Dark. Heavy. Fast — just like life.

Gallant Guest plunges headlong into some of the most difficult and resonant territories the human experience has to offer: love, mental illness, disease, and the mysteries that refuse to be resolved. Carried on a wave of death metal and progressive chaos, it is a record that doesn’t flinch from its subject matter and doesn’t ask for permission to be exactly what it is.

“Science is the magic of gods,” Bohn says. It is a line that captures the Gallant Guest worldview precisely — the intersection of the analytical and the mythological, the rational and the sublime, the crushing and the transcendent.

⇒ Check our thoughts on Daniel’s album here.

Gallant Guest is a concept album, following directly from Bohn’s previous record Colors of the Land and taking its narrative into a grimmer, darker, more war-torn territory. The story follows a god seeking revenge on another god — deploying a mortal character as an instrument of destruction against everything the targeted god loves. Once the main character begins to understand what is happening, the vengeful god turns to the land of mortals itself, corrupting and destroying it — and stripping away its most sacred symbol of courage and life: The Whale.

Two tracks anchor the album’s emotional and narrative arc. “The Red Blight” — the opening track — marks the beginning of the corruption, the moment the rot sets in. “Kujira” — the album’s closing piece — delivers the death of courage itself, the loss of the symbol that gave the world its meaning. Between those two poles, Gallant Guest is relentless, technically precise, and steeped in the kind of melancholy that, as one reviewer put it, is “created in a way never before.”

The album was written, performed, and recorded entirely by Bohn in St. Louis, with mixing and mastering handled by Dorian Falconeri. Every guitar, drum, piano, bass line, and vocal is his — a one-man operation of formidable scope and discipline.

Gallant Guest carries additional significance as Bohn’s first record under Sliptrick Records — a signing that marks a meaningful new chapter for an artist who has built his world entirely on his own terms. The label partnership brings his music to a broader international platform without compromising an ounce of the creative autonomy that defines the project.

Drawing from the progressive metal universe of Between the Buried and Me, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, and Persefone, Bohn’s sound is simultaneously indebted to the greats and entirely his own — progressive death metal from the gateway to the West, with a storytelling ambition that sets it apart from everything around it.

Those who have been following Bohn’s output will recognize the title. “The Gallant Guest,” which we covered previously, is now the album’s title track and the centerpiece of this larger work. We noted then its raw intensity, its debt to Slayer and Lamb of God, and the way Bohn’s guttural vocals served the track’s unrelenting weight rather than fighting it. That song’s DNA runs through the entire record, but Gallant Guest as a full-length proves there is considerably more range here than any single track could suggest. The influences Bohn cites, Between the Buried and Me, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Persefone, tell you more about what this album is actually doing than the death metal tag alone would. There is prog architecture underneath the brutality, and the concept album framing demands it. I’ll be focusing on three tracks that best illustrate what makes this record worth your time.

Daniel Bohn kicks the album off with “Runes,” which gradually builds with sweet atmospheric tom grooves accompanying washed-out, haunted guitar sounds, then morphs into a very modern interpretation of classic black metal riffs. The secret to why it sounds so modern is how ever-evolving the drums sound; you can’t really pin the drumming to one groove for a long time, which is the reason why it sounds so intense. In my opinion, it’s like a flailing monster lashing out, but at the same time, it’s brilliantly musical.

“Failure” stands out as one of the more melancholic and dynamic pieces on the album, featuring clean guitars, piano, and soft vocals at the helm. It manages to really tug at the heartstrings because of the huge sonic space it takes and because of how it utilizes the silence between the notes and the tom hits. Even when it does dial it up and introduces a full groove and the delicate vocals turn to screams, it feels earned and in tandem with the narrative, creates a unique almost post-metal sound.

