"I pushed the veil, back into dark again." See Jamie Campbell Bower - AKA Vecna from Stranger Things - embrace his heavy side with the first video from his new post-hardcore band, BloodMagic

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In 2022, the fourth season of Netflix's smash hit horror series Stranger Things was pumping out viral moments by the episode, from the now classic Kate Bush Running Up That Hill drop to the glut of Eddie Munson memes and the character's show-stealing Master Of Puppets scene. One of the biggest stars of the season, however, was undoubtedly Jamie Campbell Bower, whose delightfully sinister turn as arch villain Vecna won him legions of new fans.

Bower, who has also appeared in the Twilight and Harry Potter franchises, is a major music fan and has produced a number of his own projects over the years. The most high-profile of those, punk rock quintet Counterfeit, split in 2020, but Bower has now returned with an altogether heavier sound - a new posthardcore project called BloodMagic whose fittingly titled first single, Death / Rebirth, is out now.

Watch the video for Death / Rebirth below. It is unknown at present what future plans BloodMagic have, but we reckon it's a safe bet we'll hear more from them soon.

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Bower has previously revealed that he listened to a lot of extreme metal to help him get into the right mindset to play Vecna in Stranger Things. “When I was prepping for Vecna, to get into Vecna, I would use a lot of bands like Sunn 0))), Carpathian Forest, Darkthrone, Mayhem,” he told the Kyle Meredith With... podcast. “A lot of black metal kind of stuff that I just really latched onto and thought, ‘Wow, this is great.’ There’s also something about the sensitivity in the way black metal is made and their belief system which I really fucking vibe with.”

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Merlin was promoted to Executive Editor of Louder in early 2022, following over ten years working at Metal Hammer. While there, he served as Online Editor and Deputy Editor, before being promoted to Editor in 2016. Before joining Metal Hammer, Merlin worked as Associate Editor at Terrorizer Magazine and has written for Classic Rock, Rock Sound, eFestivals and others. Across his career he has interviewed legends including Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Metallica, Iron Maiden (including getting a trip on Ed Force One courtesy of Bruce Dickinson), Guns N' Roses, KISS, Slipknot, System Of A Down and Meat Loaf. He has also presented and produced the Metal Hammer Podcast, presented the Metal Hammer Radio Show and is probably responsible for 90% of all nu metal-related content making it onto the site.