Nocny Kochanek formed in Warsaw in 2012 and became one of Poland's most recognizable contemporary heavy metal bands by combining classic metal musicianship with deliberately humorous Polish-language lyrics. The band grew out of musicians connected to the earlier project Night Mistress, but Nocny Kochanek shifted the focus toward a more playful identity while keeping the guitars, vocals, and arrangements firmly rooted in traditional heavy metal and hard rock. Their debut album Hewi Metal arrived in 2015 and set the template: galloping riffs, high-register vocals, twin-guitar melodies, and comic storytelling that affectionately exaggerates metal culture, nightlife, drinking, romance, and everyday absurdity. Zdrajcy metalu in 2017 broadened their audience with songs such as "Zdrajca metalu," while Randka w Ciemnosc, Stosunki Miedzynarodowe, and O Jeden Most Za Daleko continued refining the band's mix of strong musicianship and self-aware theatrical humor. Nocny Kochanek's appeal rests on that contrast. The songs are funny, but they are played with the craft and force of a serious heavy metal band, making the joke land without reducing the music to novelty.

Nocturnal Rites is a Swedish power metal band from Umeå, formed in 1990 under the name Necronomic as a death metal outfit before gradually shifting toward melodic power metal across their early releases. Their first album In a Time of Blood and Fire (1995) signaled the transition, and they developed into a respected melodic power metal act across nine studio albums, including Grand Illusion (2006) and The 8th Sin (2007). The band entered an indefinite hiatus in 2018, returning only for a final studio album, Phoenix (2017), before going quiet.