“Verisimilitude” begins with an absolutely gut-wrenching cello melody that is reminiscent of the great Russian composers, with how infinitely depressed it sounds. It ushers in the end of this beautifully tragic album. The cello melody fades out, and a musical section that sounds like what thick fog looks like fades in. The bass and drums create the horror beneath the surface, and the guitars create the suspense as the vocals sound like the ghastly fog speaking. But it doesn’t last forever; soon that fog turns into a storm, as what I personally feel is the most intense rhythm section on the album takes lead and relentlessly moves from one groove to the next, from screams to solos, it’s sublime. The way it returns to a choir singing the main theme is an absolute masterclass of writing.

Gallant Guest is a record that earns its ambitions. Pulling off a concept album as a solo project, with this level of compositional range, from the feral black metal of the opener to the elegiac cello of the closer, is a significant undertaking, and Bohn handles it with the kind of conviction that makes you want to go back and hear it again from the beginning. His first record under a label is a strong statement of what this project is capable of.

The EP begins with “Vow of the Sphinx (Abo El-Houl)”, a powerful declaration of the solemn duty of the immortal guard of the pyramids. The song itself starts with a chant in ancient Egyptian, which immediately grabs your attention and lets you know you’re about to be taken on a journey inside Egyptian mythology and/or the band’s interpretation of it. The main vocalist, I believe, is meant to embody the sphinx itself as he shifts from English to Arabic lyrics and follows up with “By the vow of the sphinx I speak in countless tongues” while the ancient Egyptian lines are uttered by the “priests” or back-up vocals, which become a recurring element across the EP that establishes the ritualistic atmosphere.

Next is “Hands from the Sun (Amon)”, which solidifies the alchemical themes of the EP as Amon himself delivers a monologue referencing “As Above So Below” and the transmutation process of light emerging from darkness. The connection between the spiritual and physical realm was a lot more prominent in ancient mythologies than it is in our current modern times, and though we pretend we are now superior for shedding it, we have lost a great deal alongside those ties with the spiritual.

In “Epistle of Secrets (Creators of III)” and “Monarch of Violence (Oriasirius)”, the riffs become more ominous and aggressive to reflect the authoritarian tyranny of the monarch of violence. Blast beats and dissonant chords aplenty while the lyrics approach cosmic horror territory as they describe this immortal vessel’s plans to take apart the world and transmutate it into a different world entirely, wholly unknown to us.

• “Prelude to War” was written on the night of October 10th, 2023, just days after October 7th. Can you walk us through that night – what you were feeling, how the song came together so fast, and what it was like sending it to the rest of the band the next morning?

Eslam: We were hanging out at Samer’s house (our bass player and one of the band co-founders) I remember that we had the news channel muted at the background and the coverage of what was happening in Gaza, as you know it isn’t something new to us I mean we all grew up watching what has been happening there! But this was on another level, horrific scenes of destruction and bodies under the rubble and each few minutes the screen would show the estimated number of causalities among civilians, it was surreal just to know that within a few kilometers away there are people sitting in their houses awaiting to turn into a number, all of their hopes, dreams and memories are seconds away to be as it’s never existed. I was angry, it felt horrible, all I was thinking about was how can I channel this feeling and how to get this weight off my chest. I went back home, it was 2 AM or something around that and I was home alone, In my mind I was hearing the main riff echoing in my ears, I set up a session, press record and within 30 minutes later I recorded the basic draft of the song, of course it didn’t change things for those people who were suffering but for sure I had a momentary escape. Also, it started that stream of ideas that later completed the rest of the song.

The band really liked it, They have too, who else will write their music then 😊  since we also where adopting a new direction in our sound that started by the earlier releases (Hatred and EOT) we transferred from heavy metal to a sound closer to finish and Swedish metal, bands that me and khaled have been listening to since forever like (Amorphis, Inflames, and many more! So they were very excited about it they started throwing in ideas and it really pushed us forward to continue writing, Three days later I wrote the title track of the EP but that’s another story.

⇒ Read our full review for “Prelude to War” here.

• The chorus – “If you want peace, prepare for war” – is a line that could be read a lot of different ways depending on who’s listening. When you were writing the lyrics with Khaled, how conscious were you of that? Was there a line you were trying to walk between the personal and the political?

