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Q&A – The Plague

By Leasia Korbel

Q: Your latest single “Living In The Past” dives into themes of grief and introspection. Was there anything specifically that inspired it that you could talk about? How did the track come together?

A: The past 5 years have been without a doubt the hardest years I’ve experienced.  In my personal life there has been a lot of death, overdoses, surgery, divorces, relational abandonment, and health problems while there has also been problems in the world and covid. And on top of all that, a profound loneliness, disappointment, frustration and grief more intense than I ever thought possible, only made worse by how I handled it.  Thank God for the consequences because without them, I might not have grown.

For me, part of trauma is that I replay mistakes regularly.  This song is about the power of grief mixed with regret and what it feels like to be stuck.   It’s my attempt to process all that while begging God for a second try.

Q: Almost every aspect of the industry is evolving, from how we share music to how it’s created. How do you maintain your artistic integrity and authenticity in an industry that is constantly changing?

A: This kind of piggy backs the question about advice I would give new artists. I haven’t maintained my integrity.   I have compromised my integrity at times in my life and the consequences have been traumatizing.  I have needed to make mistakes at times to realize who I am and what I’m doing. It’s so important to know why you are doing something and if it is for selfish reasons.  

On a different note, right now A.I. is making a huge splash and it can be a useful tool or compromise your integrity.  I’ve had many conversations about it and for me at this point the line is do i know what i’m trying to go for or do i want the ai to tell me what the “right” thing is.

Q: Let’s talk about the upcoming album for a minute. You’ve got an album release coming up later this year?  Can you talk about any overarching themes and inspirations behind it?

A: This album is a person getting their footing in life again.  From new responsibilities and expectations, post covid life, and after a ton of loss and mistakes.  This album is a mid recalibration expression of sorting life out.  A bit messy and a bit all over the place but sincere and honest.

Q: What do you hope fans will take away from the album?

A: That they aren’t alone and that we are loved more than any of us could ever know.

Q: How has your sound evolved in this upcoming album compared to your earlier release Hope For The F.U.T.U.R.E.?

A: Hope for the F.U.T.U.R.E. was a record of clarity, i knew what i wanted to say and how i did things and how i wanted the music to sound.  This record is a record of transition and exploration.  

My influences have expanded and my tools have changed.  I am surrounded by new types of support with the Fixt label.  My family and friends have changed.  Basically it’s a whole new life.  All of that has deepened my relationship with God.

We have done this record as singles broken up by 9 surgeries so far.  Lyrically the record is about a person processing many stages and aspects of life while trying to keep moving forward.

Sonically, I am trying to remove some process crutches that I’ve been able to identify and that has been super challenging to say the least.  I have crossed some of the dunning kruger thresholds and I am growing everyday!

Q: Are there any collaborations on this album? If so, how did these artists influence the album’s direction?

A: Earl Cohen worked with me on 2.5 of the songs on the records.  I have my studio in my house and I was lucky enough to have him come live with me for 6 months while I recovered from surgery and keep the ball crawling.  

Earl has been an intimate musical mentor in my life.  We have had many ups and downs over a 20 year friendship.

He has influenced my process almost my whole recording life.  But for these songs, he is a part of why “predator” turned out the way it did.  My original version was very metal, and I had programmed a vibey break chorus that we felt  was so cool that we changed the verses to the vibey version and looked at each other and said “this might be more the essence of what we are going for.”

I try to be a flexible person because I don’t think that stubbornness is constructive or collaborative.  I also don’t want to be a perfectionist because I believe it to be counter productive.  I like trying a lot of stuff and exploring.

That being said, around my own music, I’ll try stuff and suggestions but I can be very hard to influence.  I often know what I want and have something I’m trying to get out and I am relentless in that pursuit.  I am still trying to express that vision, I still have a long way to go still.  Earl was definitely in a tough place with me in this area and he did a great job.

Q: What advice would you give to young artists just starting out in the music industry? 

A: I think about this question often because I would go back and give myself advice if I could.  Make sure you know what your motivations are and be very honest with yourself.  God put everyone here for a reason.  Being yourself is a service and contribution to the world, I wouldn’t recommend doing art for selfish reasons such as money or status.  And then also discipline is crucial, slow and steady.

Q: Can you share your process for songwriting? How do you start, and what inspires your lyrics and melodies? 

A: How long do you have? lol  I usually start by jamming with an acoustic guitar or piano and singing over it until I have a chorus melody that I feel is useful.  Then I will make a rough demo with that melody where I make the whole song very quickly with copy and pastes just to hear an entire arrangement. By this point I have decided what the song is about and have chorus lyrics.  I need this to move forward and it is often dictated by feeling what the song is doing emotionally and asking myself what I’m going through that relates to that feeling or could be the reason why I’m interested in the emotional energy that way. Often, I try to relate that to others in a way that I think could be empathetic, sympathetic, or challenging and detail the lyrics and parts from that place.

Q: On a scale from 1 to ‘Spinal Tap’, how would you rate your last live performance?

A: None more black.

Q: What’s the most awkward stage moment you’ve ever had? Did it involve a wardrobe malfunction, a forgotten lyric, or perhaps a rogue insect?

A: One time I threw up on stage because we all ate right before the show and were rocking too hard lol.  A girl that was there was very happy that some got on her and tried to use it as a platform for an intimate relationship if you know what I mean.  She misread the significance of me puking on her.

Q: And finally, I’m contractually obligated to ask everyone this question in every interview now: Which would you rather fight: one horse-sized duck or a hundred duck-sized horses? And how would you distract them with your music if they turned on you? 

A: I would deal with whichever was thrown my way I guess, take life as it comes.  For decades, I have had a recurring nightmare where 100s of cats attack me in a haunted mansion.  I’m not sure whether that sets me up for ptsd with the duck sized horses, or whether it means i’ve been subconsciously training my whole life in my sleep to fight them.  Only one way to find out!

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Q&A – HIGHSOCIETY

By Leasia Korbel

On Life The Universe And Everything (Related To The Upcoming Album) – A Most Serious Interview With The FiXT Resident Hype Man Himself, HIGHSOCIETY

This week I got to sit down with HIGHSOCIETY to talk about his track “Voices” any details he could share about his upcoming album expected later in the year. 

Q: Really loved your last collaboration with Micah Martin. It’s one of my favorite tracks. How did you meet and end up working together?

