From Cult of Lilith to Solo, Mario Infantes never stopped his devotion | Oktaves Podcast (Ep. 3)

Mario Infantes is an Iceland-based musician best known as the former vocalist of the death metal band Cult of Lilith, signed to Metal Blade Records. After burnout, a cancelled U.S. tour, and losing his voice after COVID, Mario rebuilt his creative life from the ground up and created a solo project that blends progressive metal, folk instruments, Middle Eastern and Indian influences, ambient textures, and cinematic storytelling.In this episode of the Oktaves Podcast – Talks with Musicians, Mario talks about the real work behind reinvention: learning to write full songs (not just vocals), producing alone, protecting the joy of music, and releasing an album that refuses to fit into one box.He shares the behind-the-scenes chaos of shooting music videos in Iceland’s winter, how a jazz concert in Utrecht became a spiritual turning point, and why music became devotion instead of a career metric. We also go deep on his upcoming album Bakur (8 tracks, summer 2025), his writing process (stories, images, single lines that turn into worlds), and how he blends real instruments like oud, handpan, flutes, woodwinds, lyre harp, alongside heavy guitars and metal drums recorded by specialists.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Welcome to the Oktaves podcast🎙️ Talks with musicians! Where we uplift local musicians voices.This podcast is about chatting about and sharing with each other tips and tricks on how to succeed in the music industry as an independent musician, with an emphasis on branding and marketing, and overall management, whether your goal is to stay forever independent or get label-ready. We are very passionate about breaking the cycle of gatekeeping in the industry, so we strive towards bringing you conversations where these layers of the onion will be peeled one by one.We are also here to uplift and shed light on independent (or previously independent) musicians in our community, who are so kind to share their struggles, their wins, successes, their strategies, and advice or some secrets possibly to how they got there.🔗 Follow Oktaves:https://instagram.com/withoktaveshttps://facebook.com/oktaveshttps://tiktok.com/@withoktaves