Wanikiya Record/Promotion is proud to announce the promotional campaign for Dragonfire, the powerful EP by Swedish melodic heavy metal project Bleckhorn, featuring two legendary names from the Scandinavian metal scene: bassist Magnus Rosén and vocalist Göran Edman.
Originally released in 2019, Dragonfire represents the first official chapter in the story of Bleckhorn — a project built around powerful heavy metal, Scandinavian musical heritage and stories inspired by Viking mythology.
Now, through Wanikiya Record/Promotion, Dragonfire returns to the international spotlight as the first step toward a much larger chapter for Bleckhorn.
A JOURNEY THROUGH VIKING MYTHOLOGY
Bleckhorn was created by guitarist, keyboardist and songwriter Jayce Landberg, who developed the project together with bassist Magnus Rosén, best known internationally for his years with HammerFall and his extensive career as a performer and composer.
The lineup is completed by the unmistakable voice of Göran Edman, whose career includes collaborations and performances with artists such as Yngwie Malmsteen, John Norum and Brazen Abbot, alongside drummer Birger Löfman.
The result is a distinctly Scandinavian take on melodic heavy metal, combining traditional metal power with epic atmospheres and themes drawn from Norse history and mythology.
Dragonfire features four tracks:
01. Dragonfire 02. Gates of Valhalla 03. Land of Glory 04. Ragnarök
Across its four songs, the EP explores the imagery of Valhalla, Ragnarök, glory, ancient lands and the legendary world of the Vikings, creating an epic musical journey rooted in Nordic storytelling.
MAGNUS ROSÉN — A CAREER THAT NEEDS LITTLE INTRODUCTION
For metal fans around the world, the presence of Magnus Rosén immediately gives Bleckhorn a special significance.
The Swedish bassist became internationally known through his long association with HammerFall, helping establish one of Sweden’s most recognized heavy metal acts during a crucial period of its career.
Since then, Rosén has continued to build an extraordinarily active career, working across numerous musical projects and international collaborations while developing his own artistic identity.
Bleckhorn represents another side of that journey: a project strongly connected to Scandinavian culture, Viking themes and melodic heavy metal.
FROM DRAGONFIRE TO 2027
While Wanikiya Record/Promotion is now focusing its international promotional activities on Dragonfire, the story of Bleckhorn is far from over.
2027 will mark a major new chapter for the project with the release of Bleckhorn’s first full-length album.
The forthcoming album will expand the musical and conceptual world introduced with Dragonfire, bringing the project into a new phase and giving fans the opportunity to discover Bleckhorn in a much broader format.
For Wanikiya Record/Promotion, promoting Dragonfire today also means introducing international audiences to the foundations of a project that is preparing to return with new music in 2027.
BLECKHORN — THE STORY CONTINUES
With its combination of melodic heavy metal, Scandinavian identity, powerful vocals and Viking-inspired storytelling, Bleckhorn occupies a distinctive place within the modern Nordic metal landscape.
Dragonfire is the beginning.
The next chapter arrives in 2027.
Wanikiya Record/Promotion is proud to support the international promotion of Bleckhorn and to bring this powerful Swedish project to the attention of media, radio stations, webzines, playlists and metal audiences worldwide.
BLECKHORN Dragonfire Promoted internationally by Wanikiya Record/Promotion
Legendary English rock supergroup Asia have shared “Arcadia”, a new extract from the upcoming studio album, “Indigo”, out on November 6, 2026, via Frontiers Music Srl. The official video for the single is available below.
Geoff Downes stated: “The original idea for Arcadia was that it was going to be the title of the third Asia album, which we then later decided to change to “Astra”. However, the word and concept has always been around us, and there have been many suggestions over the years to write a song about it. So, here we are in 2026, 40 years later, and we’ve finally managed to bring it into being. Arcadia is a historical Greek region and is depicted as an idyllic pastoral place free from the outside world. Our song symbolizes a retreat from everyday life, an escape if you like to a quieter place, something that we all need to do from time to time.”
More than four decades after redefining the sound of melodic progressive rock, Asia return in 2026 with “Indigo” – a studio album that bridges past, present, and future with remarkable grace and authenticity.
Now featuring Geoffrey Downes alongside an inspired new lineup – Virgil Donati, John Mitchell, and Harry Whitley – Asia step confidently into a new era while honoring the legacy that made them one of the most iconic supergroups of all time.