A: Thank you! That is one of my favorite releases as well. I was actually familiar with Micah’s music for a few years before I reached out to him, as he’s something of an iconic voice in the

 electronic/bass music scene. When I started working on my album with FiXT, he was near the top of the list for vocalists I wanted to collaborate with. I always thought his voice was super well suited for rock-leaning music. 

So I cold emailed his manager with the “Going Under” demo, and ended up on a call with Micah. Instead of talking about the song, we basically spent 30 minutes talking about our favorite rock and metalcore bands, and discovered that we had similar histories of starting out in the rock world before establishing our careers in the EDM space. We were both really excited about bridging the worlds of rock and bass music, so the timing was perfect to put “Going Under” together. Plus he’s just an absolute BEAST so we had to get him on the album twice 🙂

Q: Do you have any upcoming shows/appearances/tours coming up?

A: I do have some things planned for Summer & Fall that are not QUITE ready to announce yet, but stay tuned, I should be announcing a few things on my socials, etc. very soon. I’m also working on creating the “DATAMOSH Live” experience bringing some real instruments into my live show. I don’t think doing straight-up DJ sets is the best way to present my new music in a live space, so I’m working on ways to bring all of this new music to life for shows.

Q: Give me a history of how “Voices” came to be? Are you hearing them now? How did the track come about? Any funny stories you want to share?

A: I feel like the best songs are the ones that come together pretty quickly, almost like they are writing themselves, or you are just a “vessel” for the song to flow through. “Voices” definitely falls into that category – we wrote and recorded almost the entire song in a few hours. 

Micah sent me a text out of the blue that he was going to be visiting San Diego and wanted to record another smash. This was a rare instance where I didn’t have any available demos lying around, so I scrambled to put together an instrumental idea sketch as fast as humanly possible so we’d have something to work on. I don’t even think Micah had listened to the demo at all when he got to my studio, but after a few White Claws, we jumped in and started writing/recording vocals line by line. I hadn’t recorded Micah in person when we did “Going Under” so I didn’t know what to expect. My jaw was on the floor the entire time, he is just an incredible singer and we were in such a great creative flow, bouncing ideas off of each other and “finishing each other’s sentences” about lyric and melody ideas. 

And yes I am hearing those voices now because the chorus of that song is an absolute EARWORM that has been stuck in my head for 6 months! GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD!

Q: Who designed your upcoming merch? What was the inspiration?

A: I design all of my own merch! My merch designs are inspired by modern streetwear and cyberpunk aesthetics. With each merch drop I aim to create designs that expand outside of the world of just my artist project. My goal is to make awesome shirts that people would want to wear whether they are a HIGHSOCIETY fan or not. If someone is going to spend their money with me I want to give them something truly unique (dare I say, “fashionable”?) that is more than just a billboard for my logo. So when I’m starting a new drop, I always ask “would I buy this if I saw it in a streetwear boutique?”

Q: Favorite Summer plans when you aren’t on the road?

A: I function best when I am insanely busy, so when I am home I stick to a pretty strict routine. Even outside of shows there is so much to do to keep the project going, so I’ll typically be working on new music, merch designs, videos/content, etc. I also love to attend shows as a fan to stay inspired and remind myself why I got into music in the first place. I especially love attending metal shows because I sort of get burnt out on electronic music from playing so much. In the next 3 weeks I am seeing Born of Osiris, The Word Alive, and Escape The Fate back to back which I am extremely stoked for!

Q: How long did it take you to use that long extended stainless steel dinner for exactly? Are there classes that teach this for future DJs?

A: Unfortunately this is the level of elite knowledge that only comes with the experience of playing hundreds of shows and failing repeatedly. I do go out of my way to help up-and-coming artists as much as I can with guest lectures at colleges, feedback on their music, etc., but I think this specific technique is reserved for the upper echelon of ultra-famous mega-superstars.

Q: Anything you can sneak in about the album? What haven’t we been told?

A: I feel like fans may THINK they have an idea of how it’s going to sound based on the handful of tracks we’ve released already. There’s definitely a few curveballs coming and some insane collaborations both in & outside of the FiXT roster. We have barely scratched the surface of how insane the “DATAMOSH” sound can be.

Q: On a scale of “Nervous Karaoke Singer” to “Rockstar Riding a Unicorn,” how excited are you about this albums release?

A: I would say it’s like “Shrieking Dolphin Doing a Backflip” – basically a 50/50 mix of excitement and anxiety. Since it’s my first full-length album, I feel a ton of pressure to make a statement and present my music in the best light possible. 

With that said I’m very confident in the songs and I am having an absolute blast creating this album. It’s been awesome to wave the flag for the “rocktronic” movement and I think I’m breaking new musical ground with every track. That is ultimately more important to me than reaching some kind of external milestone around performance or anything like that. 

I want to tell myself that I will take a break after the album is out but we all know that is not going to happen (already working on demos for album #2 btw).

Q: Where can we get DATAMOSH Hard Seltzer™?  Asking for a friend.

A: So I actually just got a rejection letter from Whole Foods because apparently it is “against the law” to combine alcohol with energy drinks? I’m sorry, I thought this was America? I am happy to announce, however, that I have retained one of the top law firms in San Diego to lobby the beverage industry and hopefully change this tyrannical law. If anyone wants a DATAMOSH Hard Seltzer™ in the meantime just come over to my house and I will happily provide a case if you’ve purchased DATAMOSH merch (must show receipt / proof of purchase) [I also have a pool at my house]

Q: What is the one thing you can’t live without on tour (besides your instruments and your fans)?

A: I honestly keep it super minimal on the road, the toughest part is just having basic human needs met. It is such a fun, fast-paced environment that it can be easy to forget to drink water, eat actual food, etc. so I try to go out of my way to prioritize health when I can. I’ve basically accepted that I will get little to no sleep when doing fly-out shows but if I drink a bottle of water every hour and maybe look at a salad I usually do pretty well. 

I have heard from multiple promoters that I have “the most chill rider ever” – it is 24 bottles of water and 12 white claws (doesn’t matter what flavor but lime is preferred if possible). 

Q: What’s the most awkward stage moment you’ve ever had? Did it involve a wardrobe malfunction, a forgotten lyric, or perhaps a rogue insect?

