an opportunity for Rahul to connect with other musicians worldwide to create music.

The album starts with "Mr. Sinister" which introduces itself with clean guitar, dark ambience, and distant rattling, creating a distinct Indian sound. Suddenly, a bending guitar harmony leads into building drums that soon launch into groovy rock drums and an upbeat dance beat. Electric guitar with a phaser builds after a short silence, launching into full energy metal. Slamming drums, thumping bass lines, and shredding guitar leads create a clear metal sound that is vastly different from the beginning of the song.

"Bheja Fry" introduces Indian percussion instruments as clean guitar is layered behind upfront hard rock guitar riffage. In this track, I can clearly hear blues/jazz influences, while hard rock and traditional Indian inspiration are still quite noticeable.

Next is "Twelve Ganeshas" which continues jazz influences from the last track meanwhile drums are carefully layered as both a full drum kit and Indian percussion can be heard. Ascending scales really sell the blues vibe as reverbed clean guitar creates a smooth sound that fans of jazz will particularly enjoy.

"Enjoymaddi" introduces the first piano of the album, as lingering arpeggios, melancholy chords, and rapid scales create a powerful grand piano section that soon brings guitar, bass, and grooving drum lines to life. More jazzy instrumentals are layered over each other, creating an evolving sound as guitar, bass, piano, and drums fill in a massive scope of sound.

Self-titled track "Mridhangit" begins with isolated vocals speaking in what I assume is Hindi. Ambient guitar creates dream-like melodies in the background as very forward vocals cut through the mix, creating a highly percussive vocal delivery. The song eventually introduces woodwind instruments and full intensity drums before slowly fading out.

"Kalli Penn" starts with a funky bass line, cowbell, and shaker drums before bringing a keyboard organ and clean guitar trills into the fray. Rapid electric guitar leads continue a blues-rock sound throughout the 4-minute runtime.

"Funky Pakora" bursts into action with smooth jazz electric guitar leads as harmonies duel between 2 guitars. Full drums are introduced as jazz keys and funky bass lines further the clear jazz sound in this track. In the song's bridge, incredibly fast thumped bass shows off technical prowess before a booming drum solo.

Track 8 is "Dushtan" which brings back dark industrial ambience before launching into full Indian instrumentals, unexpectedly the song transitions to fully-fledged metal as dramatic chugging and slamming drums create a sound that feels like a classic heavy metal or doom metal sound. Indian percussive elements are met by bright guitar leads, blending Indian roots with metal influences as instrumentals play Phrygian notes that further the dark sound. So far on the album, this was one of the most memorable tracks for me, and the mix of a dark, doom metal sound with Indo-fusion was really interesting.

"Rahu Ketu" starts with gentle guitar as ethnic percussion is introduced alongside bending lead guitar. Thumping guitar and bass lines showcase progressive influences, with sections of this track reminding me of an Indo-fusion version of "Monomyth" by Animals as Leaders. At just over 6 minutes, "Rahu Ketu" skirts the lines between proggressive, traditional Indian music, and metal.

"Four Seas" brings back the complex piano composure that was featured earlier in the album as gentle melodies create a smooth sound. Percussion slowly builds before eventually introducing a full drum kit and booming bass lines as the piano really starts to spread out across the octave spectrum. The slow build grows as more instrumental melodies all blend together, creating a huge atmosphere before slowly fading back out.

The final track, "Mutabor" brings a dramatic woodwind to the forefront as drawn-out ambience builds a cinematic sound to your attention. Delayed guitar and Mridangam beats create an evolving sound that is soothing and acts as a calm exit to the album.

Fans of Indo-fusion, jazz, and unique metal genres should definitely check out Rahul Mukerji. With "Mridhangit" Rahul Mukerji reveals a sound that is a distinct mix of genres like jazz, heavy metal, progressive rock, and traditional Indian music. You can stream the album available on all streaming platforms now.

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After 40 years, Sepultura is making their rounds on their farewell tour, treating fans to a brand new song on the first night of their Australian leg.

