All That Music! Rock

Stuart Smith - Heaven & Earth 1999

2012-02-05T14:32:00.002+02:00

Format: wv + cue + log

Genre: Blues-Rock, Hard Rock

Original Release Date: 1999

Label: Frontiers Records

By Zane Ewton

Previously released in 1999 Heaven & Earth is getting a second chance with an expanded re-release. Stuart Smith is the driving force and has staked a claim as a premier rock guitarist.

At the recent All Access L.A. Music Awards show Smith won “Best Guitarist” and Heaven & Earth won “Best Overall Album”.

Smith is a classically trained guitarist, also receiving instruction from the legendary Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. Smith’s guitar style is all over this album, flowing between blues, classical and hard rock.

There is so much guitar on this album that you will form calluses on your fingertips while you listen. But the guitar is never overbearing or overplayed. Besides an obvious technical proficiency, Smith is a good songwriter and chooses to work with other good songwriters. The songs are what make this a strong album and much more than just guitar gymnastics.

Heaven & Earth features a collection of some brand names in rock and roll. “Don’t Keep Me Waiting” features vocals by Kelly Hansen, which are convincing enough to pull off a lyrically weak chorus. The title track “Heaven & Earth” includes vocalist Joe Lynn Turner and guitarist Howard Leese.

Some of these names may be unfamiliar to some of the kids, but fans of these musicians will thoroughly enjoy this album and fondly remember a time when hair was long and pentatonic scales were used.

A cover of Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “See That My Grave is Kept Clean” includes Glenn Hughes on vocals, Richie Sambora on Dobro and Carmine Appice on drums.

Sambora also offers vocals and guitar on one of the album’s many highlights, “When a Blind Man Cries”. “Dreams of Desire” is an instrumental inspired by Bach. “Shadow of the Tyburn Tree” is a traditional English folk song written today about an event that happened over 400 years ago. Yes, there are serious about it and it’s not as bad as it sounds.

The album loses some steam after the “Tyburn Tree” but redemption comes with the last track, “Lose My Number” which is just a good rock and roll song with some keyboards and a boogie beat.

Rock and roll is steeped in the blues and rock guitarists have used classical influences for a long time. Smith has both schools within his nimble fingers and uses them to maximum effect.

Cozy Powell - Over The Top (1979)

2012-01-08T09:54:00.002+02:00

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Genre: Rock

Original Release Date: 1979

Label: Polydor

In 1979, Cozy recorded the first of his five solo albums, Over The Top. On this record he was able to work with some of the musicians he had long admired, such as Jack Bruce, virtuoso bassist from super-group Cream, Irish guitarist Gary Moore, and also old mate Clem Clempson, with whom he had eventually made peace after the Strange Brew episode.

Biography

Considered to be one of England's best drummers, and very much in demand for rock and pop records, Cozy Powell was almost legendary for a heavy-hitting style that could be made to work with many kinds of rock music, whether for the thundering pop productions helmed by Mickie Most, Black Sabbath, Emerson, Lake & Powell, or even his own solo work (notably "Dance with the Devil," which was a major English hit in 1973.)

Powell began his professional music career in 1965 with the Sorcerers, eventually winding up working with Jeff Beck after Beck left the Yardbirds. In 1971, Powell formed Bedlam, but eventually abandoned this project to produce singles such as "Dance with the Devil." He later formed Cozy Powell's Hammer, which broke up in 1975. After a brief sabbatical, he joined Rainbow, helping to give the band a thundering rhythm section before quitting after four years and four albums in 1980. Always in demand for the drum seat, he alternated between session work and working in a variety of bands, including the Michael Schenker Group, Whitesnake and Black Sabbath, never staying in any one band for very long.

In 1996, he worked with former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green on his long-awaited comeback tour. At the time of his death on April 5, 1998, he was recuperating from a foot injury that had sidelined him from touring work with guitarist Yngvie Malmsteen. He was driving on the M4 Motorway towards Bristol when he apparently lost control of his car (due to bad weather), slamming into the center divider of the motorway. He died a few hours later in the hospital. ~ Steven McDonald, Rovi

Satisfaction - Satisfaction (1971)

2011-12-26T13:25:00.003+02:00

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Genre: Jazz-Rock, Prog-Rock

Original Release Date: 1971

Label: Esoteric

2008 digitally remastered reissue of the eponymous debut album from the Jazz/Rock outfit, originally released in 1971. Satisfaction was a short-lived Jazz/Progressive outfit formed by trumpet and horn player Mike Cotton, a veteran of the early '60's British R&B boom. The group also included John Beecham (trombone), Derek Griffiths (guitar, vocals), Bernie Higginson (drums, vocals), Lem Lubin (saxophone) and Nick Newell (saxophone). John Beecham had previously been in the Mike Cotton Sound, whilst Griffiths had been a member of the highly regarded Artwoods with Keef Hartley and Jon Lord. By the late 1960's, Jazz was crashing headlong into the world of Rock and Mike Cotton assembled a group of like-minded musicians to explore the musical possibilities in this area. Esoteric.