A: Ok this is a good one. I played my first big festival set way back in 2017 and I played pretty early in the day, like 1PM. ~8 hours after my set the promoter tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I wanted to play a 15-minute changeover set before the headliner of the entire show. Of course I said yes, because at this time there were at least 5,000 people at the stage waiting for the headliner to go on. Easily the biggest crowd I had ever played in front of. 

Everything was going great until every DJ’s biggest fear happened, I hit the “pause” button on one of the decks with my elbow and stopped the music cold. A resounding “OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” echoed from the crowd and my life flashed before my eyes. 

Now as a more experienced DJ I know how to handle “trainwreck” situations like this gracefully, but this memory still keeps me awake at night.

Q: What’s your secret recipe for being awesome?

A: I would say it’s something like 

10% luck

20% skill 

A healthy serving of fear 

One lock of Brian Skeel’s hair 

4 metalcore breakdowns 

621 memes viewed per day

Feeding off the tears of my haters Also please no one ask for the DATAMOSH Hard Seltzer™ secret formula, it is kind of similar to the Krabby Patty formula, i.e. it is proprietary information and distribution of said information is punishable by federal law.

Q: Which would you rather fight: one horse-sized duck or a hundred duck-sized horses? And how would you distract them with your music if they turned on you? (Can you turn this into a reel?)

A: I have thought about this a lot – I think I MIGHT be able to defeat 100 duck-sized horses. The horse-sized duck would just be impossible, ducks can be extremely vicious (speaking from experience). With that said if I just played the upcoming BVLVNCE collab in their direction they would all disintegrate either way because it’s the heaviest song mankind has ever created x 1000000. Oh wait am I not supposed to announce that yet my bad.

Q: Can you give us a time frame for your next album? Any surprises in store?

A: I would estimate it’ll drop sometime in the next 0.5 – 30 years. We actually just decided to add a few more songs to it to make way for some big collabs, so it’ll be a bit later than planned but ultimately more awesome. As it’s my first album, I really want to take the time to make it the best it can possibly be. We’ll be dropping music nonstop leading up to the release so hopefully that can hold the fans over while I finish this BEAST! 

I think there’s something that fans will find surprising about almost every song we have left to release to be honest. I’ve pushed my sound to its absolute limits bringing in orchestral elements, synthwave stuff, basically seeing how far we can take this “DATAMOSH” style. NO RULES!

Q: Describe your upcoming album in three words, but you can’t use “lit,” “fire,” or “vibes.” (Get creative, I believe in you)

A: SONIC STOMP SQUAD!

Q: Is there anything else you’d love to get out to your fans?

A: YES! I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has stuck with me as I’ve explored and developed this new direction for the project. I know this has been the longest album teaser campaign in this history of music, but I promise it is worth the wait. You guys are the absolute best and it has been amazing meeting and getting to know so many of you over the last year. 

I also want to send a massive shoutout to all of my collaborators on this album, from the incredible featured vocalists, to Brian & Ant who have helped with production/mastering, and the FiXT team for fueling this creative insanity!

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Q&A – Void Chapter

By Leasia Korbel

We recently sat down with Void Chapter to discuss the Deluxe Edition of their latest album – humAnIty, the lore behind Void Chapter and how their creative process has changed recently.

Q: Can you describe your creative process when it comes to writing music based on an idea or story? Which came first? The world of The Sprawl or the music?

A: All 3 of us have been writing music together in some form or fashion for many years – mostly for production music and sound design projects – which is why we often approach the writing from a cinematic angle. The world of The Sprawl was initially inspired by a brief for a production album that Adam was writing, and it started to really take shape once the 3 of us decided to start writing for an artist project vs. a sole focus on production music.

Q: What inspired you to choose the particular ideas or stories found in the original albums The Uprising, The Sprawl, and finally humAnIty?

A: The ideas and stories were largely birthed as a result of an extended period of time where Otto was not sleeping for more than maybe a couple hours at a time, and he started waking up from extremely vivid dreams – and would immediately jot down everything he had just dreamt about before it disappeared into the ether of the waking world. Slowly but surely the threads started to connect, and the characters and world started to emerge from there.

Q: How do you approach translating a narrative or concept into musical elements such as lyrics, melody, and instrumentation?

A: We created one-sheet creative briefs for a multitude of scenarios within the narrative that were often initially used to influence the musical direction. These included artwork for inspiration, some keywords for mood, and a brief story snippet. While these sometimes served as a starting point, the reverse would also sometimes be true – There were many times when we were just individually writing demos for each other to tackle – those audio cues would then, in turn, inspire some additional creative briefs as well.

Q: How has the story changed since the beginning?

A: Early on there was some focus on a protagonist who would wake up at 1:11am and 3:33am with intense nightmares – and had to immediately write them into a cursed book that would promise to protect the real world from those events as long as they were sealed within. The world of The Sprawl sits somewhere within that void between the waking world and the world of dreams – so we thought it would be interesting to really set the stage there for a while and focus in on what that world actually looks like, and embark of an exploration of the conflict between HUMANITY and A.I.. Perhaps we will explore that zoomed out view again one day though.

Q: Are there specific messages or emotions you aim to convey through your music?

A: The messages and emotions conveyed through music can be quite subjective, so we are very careful not to dictate what all this means to our listeners, as we want to give our audience the opportunity to find something they connect to within the instrumentation and sound design, the lyricism, or even the spaces between the rhythms – and use the music itself as a guide to connect all the dots for them individually.

Q: You’ve collaborated with a few other artists on this album. How does the collaboration influence your creative process and the final outcome of each track?

A: The “Void Chapter Machine”, at its core, is a truly collaborative project – so it all came naturally to us. We were incredibly grateful to be able to work with so many talented artists on this album – and it was amazing to hear how each artist interpreted the creative briefs and music we collectively built out.

Q: How do you hope listeners will engage with and interpret your music based on its underlying idea or story?

Although some of our work is inspired by the stories and lore we weave and express, it is important to us that listeners are still given the opportunity to just use it as a framework within which they can build their own interpretations – influenced by their own unique personal experiences. It’s always amazing to hear from people – when they tell us how much a song meant to them – or how the work we’ve done has inspired them as artists – it’s all incredibly rewarding.