Geoff Downes described the genesis of the album: “The initial writing period began in 2015, following the release of our previous album “Gravitas” in 2014. John Wetton and I started putting our ideas together, aiming to get into the studio once more. It was with great sadness that John became seriously ill, during this time, and we had put on hold our plans, and sadly John passed away before we could continue and complete it. So, it was always in my mind that at some point it would be a shame not to finish off some of these songs and finally release them as part of an Asia album.”
“In 2023, when the tribute concert for John took place, I was so encouraged by the response to Asia’s music that I viewed this as the perfect opportunity to re-establish not only the band, but also to reunite with our long-time supportive label, Frontiers, paving the way for us to get back in the studio”, he continued.
Downes also added: “So, Asia was back in the room, so to speak, and we were very fortunate to have recruited Virgil Donati and John Mitchell, both of whom had worked extensively with John before, as well as our new vocalist and bassist, Harry Whitley. The tours followed to great success throughout 2024 and 2025, and finally we sat down towards the end of last year to record the album. Working with these fine musicians was a great privilege and the music just seemed to flow”.
“The album was really a joy to make. I forged a close writing relationship with Harry, and I felt how great was to be working with someone who had very similar musical influences and taste once again, just as I did with John. I feel that this is one of our best albums to date. The songs are deep in musicality, with a powerful and original performance, dynamics and strong lyrical undertones – it’s an album that hopefully our fans will widely appreciate, and support our cause to put Asia back on the map. Enjoy the ride!”, he concluded.
Recorded throughout 2025 and produced by Downes and the band, with mixing and mastering handled by John Mitchell, “Indigo” captures the unmistakable spirit of Asia while injecting it with renewed vitality and purpose.
At the heart of the album lies an emotional connection to the band’s history. “Indigo” includes some of the final compositions written by the late John Wetton -“Tattoo Indigo (Parts 2 & 3)” and “Chesapeake Bay”- imbuing the record with a profound sense of continuity and tribute. The presence of Wetton is further felt through the extraordinary vocal performance of Harry Whitley, whose tone and phrasing evoke a striking and deeply moving resemblance to the band’s original voice.
Musically, “Indigo” stands as a natural continuation of Asia’s acclaimed 21st-century output, while subtly weaving in the sonic DNA of the band’s classic early albums. From soaring melodies to richly layered arrangements, the album delivers the signature blend of accessibility and musicianship that defined hits like “Heat Of The Moment” and “Only Time Will Tell”.
The album also features special guest appearances that elevate its scope: Steve Howe contributes acoustic guitar to the evocative “Chesapeake Bay”, while Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater) delivers a powerful performance on the bonus track “Tattoo Indigo (Part 3)”.
Following a resurgence of live activity across the US, Japan, and Europe, Asia are looking forward to taking to the road again.
With “Indigo”, Asia don’t just revisit their legacy – they expand it, proving once again that their music remains as vital, resonant, and timeless as ever.
“Indigo” Tracklist:
The Traveller (Into The Light) Change Of Heart Arcadia Is This The Life? Tattoo Indigo (Part 1) Tattoo Indigo (Part 2) Tattoo Indigo (Part 3) Life In The Sun Hymn For The Fallen Night And Day Valencia (The Ghost Ship) An Elegy Chesapeake Bay (Featuring Steve Howe) On A Winters Night Echo Of You Tattoo Indigo (Part 3) (featuring Mike Portnoy) (Bonus Track)
Line Up: Geoff Downes Virgil Donati John Mitchell Harry Whitley
Norwegian progressive metal act MESSIER 16 have released “Mollusk Herald”, a new single taken from their forthcoming third full-length “Shouts from the Cliffs of Heterodoxy”, due on October 23, 2026 via Time To Kill Records.
The track offers another glimpse into the Oslo-based group’s multifaceted songwriting, where progressive structures intersect with darker and more atmospheric passages, creating constant shifts in perspective without sacrificing cohesion. “Mollusk Herald” occupies a more concise space than some of the album’s extended pieces, yet retains the band’s penchant for unusual turns and contrasting textures. It follows the previously released “Time-Swayed Cities” and “Gloom-Chaser”, further revealing the breadth of an album that moves between progressive metal, black metal, doom, post-metal and choral arrangements.
“’Mollusk Herald’ captures MESSIER 16’s experimental edge through syncopated rhythms, heavy guitar chugs, piercing leads and mounting dissonance. Its off-kilter groove builds tension without offering an easy release, mirroring the song’s fragile protagonist: an aspiring orator struggling to make his voice heard. Intense, unpredictable and deliberately unsettling, the track blends progressive complexity with a raw, visceral impact”.
