VOLA

VOLA emerged in 2008 as a boundary-pushing Danish-Swedish progressive rock outfit positioned at the intersection of art-metal, electronica, rock, and djent. After issuing a pair of EPs, the group delivered its metal-forward debut full-length, Inmazes, in 2015. Electronic components gained greater prominence on the 2018 release Applause of a Distant Crowd, while the 2021 album Witness further broadened the ensemble’s sonic range. Friend of a Phantom arrived in 2024 and highlighted the band’s ongoing fusion of technical precision with expansive atmospheric construction.

Asger Mygind established the project in 2006 as vocalist and guitarist; the lineup later stabilized as a five-piece that included Mygind alongside guitarist Niels Dreijer, bassist Jeppe Bloch, keyboardist Martin Werner, and drummer Niklas Scherfig. This configuration recorded the 2008 EP Homesick Machinery. Personnel shifted for the 2011 EP Monsters when Bloch and Scherfig departed, replaced by Nicolai Mogensen and Felix Ewert; Dreijer exited soon afterward, leaving VOLA as a quartet. The musicians had by then embraced a progressive-rock orientation shaped by Porcupine Tree, Meshuggah, Opeth, and Mew. They self-released Inmazes in 2015; the following year Mascot Label Group, a Warner imprint, reissued the album, after which the band joined Katatonia for a European tour. Applause of a Distant Crowd, the 2018 sophomore album that introduced drummer Adam Janzi in the studio, preceded VOLA’s first headlining tour. The single “Head Mounted Sideways” appeared in 2020, setting the stage for the progressive-metal-focused Witness in 2021. The fourth album, Friend of a Phantom, surfaced in 2024 and continued to traverse multiple heavy-music subgenres through intricate melodies, punishing breakdowns, and atmospheric passages that preserved the group’s characteristic weight.