The Evolution of Onward and the Future....
During my process of writing and tracking the planned Waxen album, Blood Paths To Acosmic Portals, the music began taking me in a brand-new direction.
I always have to follow the music and adhere to where it leads me.
Doing another Black Metal album right now would just be another ignored entry into an oversaturated market—a scene filled with bands that rely on aesthetics and cosplay while completely diluting the real-world hostility the genre was born out of. I cannot participate in that. This doesn't mean Waxen is dead; it is just not the right time for it.
Instead, I have a new Onward album on the horizon. With my latest record, Toby Knapp's Evermoving "Power Metal Prophecy", I successfully stripped the genre of its generic tropes of fantasy, heroics and triumphant victory by lyrically injecting my belief system of Anti-Cosmic Gnosticism into the music. Now, I have found a way for the actual music to integrate Current 218 ideology directly into the compositional framework.
This does not mean I'm creating a Black Metal version of Onward. Rather, I am pushing into completely fresh musical territory while keeping the foundation of Onward’s classic Power Metal sound fully intact. The spirit of Onward was always about moving forward. As early as "Reawaken", I was incorporating unorthodox influences ranging from the Japanese Avant-garde Black Metal of Sigh to the earliest riffing style of Destruction and the coldness of Pink Floyd's 'Animals'—all resolving back into a Traditional Heavy Metal framework. The goal is boundless Power Metal showing a real face of hostility.
There is simply no way for Onward 2001 and Onward 2026 to remain identical. We've sadly lost some of those amazing talents over the years, or they have retired from music altogether. The bigger recording and touring budgets of the past are no longer a possibility, so I am left to carry the torch alone with raw, urgent inspiration.
These are different times. I won't operate under a different moniker just to avoid offending listeners who want to keep me pinned to a 25-year-old album. It wouldn't be authentic anyway because I have evolved as a musician.
After this next album, Onward’s "Chrono Gnostic Aeon", it will be time to pivot into an aggressive style of heavy blues guitar playing—not unlike Gary Moore, Johnny Winter and Robin Trower. This serves two distinct purposes: a completely different expression of my music, and the definitive breaking of a 30-year cycle of underground obscurity. I desire to create and improve for years to come and to do that, at least some reinvention is required.
Although I'm not particularly fond of humans - I'd still like to perform live for my supporters. If a scorching heavy blues guitar album helps put me on more stages, it's worth it. This is certainly not an abandonment of Heavy Metal.
By taking my foundational guitar aggression and smashing it into the root frequency of the blues, I intend to initiate a literal cosmic disruption—shattering the predictable, designated boxes of the Demiurge's trap with uncompromised chaotic liberation. My longtime record label (Moribund Records) is fully backing this vision, ensuring a seamless transition into this high-voltage blues era without the standard industry roadblocks or delays. The path is clear.
— Toby
218