A delightful reminder of the days when progressive rock and jazz seemed destined to forge a lifelong partnership, Satisfaction was the 1971 debut album by the latest incarnation of veteran trumpeter Mike Cotton's Mike Cotton Sound, fed through a name change (and logo) that must surely have had the Rolling Stones looking twice. Teaming up with producer David Hitchcock and fronted by vocalist Lem Lubin (ex-Unit 4+2), the brief appeared to be to follow the early path of Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears, but with sufficient space left over for a few more idiosyncratic diversions. And overall it works, at least within the so-subjective parameters of period jazz-rock, a genre that rarely scaled the peaks it deserved to, but never quite sank to the depths that it was capable of, either. ~ Dave Thompson

Vitalij Kuprij - High Definition 1997

2011-12-22T07:06:00.002+02:00

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Genre: Neo-Classical Metal / Instrumental Metal / Progressive Metal

Original Release Date: 1997

Label: Shrapnel Records

Classic Rock Forum
The following compositions contain all the elements that make this music so grand; melody, harmony, structure, rhythm, precision, aggression, speed, synchronization, perfect execution, and sophistication. Every track on this album is exceptional! The energy these two musicians have together, along with the outstanding drumming from Jon Dornan, will undoubtedly set your ears on fire.

High Definition is a very intense album. A monstrous masterpiece that goes beyond the genre of neo-classical, which I hope you’ll find as inspiring and rewarding as I have.

Vitalij Kuprij - Keyboards

Greg Howe - Guitars, Bass

Jon Doman - Drums

Produced by Greg Howe
All music Written by Vitalij Kuprij, except (*).
Engineered by Greg Howe.
Mixed by Kent Heckman, Vitalij Kuprij and
Greg Howe at Red Rock Recording.

All Keyboards, Guitars and Bass recorded at Greg Howe Studio.
Acoustic Piano recorded at Red Rock Recording.
Drums recorded at Moore Music Recording studio.

Christopher Ruel
High Definition is a monumental instrumental effort that sets the new high water mark in the neoclassical arena. High Definition has taken the neoclassical genre to an entirely new level that definitely rivals and may even exceed the traditional European predecessors of the neoclassical movement. This album is highlighted by the blistering fast, synchronized dual lead work and lead trading of Ukrainian-exported keyboard wizard and performing classical pianist, Vitalij Kuprij of Philadelphia, PA, on keyboards and his newly found neighbor and guitar slinger, Greg Howe of Easton, PA. Be prepared if you have not heard this one yet, because it will take you straight between the eyes. The composition is superb. The execution is unbelievable. The breadth and depth are staggering. This album is a nonstop cavalry charge from start to finish. Greg Howe, known mainly for his jazz fusion or really undefinable style, demonstrates that he is a very capable candidate in the neoclassical arena.

The composition contains all of the elements that I like to see: melody, harmonization, structure, time changes, catchy rhythms, unexpected changes of direction, and relentless drive. The playing has finesse, precision, feeling, and grasp that has never been known in the neoclassical sphere before this CD was released. Greg Howe delivers his brand of barely contained aggression with blinding speed that that is so refined that it is deft. The synchronized sections with Kuprij will have you scratching the sand off your jaw after it hits the ground - the speed and synchronization is that amazing. It is as fast as anything I have ever heard and it is musical and accessible at the same time! This level of sophistication coupled with playing this speedy and tight has never been seen before in any type of music.

So, now if you have bought High Definition based on this review, you need to be prepared for the way that this CD unfolds. If you hate it when somebody tells you the plot to a movie you are going to see and don't like it when somebody ruins a surprise for you, then skip over this paragraph. Otherwise, you should be prepared for a slow opening that sort of an ominous prelude that is a build up to real punch. Vitalij and Greg are going to play with your heads on the first track, "Beyond Infinity", which merely hints at what is to follow. And, this build up continues into the second track "High Definition" for about three minutes, until it finally delivers the neoclassical
punch melody that has been promised. And, then you know, if only for a brief time, that you are in for some serious @#@#. Now that you have been teased and tormented for two tracks, Vitalij and Greg are done messing with you and they are ready to pull out all of the stops. The ascending arpeggio theme lets you know that High Definition is coming on straight ahead for you with "Symphony V" into the neoclassical frenzy you have been promised.

