...sanity is for the weak...

[darkwavemetal]

Where All Paths Lead Back

Where All Paths Lead Back

[darkwavemetal]

Finding the Sacred in the Dark: Horror Sacri Reviewed in Rock Hard Italy

It’s always a special moment when your work finds its way into the hands of people who truly listen.I recently had the honour of seeing Horror Sacri reviewed in Rock Hard Italy — one of the most respected metal magazines in Europe — and it received 7.5 out of 10. What moved me even more than the rating itself were the words they chose to describe the album. They called it “a paradigm of inner…

Finding the Sacred in the Dark: Horror Sacri Reviewed in Rock Hard Italy

[darkwavemetal]

Horror Sacri on the Charts

I recently took a look at how the tracks from my latest album Horror Sacri performed on RepostExchange — a platform where independent artists can share and promote each other’s music, and where listener engagement shapes the Pop/Rock and overall Top 40 charts. Here’s how the songs did: Ego Mortuus Sum reached #1 on both the Pop/Rock Top 40 and the Re-Ex Top 40 — the highest position any of my…

Horror Sacri on the Charts

[darkwavemetal]

Back to the Neon Shadows

My Swedish friend Freddie (Fredrik Keith Croona) has resurrected his dark synthwave project Terrorbit — and I had the pleasure of playing guitar on two tracks from the new EP, fittingly titled Resurrection: “Shinjuku Vampire” and “Neon Blood.” I was already part of Terrorbit’s first era (see posts here and here), and it felt great to be invited again.Synthwave is quite foreign territory for me —…

Back to the Neon Shadows

[darkwavemetal]

Old Friends, Old Dreams

Old Friends, Old Dreams

[darkwavemetal]

5000 Views — A Quiet Milestone

My website, “darkwavemetal.com – Sacred Dread. Sonic Redemption”, has recently crossed 5000 views.I know – in a world obsessed with numbers, algorithms, and endless scrolling, that might not sound like much.But to me, it means the world. Every visit represents a person who, for a brief moment, stepped into this small universe I’ve been building piece by piece – through sound, thought, and…

5000 Views — A Quiet Milestone

[darkwavemetal]

New Milestone — and First Review for Horror Sacri

I’m thrilled to share that the first full review of my new album Horror Sacri has just been published — and by none other than Metal Digest. Reading someone else’s words about your creation is always humbling, and this review gave me more than I dared hope for. Metal Digest describes Horror Sacri as “a bold leap” in my musical path — a transformation from purely instrumental roots into what they…

New Milestone — and First Review for Horror Sacri

[darkwavemetal]

Miserere at the Top: A Moment of Gratitude

My track Miserere — the only instrumental piece on the new album — just reached #1 on the Re-Ex Pop/Rock Top 40 and is currently sitting at #9 on the overall Top 40. It’s the second song from my new album Horror Sacri to climb to the top of the Re-Ex Pop/Rock Top40 chart, and that feels really special. Like every musician, I often wonder whether my music truly resonates with anyone. But when I…

Miserere at the Top: A Moment of Gratitude

[darkwavemetal]

Chains of Faith, Echoes of Doubt

There’s a reason why religious themes appear so often in my music. It’s not just an artistic choice — it’s something that has profoundly shaped me. I was strongly socialized into this world, and for a long time it defined the way I thought and felt. But at some point, I began to look at it critically. Not just at the institution of the Church, but at the crushing, deterministic pressure of a…

[darkwavemetal]

Five Years of Darkwave: From a $150 Guitar to Grand Visions

In 2020, I decided to do something that had been haunting me for decades: to finally record the music inside my head. The truth is, I had no clue what I was doing. My “studio” was just a desk in a corner, Cubase was a mystery box I bought only because a friend used it, and my main weapon was a $150 guitar. There wasn’t even a bass – just a keyboard pretending to be one. I pressed “record” and…

[darkwavemetal]

Of Fireballs and First Steps

54 years ago today, Deep Purple released Fireball. An album that, even after half a century, still carries the raw spark of something untamed and alive. It feels strangely fitting to say that my very first recording was born out of this record. Not a song of my own, but an instrumental cover of Fools. By then I had already been playing guitar for decades, but I had never once tried to capture…

[darkwavemetal]

Of Failures and Small Victories

Failure in music doesn’t always mean writing something unworthy. More often, it feels like silence. Not the silence between notes, but the silence after you’ve shared them with the world. When I first started posting on Threads, my words reached thousands of eyes each day. Now, they reach only a few dozen. What changed? Perhaps the platform, perhaps the algorithms – or perhaps nothing at all.…

[darkwavemetal]

Why I Write About Darkness

Maybe I write about darkness because there, the faintest spark of light becomes a revelation. People sometimes ask why my words, my lyrics, my poetry, so often turn toward shadows. The truth is, I never chose the darkness—it chose me, and it has walked beside me for as long as I can remember. I was fourteen when I wrote my first poem. It was about death and the Last Judgment. My grandmother…

[darkwavemetal]

Against the Odds

The hardest part of being an independent musician is not the composing, not even the recording—it is facing the odds. Numbers are brutally honest. Out of a few thousand views, perhaps one or two turn into clicks or likes, and only a fraction of those become actual listeners. Sometimes it takes ten thousand (or even more) plays for a single person to finish a track. On my latest release, at a…

[darkwavemetal]

Inspirations Revisited

Art never emerges from a vacuum. Every note I write, every riff I shape, carries traces of something larger than myself—echoes of books I have read, music I have loved, questions I have wrestled with, and silences I have endured. Inspiration is not a sudden lightning strike; it is more like sediment slowly settling, layer upon layer, until a form takes shape. For Darkwave, these layers have…

[darkwavemetal]

Vox in Tenebris: A voice carried through shadows — join me on Patreon!

In today’s endless noise and oversupply of music, it’s harder than ever for an indie musician to truly reach listeners. That’s why I’ve decided to create a Patreon — a space to connect more closely with those who genuinely care about what I do. There will be a free tier for anyone who just wants to stay in touch, but if you’d like to dive deeper into my creative world, you’re warmly invited to…

Vox in Tenebris: A voice carried through shadows — join me on Patreon!

[darkwavemetal]

Through the Curators’ Ears: The Journey of Ego Mortuus Sum

I recently submitted Ego Mortuus Sum to a few playlist curators on SubmitHub. The feedback was consistent: they appreciated the progressive feel, sharp riffs, and strong musicianship, but felt the song didn’t quite fit their audiences. Some wanted more raw aggression, others preferred less atmospheric transitions. So while the track was recognized as solid and innovative, it simply wasn’t the…