Tracklist:
1. Nostalgia Theft Reminiscence 2. Blank Absurdist Form 3. Gloom-Chaser 4. Holoparasite 5. Time-Swayed Cities 6. Glittering Afterwaves 7. Perennial Shift I – Moss 8. Perennial Shift II – Evergreen 9. Perennial Shift III – Plietesial 10. Mollusk Herald 11. Dream Heritage Veto 12. Trauma Gift Repression
“Shouts from the Cliffs of Heterodoxy” is an hourlong descent into the fractured landscapes of delusion. On their third full-length album, Messier 16 deliver their most ambitious and cohesive statement yet, a record that inhabits its characters as much as it describes them, drawing the listener into worlds where perception and reality blur beyond recognition.
Rather than presenting a single storyline, the album unfolds as a gallery of portraits, each song a self-contained study of a mind caught in its own distortions. The voices here are contradictory, volatile, and human: a nostalgia that grieves for something that never happened, a city dweller unable to recognise the time they live in, a cynic who tears down without ever building, a figure convinced that change can only be granted by others. Together, they form a mosaic of inner worlds — intimate, strange, and often unsettling.
Musically, the record ranges from the precision and velocity of technical black metal to the earthbound weight of doom, the ethereal scope of post-metal, and the stark beauty of choral arrangements. Every shift in style is in service of the narrative, moving seamlessly from moments of brute force to passages of stillness and introspection. The choral bookends, “Nostalgia Theft Reminiscence” and “Trauma Gift Repression”, frame the chaos between them like hands holding a fragile sphere, offering both a sense of symmetry and the reminder that beauty and disquiet can occupy the same breath.
At its heart, “Shouts from the Cliffs of Heterodoxy” is not a work of answers, but of questions. It resists resolution, allowing its characters to remain ambiguous, neither condemned nor redeemed. In doing so, it invites the listener to stand on the same cliff edge, to hear the shouts carried by the wind, and to decide for themselves whether they are being beckoned forward — or warned to turn back.
Hailing from Oslo, MESSIER 16 have established a distinct identity within contemporary progressive metal through a sound that is intricate, inventive and at times deliberately unconventional, yet always marked by a strong sense of elegance and compositional coherence. Drawing inspiration from artists such as Ihsahn, Enslaved and Devin Townsend, the band embraces a forward-thinking approach where extreme metal serves as the starting point for a broader and highly personal sonic exploration. Heavy rhythmic structures, layered guitar work and sharp dynamic contrasts coexist with atmospheric passages, orchestral textures and emotionally driven songwriting, resulting in a musical language that remains adventurous without ever losing sight of structure and songcraft.
The band consists of Jonas Eide (guitars, composer, lyricist), Sondre M. Svalastog (vocals), Aleksander Ilievski (guitars, producer), Nicolo Cavallaro (bass) and Jonathan Hamre (drums). Through their work, MESSIER 16 have developed a deeply narrative and expressive approach, exploring psychological and emotional themes through a form of portrait-like lyricism focused on the inner lives of individuals and the actions stemming from them.
Their previous albums, “Iota” and “Death Poems”, already showcased the band’s ambition and conceptual depth. While the former dealt with mental health struggles and emotional fragility, the latter drew inspiration from publicly available suicide notes, confronting themes of despair and human vulnerability with striking intensity and sensitivity.
Now preparing to unveil their third full-length album, MESSIER 16 further refine their sonic identity while venturing into new musical and lyrical territory. The upcoming record promises a more mature and expansive vision of the band’s progressive approach, balancing technical sophistication, atmospheric depth and emotional resonance within a highly cohesive framework.
DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT‘s sixteen-date European headline tour begins October 16 in Dresden and runs through October 31 in Stuttgart, covering seven countries across Central and Eastern Europe, the Alpine region, Italy, and the Benelux before closing out with a run of German dates.
The band’s live show has long been regarded as the most direct encounter with what their music is built to do. Where the records reward patient listening, the stage compresses that same emotional arc into something more immediate, the interplay of searing aggression and fragile, melancholic passages rendered in full force, with Tobias Schuler’s drumming and Nikita Kamprad’s visceral vocal delivery anchoring the room from the first note to the last.