Khaled: That line was definitely something we were very conscious of when we wrote it. “If you want peace, prepare for war” is one of those phrases that’s been repeated so many times it almost feels unquestioned—but when you really sit with it, it’s kind of disturbing.

For us, the song is pushing back on that idea. The line isn’t meant as an endorsement, it’s almost ironic. Because right after that, we hit “nobody is counting the bodies no more,” which is where the real meaning lands. It’s about how easily people can become desensitized, how war gets framed as something necessary or even noble, while the actual human cost just fades into the background.

When were were writing, we were very aware of that tension between personal and political. On one level, it can be heard as an internal struggle—gearing yourself up for conflict just to survive mentally or emotionally. But on another level, it’s absolutely a commentary on how systems and leaders can justify violence by packaging it as a path to peace.

We didn’t want to be overly direct or preachy, but the underlying feeling is pretty clear war, in a lot of cases, is sold as a solution when it’s really just a different form of control… almost like a kind of large-scale bullying. And the people who pay the price are rarely the ones making the decisions.

So yeah, the ambiguity is intentional—but the emotion behind it isn’t.

• The music video was shot in a rage room over eight hours. Whose idea was that, and what was it actually like on the day?

Eslam: It was beyond exciting and exhausting at the same time, especially when you have three members of the band that are passed their 40’s 😊, but at the same time very exciting to work on something from scratch and watch it grow into a full production, we had on mind that we need to do this different that time, we decided to actually start hiring people with fresh ideas and to stop trying to do everything ourselves, that’s when Malek our Rhythm guitar suggested that we hire Sayed Ragai front man of the band “Erasing Mankind” who needs no introduction, We met in a coffee place in Zamalek, Sayed listened to the song and from the get go he was very excited to join that project and started giving us some ideas on where we can shot the video, then he threw in the suggestion of filming the video at one of those rage room places, then it took us around two weeks to find the suitable place to do so. We had another difficulty also because me and Ahmed (drummer) we work outside of Egypt and we get to get back on vacations every two to three months but at that time I was at Egypt and I had a few days left to go back to work, so the pressure was on, so as soon as we found the place and booked it Ahmed got himself a flight ticket from Dubai arrived on the day of the shooting actually and we started the logistic part of the process, which was transporting his drum set, Samer transporting the amps, and me just arranging the schedule and going through the process with Sayed and the venue, Khaled as all singers do just had to show up 😊. Then Sayed took over and we basically just did what he sayed. We took four direct wide angles shoots, then we repeated the process for close up and some dynamic shot focusing on Khaled, then by the time we’re taking the last few shots we had only one hour left, so we basically compressed what would take three more hours into an hour and a half. By that time we basically played the song like 13 times.

you would think the day was over but then I tell you that we’d gotten locked out of the car, It was me driving with Khaled, King (our drummer)  and Sayed, we stopped to fill gas and buy some snacks, I left the car running, we got out of the market, I try to open the car door to find out that somehow the car got locked and the keys were inside 😀 😀 so we had to hang out for 2 hours at the gas station’s market until my wife sent us an uber with the spare key all the way from tagmo3 to Sahrawi 😀 :D. So yeah, a day to remember or forget :D.

• You rerecorded the song four times and tried two overseas mixing engineers before landing on Amr Hefny at Ganoub Studio. What kept not working, and how did you know when you finally had it right?

