Monthly Archives augusti 2012

Posted in Cd Reviews

EMI

Ritchie temporarily left the European mainland for a trip to York, to the Grand Opera House to be precise. York only happens to be almost plagued by mediaeval buildings; a guildhall, a wall, one of the largest gothic cathedrals in Europe etc. Of cause Ritchie had to lay there, and do a little picturesque bonus to the tones of “Minstrel Hall”. But there is more, let´s not forget abot the sold out arena.

Opener “Locked within the Crystal Ball” could well have been Blackadder´s “See the little Goblin”, since the audience was happy only to see the old bard on British soil. Ritchie is in a fabulous mood, must be the setting and the immaculate band. As could be expected Ritchie is the star of the evening...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Lion Music

The second album of guitarist Rolf Munkes super project featured a lot of big names. Released originally in 2003, two years after the debut, the project stuck with their take on classic melodic hard rock. Guitar scholar Munkes was joined by Don Airey (DEEP PURPLE, ex. RAINBOW), Tony Martin of BLACK SABBATH fame, and the well-travelled bass man Neil Murray. Drummer Gerald Kloos (WINTERLONG) and guest drummer Anders Johansson made up the ranks. Mixing was dome by Stefan Kaufman of ACCEPT, sp this ought to blow us all away.

This album is a solid enough effort, but it lacks in truly outstanding tracks. Opener “One in a Million”, the power ballad “Did You Ever Love Me”, the bluesy and groovy “Comin´ Home” and the very genione closer “Back in the Light” are about it...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Frontiers/BAM

ASIA dates back to the humble beginnings of the MTV. Formed in 1981, the band debuted in 1982, and the self-titled effort was number one in the States for nine weeks. The singles “Time Will Tell” and the perennial “Heat of the Moment” didn´t do them any harm in selling ten million albums world-wide. “Alpha” followed but by the third album the band started disintegrating and in the 90´s only Geoff Downes remained. Various solo efforts and Wetton-Downes constellations followed, but it was not until John Payne joined in 1991 that the band got stability enough to function until 2006. Various musicians have been members over the years, and one of those splits occurred in 2006...

Posted in Press Releases

Bigger, bolder, brassier and more brazen than ever, Bellowhead blaze back with their mighty new album, Broadside.

While all things Bellowhead tend to be an event, Broadside is a positive spectacular, taking some of the wildest, most joyous and iconic songs in the richly colourful canon of the folk song tradition… and turning them upside down and inside out with the unique sense of drama and theatre, instrumental virtuosity, verve, humour and blind cheek that has seen them spearhead the new folk boom.

Their third album Hedonism was the highest-selling independently released traditional folk album of all time, yet the new one Broadside (a title that rather cunningly melds an early form of printed song sharing with an appropriate nautical reference to firepower) is surely set to eclipse it...

Posted in Press Releases

Sandy Denny – The Notes & The Music – A Collection of Demos and Rarities
4CD hard back book style box set

Release date 29th October 2012-08-08
UPC: 00602537124695. Catalogue number: 3712469

Sandy Denny is one of the UK’s finest singers. She was voted Melody Maker’s greatest female singer for 2 years in a row in 1970 and 1971. She was also, legendarily, the only guest vocalist Led Zeppelin ever used. Robert Plant later said, ‘It was a beautiful spectacular moment for both of us. A beautiful exchange of two vocalists.’

Sandy Denny’s signature song Who Knows Where The Time Goes was voted All Time Greatest Folk Song by BBC Radio 2 listeners but this is just one song among over fifty songs she wrote and recorded between 1968 and 1978, the greatest body of work by any British female so...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Ian Hunter first came to fame as part of British music legends, Mott the Hoople from 1969 to 1974. Since then he’s had a successful solo career, releasing some great albums over the years. This latest album, ”When I’m president” is his 20th solo album of original songs.

For anyone who hasn’t listened to any of Ian Hunter’s solo work, then good comparisons would be Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty, so if you’re a fan of either of them, then Ian Hunter is a musician you really should check out.

Speaking about the new album, Ian Hunter says ”The songs seem to be more upbeat this time round. The last two albums were pretty political, just because I thought the Bush years were horrible, and thankfully that’s passed. But I don’t go looking for songs; I have to wait for them to come to me...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Volksmetal are a six man group who combine Bavarian folk music with Heavy metal to create one of th emost unique folk metal bands I’ve heard for a long time. After all, how many folk metal bands can you think of that have a tuba player in the band? They’ve played the Summer Breeze festival in 2011 (appearing no less than five times over the course of the festival), and played several times at this years Wacken festival.

The album contains three cover versions and eight original songs. They range from very heavy guitar based folk metal to straight Bavarian folk, with most songs containing a mix of these, so it’s not unusual for some Bavarian folk to be suddenly interrupted by crushingly heavy metal before things go back to the folk...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Formed in 1995, Ensiferum can probably be counted as one of the pioneers of Finnish folk metal, with other well known bands in the genre being formed later – Turisas (1997), Finntroll (1997) and Korpiklaani (2003). Bands like Turisas and Korpiklaani have perhaps eclipsed Ensiferum in the UK in recent years, mainly down to touring more, but Ensiferum are still going and producing some great folk metal. The name Ensiferum means ”Sword bearer”.

”Unsung heroes” is the bands fifth album (sixth if you include the album that was just re-packaging their early demos), and is certainly an epic – it clocks in at just over an hour in length, with one track alone lasting a fraction under 17 minutes !

Brief comments on a few tracks

The album opens with ”Symbols” an instrumental track that has the feel...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Shining, the Swedish Black Metal band founded and fronted by Niklas Kvarforth, are releasing a 4 track EP of cover versions. Shining – whose last studio album ‘VII: Född Förlorare’ (‘Born Loser’) was released through Spinefarm in May 2011 – are planning UK dates for the autumn.

“In no way should this EP be seen as a new direction for Shining,” says Kvarforth. “It is absolutely no indication of what you can expect from our forthcoming eighth studio album. Like most musicians, neither myself, nor the rest of the band, restricts ourselves to listening to only one genre of music.

“We all have eclectic tastes, and finding ourselves with spare time in the studio, we recorded a total of six covers, and decided to release four of them...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

One of the good news this year was that the organization did everything in their power to keep the same ticket prices as the previous year:50€(quite cheap right?) and at the same time they continued to improve the conditions of the festival; the beer had a reasonable price (1, 5 €), there were more portable toilets, wider variety of food and drinks inside the enclosure and finally there was a box office for photographers/press/guests and best of all: the light didn’t went out on stage like last year. The Security staff was a little tight at the entrance but more tolerant/respectful and better prepared to deal with drunkards, moshers and surf-crowders.

Day 1
Enslaved
Enslaved started playing late in the afternoon, the sunset and the cold breeze of Lake Calvão made itself felt through...