Monthly Archives juni 2012

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

SPV/Playground

Dutch long-standing rock outfit VENGEANCE makes another go at fame and fortune. This time with Leon Goewie as the sole remaining original since original guitarist Jan Somers passed away. The rest of the band are absolute aces; Keri Kelli, guitars (ex. ALICE COOPER), Chris Glen, bass, MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP), and drummer Chris Slade (ex AC/DC). A tour has been scheduled by the many sougt after musicians may be had to keep occupied with one band only. Contributions from Arjen Lucassen, of cause, and even Tony Martin makes for enjoyable listening…or?

The voice, the tight band, the return to their bluesy AC/CD sound makes for an album that is no “Arabia”. Depending on your preferences this is an album to treat in many ways...

Posted in Press Releases

‘Songs About Jane’ 10th Anniversary Edition Deluxe LP released June 25th

It’s been a decade since Maroon 5 burst onto the music scene with ‘Songs About Jane’, their No.1, multi-platinum selling debut album of June 2002 which yielded five hit singles; ‘Harder to Breathe’, ‘This Love’, ‘She Will Be Loved’, ‘Sunday Morning’ and ‘Must Get Out’.

To mark the occasion, the deluxe ‘Songs About Jane’ 10th Anniversary edition is being released by A&M/Octone on June 25th as a two-CD set, which includes demos of the 12 original songs and previously unreleased tracks like ‘Take What You Want,’ ‘Woman’ and ‘Chilly Winter,’ as well as ‘Rag Doll’ (a non-album B-side) and an alternative mix of ‘The Sun.’

The second disc provides access to two videos o...

Posted in Press Releases

ELTON JOHN: CLASSIC ALBUM SELECTION (1970-73) BOX SET RELEASED July 2nd 2012 on UNIVERSAL MUSIC, COMPRISING: ELTON JOHN, TUMBLEWEED CONNECTION, MADMAN ACROSS THE WATER, HONKY CHATEAU, DON’T SHOOT ME I’M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER

Universal music will be releasing a limited edition Elton John box set, Classic Album Selection (1970-73), on July 9th comprising five classic Elton John albums recorded between 1970 and 1973. It follows the release of hotly anticipated Elton Vs Pnau single ”Good Morning to the Night” on July 2nd.
Australian duo Pnau are best known for their side-project ”Empire Of The Sun”; Elton John signed the pair after hearing their record, and now with his blessing, a selection of Elton’s old masters will be re-imagined into an album featuring their recreations of his classi...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Massacre/Sound Pollution

Cyprus metallers WINTER`S VERGE formed in 2004, and now release their third outing. I first came across them when they released “Eternal Damnation”, their label debut, in 2008. I was not the least impressed. Since then the band has changed drummers to Chris Ioannides and, in 2011, they toured with STRATOVARIUS. This time around they opt for heavier, groovier material with influences ranging from SYMPHONY X to PANTERA and RAGE.

Opener “Cunning Lullabies” is nothing really fancy, but it´s quite alright. Instead the band shows relentlessness paired with melody in the excellent “Paper Is Blank”, which is followed by a string of songs nice refrains, suitable parts of growl, good arrangements, grooves, and even more neat refrains. The sound courtesy of R...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Massacre/Sound Pollution

Stuttgart´s thrashers DAVIDIAN strikes with their third album, thrashy but not cored. The story of the band hails back to 2003, when they released the self-financed “Abuse of Power”. Festivals and gigs followed and in 2007 they got a contract for “Hear Their Cries”. Worldwide distribution was included and more shows and larger festivals followed, supporting the likes of VADER and HATBREED. This time around they got studio time with Tue Madsen, and brought along their new vocalist Tobi Brausch. The rest of the band consists of guitarists Alex Schniepp and Micha Weidler, bassist Tim Hinderer and drummer Alex Scherf.

DAVIDIAN is new to me. The band sure has some ideas that deserves development, but also a –core element that I don´t really agree with...