Listen closely for the synchronization of keyboard and guitar on "Symphony V". The
synchronization is so tight that some people that I have played it for can not tell that it is two different instruments. That is how good it is.

Well, after "Symphony V" you can expect this virtuoso level of musicianry and composition to continue for the remainder of the album. Every track on High Definition is exceptional and lends balance to the album in some way. The standout for me is "Opus I (Theme By Paganinni)". This single track really captures all of the positive elements of the synergy between these two great virtuosos, Kuprij and Howe, not to exclude the inspired and exceptional drumming of Jon Doman that sets the pace and drive of the entire effort. Jon Doman must have been ready to run a marathon after the exercise he got making this album. "Opus I" is loosely based around a theme by Nicolo Paganinni, the legendary violin virtuoso and composer that the two pay tribute to in this composition... or should I say the virtuoso that the two shamelessly outdo and relegate to the recesses of history for all time, leaving Paganinni only his compositional skills to distinguish him. Greg Howe clearly demonstrates that the electric guitar is the instrument of choice for modern
virtuosos by enunciating the wide scope of technique, speed, tone, dynamics, and feel that is available in the electric guitar that can not be gotten out of the violin or any other instrument for that matter. But, Kuprij steadies our thinking by reminding us that the piano and keyboard with a talented player can keep up with just about anything Greg Howe can do on the guitar... except, arguably, the nuances that can only be gained by direct contact with the strings. (But, if you have any doubt about this, take a listen to "Sky Overture" by Uli Jon Roth and he will prove my point
here... I'm sure I might get some disagreeable e-mail on this one though...)

The music in High Definition is intense, driving, speedy, precise, inspiring, overwhelming, moving, enthralling, and will have you jumping out of your chair, frothing at the mouth like a wildman before you are through listening to it! On a scale from 1 to 10, High Definition is an 11. It is the single album that is the best of breed in the neoclassical genre and has not yet been topped. If you like or ever liked neoclassical, you must buy this one. Your life will be incomplete without having heard High Definition. If you are a neoclassical fanatic, High Definition
will be the centerpiece of your collection. Truly World Class. For those of you who have undergone continual disappointment ever since Yngie's Rising Force album, this is the one that takes it to the next level and delivers what you have been wishing for... but maybe had given up on. So, if neoclassical depression has got you down, Dr. Chris prescribes a dose of High Definition to bring your heart back to life and get your pulse going once again. When you hear the speed and precision, you will understand why they named it High Definition ... they weren't kidding around with you now!

The Artists

Vitalij Kuprij is an accomplished composer, pianist, and keyboardist whom has played at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Avery Fisher Hall. He is originally from Ukraine but now resides in the USA. Vitalij has won numerous awards for his compositions and grandiose musicianship. By the age of 19, Vitalij had begun his first progressive metal band, Atlantis Rising, which later morphed into Artension, an aggressive progressive metal band with outstanding piano/keyboard solos. During Vitalij’s time with Artension, he began solo efforts and collaborations with several notable guitarists. The first guitarist he collaborated with and released an album with was Greg Howe, in 1997, “High Definition”.

Greg Howe is no slouch when it comes to the guitar, actually, he is a virtuoso of shred and jazz . Greg’s jazz style is immediately recognizable and unique. Greg is a left hand guitarist, and has adopted some extremely unique sounds and techniques. Not only does Greg have a successful solo career with 9 studio albums on his resume, he is very sought after as a session musician by pop artists like Michael Jackson, Enrique Iglesias, NSYNC, and Justin Timberlake. Greg has also had some pretty impressive collaborations with Richie Kotzen and Jordan Rudess.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how perfectly executed and heavy “High Definition” is. The compositions are complex with many layers, the guitar work is a shredder’s delight, and the piano/keyboard solos are beyond words.

Aghora - Aghora 1999

2011-12-11T19:59:00.003+02:00

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Genre: Jazz-Metal, Progressive Metal

Release Date: 1999

Label: Dobles Productions

Several acts have risen from the broken remains of technical jazz-metal
legends Cynic, and not the least among them is this shining gem of a band.
Aghora takes the deft rhythmic foundation of their progenitors and combines
it seamlessly with a presentation that's not so much metal as it is a melting
pot of Middle Eastern-influenced exoticism drenched in a metal aesthetic. I
suppose it would be accurate enough to say that there's about as much metal
on this disc as there was on Cynic's Focus.