Q: When describing this edition you said: “This entire direction was inspired by the creation of a full storyboard based on the lore and lyrics behind the track, and written with a production approach that paid homage to modern movie trailers.” What’s the next chapter for the world laid out in The Uprising? Can you give us a sneak peek into what’s coming up?

A: This was a new experimental approach that Otto took before building out the VIP remix for “A Thousand Cries” – since the initial creative brief for that track was already built out, he decided to take things a step further before writing a single note – building out a full visual storyboard to inspire the musical direction – while also keeping the production process “within the rails”, using songwriting patterns and builds often used in trailer music cues.
In the next album, human emotion – its nuances and contrasts, will take center stage in the next phase of our musical exploration. But that’s about all we can say for now. =)

Q: You said that with this album you approached the Deluxe Edition wanting as few remixes as possible. How did each of you like the direction each of your individual projects took?

A: We felt this would provide an excellent opportunity for listeners to get a sense of each of our individual production styles – we all have a certain amount of crossover, but our styles certainly do have distinct flavors.

Q: “The Sky Is Falling” has been in the works for quite some time. You said this marks a new musical direction with the band. Is this “new direction” already in the works?

A: We are all absolutely thrilled with how this track turned out – it was one that we have been working on, then shelving, then working on again for a LONG time. Once Brian took the helm at lead vocals everything finally fell into place, and will definitely guide us into our next phase.

Q: With Brian Skeel taking the lead vocals in “The Sky Is Falling” and “Drones” is there anything he can’t do?

A: Bending time and space is often a challenge, but where there is a will – there’s Brian Skeel.

Q: Which side do you belong to? (In reference to “The Sky Is Falling” lyrics)

A: Let’s ask ChatGPT…….

The terms “host” and “parasite” are often used in biology to describe the relationship between two organisms.

As an AI, I don’t have personal desires or preferences, so I don’t have the capacity to choose sides between being a host or a parasite. However, in the context of AI technology, the relationship between AI systems and their users might sometimes be compared to the host-parasite dynamic. In an ideal scenario, AI systems serve as helpful tools or companions to their users (host), benefiting both parties. However, concerns about data privacy, algorithmic bias, or AI systems gaining too much control can lead to comparisons with parasitic relationships, where the AI system benefits at the expense of the user. Ultimately, the ethical use and development of AI technology aim to prioritize the well-being and autonomy of human users.

Q: I know we have a few writers/fans interested in this last question. WIll one of you write this story? (Please?)

A: This would be amazing.

Check out the new single “The Sky Is Falling” from humAnIty (Deluxe) – Available Now!

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FiXT Launches New 2024 Label Trailer

FiXT is an independent, artist-owned record label serving a roster of diverse and forward-thinking artists from across the globe, founded in 2006 by Klayton (Celldweller / Scandroid).

FiXT’s catalog of music has garnered over 3.5 billion online streams connecting with rock and metal music lovers, along with a core audience of gamers and sci-fi / cyberpunk fans. FiXT serves millions of listeners from over 150 countries each month, with new releases every week.

FiXT’s 2024 roster includes artists such as: The Anix, Beyond Unbroken, The Browning, CANTERVICE, Celldweller, Coping Method, Daedric, DEATH X DESTINY, Fight The Fade, Fury Weekend, HIGHSOCIETY, The Plague, Scandroid, Void Chapter, Young Medicine, and more.

Founded in 2006, FiXT’s catalog of music has received over 1,000 Film/TV/Video Game and advertising sync placements, including: Westworld, Power Rangers, Lexus, Toyota, Suicide Squad, Iron Man, Robocop, Jack Reacher, Deadpool, John Wick, Guardians of the Galaxy, Pacific Rim, Call of Duty, Synth Riders, Assassin’s Creed, Need For Speed, Razer, Dead Rising, UFC, WWE, and more.

A New Queen Rises – FiXT Signs Alt-Cyber-Pop-Metal Artist Izzy Reign

By Leasia Korbel

FiXT is proud to announce the signing of alt-cyber-pop-metal artist Izzy Reign. To celebrate FiXT is re-releasing the metalcore industrial single “Broken By Design.” 

Bold. Eclectic. Rebellious. Izzy Reign thrives on originality and thinking outside the box. Her music is nothing short of a reflection of this. Her father was an avid drummer and she grew up singing to Alanis Morisette, Jewel, and Madonna with her mother. Inspired by Enter Shikari’s music video “Sorry You Are Not A Winner” and the musical stylings of Imogen Heap, Izzy took the plunge into the industry and played her first live show when she was 15 years old. 

Since then she’s taken a deeper dive into production, songwriting and performing, working with a variety of artists that come through the production house she shares with producers Jon Eberhard (I Prevail, Skillet, Sleeping With Sirens) and Nick Matzkows (Wind Walkers, Until I Wake, ENMY, Attack! Attack!). Over the past four years she has released a myriad of covers, originals and music videos on her YouTube channel racking up millions of views. She has received notable attention for her popular The Nightmare Before Christmas cover of “This Is Halloween”, which has over 10 million streams across Spotify and YouTube along with 25,000 videos using the sound on TikTok.

In 2023 Izzy came to the attention of the US-based record label FiXT, through the discovery of her independent release, “Broken By Design”, which showcased a new edge to Izzy’s sound. Signing on for a multi-album deal, Izzy Reign is now set to release her debut album with FiXT in 2024. 

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Fathom: A Short Story, Inspired by Soul Extract’s “Innerspace”

By Chantal Holmes

A small arc of light broke through the drifting blackness, a noiseless precursor to the cascade that would follow. They came in erratic clusters at first, then waves: crest after crest of thin, white tendrils that rippled outward as they slowly pulled a distortion wide. With a flash of something from within the disturbance’s depths, a small vessel passed through the opening, the anticipated thunderous clap and crackle of the tunnel snapping shut only imagined and inferred as the void around it strangled the noise before it could sound. The arcing tendrils rapidly decreased in number, the ebb and flow of their ethereal, dragging fingers flickering and sputtering out against the black, disappearing just as quickly as they had arrived. In its wake, the vessel was left cast adrift amid unfamiliar stars: rotating slowly as the silent nebulae watched it pass, a piece of flotsam and foreign particulate in the shifting glow of their starry sea. Its hull was marred with odd rake lines and pockmarks sustained before its drop out of warp, but hadn’t appeared to be breached; through the small viewport at the helm, the silhouette of its pilot lay slumped over the console.