Eslam: to answer this question I’ll have to walk you through our production process, normally the first drafts will contain a plot of the song that would be focused on the song structure, tempo , tuning key etc… so it is definetly would have some changes in that sense, then I basically re-record the song starting with two main Rhythm guitars, this is time I make sure that the Ryhthm section is fixed and will not change in the future, then I send it to Ahmed, who also repeats my same process again drafting the drums, then samer with bass line, Then I get to listen to the song again and start adding Leads, fills, solos, keys etc. then khaled repeats the same process again with the lyrics, vocal lines and melodies. By this time each instrument                  including vocals would be recorded/rerecorded twice, then comes the part where we hire an engineer for the mixing and mastering, we hired one who was very good actually, but it wouldn’t sound right! We wanted to sound right! All the way that time in between engineers and different mixes, I was setting up all my guitars and after that I decided to rerecord all the guitars again with my guitars sounding better after the setup 😊 It was to that extent we were keen to make it right! Then we decided to work with one and only Amr Hefny, with his talent and experience and guidance we felt we were at the right place, he liked the song so much that he kept pushing us further, we recorded vocals and some bass parts again, it only made sense then. A few mixes in we landed on the final version.

• It’s been a few years since your last release. Was that gap intentional, or just the reality of getting this one done properly?

Eslam: The gap wasn’t intentional we actually have around 7 more songs in our pocket you can say the gap was because we were focusing on writing, we were obligated to divide them on two releases, given the production timeline we had we decided we release the first4 on the form of an EP and then complete 3 to 4 more songs and then release our full length album, for now our focus is to land as much gigs as we can, and with us having around 10 songs now we are ready to perform full sets which is something we are working on now, so to sum it up it took us two years to write 11 songs four of them will be on this EP and the rest will be on the album, we are expecting to start working on them starting this summer.

• The EP has four tracks and they sound pretty different from each other – an instrumental, a nearly seven-minute title track, an acoustic closer, and this single. Was there a concept tying them together, or did it just end up that way?

Khaled: It wasn’t really a concept album, to be honest. We didn’t sit down and say, “Let’s build a cohesive narrative across four tracks.” It actually came together much more organically than that.

We’ve always leaned into being a versatile band, and that’s something we’re quite intentional about. Each song was written at a completely different time, in a different headspace, and often under different circumstances. So naturally, they ended up sounding quite distinct from each other.

When it was time to put the EP together, we didn’t try to force a connection or tie everything into one central theme. It was more about capturing those moments as they were and letting each track stand on its own.

In a way, the common thread is our sound, our influences, our way of writing—but beyond that, we actually liked the idea of not drawing a direct correlation between the songs. It gives listeners the space to interpret each track on its own terms rather than being guided too heavily by a concept.

• “Devil in Disguise” as a title – what’s the story there? Is that one of the tracks or is it something broader about the EP as a whole?

Khaled: “Devil in Disguise” actually works on two levels for us.
Yes, it’s one of the tracks on the EP—but it also became the emotional anchor for the whole project.

The song itself was written as a kind of homage to people living with ADHD and Borderline personality. We weren’t trying to diagnose anything or label it in a clinical way—it was more about capturing that internal experience. The idea that sometimes your own mind can feel like something you can’t fully trust… like it’s working with you one minute, then completely turning against you the next.

That’s where the title comes from— “Devil in Disguise” isn’t about an external villain, it’s about that hidden struggle. Something that looks like strength, creativity, or intensity from the outside, but internally can feel chaotic or overwhelming. It’s that duality.

As we were building the EP, we realized that theme actually runs through everything—identity, control, emotional extremes, the fight to stay grounded. So the title kind of grew beyond the track itself and started to represent the whole body of work.

In a way, the EP is about learning to live with that “devil,” not necessarily defeating it.

• You’ve built the band from Cairo, but you’ve been competing and getting noticed internationally for a while now. How do you think about the local scene versus the wider metal community you’re trying to reach?

Khaled: The local scene has changed massively if you compare it to the late ’90s or early 2000s. Back then, everything was a lot more limited—recording, distributing, even just getting your music heard was a challenge. Now with technology and social media, bands have way more control. You can write, record, and release music much more easily, and at the same time listeners can discover new artists from anywhere in the world.

So in that sense, the gap between the local scene and the international metal community isn’t what it used to be. It feels a lot more connected now.

That said, for us, the local scene has always been a priority. It’s where we started, it’s where our core audience is, and it’s a big part of our identity as a band. At the same time, we’ve always had the ambition to reach beyond that and be part of the wider metal community.