Without a doubt, guitarist and primary songwriter Santiago Dobles employs
an arsenal of absolutely crushing riffs, as well as searing solos that evoke
images of John McLaughlin at his finest... but these things rarely dominate
the music. Indeed, inbetween occasional assaults of metallic fury Santiago
displays very subtle guitar work that includes classic Indian melodies which
stand as a consistent theme throughout the course of the album, exotic solo
pieces and soothing chord progressions as heard throughout "Frames",
atmospheric flailing as he dances with bassist Sean Malone on the
instrumental "Jivatma", and even extensive use of the sitar as heard primarily
on the closer "Anugraha". Santiago displays a wide range of influences that
stretch well past McLaughlin, and he effectively manages to not sound quite
like any of them - the result is extremely inspired, energetic, creative, and full
of fervor no matter what he happens to be playing.

The rhythm section... what is there to say, really? Sean Reinert on drums
and Sean Malone on bass, the infallible dream team of metallic fusion. Malone
once again delivers a performance that puts into question the role of the
bass as a purely rhythmic instrument - he acts as an enormous melodic force
throughout this disc while still maintaining a solid rhythmic pulse and filling out
the bottom end admirably. His elegant soloing on "Frames", spastic jamming
on "Jivatma", and absolutely show-stopping breaks on "Satya" and "Kali
Yuga" all go to show that the man has definitely not lost his touch. In the
rear, Reinert holds down the rhythmic foundation with his brand of
free-flowing, limber fusion drumming with little left to be desired. His cymbal
work is staggering, his rhythmic shifts are unpredictable and intelligent, and
his synergy with Malone is nigh unmatched. However, the contributions of
Malone and Reinert are far greater, as the way in which they develop the
rhythmic backbone of the songs offers a deep sense of mysticism - as if
there's something more going on in the music than just the music. I get this
feeling with much of the work that Malone and Reinert do together, though...
they definitely have something special between them.

The vocals have received some criticism, and while I'm not particularly crazy
about singer Danishta Rivero, I also don't have any major complaints about
her style. Her voice has an Indian vibe, and is pretty and quite soothing to
listen to. She can come off a bit repetitive throughout the first half of the
album, but she also has absolutely stellar performances on "Kali Yuga" and
"Existence", where she reaches for the stars and mostly succeeds.

There really is no reason to pass up on this album if you're a fan of
progressive metal that actually attempts to innovate and progress instead of
simply rehashing the same old sound. Additionally, if you're a fan of either
Sean Malone or Sean Reinert, or both, then this is an absolute no brainer -
they are at the top of their game and listening to them play is an absolute
pleasure.

Bio (Prog Archives)

AGHORA is an intriguing and unusual metal/jazz rock band from Florida. It
was put together by guitar virtuoso (and Berklee-trained) Santiago Dobles
together with ex-CYNIC members Sean Reinert (drums) and Sean Malone
(bass). They were later joined on vocals by Santiago's sister Danishta Rivero,
a classically-trained mezzo-soprano, and by death metal guitarist Charlie
Ekendahl. If you are familiar with death metal pioneers CYNIC, you will have
a good idea of where this music stands; however, AGHORA isn't a CYNIC
clone as Santiago incorporates many new influences to the material, making it
a bit jazzier and more oriental sounding. Echoes of Allan Holdsworth,
MAHAVISHNU and especially Steve Vai can be heard in this music.

This is highly technical progressive metal and not easy to get into; once
you've got beyond the complexity, however, you can't help but appreciate
the immense talent in this band: their music is intense, fun and exciting;
ambitious but not pretentious. The two guitarists, who frequently provide
heavily distorted riffs, complement each other well and the jazzy bass guitar
is aggressive yet consistently melodic. The purity of Rivero's melodic vocals (a
far cry from your regular 'cookie monster' growls) seems to make the
instrumental parts even crunchier, while the abrasive musical textures in turn
make her voice sound that much more ethereal. The only flaw is perhaps the
poor mixing, which tends to muddle and drown the drums.

Recommended for tech-metal fans who don't mind adding a little jazz flavour
to their metal diet.

G3 - G3 Live Rockin in the Free world (2004)

2011-12-09T08:08:00.003+02:00

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Genre: Guitar virtuoso, Rock

Release Date: 2004

Label: Epic

Recorded live at The Uptown Theatre, Kansas City, Missouri on October 21, 2003.

