Midnight

Midnight plays Bad Astronaut on Friday, October 30, as part of a world tour celebrating the 15th anniversary of Satanic Royalty. The album came out in 2011, after nearly a decade of EPs and splits, and was billed as a celebration of the first wave of black metal explored through sleazy soundscapes. The tour runs from May 17 in Vancouver to November 3 in Tampa, with the Houston date landing toward the end of the run.

Midnight is the one-man army of Athenar, who has been putting out music since 2003 and has spent more than two decades pushing his own brand of lust, grime and sleaze into the metal and punk underground. The project returned in 2022 with a mix of black metal, speed metal and dirty punk rock recorded at Mercenary Studios in Cleveland with producer Noah Buchanan, with Athenar playing every instrument himself. He describes that sound as "filthy, belligerent and obnoxious" and as "unfiltered savage animalisticness."

Beyond the anniversary tour, Athenar has also released Steel, Rust And Disgust via Metal Blade Records, a collection of ten cover tracks and two new cuts conceived as an homage to David Bowie's Pin Ups. The Houston bill is a full night, with Night of The Vampire, Void, Phantom and Exitium all playing alongside Midnight. Doors open at 6 PM, and the music starts at 7 PM at Bad Astronaut, 1519 Fulton St, Houston, TX 77009.