The post SEPULTURA Play "The Place" For The Very First Time In Australia appeared first on Metal Injection.

Italian gothic metal icons Lacuna Coil are giving fans the chance to step inside their dark, cinematic world — and it’s not just another ticket giveaway. Three lucky winners (plus […]

The post Enter To Win Free VIP Tickets To A LACUNA COIL Show Of Your Choice appeared first on Metal Injection.

Green Carnation is a band hellbent on making up for lost time. With nearly a decade and a half between their fifth and sixth albums, and five between the sixth and seventh, this Norwegian collective is set to deliver both parts two and three of their Dark Poem trilogy in 2026, with the apparent aim of dropping the entire set within about a year. We’ve seen other bands make similar moves in decades past, and Green Carnation apparently took studious notes to avoid the mistakes Metallica and Guns n Roses made in the 90s. The Dark Poem albums have fewer – and much stronger – songs.

In their previous life, Green Carnation made it a point to travel in varying directions with each record and delivered stunningly excellent output while doing so. Since their reformation, however, they’ve opted to explore the progressive doom that earned them acclaim with Light of Day, Day of Darkness a good quarter century ago, though they’ve shied away from penning any more hourlong opuses this time around. And that’s completely fine – Leaves of Yesteryear was more than a commendable comeback album, and the Dark Poem trilogy is shaping up to be a leaner, more precise, and more biting iteration of that facet.

Notably absent from Sanguis is founder/ guitarist Terje “Tchort” Schei, who in recent weeks has returned from a short leave of absence. This continues what seems to be a revolving cast of musicians who make Green Carnation more of a collective than a band – Schei, fellow guitarists Bjørn Harstad and Michael Krumins, and keyboardists Endre Kirkesola and Kenneth Silden seem to cycle in and out depending on availability, while longtime singer Kjetil Nordhus, longtime bassist Stein Roger Sordal, and newish drummer Jonathan Pérez hold the fort down, with the former two handling damn near all of songwriting duties as of late. While certainly an unconventional approach to maintaining a band, A Dark Poem, Part II: Sanguis is a solid argument in favor of this practice. It’s brief as far as Green Carnation records go, and like most of this band’s catalog, it’s damn good.

The title track greets us with Kirkesola’s very deliberately retro-sounding organ juxtaposed with Pérez’s very deliberately metal drumming before that familiar chugging and that always-welcome croon dispels doubt that this is indeed a Green Carnation record. Everything that has defined the band’s current approach – unapologetic doom with 70s progressive flair – not only shines on its own merit, but it proves to be the ideal conduit for the bleak resolve of Sordal’s gut-wrenching lyrics, where he vows to break the chains of generational trauma.

While there is much to be said in favor of the argument that there is no better person to sing such personal lyrics than the person who penned them, singers like Nordhus make a more than compelling counterpoint. While his delivery never lacks, performances such as “Sanguis” (Latin for both “blood” and “descent”) leave me no choice other than to believe his imposing stature doubles as a reservoir for the anguish his bandmates commit to paper, as if his work on Light of Day, Day of Darkness, which Tchort wrote while grieving the death of his young daughter, didn’t imply that in spades over two decades ago. Those who foolishly harbor doubts need only hear the agony in Nordhus’ voice as he delivers the lines “Father, I do realize that the cards you were given destroyed you… In the light of life, I will not follow you.”

“Loneliness Untold, Loneliness Unfolds,” a 100% clean and brooding “acoustic” cut that features Sordal taking the lead vocal in Green Carnation for the first time since the burden was his alone, is something of a throwback to 2006’s absolutely essential The Acoustic Verses. Though not nearly as punishing as that older cut, which has reduced me to a weeping mess on multiple occasions, this isn’t the intent of “Loneliness.” Its purpose is not to inspire grief, but to provoke despair, and this unpretentious four-minute dirge delivers on that promise. “Sweet To the Point of Bitter,” on the other hand, is heavy to the point of crushing, demonstrating over the course of nearly six minutes that doom can be so much more than the sludge its detractors often accuse it of being.