Eight years after its maiden jaunt, the G3 concert series continues to celebrate six-string excess for guitar geeks across the globe. The brainchild of legend Joe Satriani, G3 showcases Satch, his accomplished former student Steve Vai, and a wildcard support act. While the series has featured axe-slingers of a bluesier sort, the 2003 tour found the neo-classical king Yngwie Malmsteen joining the fretboard fray.

ROCKIN' IN THE FREE WORLD offers an encapsulation of the tour's highlights. Setting off the disc, Satriani and his band offer an inspiring, and, at times, subdued set. Steve Vai is aptly backed by a supergroup of sorts, featuring his power twin from the David Lee Roth band, bassist Billy Sheehan, and formidable guitarist/keyboardist Tony MacAlpine. Rounding out the string-shredding trio of acts, Yngwie displays a command of the electric guitar that remains fearsome. The requisite G3 jam unites the three guitarists in homage to Jimi Hendrix ("Voodoo Child [Slight Return]," "Little Wing") and an amped-up working of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World." Not for the faint of heart, G3 is cause for rejoicing among the massive cult of instrumental-rock guitar buffs.

Demon Fuzz - Afreaka! (1970)

2011-12-04T17:58:00.002+02:00

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Genre: Jazz-Rock, Funk, Psychedelic , Acid Rock

Release Date: 1970

Label: Esoteric Recordings

Product Info;

This is the classic long lost British psychedelic funk album by Demon Fuzz

In a just world, Demon Fuzz would have been very successful. Sadly, however, the only real success they enjoyed is the fact that many club DJs now use their samples frequently. Although the band played most of the British underground festivals in the early seventies, Demon Fuzz were simply too way-out to make a significant impact on the college crowd and as a result they broke up after 18 months on the scene. Released in 1970 the band’s only album, the extraordinary Afreaka!, demonstrates their excellence in playing psychedelic soul, dub-heavy funk, progressive rock, Afro-jazz and black acid rock. Demon Fuzz these days are amongst the most bootlegged and sampled bands from the early 70s British underground. This re-release, which includes the stunning and rare EP that at the time was released along with the album, tells the band’s full story for the first time ever.

by Matthew Court

Stylistically, Demon Fuzz’s single album, 1970’s Afreaka!, is hard to pin down. But then, I guess that’s the point. Demon Fuzz went out of their way to keep people guessing; at gigs, they’d let people assume they were a reggae band, only to launch into some African-influenced jazz/rock number. Jaws hit the floor and feet started tapping. “We were different, totally different,” says Demon Fuzz trombonist Clarance Crosdale.

Demon Fuzz was a group of seven young musicians who came together after emigrating to London in the early 1960s. Since 1948, the British government had been encouraging people in the Commonwealth to settle in England, in hopes of replenishing that country’s war-depleted work population; a happy by-product was that before long, many a West Indian riddim could be heard emanating from the clubs and street corners in big cities like Birmingham and London. British kids soon had a different beat to shuffle to. Of course, these times weren’t without their problems: in 1958, just three years before Demon Fuzz members (and brothers) Winston Joseph and Blue Rivers arrived in England, London’s Notting Hill neighborhood had erupted in race riots.

But back to the music.

Paddy Corea arrived in London in 1963, and soon took up playing the tenor saxophone—his weapon of choice for irking neighbors. One day, he answered a want ad Winston had placed in NME, the British music magazine that many budding musicians bought in order to scour the classifieds. Corea auditioned, and Winston and Rivers recruited the saxophonist for their band. Organist Ray Rhoden joined up shortly after, and he brought in his good friend Clarance, a Jamaican musician who had studied trombone with Rico Rodriguez. A second saxophonist came on-board, and they began performing as Blue Rivers and the Maroons.

“[We] didn’t play only ska, we were a raw soul band,” explains Corea in an interview with Koldo Barroso for themarqueeclub.net. “Not the Motown soft string soul that BBC peddled. We did a lot of material from the small labels of the South. The kids from out of town were a bit confused. They were looking for the stuff they heard on BBC radio, and we didn’t play that. Rivers prided himself in trying not to be like the rest. At that time in London, every Black man who had a voice wanted to be a ‘soul’ singer, and very few of them could cut it.”

Every weekend, the Maroons would perform to dapper-looking crowds at clubs like the Roaring Twenties, and the Q Club, owned by Count Suckle, the West Indian DJ who possessed the deadliest sound system outside of Kingston. “We used to get a lot of write-ups in the West Indian press,” says Crosdale proudly. “We were sort of the best band around really.”

