While entertainment of any description is clearly the very least important thing to be mentioned with regards to the Middle East at the moment, Israeli progressive folk metal act Orphaned Land couldn’t have landed on a more suitable time to deliver a further message of hope and unity.
JD McGibney who plays guitar in the epic instrumental metal band Angels on the Battlefield, and formerly a live member of Chinese folk metal band Voodoo Kungfu, and Nekrogoblikon has launched a new project JD McGibney and Friends. Focused on a message of positivity and spreading awareness for mental health charities, the band has launched their debut single “Voices In The Dark” featuring Chen Balbus (Orphaned Land, The Secret Saints). The goal of the track and project is to raise money the mental health organizations the You Rock Foundation and NAMI. The single is streaming and you can also watch a playthrough video of JD jamming along to the track.
It should come as a surprise to no-one that Omega (Nuclear Blast), the eighth full-length studio release from Dutch symphonic metal act Epica, is another concept-driven album. Formed in 2002, the band are widely known for their ambitious ideas and themes, covering everything from the Mayan civilization to religion, nature, quantum physics and the possibility that the universe is actually digitally created hologram. You know, simple stuff.