“I Am Time” continues in this vein, recalling the afflicted glory of “Writings on the Wall” in that tortured reprise as well as Green Carnation’s black metal roots in that tense, trem-picked interlude. And like most well-crafted epics, these songs end without the listener realizing how much time they devour.

The politically-charged “Fire in Ice,” one of the obvious centerpieces of the album, is another similarly structured song that embodies the decades-old promise of “epicus doomicus metallicus” (an album which coincidentally was written by Candlemass’s own bassist, and which nearly included a song called “Dark Reflections”). Every second of this song builds on the second before it, and it is peppered with riffs and melodies that, while unassuming on their own, are layered so expertly as to wring the last breath of life from even more unassuming listeners. I cannot wait to hear this cut live.

Sanguis takes its final bow with another song that would not have felt out of place on The Acoustic Verses. The fully unplugged “Lunar Tale”  is without question the most gentle, touching, and heart-wrenching song Green Carnation have committed to tape since they reformed in 2014, and even with the eerily suicidal closing line “sunlight, you’re better off without me/ Moonlight, with me gone, you’ll be free,” offers a glimmer of hope to conclude an album that can otherwise only be described as bleak.

Tchort teased a trilogy, of which Light of Day, Day of Darkness would be the first installments, called The Chronicles of Doom that would follow The Acoustic Verses. It never came to be, and it might never come to be, but I cannot shake the suspicion that the Dark Poem trilogy might be the spiritual successor to the trilogy that never was. Green Carnation have boiled their current identity down to its very essence on this excursion, and while a part of me will never stop wondering what could have been, I’ll never stop being grateful that these are the fruits we reap from that regrettable dissolution.

Release Date: April 3rd, 2026
Record Label: Season Of Mist
Genre: Progressive Metal

Musicians:

• Kjetil Nordhus / Vocals
• Jonathan Perez / Drums
• Stein Roger Sordal / Bass
• Bjørn Harstad / Guitars
• Endre Kirkesola / Keys

A Dark Poem, Part II: Sanguis Tracklist:

1. Sanguis
2. Loneliness Untold, Loneliness Unfolds
3. Sweet to the Point of Bitter
4. I am Time
5. Fire in Ice
6. Lunar Tale

Order the album here.

The post GREEN CARNATION – A Dark Poem, Part II: Sanguis (Album Review) appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Something strange is going on in the Ill Niño camp. With just one month left before the start of their tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of their debut record Revolution Revolución, they unexpectedly fired the guitarist they hired earlier this year.

In an Instagram post on his personal account, guitarist Xander Raymond Charles announced that he was no longer a member of the band. He also shared how this news completely caught him off guard, with their first live show together just a couple weeks away.

“In the beginning of 2026, I was hired by the band Ill Niño to become a permanent replacement and the newest member. Last night, I received a call telling me they no longer need me as a replacement. This was a total shock, as I was committed for several months, and the first show is 3 weeks away. I was informed this decision was completely out of my control, and I had nothing to do with it.

“As of today, I am available for work. If anyone needs a guitar player, I’m here. I keep my word, and I commit to what I agree to.

“Lastly, there is no bad blood, and I understand this is strictly a business decision. I wish Ill Niño nothing but the best.”

The band is no stranger to lineup changes or public blowouts, so this is kinda par for the course. At this time, the band hasn’t commented on Charles’ ousting.

As it stands, the Revolution Revolución tour is still on. If you’d like to try to attend a show if Ill Niño is still a thing, you can do so at the shows below.

April
23 – Lima, PER @ Yield Rock
26 – Santiago, CHL @ Teatro Cariola
28 – Buenos Aires, ARG @ Arena Sur
30 – Curitiba, BRA @ Tork N Roll

May
1 – São Paulo, BRA @ Audio
2 – Rio de Janeiro, BRA @ Sacadura
3 – Belo Horizonte, BRA @ Mister Rock

The post Ill Niño Unceremoniously Fired Guitarist Xander Raymond Charles Just Months After Hiring Him appeared first on MetalSucks.