“Ziggy [Jackson, the band’s manager] had some contacts, and he booked just about every town hall in London,” remembers Winston. In 1968, Ziggy acquired some time at Regent Sound, a room on Denmark Street that had been the studio of choice for the Rolling Stones to record their first record in 1964. The session resulted in the LP Blue Beat in My Soul.

But barely two years after recording Blue Beat, the Maroons would part company with Rivers, and take a left turn in style and attitude. Paddy Corea reflects on what prompted the decision to move away from their ska and soul roots.

“It was while in Morocco that my idea for a different kind of band and a different kind of music was born,” says Corea. “I was at this time exposed to a new kind of music that didn’t have a Western European scale. I learnt the Sufi Arabic scale and the pentatonic scale there. I heard all these tribal musicians from the interior playing various drums, reed instruments, and a kora, which is a stringed instrument with a calabash as a resonator. These chaps would play the hell out of this thing, as good as a Yehudi Menuhin. All this synthesized into what influenced me to try a different approach to my music. Some of the members of the Maroons understood and appreciated my ideas, and were thinking of similar things, so we formed Demon Fuzz on our return to the UK.”

“I remember the last gig we did as the Maroons was in Huddersfield,” recalls Crosdale. “We decided we didn’t want to just keep playing people’s music. In fact, we had a job to go to the Star-Club in Hamburg. That’s where everybody went. But when they said you had to do seven half hour sessions, I was… [smiles and shakes head] So we decided we’d just break ways. [Rivers] and the [second] sax player stayed together, we went as Demon Fuzz. We spent about two or three months rehearsing. We didn’t play [live] for that time.” During this period, the group looked for a vocalist to replace Rivers and happened upon Smokey Adams, who was “playing in a second-rate R&B band in Shepherd’s Bush,” according to Corea.

“Its got two meanings,” Crosdale explains when asked about the group’s name. “Devil’s children or bad policemen.” The devil’s children rehearsed in the basement of a record shop in West London, where they began tackling the songs of the day, like “The Weight,” “I Put a Spell on You,” and “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.”

“When we first formed Demon Fuzz, we did not have a clear-cut direction,” says Winston. “We were just feeling our way, and we selected a few songs by well known artists that appealed to us, and we put a new spin on them. It was not until I started coming up with some ideas that we started to find some kind of direction which we all built on.”

“We didn’t just want to do run-of-the-mill stuff, and of course it gives you much more of a challenge musically,” added Crosdale. “Winston and Ray did a lot of the writing. We did a couple of songs. ‘Past, Present, and Future,’ the band did that. Paddy did the arrangements. A lot of it was the band sort of cooperating, putting ideas together. I’ll tell a band that inspired us: Blood, Sweat & Tears.”

By 1970, racism in the UK was less obvious, but still clear and present in the music industry. “There was and probably still is difference based on race in the music business in England,” says Corea. “It wasn’t blatant but it was there. Black bands were paid less by club owners and were asked to work twice as long. We found that local Black musicians in England at that time were not taken seriously and just simply taken for granted. We wanted to change the style, sound, image, and attitude of Black music and Black musicians in England.”

Thankfully, there was John Peel, a forward-looking DJ at the BBC. “We did his Sunday, repeated Wednesday [show],” recalls Crosdale. “We played lived at the Paris Studios. We played about four numbers. I think we played ‘I Put a Spell On You.’ I remember when we did the Hollywood Festival, [Peel] used to write for the Melody Maker, or one of those. I used to have the article, and he said, ‘Superb, superb, superb.’ Now if John Peel says that…”

Sometime in 1970, using the proceeds from their various gigs, the group paid for studio time and recorded some music. “We did a demo which we paid for, and that connected with Dawn [Records],” remembers Crosdale. “We went in a studio in Morden, and the engineer was very good.”

When asked about what became of the demo, Crosdale shrugs. “I don’t know if Paddy’s got it, or Winston’s got it,” says Crosdale. “Paddy’s got most of the stuff.”

Listening to the demo, Dawn Records producer Barry Murray liked what he heard, or at least he considered Demon Fuzz a good bet for competing against EMI and Phonogram, who had also recently stuck their fingers into the progressive pie. He took the group into Pye Studios in Marble Arch in September 1970. “[The recording] took a week,” says Crosdale. “We were doing a long time in the studio. Some days we’d get there at about ten o’clock and sometimes be there ’til two the next morning.”