Posted in Press Releases

     For fans looking forward to the June 15, 2012 edition of OST FEST, they can now make plans for 62 hours of nonstop music, over 30 bands and 2 stages!

Friday, June 15, scene 1:
Armies of Enlil, Psychogod, White Walls, Exodus, Overkill, Dimmu Borgir, Motley Crue

Friday, June 15, scene 2:
Infected Rain Finsterforst, Warchant, Thrnafire, Claymore

Saturday June 16, scene 1:
Landing, Mystery, HolyHell, Trooper, Europe, Manowar

Saturday June 16, scene 2:
Steelborn, Addiction, Six Tri Syn Ze, Gothic, Early

Sunday, June 17, scene 1:
Reborn, Metrock, Lake of Tears, WASP, Megadeth, Motorhead

Sunday, June 17, scene 2:
Tiarra, Khors, Code Red, Shifting Sands, Voodoo
              
  
    More details about the festival can be found by accessing www.OstFest...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Nor the band name, nor the same called debut album’s title isnt boastful or excessive, if somebody listens the first hits, at least for one minute. The Embodied band already demonstrated with the previous demo songs, and nowadays their first full lenght album conquer around Europe, that its worth enough to remember their name.

The first Embodied disk thoroughly shaked up the nordic metal world in autumn, occured great media-echo in Northern-Europe and Germany, than the surprised music-critics immediately picked out for the debut album of the year in 2011...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

21.45 på Sweden Stage som tyvärr är den sämsta av Sweden Rock Festivals scener, inte på grund av sin storlek eller läge, utan på grund av sitt ljud. Allt för många band har fått sitt ljud bortblåst från denna scen och så kändes det som det skulle bli även denna kväll tyvärr.

Men efter Dimmu Borgir äntrat scenen i en nästan ogenomtränglig rökridå så hämtar sig ljudet efter en stund lagom till låten ”Vredesbyrd” som sjungs på gammel Norsk, allt känns klockrent och Dimmu Borgir visar att de är ett grymt liveband som är här för att regera. Publiken är lite loj, men det verkar inte bekomma eller störa Shagrath, Dimmu Borgirs allsmäktige frontman.

Vi får avnjuta ett trumsolo och en liveshow som med lätthet hade platsat på Festival Stage (huvudscenen på Swede...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Efter en underbart solig dag på Festivalen så var det dags för en av mina favoriter, King Diamond, jag har varit ett stort fan ända sen Mercyful Fate och skivan ”Melissa”.

Jag och min flickvän är lite sena in på området och jag formligen drar med mig henne ner för backen för att inte missa öppningen.

Efter introt startar ”The Candle” från första skivan ”Fatal Portrait” och jag inser direkt att detta kommer bli en magisk spelning. Ljudet är perfekt direkt från början, något som man inte är bortskämd med på Sweden Rock Festival. King Diamonds röst låter perfekt, jag står nästan som i trans de första tre låtarna.

När låten ”At the Graves” startar sitter King Diamond och mimar till introt på scen, men det funkar bra för stämningen ändå...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Jag är uppväxt med Exodus från ”Bounded by blood” tiden, Thrash har har funnits i mitt blod i mer än trettio år, så det är alltid kul att få återuppliva lite gamla låtar, även om det som i Exodus fall inte är med originaluppsättningen.

Men jag tycker att Rob Dukes gör ett bra jobb, även de riktigt gamla låtarna som ”A Lesson in violence” och ”Bounded by blood” låter grymma och han verkar ta jobbet som frontman på allvar och ger inte publiken en chans att komma undan.

Att lead gitarristen Gary Holt är utlånad till Slayer för tillfället och inte medverkade på denna spelning märks inte nämnvärt, utan detta känns som ett stabilt paket.

Det är lite halvtaskigt ljud i början men hämtar sig ganska snabbt och blir okej...