An engrossing listen that never loosens its grip, but provides ample breathing room with well-placed changes of pace peppered throughout... It's unlikely Haken will ever experience a greater coincidence in their career than the christening of the latest gem in their catalogue. If their buddies in Dream Theater had their own such freakish moment on..
Dion – Further collaborations released as singles
As the fourth part of a string of singles releases from his upcoming album Blues with Friends, Dion has just released I Got Nothin with Van Morrison & Joe Louis Walker. Says Dion about the song: “You know when you sit down and you want to write a song, but nothing comes to mind? I..
Lockdown discovery – Blood Command – Cult Drugs (Fysisk Format)
It is fair to say that the last few weeks have been the epitome of chaos. The world appears to be broken while it fights an insidious disease - a new 'C' word - that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, taken the string out of society's back, put economies on ice and people..
PRETTY MAIDS – MAID IN JAPAN: FUTURE WORLD LIVE 30th ANNIVERSARY (Frontiers)
Nostalgia is a huge part of the music business these days and we have seen any number of retro acts touring in support of their glory days - and now we have the welcome addition of bands taking to the road to play classic albums from their back catalogues. The latest is this rather wonderfully..
Photo credit: Lori A. Linstruth
Pink castles in a purple Transitus: A chat with Arjen Lucassen
At its core, with all the adornments stripped away, beats a heart of brilliant compositions, rich in emotional melodies and lush textures... Crippling stage fright and social reclusiveness are not usually among the traits one expects to find in someone who mounts lavish, large-scale musical theater productions of which he is author, composer and performer...
JIM CAPALDI – OPEN YOUR HEART: THE ISLAND RECORDINGS ’72-’76 (Esoteric)
This set is a timely reminder that [Steve] Winwood's bandmates were substantial talents in their own right, and the unheralded drummer perhaps most of all. Another interesting feature of the rock scene in the halcyon days of the 1970s was that, whenever someone left a successful band (or even before they did so), they would..
Bad Touch – Interview, Revised Tour Details
Bad Touch are a 5-piece classic rock band from Norfolk, UK. Most people see growing up in Norfolk as a disadvantage, but Bad Touch owe the core of their sound to their countryside surroundings. Those formative years of listening to the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Black Crowes, Free and Lynyrd Skynyrd whilst looking out..
Tyrant – Hereafter (Shadow Kingdom Records)
Here is another example of an old school cult band resurrected and coming back with a new studio album 24 years after their latest one. There are at least a dozen bands with the name Tyrant, so we have to specify what we are talking about is the Californian Tyrant which have been practicing the..
DEXTER WARD – III (No Remorse Records)
Dexter Ward is a joint Italian/Greek band with members from Venice and Athens and was formed in 2009 when vocalist Mark Dexter aka Marco Concoreggi and guitarist Manolis Karazeris left the Greek power metal band Battleroar. Their name of Dexter Ward being taken from the novel The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward by American horror/fantasy..
Firewind – Firewind (AFM Records)
The band Firewind was initially formed in 1998 as a showcase for the mercurial talents of Greek guitarist Konstantinos Karamitroudis (more commonly known as Gus G) but it took another three years for a real band to emerge with the debut, Between Heaven And Hell, being released a year later in 1992. Since then there..