“When Demon Fuzz recorded Afreaka!, it is my humble opinion that the record producer, Barry Murray, did not have a thorough understanding of the musical direction that we were taking as a band,” says Winston. “We were up against a large, well-known, well-established company who were spending the money for the production of the LP and we were expected to just obey the instructions of the producer that they were paying to produce the record. We had very little say, if any at all in the matter.”

“We were a lot better then that!” Crosdale says, referring to the music on Afreaka!. “Barry Murray, on one of the tracks, he left the organ out! How he forgot the organ on a track, I don’t know. When we played [the record], we listened to it, and all of a sudden, ‘Well, where’s the organ in that track?!’”

“We were not happy with the final result,” confirms Winston, “but there was nothing that we could do about it. We just had to live with it.”

Sadly, it seems that Winston, Corea, and Crosdale view Afreaka! with some disappointment; they see it as a poor reflection of the band that hooked audiences in the basement clubs of Soho and beyond. “Demon Fuzz live had a superior tonal quality to what you hear on the LP,” says Corea. “And add to that we had a majestic presence on stage. That’s why we were misdiagnosed as being arrogant. It was the aura of our confidence, individual and collective. We were not commercially successful via the recording, but the live band was always a hit.

“We did a lot of universities and technical colleges,” says Crosdale. “Southampton, Cambridge, Oxford. They sort of understood the music. Whereas if you went to some social clubs, they didn’t really get it. Billy Preston used to come and jam with us. A lot of them artists from the states, when they finished their gigs they used to go down to the Q. Billy Preston, Diana Ross’s drummer, all them used to come and you play there and they come and jam with you. The Q, a lot of big names used to come down there. We used to do Ronnie Scott’s upstairs a lot, too.”

Getting themselves to gigs was no small feat, however. The suspension of their modest tour bus would groan as it hauled seven musicians and their plethora of instruments up and down England’s highways and city roads. On one occasion, they were stopped by the police on suspicion of being illegal immigrants; NME ran the predictable headline of “Fuzz Meets the Fuzz.”

Demon Fuzz’s time was short, and by 1972, cracks had developed in their once-concrete bond, and they would soon call it quits. “We had our disagreements, and Paddy left,” recalls Crosdale. “Paddy said, ‘That’s it.’ We carried on a bit, but it wasn’t the same, so we just disbanded. It’s all water under the bridge now.” Afreaka! was reissued on the Castle Music label in 2005, with an additional three tracks.

Jorn - Starfire (2000)

2011-11-30T08:30:00.004+02:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal

Release Date: 2000

Label: Frontiers

Jшrn Lande: Lead Vocals

Tore Шstby: Guitar, Bass

John Macaluso: Drums

Dag Stokke: Keyboards

Guest Musicians

Ralph Santolla: Guitar on track 2

Shane French: Guitar on track 3

Ronni Le Tekrш: Guitar on track 4

Tore Moren: Guitar

Willy Bendiksen: Drums

Jon A. Narum: Drums, Guitar, Bass, Samples, Mellotron

The 2000 release Starfire is the debut solo offering from journeyman vocalist Jшrn Lande (ex-Vagabond, the Snakes, Millenium, Ark, Masterplan, Mundanus Imperium, Beyond Twilight, and a few others I've no doubt missed). For those of you unfamiliar with Jшrn, his vocal style is very (scratch that, VERY) reminiscent of David Coverdale with elements of Ronnie James Dio. Jшrn has become one of melodic rock and metal's best vocalists through both his session work as well as his solo career.
Starfire is not your typical debut album, since there is a 60/40 split between original material and cover songs. Jшrn isn't shy about paying tribute to his influences, and Edge of the Blade (Journey), Break It Up (Foreigner), The Day the Earth Caught Fire (City Boy), and especially Burn (Deep Purple) all show just what kind of music drives the man. These impressive covers are balanced by equally impressive original compositions. Jшrn, alongside former bandmates Ronnie LeTekrш (TNT), Tore Шstby (Conception), and Ralph Santolla (Millenium), and others, have come up with some first rate melodic hard rock songs that take Jшrn's AOR roots and add a metal edge. The best of these new songs is the title track, which has an epic feel and remains one of Jшrn's best songs.
Anyone interested in classic and/or modern melodic rock and metal really needs to check out Jшrn Lande's powerful solo material, and Starfire is the ideal place to start (though it is getting tougher to find these days). The best part is that future Jшrn albums just keep getting better and better.