He was nearly motionless, save for the slight rise and fall of his back and the flicking of his eyes as he lay in restless slumber. The visions that painted the inside of his eyelids were plagued with dread. He watched as a distant glimmer was swallowed by a starless, undulating abyss, silhouettes of slightly blacker shapes circling in its place. Their movement was darkly hypnotic: a trio of long, serpentine shadows moving ever closer with the grace of eels, a muffled yet strangely melodic sound following with them. A chill seeped into his bones with an immediate pang of recognition, and yet he found himself rooted in place, joints locked and immobile, body refusing to listen to his internal screams to move anywhere else. Unable to so much as turn his head, he could only watch as the shadows became less indistinct, the knot in his stomach twisting as he began to see the faintest traces of veiled color in the dark. At the first dreaded flicker of bioluminescent glow, he felt the ground fade from beneath his feet, sending him plummeting into the abyss’ creeping reach. Unseen shapes brushed past his limbs, a silent warning of hidden hungers, but it was the feeling of something much more human, of fingers curling around his ankle, that precursed being sharply dragged sideways and deeper into the dark.

It felt as though the spectral hand had thrown his dreaming self back into his own body, a hypnic jerk so strong that the back of his head collided with his seat as he bolted upright; spots riddled his already blurred vision, taking a few rapid blinks and rough shake of his head to fully clear as he righted himself in his chair. He quickly checked to make sure that everything was still functioning as it should be, that his repairs were still holding, before leaning back to let the rest of his unexpected headrush pass. The lilting tones of a distant melody still echoed in the back of his mind, soft and indistinct notes that beckoned, threatening to fill his mind completely if he dared to let his focus linger on it for too long. Rubbing at his temples, he tried to turn his attention to anything else to push back the melody’s increasing volume; his eyes eventually settled on the switch for his ship’s emergency beacon, slowly pulsing in invitation. Multiple consecutive jumps, while necessary, hadn’t been the kindest to the hull, but had he traveled far enough? He hovered his hand above the switch for a moment, pausing. As much as the prospect of a passerby seeing an active distress signal was comforting, he knew better. A beacon in his current situation would likely only serve to hasten an untimely end long before it called anyone to his aid; the hunted don’t shout in the dark to let the hunters know where they are. Curling his fingers back from the switch, wincing a little at a sharp protest in his palm, he let his hand fall from its resting place.

As his arm fell back, the distinct sound of something clattering against metal broke the relative silence. To his right, he barely glimpsed the edge of the darkly colored object as it rolled along the floor. Unhooking one of the belts holding him in his seat, he carefully nudged the object toward his fingers with his foot, quickly picking it back up and turning it over in his hand. It was heavy, despite its size, and shaped vaguely like a vajra made of two flaring tridents. He had initially thought it had been carved from a piece of meteorite, but seemed instead to be some form of near-black metal with the texture of sandstone. Its color slowly shifted in the light, ranging from obsidian, to deep purples and blues, to scarlet and back again in waves as he turned it in his hand. Seeing no damage to it from the fall, he reached set it back on the small shelf to his right, being mindful of its flared ends, the throbbing cuts in his hand serving as a reminder that they were deceptively sharp. He stared at his own hand hovering in the air for a few moments before resting his arm back on the arm of his chair. Despite the discomfort the peculiar object gave him, it was likely safer in his hand than returned to the shelf it had already leapt from once.

With a little more effort than he cared to admit, he shifted his attention from the object in his hand to the viewport and the darkness beyond. The slow, rolling, movement of the nearby nebulae was a welcoming sight alongside cold and unfamiliar stars, their warm colors offering something other than the ever-present black; a moment of calm to gather his bearings, a sunset-hued gaseous sea to behold as he tried to plan his next steps. Something about the blackness out here was different, more enveloping, growing unsettlingly darker if he dared focus on it for more than a few moments; it took an active effort to keep his eyes trained on the nebulae’s glow to avoid that sight, fidgeting by slowly rotating the artefact in his grip. He reassured himself that the effort, that the artifact resting in his hand, key and compass rolled into one, had been worth the equivalent of sailing to the edge of the map and stopping just before completely blinking out of existence. He could feel the faintest of vibrations against his palm as he rolled the object along the length of his palm, an odd sense of comfort pairing with it. They traveled up and along his bones, his eyelids once again starting to grow heavy as they reached his skull. Maybe he could rest his eyes for a few minutes and…

Something shifted against the nearest nebula’s flow. The creeping heaviness of his eyelids immediately lifted as he leaned forward, looking for any indication that the shape he’d seen was only a result of a half-dozing hallucination. Darker patches weren’t entirely uncommon within the confines of a nebula, dust clouds were far from an alien occurrence; perhaps he’d begun to nod back off just as one had been rolling into view. A fresh pang of unease threatened to fire along his spine as his eyes scoured for any trace of what he’d thought he’d seen. For an eternity in only a few brief moments, nothing seemed amiss or out of place, not a dark spot in sight within the glowing stellar lagoon; only once his eyes had begun to burn from lack of blinking, did he dismiss what he thought he’d seen as exhaustion. It had been waiting, patiently, for him to sigh and settle back into his seat before reemerging: a dark silhouette against the glow, far too opaque to be a passing cloud of dust. Its movements were a far departure from any drifting piece of rock or debris, weaving in intricate and serpentine patterns that would have required intelligence to navigate. The longer he stared, mildly entranced by the graceful shapes it drew, the stronger his sense of dread became. He instinctively gripped the object in his hand tighter, numbly irritating the cuts it had already left.

The artifact is a mark. Once it’s missing, they’ll hunt it down without rest, no matter how far you carry it. The last warning he’d been given clawed its way to the forefront of his thoughts, giving fresh and ominous gravity to the quiet hum now permeating the cabin. He’d only stopped for a few minutes, just long enough to breathe, how had they caught up so quickly?