The tour supports Innern, the band’s sixth studio album, and arrives in the middle of the run with an instrumental edition of the record, released digitally in September to mark one year since the album’s original release. The instrumental version strips the six tracks back to their compositional core, isolating the guitar, bass, and drum writing beneath Kamprad’s vocals.
Tracklist: 1. Marter (9:24) 2. Xibalba (10:07) 3. Eos (7:30) 4. Fragment (6:24) 5. Finisterre III (2:00) 6. Forlorn (7:44) Full runtime: 43:12
With Innern, their sixth studio album, DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT return with their most introspective and compositionally expansive work to date. A meditation on suffering, transformation, and the fragile thresholds of the human psyche, Innern refines the band’s signature blend of black metal intensity and post-metal atmosphere. The title, German for “inward”, anchors the album’s conceptual weight: a turning away from the external, into a realm of personal reckoning, silence, and renewal. Across six meticulously crafted tracks, the band explores cycles of disintegration and emergence, inviting listeners to confront the deep and often contradictory nature of existence itself.
DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT formed in Würzburg, Germany in 2009, the brainchild of guitarist and composer Nikita Kamprad and original vocalist Tobias Jaschinsky. The band’s early beginnings were humble but explosive: their self-released debut quickly sold out, drawing attention across the underground metal scene. A reissue in 2010 with newly recorded drum parts by Christian Bass (Heaven Shall Burn, ex-Night in Gales) established the band’s first official lineup and led to extensive touring across Germany and Europe. From the outset, DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT were set apart not just by their technical prowess, but by a philosophical inclination that would become the band’s artistic hallmark.
Their 2012 sophomore album, Unstille, expanded on their debut’s melodic harshness, while introducing a deeper emotional weight. It also marked the first appearance of drummer Tobias Schuler, whose intricate and expressive playing would become central to the band’s identity. Though vocals on Unstille were still performed by Tobias Jaschinsky, he would leave the band shortly after its release. Kamprad took over vocal duties in the months that followed, stepping into the role of frontman in time for the writing and recording of their next album.
Stellar, released in 2015 via Season of Mist, solidified the band’s stature within the modern black metal landscape. Drawing from post-rock and progressive influences, the album embraced wider dynamics and cinematic structures, aligning them with the likes of Wolves in the Throne Room and Deafheaven, without sacrificing their own Germanic rigor and introspection.
In 2017, Finisterre signaled a conceptual leap forward. It confronted themes of isolation, personal dissolution, and spiritual finality across sprawling arrangements and stark tonal shifts. This period saw further lineup changes, with the departure of guitarist Sascha Rissling and bassist Giuliano Barbieri, and the arrival of Nicolas Rausch and Nicolas Ziska. Finisterre also marked their first chart placement in Germany and set the stage for increasingly ambitious live performances.
A live album, Live in Berlin (2019), captured the raw power and cathartic energy of the band’s concerts, affirming their reputation for immersive, emotionally charged performances. But it was Noktvrn, released in 2021, that truly redefined what DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT could become. Inspired by the ambiguous state between wakefulness and dreams, and drawing influence from classical composers such as Chopin and Arvo Pärt, the album saw Kamprad experiment with clean vocals and subdued textures. It was both a thematic and sonic breakthrough and was received by critics as their most refined and contemplative release to date.
Now, with Innern, DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT move even deeper into the abyss. Produced, mixed, and mastered by Kamprad in his own studio, the album is an intensely focused work. “Eos,” the album’s lead single, contrasts war and renewal, imagining a post-human earth fertilized by sacrifice and reclaimed by nature. “Marter” follows as a searing portrayal of inner torment and emotional release—suffering not only as a source of agony, but as a path toward transcendence. “Xibalba” then confronts the machinery of fear—media, propaganda, and spiritual fragmentation—urging a return to our collective essence through introspection and clarity. And with “Forlorn,” the band delivers their most vulnerable statement yet: a delicate plea for emotional refuge, sung in English to underscore its universality. The album also marks the studio debut of bassist Alan Noruspur, whose presence brings a new emotional and personal depth to the band’s sound.
Musically, Innern leans into contrast and contradiction. Kamprad and Rausch’s guitar interplay oscillates between searing aggression and elegiac restraint. Noruspur’s basslines pulse with warmth and gravity, while Schuler’s drumming remains as meticulous as ever-bridging technicality with emotional nuance. The album’s production captures a sense of immediacy and live energy, yet remains rich in detail and atmosphere. It is not merely a refinement of past styles, but a reinvention—one that places the listener in direct confrontation with the void.
DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT stand now at the peak of a fifteen-year evolution. Their music is as concerned with silence as it is with sound, as shaped by introspection as by fury. As they prepare to bring Innern to European stages in autumn 2025, they do so not as provocateurs of extremity, but as artists navigating the fragile space between collapse and clarity. In a genre often defined by spectacle, DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT remain committed to vulnerability, transformation, and truth.
Line-up: Nikita Kamprad — Vocals, Guitars Nicolas Rausch — Guitars Alan Noruspur — Bass Tobias Schuler — Drums
Production Credits: Recorded, mixed & mastered in Würzburg, Germany by Nikita Kamprad. Drums recorded separately at Studio Weißmann, Würzburg, Germany.
The Invocation. The Descent. The Requiem. WICKED ONE enters its darkest and most mournful chapter yet with “As Angels Expire.”
The Story Continues…
The chapter began on June 6, 2026, when WICKED ONE emerged from the shadows with “Kneel Before Lucifer,” premiered by Metal Injection. That song established The Invocation, opening the gateway into the WICKED ONE world.
On August 21, the band descended further with “Lord Lake of Fire,” premiered exclusively by Metal Shock Finland. The Descent followed the invocation, taking the story deeper into darkness.
Now comes The Requiem.
The Invocation. The Descent. The Requiem.
Together, the three songs continue to establish the foundation of WICKED ONE’s expanding mythology ahead of the band’s debut full-length, planned for early 2027, with international touring plans already taking shape. Created by Scott Eames (Vital Remains, ex-Nile, Nevalra) on guitars, vocals, and songwriting, WICKED ONE features Darren Cesca (Deeds of Flesh, Arsis, Vile, Serpent of Gnosis) on drums and Max Lavelle (The Black Dahlia Murder, Despised Icon, Serpent of Gnosis) on bass.
Yesterday, September 25, 2026, WICKED ONE premiered its third single and official music video, “As Angels Expire,” marking the next chapter in the band’s evolving black metal world.
Where the first two songs struck with aggression and ritualistic intensity, “As Angels Expire” takes a different path. Darker, more atmospheric, and carrying the weight of a funeral procession, the song feels less like an attack and more like what remains after the battle is over.
SOME SONGS ARE MEANT TO BE MOURNED
“As Angels Expire is a completely different side of WICKED ONE. The first two songs were meant to be screamed. This one is meant to be mourned. There’s something very funeral-like about it, it feels like standing at the end of something and watching it disappear. I wanted the music to carry that sense of grief and finality.” – Eames
The result is a song built around haunting melodies, somber atmosphere, and a sense of finality. It is not a departure from the WICKED ONE identity, but another dimension of it, a requiem within the same dark world.
The 4K video for “As Angels Expire” was filmed by Tamara Llenas of Aimed & Framed, while the song was mixed and mastered at House of Grind Studios by Darren Cesca. The unmistakable WICKED ONE logo was created by legendary extreme-metal logo artist Christophe Szpajdel, Lord of the Logos.
“As Angels Expire” is another step deeper into the world WICKED ONE has been building. One where aggression, atmosphere, ritual, and darkness exist side by side.
And as the angels expire, WICKED ONE continues deeper into the darkness.
Vingulmork was formed in 2013 by four guys drawn together by a shared obsession with melodic, riff-driven extreme metal. The band is rooted in Scandinavian black metal, but has never cared much for genre borders. The bite of thrash, the weight of death and the cold bitterness of black metal all feed into the machinery that grinds out the Vingul-mork sound.
The band and music feeds off anger, anguish and despair, but doesn’t shy away from leaning into more vulnerable and fragile themes. In the end, though, it all comes back to the defining moments of broken dreams, shattered optimism and the relentless butchery of hope and happiness.
Dark melodies cut through the battery of harshness and make up a sound that has grown harder, more complex and more merciless over the years – without losing the rawness that defined the band from the beginning.
Earlier this month, Vingulmork released their fourth album. It is their most ambitious and forceful work to date. Driven by brutal riffs, desperation and uncompromising intensity, the record pushes the band further into its own territory and confirms Vingulmork as a stubborn, uncompromising force in the Norwegian extreme metal underground.
THE ROCK ALCHEMIST – Italian Rock Band from Turin with a strong sonic identity that blends modern rock with progressive, hard, alternative, and pop elements!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