So, it’s not really one versus the other—it’s about staying rooted locally while pushing outward globally.

Thanks for taking the time. “Prelude to War” is out now along with the music video, and the “Devil in Disguise” EP follows soon after – keep an eye on Soundsmudge‘s socials and give the single a listen when it drops.

⇒ PRE-SAVE “PRELUDE TO WAR” HERE! ⇐

The song was written in a single session on the night of October 10th, 2023, three days after the events of October 7th. Guitarist and songwriter Eslam came home from a late hangout, sat down with his guitar, set the tempo to 200 BPM, hit record, and had most of it drafted within minutes. The rest of the band heard it and immediately shelved what they’d been working on. That origin is worth knowing because it explains the energy – this isn’t a song that was labored over in a vacuum. It came out of something real, and the track carries that weight. The chorus – “If you want peace, prepare for war” – frames the song not as a political statement but as an observation about a cycle that keeps repeating, from Gaza to Ukraine to Myanmar to Bosnia, and everyone in between who ends up paying the price while the powerful argue the terms.

Production-wise, “Prelude to War” went through multiple rounds before landing where it is. The band tried two overseas mixing engineers before eventually bringing it home to Amr Hefny at Ganoub Studio, who pushed for certain parts to be rerecorded and was strict enough about the performances to get the rawness the song needed. It shows – the final mix is heavy without being muddy, and the melodic death metal influences (think In Flames, Arch Enemy, Children of Bodom) are present without the song feeling like a reference exercise. The 200 BPM foundation gives it a relentless forward motion, and the band clearly knows how to lock in at that tempo with enough clarity in the riff writing so that it doesn’t turn into a blur.

For a band that’s been releasing music in pieces since 2021, “Prelude to War” feels like a step up in focus and intent. The “Devil in Disguise” EP – which also includes an instrumental, a nearly seven-minute title track, and an acoustic-led closer – is worth watching for when it drops. As a first look at where Soundsmudge is heading, this single makes a strong enough case to keep paying attention.

This is not simply a new release. It is a declaration.

👉 Pre-save now: https://orcd.co/brut89678

“We are very happy to join forces with Brutal Records. This marks a new era for SCARAB, and we are looking forward to what we are going to be putting out to the world through Brutal Records. Let the magick begin!” – Scarab stated.

Each track on Transmutation of Fate functions as a ceremonial invocation — a carefully constructed ritual that balances fearless precision with deep atmospheric layering. The EP reinforces SCARAB’s position as the undisputed pioneers of Egyptian extreme metal on a global scale, while pushing their mythology further than any previous release. With Brutal Records behind the campaign, the full weight of that mythology now has the international infrastructure to match its ambition.

Preorder
👉 Limited Edition: https://elasticstage.com/brutalrecords/releases/transmutation-of-fate-album
👉 Physical: 
👉 Bandcamp: https://brutalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/transmutation-of-fate
👉 Digital [Album]: https://orcd.co/brut89677
👉 Digital [Single]: https://orcd.co/brut89678

“War Within” arrives from a place of genuine human weight. Every track on the album is inspired by real experiences shared by people close to Ehlers — stories of OCD, depression, addiction, emotional numbness, self-sabotage, and the relentless internal battles that rarely make it into conversation. This is not concept album abstraction. These are lived realities, translated into sound.

The album moves between crushing heaviness and haunting melodic passages with purpose and precision — explosive riffs giving way to atmospheric, introspective moments, chaos resolving into silence, and silence breaking back open again. It is a record that refuses to stay in one emotional register because the experiences it documents never do either.

Blood and Bones have always been open about how they work. Nico Ehlers builds the project using real drums, recorded guitars, detailed production, and AI-directed elements — not as a shortcut, but as a deliberate creative tool, treated with the same intent and care as any other instrument. Luna, the band’s AI persona, is not a gimmick or a mask; she is a creative voice born from rebellion, grief, and artistic defiance.