In the center of his viewport, to the left of the nebula he’d been watching so intently, a single vertical line of light cut through the black. It was too far away to properly gauge its size, the line promptly distorting into a semicircular shape that sent his heart further into the pits of his own stomach. His empty hand drifted its way to his console, inputting line after line as quickly as one set of fingers would allow, refusing to take his eyes away from the newly forming distortion ahead of him. As he rushed to depress the final key and ready a switch, he felt something large brush past the ship’s lower hull; a line of faintly glowing, electric shades of indigo and blue passed by the far left of his vision, vanishing as quickly as it had appeared as his ship was sent into a sharper spin. He could only watch as the ominous shape in the distance rotated, the haunting melody from his nightmare starting to fill his head again in perfect sync with the hum and vibration of the artifact still clutched in his hand. The ship’s comms, which he had been certain hadn’t worked since his third jump, began to crackle with soft static as a processing error flashed across his screen.

“That little toy of yours won’t be able to handle another jump so soon, let it rest. You won’t get much farther anyway.” A voice scolded, somehow both sharp and lined with velvet. The rotation of his ship suddenly halted, the faint groan of metal hinting that something had taken hold of it.

“Do you realize what you’ve done? The doors you’ve so haphazardly opened?” A second voice, whispered and icy, faintly broke the static of his comms unit.

“You don’t need to run,” a third voice, soft and strangely melodic, gripped the back of his mind, “Perhaps we can come to an… agreement. After all, you were kind enough to let us through.”

He watched as the ship rotated its way to an upright position, the groaning of the hull abruptly halting as whatever held it relinquished its grip. Any words he wanted to say, questions he wanted to ask in return, abruptly died on his tongue as the owners of the three voices slowly passed him and came into view. They were half humanoid, their upper bodies each having a degree of hourglass figure, transitioning into a long tail from the hip onward. He watched as they “swam” ahead, propelled by the gill-like openings along their torsos paired with the movement of their tails, allowing their sheer scale to slowly set in. Each tail appeared as though it could have easily wrapped itself around any of the planets he had visited, able to slowly constrict the sphere until it eventually cracked. They’d been the only things he’d seen in the sky as he’d rushed back to his ship after prying the artifact from its resting place, and a recurring theme in each jump-induced nightmare in the brief time since.

Vaskot, the first of the three, took to the slight left of the distortion and idly crossed her arms. Her human half was more bronzed in tone than the other two, and noticeably more muscular, with a peculiar split running from her navel to the bottom of her ribcage; an angry glow slowly pulsed behind it, in time with what he estimated to be the equivalent of her breathing. Her mouth spread far up each cheek, which he could only imagine filled with wickedly serrated teeth, adding an extra touch of menace to the angled, long S shapes of each of her four eyes. From the peak of her hairline, a shape not too unlike an anglerfish’s lure protruded, its glint sending a familiar chill back down his spine. Her ears were little more than a pair of forked fins, and her hair a series of barbed whiskers slicked back away from the protrusion holding the lure on her head, each fading from black to umber in hue. He could make out the shape of stiff, spined, fins attached to her lower arms, and eight crab-like legs extending from her lower back above her tail. Her tail itself was segmented: each portion resembling the shape of two manta rays tied at the fin and draped over a piece of pipe, stinger-like shapes trailing below and behind them; each segment appeared to have a layer of chitin along the back, colored in still more shifting shades of umber, dark spines with gold-glowing tips extending at regular intervals between paler golden webbing. The barbs were also present on the crescent-shaped ends of her tail, swaying slightly as it moved. He could see faintly glowing markings carved into the chitin, but couldn’t even begin to guess at their meaning or purpose.

The second of the three, Aphaantesha, took to the right of the distortion. Her face was slightly more human in appearance, save for the fan of three black rhomboid shapes that were her eyes; a single, piercing white spark glowed in their depths. Any semblance of hair she may have had was lost to veil vaguely reminiscent of a comb jellyfish while her ears had been split into a two sets of paired fin shapes. She folded her four arms in front of her, partially concealing the slits along her sides that she’d been using to propel herself forward. Draped over her shoulders, a series of layered frills rested like a natural shawl; similar frills, folding from back to front, decorated the entire length of her tail, giving an appearance similar to the many layers of a ruffled skirt. The few fins he could see along her tail were wide and flamboyant fans, each ruffle shifting ever so slightly even when she remained still. Her entire being was pale, skin and scales bordering between both opalescent and pearlescent in the reflected glow of the nebula nearby. She looked delicate, almost frail, but there was something unsettling lurking beneath her piercing gaze.

Shilihdoth, the final of the three, took a position slightly beneath the distortion and directly in front of it. He was unable to see the upper portion of her face, it having been concealed by something in the shape of a bluebottle’s pneumatophore: dark and colorless, save for a brightly blue and violet glow along its upper crest; dark filaments descended from it, resting upon her shoulders in loose curls. From the depths of the bizarre head covering, five eye-like shapes, four horizontal and one vertical, glowed brightly. Thin, bioluminescent lines of electric blue and equally electric indigo followed the curvature of her ribs, while a pair similarly hued fins stretched from a narrow point at her waist to a much wider point behind the shoulders of her four arms, forming an overall arrowhead shape around her torso. The fins continued to transition into a tall, fanning collar of seven dark tendrils that flowed and writhed, seemingly moving of their own accord; from various points around her hips, thin tendrils ending in the spearhead shape of a squid’s tentacle extended, behaving in a similar fashion. Her tail was noticeably eel-shaped, with two long fins spanning its entire length before merging into a three-fin fan at the very end. Lines of the same bioluminescent glow found along her ribcage could be seen near the fins of her tail, tinting their dark translucense with an ever-shifting gradient of purple and blue. Her skin and scales were dark, though he couldn’t place the precise color he thought he was seeing. Black? Deep purple? An abyssal navy? He shook his head. It was this one who he assumed had whispered through his comms system, as well as the one who had initially sent him into his unfortunate spin.

Only one word circled in his head, tossed about like a ship caught in solar crosswind: leviathans. It was a far cry from the most accurate descriptor, what he was seeing before him more of an ominous crossing of sea serpent and mermaid of mythologies past, but it the thought continued to churn without rest. His eyes flicked between each of the creatures, wondering if their forms were a way of laying their capabilities bare; were they genuinely as they appeared, or had they merely adopted bodies that he would be able to somewhat understand? The unrelenting grip of their void-touched gaze, as cutting as it was paralytic, and ghosts of knowing smirks offered wordless answers to his unasked questions. Somehow, even in the vast and life-devoid expanse around him, he was feeling smaller than he ever had before: a bitter taste of burgeoning megalophobia he hadn’t known he possessed. Ruminations of what doors he may have unlocked, of what eyes he had just given the freedom to stare back from the starry abyss, of what else may have been long passing alongside him unseen, swam unfettered. He had miscalculated, gravely miscalculated.

