Stonedead 2026 openers. There’s a bazillion ways to open up an interview with Aethoria. But Stonedead 2026 openers? You’re not gonna get a better one than that…
East Anglia based Aethoria are a classy modern rock act with ethereal elements which hit both heavy and heavenly. Named for the music they make and famed for their live performance and presence, they’re worthy winners of the vote to lead the charge at the already sold out summer festival. Even if the announcement did take the five-piece completely by surprise…
‘We weren’t expecting to win!’ drummer Lee tells Goth Girl Writing as she, lead singer Mecia and bassist Connor sit precariously close to an ongoing darts match at the Brickmakers in Norwich.
‘There was a point where I put it out of my mind,’ adds Mecia. ‘All the bands work so hard, and I felt that I would understand if we didn’t win, because we are a new band. But when I got the phone call I think I said, ‘Are you fucking kidding me?!’!!! I couldn’t even believe it was Chris from Stonedead! I Facetimed the guys straight after to tell them.’
‘I think we were all just like, ‘Really??!!!’’ smiles Lee. But now that playing the opening set has sunk in a bit the band have started to make plans. Lee adds, ‘If there’s an opportunity for pyro, we’re going to use it! We want to make it as big as possible.’
We’re catching up with Mecia, Lee and Connor before they play Roxoff Christmas Party, alongside Bright Black and White Tyger. The headline act tonight is the intoxicating A’priori – three no messing about Northern boys who bring maximum energy which the crowd not only relish but send straight back to the trio. They were also in the running to be first on the Stonedead stage too - and they have nothing but love and congratulations for Aethoria. As do last year’s winners, the lovely King Kraken, who Mecia, Lee and Connor tell us have already been in touch.
And there’s absolutely no doubt Aethroia know exactly how to bring it live. ‘Our first gig was Bloodstock VIP stage!’ Mecia tells us. ‘I know Phil who works in VIP. He’d had a band who had let them down. He said to me, ‘I know you’ve got a hometown show at the weekend. Would you like a warm-up gig at Bloodstock?!’ It was so cool! And we got weekend tickets as well so we hung out as a band and we saw Trivium, Lacuna Coil…, we met some bands…, it was amazing!’
The band itself is a mere baby in music industry years. Mecia explains, ‘We got together at the end of 2024. Connor joined in January 2025 – he was our final piece of the jigsaw. Then we released our first track.’ ‘Tamed’ was released in summer 2025 and has already been streamed more than 80,000 times. Two more singles have also been released – ‘Stepping Stones’ and ‘Bring Me Home’, and there’s more on the way. ‘Our album’s being recorded at the moment,’ says Mecia. ‘We’ve got one more song to write for it.’
‘We’re going to drop a sneaky single!’ she adds. ‘Because we’ve only got three songs out, and it’ll be a long old wait until the album – possibly six months. So we’ve written something and we’re going to put that out.’
This is a band who are already established, even though they’ve not been recording together for very long. So why were you Christened Aethoria guys? ‘We had a list of names and we just tried to narrow it down,’ says Lee. One possibility was Aeternia which means ‘everlasting’, and was the title of a song by Lee and Mecia’s old band.
‘I felt like it would’ve been a really nice band name for us, but there were so many other bands with that sort of name,’ Mecia explains. ‘So we tried the ‘Ae’ beginning with other things. It means a fantasy kind of realm, and a lot of our music is kind of ethereal in certain sections.’
Connor adds, ‘It’s very close to the Greek word ‘aether’, but it’s actually a made-up word!’
With the promise of a new single, a debut album, live dates – including their biggest show so far at Stonedead (have we already mentioned that??????) while their music has a fantasy element, Aethoria’s future is very real.
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