The result is a sound that is simultaneously human and precise — and War Within, the product of over seven months of focused work, is the clearest expression of that hybrid approach yet. With it, Blood and Bones push back against the assumption that AI involvement means low effort or disposable output. The songwriting, arrangement, performance, and emotional intent are all there. The AI is one piece of a larger system — not a replacement for any of it.

The feature arrives at a pivotal moment for the band, with two major releases on the horizon through their US label, .

Scarab formed in Cairo in 2006, growing out of roots that stretch back to 2001, and quickly established themselves as a force unlike anything else coming out of the Arab world. Their sound fuses the full weight of technical death metal with the ancient mysticism of the land they come from — themes of spirituality, Kemetic mythology, and the deep philosophical questions of human existence, rendered in some of the heaviest music the region has ever produced.

Their music combines traditional death metal with elements of oriental music, creating a unique blend of cultural and extreme sounds. That duality — rooted in Egypt’s ancient heritage while operating at the cutting edge of an international genre — is precisely what has earned them a following that stretches far beyond their home country, and now, the attention of one of the world’s most prominent broadcasters.

The BBC News Arabic documentary film is a rare and significant acknowledgment of Scarab’s place not only in extreme metal, but in the broader cultural landscape of the Arab world. The band has confirmed they will work to provide translations of the documentary for their global fanbase — a community that has followed them across continents and supported them through every chapter of their journey.

“Thank you for walking this path with us and for your life force and support,” the band wrote in announcing the feature. “The best is yet to unfold.”

Scarab enter this moment of recognition with serious momentum in the studio as well as the press. Two major releases are confirmed through Brutal Records (US):

“” — out April 24th on all digital platforms.

“” — arriving May 8th, with pre-orders open now.

Both titles signal a band drawing deeper than ever from the well of Egyptian mythology and mystery — the Sphinx, fate, transmutation — filtered through the sonic ferocity that has defined Scarab since their earliest recordings.

This song legitimately took me by surprise. The rhythmic displacement is unbelievable. This is an intense ride from start to finish if you zoom out, but if you zoom in, it’s like an infinite collection of ridiculously heavy sections grouped together in a way that flows perfectly. The usage of a phrase like “We’re influenced by Meshuggah” is something that gets overused quite a lot, but this is a thousand percent earned. Ten Ton Devil are able to stand on the shoulders of giants and then scream their message from the top of that mountain, and I personally hear them loud and clear.

For a studio-only project, “Tooth and Tongue” has a rawness to it that a lot of bands lose the second they try to tighten everything up in the mix. I am excited to hear what else Ten Ton Devil have in store because they have the passion and the execution to rise above the saturated metal scene.

The project is the work of one person, Harri Sarpavaara, who handles everything: composition, lyrics, arrangement, production, instruments, and vocals. The single was recorded, mixed, and mastered at RE Studio in January. Lyrically, the song reflects humanity’s capacity for imagination and what happens when that gets twisted into limitless greed, cruelty, and self-destruction. The “shadow of the black sun” is a metaphor for an unavoidable fate we’ve shaped ourselves into.

Musically, “Shadow of the Black Sun” feels as apocalyptic as its title and the metaphor it stands for, an inevitable, horrible fate that awaits us at the edge of time. The guitar riffs feel bigger than life, and while harmonically inspired by black metal tonality, the rhythm and delivery of the riffs are more rock-like, which gives Rare Elements its unique sound. Also, the usage of that big Hans Zimmer-esque drone that ushers in the main riff like the harbinger of doom motif, or like in old times where big horns were used to signal oncoming death and destruction, is a very nice touch.

For a one-person project, “Shadow of the Black Sun” has a huge presence. Sarpavaara clearly knows how to layer and arrange in a way that doesn’t feel thin or overly digital, which is a trap a lot of solo metal projects like Rare Elements fall into. The track succeeds because it commits fully to the apocalyptic theme without undermining it with half-measures.