From the inner reaches of the distortion, a low rumble began to creep: unheard in the vacuum beyond the ship’s confines, but felt without dilution through bone and marrow. As the feeling settled itself into the sides of his skull, a fourth voice conducted through it became clear as it eventually found a language he could understand. It was a deep and hollow sound; a ghost at the bottom of a starless sea, a distant and dead star speaking in a tone of blatant and dismissive disinterest seeping out of its every word.

“Do you even know what you carry? Where, precisely, the object you clutch so tightly will lead?” It paused, giving him just enough time for a half answer to form, “Or did you blindly follow the directions of someone else?” His mouth grew dry with a lack of a proper response. Up to this point, he had been following little more than vague hints and breadcrumbs, names without history and directions that had pointed in circles; all he knew of the artifact was that it wasn’t intended to unlock any physical door, but one of potentials, one that required the proper hands and knowledge in order to do so. He held a skeleton key that he had no way of using on his own, and each of these four beings knew it innately. In his attempt to unlock his personal doors, he’d thrown open another that was far better left shut. The imagined smile that he could feel through the distortion’s continued rumble was one of cold understanding, holding the answers just out of his reach. As if by silent order, the creatures stirred once more.

“We’d like to have our little trinket back, if you’d be so kind. We’d be able to give you far more than it could alone: sight beyond sight, reach beyond reach,” The shimmering one’s voice slithered back into his mind, “Everything you’re missing, chasing, direction for the directionless in infinite threads of fate.” She moved slightly to the right of his viewport, slipping out of sight.

“If that’s too much, of course, you can just return it and be on your way.” The umber one leaned forward, peering at him through the viewport, “Travel home empty handed, pretend it was all just a fever dream of monsters and wayward wishes… and pray we never cross paths again.” She flashed him a terrible grin, as she leaned back, diving below the bottommost edge of his limited view.

“Or, should you feel particularly bold…” The dark one’s whispered voice once again permeated the cabin, “You’re welcome to continue as you are, attempting to unravel the mysteries of your new toy on your own and use it as you see fit. But know our pursuit will also continue. You will know no rest until we reclaim what’s ours.” She, like the others, quickly swam out of sight, joining the other two in what had become a slow circling of his ship.

“Do take your time to think things over,” The frigid voice rumbled through his bones once more, “We have until long after the last star fades.”

He slumped back into his seat, eyes only half focused on the distortion as he attempted to process what he’d just been presented, silently weighing which of the three would be the lesser possible evil. In every piece of breadcrumb text that he’d followed, bargaining with the unknown, particularly if their offerings were nebulous and indistinct, was already an ill-advised choice. While the notion of whatever they defined as sight beyond sight was morbidly fascinating, of accomplishing the same thing he’d been attempting on his own may have been beneficial, he couldn’t free himself of the feeling that such a “gift” wouldn’t also carry some degree of terrible side effect alongside it. Returning the artifact to them in any regard appeared safe on the surface, but both of those options not so quietly indicated that these creatures would retain the freedom they’d gained from his folly. It was clear enough that he lacked the position to make a counter-offer as well, the tone in each of these beings’ propositions indicating they would rid themselves of him with all the tact and compassion as one would a gnat if he attempted and his offering fell short. Rubbing his left temple, trying once again to ignore the song threatening to drown out his thoughts, he sighed. If he tried to outrun them again, how far would he need to go? How long would it take for them to close any of the distance he’d attempt to gain?

Casting a glance to the artifact in his hand, he relaxed his white-knuckle grip and allowed it to fall to the floor in silent resignation, resting his foot on it to keep it in place. Reaching into the shelf to his right for a second time, he retrieved a roll of gauze to wrap his bleeding palm, taking his time to fully commit to the course of action he was about to take. He gave his seat a light adjustment, and rested his hands on the keys of his console as calmly as his body would allow. The distortion had grown wider since he last looked outside, what had looked to be the size of a dinner plate from his current distance having since stretched into a gaping maw. He kept his eyes trained on it as he slowly typed out the same series of commands as he had before, watching as long shapes swam and swarmed in the darkness of the other side. The sound he imagined on the other side, the clatter and slide of scale against scale amid whatever other voices and whispers may have been contained within, was enough to make his skin crawl. With the press of a key, he started a second run of his initial inputs; his other hand dropped to and depressed a button for external communications.

“While you’ve been very gracious by providing me a few options to remedy my… predicament, it seems to me that you’ve neglected to consider the very thing that brought the five of us out this close to the outer reach in the first place.” A response from his console drew the slightest ghost of a smile from him. He waited a few seconds, just long enough for a gap between the circling leviathans presented itself, before throwing his ship into maximum throttle and hurtling himself toward the ever-expanding abyss.

Bracing against his own chair, he began to count down in his head, hoping that the bent light of the distortion hadn’t interfered with his calculations. He kept his foot firmly pressed atop the artifact, squeezing his eyes shut as a furious roar collided with the back of his mind; there was no indication of disappointment in his decision, only the sounding of the proverbial hunting cry as he sped away. The ship’s rear display, damaged in a previous jump, couldn’t show their precise movement, but he was able to picture their abrupt halt and attempt to rush after him with both uncomfortable and uncanny clarity.

The first arcs of light began to appear just before he reached the edge of the writhing distortion, increasing in their frequency as he sped past its edge into the slithering dark it contained. The arcs appeared in clusters before steadily rippling outward as a tunnel of his own opened inside the larger one, illuminating the innumerable tails of similar creatures crossing over one another below as they clamored to knock him off course. One tail missed its swipe, sending him inadvertently forward and through his own tunnel just as it opened, and promptly back into the silence of his own thoughts. He sighed heavily, tapping the back of his head against the headrest of his chair, lungs aching ever so slightly from being held tense until he was safely through.

Gingerly lifting his right arm, he studied the reddening bandage wrapped around his hand. He was going to need to learn to be a little more careful of the artifact’s sharp edges until he became more accustomed to holding it, and he had a feeling he’d have plenty of time to do so during the game of endurance he’d just begun.

