Category Cd Reviews

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Lion Music/Border

LARS ERIC MATTSSON is by now a phenomenon, releasing both new and old music at a ferocious pace. After some initial gigging with others his recording career began in 1987 with the EP “Can´t Go on Without Your Love”. Three more albums followed in 1988, 89 and 91, of which the latter was an instrumental. In 1992 he was involved in starting up VISION but had some legal problems, leaving Lars Eric to join up with singer Björn Lodin (BALTIMOORE) for the bluesy “Astral Groove”. That is the framework prior to this album, Lars Eric´s most celebrated “Obsession”, released originally in 1998.

Lars Eric, Björn Lodin and drummer Christer Jansson recorded the album in 1997, and Lars Eric has been quoted to say that this is his finest hour...

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Escape/Sound Pollution

Finnish melodic rockers HUMAN TEMPLE return with “Halfway to Heartache”, their third album. Influenced by the likes of DOKKEN and KISS vocalist Janne Hurme and drummer Petri Lehto formed a band. In 1995 Janne was a solo artist in the pop genre and with some success as well. In 1998 history repeated itself as the duo once more joined forces, resulting in “Insomnia” in 2004. 2010 saw the light of “Murder of Crows” and now in 2012 we get this new album.

The material in general has an easiness with melody that can be compared to EUROPE in their first heyday. They are not overly light either, which I find positive. The absolute highlight to me is the sticky “Almost There”. The refrain lingers and the keyboards take care of the final touches...

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Frontiers/BAM

Most of us will never visit Wowow TV Studios in Tokyo in real life. But together with MR BIG we can transfer ourselves to this living room like place. A string quartet, some invited Japanes fans, and some down-to-earth versions from the bands repertoire are on offer. There are of cause no speedier numbers but even PAUL GILBERT cranks up the power in the closing number ”Nobody Left to Blame”. They conjure up a blend with many new songs like the smash hit ”Undertow” and the here most caressing take on the heartfelt ballad ”All the Way” plus a whopping five more numbers of their latest release...

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Frontiers/BAM

New Yorks TYKETTO came down like a bolt out of the blue in 1991 when they released ”Don´t Come Easy” on Geffen. The single “Forever Young” was well received and their future seemed shiny and happy. But along came grunge and past laurels on Headbanger´s Ball vanished. In 1995 came the belated “Shine”. Danny Vaugn had left to treat his wife, and original members Brook St James, guitars, Jimi Kennedy, bass, and Michael Clayton, drums were joined by Steve Augeri of TALL STORIES. The sound was gentler to say the least. Augeri soon left for JOURNEY and the band soon expired with the live album “Take Out & Serve Up Live”. The members went on with their projects, and VAUGHN no surprise contained Danny, Michael and bass replacement Jamie Scott...

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The Hunt is the sixth studio album from Swedish three-piece metal band Grand Magus. This latest album has a real 70s hard rock/heavy metal sound. Rival Sons have shown recently that a 70s sound can be brought up to date and sound fresh and still retain that classic hard rock sound, and now Grand Magus have done the same.

Listening to the album you can certainly pick out some of the influences – Deep Purple, Rainbow, Dio, and Judas Priest.

Opening track ”Starlight slaughter” would feel at home on a Deep Purple or Rainbow album particularly with its chorus. This is a great track and really sets the standard for the rest of the album to try and beat.

”The Hunt” has a good heavy guitar riff and good solid drums, and later on includes some nice guitar work – all in all a good strong song.

”...

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Saxon have just released ”Heavy metal thunder – Eagles over Wacken” in a variety of formats. The first is a DVD + 2CD’s. The DVD is a ”Best of” compilation of Saxon’s performances at Wacken Open Air from 2004,2007,2009. The CD’s are the band’s live show at Glasgow in April 2011. The second option is a single DVD – the same ”best of” disc as in the first option. The third option is a double CD of the band’s 2009 Wacken performance. There is a vinyl album version available – again of the 2009 Wacken performance, spread over 3 LPs.

The ultimate edition though has to be the version only available for fans to order via the bands website and limited to 500 copies...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Saxon have just released ”Heavy metal thunder – Eagles over Wacken” in a variety of formats. The first is a DVD + 2CD’s. The DVD is a ”Best of” compilation of Saxon’s performances at Wacken Open Air from 2004,2007,2009. The CD’s are the band’s live show at Glasgow in April 2011. The second option is a single DVD – the same ”best of” disc as in the first option. The third option is a double CD of the band’s 2009 Wacken performance. There is a vinyl album version available – again of the 2009 Wacken performance, spread over 3 LPs.

The ultimate edition though has to be the version only available for fans to order via the bands website and limited to 500 copies...

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Carolus Rex is the seventh studio album from Swedish power metal band Sabaton. The album comes at a time of change for the band, with the band changing it’s lineup radically in the time between finishing the album and it’s release. Four members have left and been replaced, with only Pär Sundström and Joakim Brodén remaining. Sadly this has inevitably distracted attention away from the forthcoming album which is a shame as the album is excellent.
For the new album Sabaton have abandoned their usual lyrical themes of World War 2 and instead have made a concept album about the Swedish Empire in the period 1561-1721.

The album will be released in two versions – Swedish or English...

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This new EP from The Treatment was originally recorded and released for Record store day, and was only available in very limited quantities (only 300 copies were produced and all were signed by the band) from a proper record shop, not online. Thankfully though for those of us who missed out, Spinefarm are making the EP widely available from 16th May.

Before getting to the music, lets start with the packaging. There’s a nice Star Wars style cover, and inside it doesnt just tell you what the songs are that are on the EP, it tells you why they chose to do each of the songs (all are cover versions). That for me was a really nice touch – there are thousands of great songs out there, so to get some insight into why a band has chosen a particular song to cover is unusual and interesting.

The...

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The Imagined Village is a folk musical project founded by Simon Emmerson of the Afro Celt Sound System. Aiming to produce modern folk music that represents modern multiculturalism in the United Kingdom, it features musicians from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Martin Carthy says ‘The Imagined Village was an experiment started back in 2004 to see if trad and non trad musicians could work together on what was largely my back catalogue, something I was only too happy to engage in…”...