Kenyan vocalist, producer, and sonic force Lord Spikeheart (Martin Kanja) stands at the vanguard of a radical musical movement emerging from East Africa. As a founding figure in the continent’s extreme music scene, he fuses death metal growls, scorched-earth screams, and gravel-laced rap with head-splitting electronics and industrial noise. His debut solo album The Adept, released on his own HAEKALU Records—Africa’s first label dedicated to the darkest, heaviest sounds—has garnered critical acclaim from The Guardian, Pitchfork, Arte, NTS, and more.

A live Lord Spikeheart performance is nothing short of explosive: a full-body ritual that conjures chaos, communion, and catharsis in equal measure. Mosh pits erupt, not just as acts of violence, but as expressions of joy, defiance, and collective release. His sound is not just genre-defying—it’s borderless, collapsing distinctions between metal, rap, and noise, while channeling the spiritual urgency of global underground resistance.

With The Adept, Lord Spikeheart reclaims sonic extremity as a form of liberation—blazing a trail for a new wave of African heavy experimentalism in sound and expression.