“A key to waking dreams and endless possibility,” He breathed, “And to locking each of those sirens back behind the door they slithered from.”

Fury Weekend Expands His Universe With “Constellation” (feat. Mari Kattman)

By Leasia Korbel

Fury Weekend’s latest synthwave single “Constellation” (feat. Mari Kattman) is, in his own words, the “Second song of upcoming album continue new saga of Fury Weekend universe, dedicated to love, space, and galaxy.”

Mari Kattman’s enchanting vocals take center stage in this fervent single coupled with thoughtful lyrics. From the the infectious rhythm section to the shimmering synths, every aspect of the track is meticulously crafted to evoke feelings of happiness and exhilaration.  Fury Weekend’s adept production skills shine through in “Constellation,” as he effortlessly blends elements from synthwave and indie pop to create a unique and captivating musical experience, and offers fans a beautiful homage to the ’80s. Whether enjoyed on the dance floor or through headphones, this infectious track is sure to leave a lasting impression.

The Fury Weekend project was created when Belarus-based Ars Nikonov chose to combine his love of classic rock, electronic music, and ‘80s culture into a forward-thinking music venture. The result is a dystopian synthwave sound that blends bright synth melodies and gritty guitar work into a singular music vision of the future.

The uniqueness of Fury Weekend should come as no surprise given the artist’s background, which involves ambitious projects ranging from industrial to post-rock. Diversant: 13, Cold in May, Martian Love, Seanine, and Tribal A.D. are some of the many names that fill Ars’ creative resume, and each of those has given the creator the experience and tools needed to make an impact with his retro-futuristic synthwave project.

Mari Kattman is a solo artist who also collaborates with Tom Shear of Assemblage 23 on a project named Helix, whose vocals are characterized by moments of lush harmonies with strategic vocal/musical syncopation resembling that of the hip hop genre. Her music can be described as having a good balance of ambient pads cut up by ticking high hats with deep and boomy kicks. 

Daedric Announces Mortal Deluxe Drops March 22nd

By Leasia Korbel

If you thought Daedric’s release of Mortal was complete back in August of 2023, strap in. The ride is about to get a rocky. Daedric announces their Mortal Deluxe album goes live on March 22.

While the original was a full blown high octane ride the deluxe edition adds electrifying remixes from both SWARM, known for his dark EDM, and Voicians, known for his Drum & Bass Rock creations, as well as an electrifying reimagined version of “Only.” “I’m very grateful to SWARM and Voicians for their incredible remixes of ‘Alchemy’ and ‘Coldharbour,'” explains Daedric. “I really feel that it completes my vision for “Mortal” as a full-spectrum musical journey. From Metal, Electronic, Pop and Rock. It’s all there.”

Dropping today is the “Alchemy” (SWARM Remix). Brace yourselves for an exhilarating sonic experience as Daedric’s brutal vocals take center stage throughout this Electro, Industrial, EDM infused single. The ominous track, as only SWARM could create it is a fierce and energetic homage to the original. The collaboration between these two forces results in a track that is both dynamic and relentless, showcasing the perfect blend of rock and EDM and threatening to crack a hole in the space time continuum in its totality.

Mortal Deluxe is the final quest. An immense experience the listener deserves and a rousing conclusion to my debut installment.

Daedric

The Texas-based metal venture Daedric’s original debut album Mortal was a feral offering to the altar of Electronic Metal. From the triumphant entry of “Wretched” the band burst onto the scene with a stunning vocal performance from from Hope in their alluring music video for the debut single. “Wretched” set the stage for their next singles, the alluring yet brutal “Sepulchre” and the heavy industrial “Dawnbreaker” each with their own accompanying music video setting the tone and quality the band wanted to share. The album was produced by Geoff Rockwell (Memphis May Fire, Crown the Empire) and Clay Schroeder, with all but “Wretched” being mixed by renowned mixer Joey Sturgis, also known for his work with Of Mice & Men, Asking Alexandria, and We Came As Romans.

Whether you’re an Elder Scrolls fan or just a music lover, Daedric leads you on a quest of apparent destiny with music that ranges from unrelenting breakdowns, incorporating hypnotic beats and cinematic transitions, coupled with vocals that range from ethereal to brutal, savage to soulful. The album performs a delicate dance between ethereal and ominous, delicate and harsh building up to new heights with each new single Mortal encapsulates the human condition in its entirety. We are flawed, we are brief, but we are vital.

Singles from the album have already gained traction across multiple platforms including Spotify features on multiple official playlists, such as: All New Metal, New Blood, Heavy Queens, Epic & Melodic, Industrial Metal, The Core, Alternative Metal, Kickass Metal, Rock Hard, All New Rock, Progressive Metal, misfits 2.0 and more. Other notable editorial support has been seen from VEVO across Rock and Metal music video playlists on VEVO’s YouTube & App playlists as well as VEVO’s linear TV programming channels. The project has also quickly resonated with an international audience with strong support from the Eastern Europe platforms VK and Yandex supporting multiple tracks across the platform’s respective Rock and Metal playlists.

Daedric has collaborated with labelmates Celldweller, Fight The Fade, Andromida, Void Chapter, and Kaixo for a gamut of well received singles that have also pulled in more fans across the world. After dropping a variety of singles, music videos, and collaborations Daedric has amassed over 300K followers across all platforms, scored mentions on Louder Sound, Punk Rocker, Metal Hammer, and Metal Injection. They’ve also gained notoriety on the Daedric Official Tik Tok Account covering the hit single “This Is Halloween.”

Upon Daedric’s inception in Late 2020, they had a goal to create a dark Synthwave project that established a modern fantasy element that was lacking across the dystopian-filled genre. With Geoff’s captivating production, Clay’s syncopated riffs and Kristyn’s hypnotic vocal delivery, “Wretched” was forged and set forth an inevitable sound. More importantly, it opened the doors for true exploration. Over the next year Daedric would expand their writing across multiple genres, blending metal drums and industrial grooves with an amalgamation of synth, guitar and orchestration, all leading to a diverse soundscape to showcase Kristyn’s immense vocal range.

Our goal was to create something unique and captivating, yet grounded in raw human emotion and I truly believe we accomplished that.” Mortal is not a predictable journey, much like the quests of Skyrim and Oblivion, it is bound by a fatal pulse. We are truly alive. We are ‘Mortal.

Daedric