Alcatrazz - Live Sentence (1984)

2011-11-20T20:28:00.003+02:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Hard Rock

Release Date: 1984

Label: Polydor

Live Sentence (1984) was the only live album released by Graham Bonnet's Alcatrazz and contains some of the songs performed by Bonnet in his time with Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. The live show was based on their previous album No Parole From Rock N' Roll and had the same lineup. According to Billboard, the album spent 16 weeks on the chart and peaked at #145.

Graham Bonnet - Vocals

Yngwie Malmsteen - Guitar

Gary Shea - Bass

Jan Uvena - Drums

Jimmy Waldo - Keyboards

Review by Eduardo Rivadavia

This average quality live recording showcases Alcatrazz on their successful 1984 Japanese tour -- the only country where the band could get arrested. Besides performing songs from their debut album, the band run through a few of vocalist Graham Bonnet's Rainbow-era songs ("Since You've Been Gone," "All Night Long," and "Night Games") and guitarist Yngwie J. Malmsteen's soon-to-be-released solo work ("Evil Eye"). Therefore, the album is more interesting as a historical curiosity than an artistic statement, as it provides one of the earliest showcases of a young Malmsteen shredding in a live setting. In fact, the guitarist quickly dispels any rumors that the words "restraint" and "economy" were ever part of his musical vocabulary. Malmsteen's attempts to cram every available space with a barrage of notes is both comical and amazing.

IOMMI - The 1996 Dep Sessions 2004

2011-11-15T22:40:00.003+02:00

Format: ape + cue + log

Genre: Metal-Rock-Blues

Release Date: 2004

Label: Sanctuary Records

By Adam Williams 16 February 2005

When musical heavyweights join forces on collaborative projects, the outcome is often times a watered-down version of their respective bands’ previous efforts. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but for the purists among us it’s usually somewhat disappointing, as we’re accustomed to the genuine article. This is precisely why the infamous mid ‘90s Iommi/Hughes pairing is so fascinating: It is completely unlike the classic Black Sabbath or Deep Purple that aficionados are familiar with.

Originally recorded in 1996, then revisited and completed in 2004, The DEP Sessions showcases Iommi and Hughes in different (albeit complimentary) lights than what fans have grown used to; so much so that I needed to double check the CD insert to make sure of what I was listening to. From the album opener, “Gone”, I was convinced I was enjoying a lost Soundgarden track. Soundgarden!? Wait just a moment, exactly who influenced who?

Similarly, “From Another World” finds Hughes sounding as if he were cutting vocals for 1994’s Superunknown. Although he lacks the shrillness of Chris Cornell’s paint-peeling shriek, Hughes ably rides the alternating waves of Iommi’s acoustic and electric magic. If he could hit the high notes the way Cornell could, Soundgarden might have a future…

An even bigger surprise comes by way of “Don’t You Tell Me”, which is a ringer for vintage Living Colour. What!? Yes, I was shocked to, but Iommi’s textured riffing is reminiscent of Vernon Reid’s thrash gymnastics, while Hughes sounds eerily like Corey Glover.

The fourth track, “Don’t Drag the River”, begins cautiously enough, but soon grows into a measured metal workout, deftly incorporating a blend of Iommi’s fluid playing with Hughes surprisingly smooth vocals balancing on the shifting tempos.

On “Fine”, Hughes once again morphs into Glover, with the song bearing a subtle hint of “Open Letter (To a Landlord)” from Living Colour’s brilliant 1988 debut Vivid. Strangely, this song evidences how well Hughes’ voice has aged after his tenure with Deep Purple, as he has better command of his vocal range than he did twenty years prior.

“Time Is the Healer” and “I’m Not the Same Man” offer the album’s densest riffing and vocal flourishes, with the former harkening back to the trademark Sabbath sound. Even Iommi and Hughes revisiting their roots can’t completely erase the Soundgarden traces, however, as the latter track has more than a passing resemblance to “Spoonman” with a healthy dose of speed metal crunch.

The CD closer “It Falls Through Me” is the most generic of the included tracks, although Iommi’s chiming guitar can hardly be classified as ordinary. The song has the standard metal fingerprints all over it, but may be closest to an early Rainbow offering.

Although The DEP Sessions lacks the ponderous gloom of classic Sabbath, as well as the accelerated heaviness of Purple’s best, the eight tracks work perfectly together. As to the overwhelmingly similarities to Soundgarden and Living Colour, it may simply be a sonic coincidence, but one that gives the album an interesting change of pace. For those whose hearts are set on the Iommi/Hughes signature sound, they might be initially be disappointed, but after a few spins the CD should resonate quite nicely. At the very least, these two important figures in the annals of hard rock show that the passage of time has not dampened their spirits or abilities to pen and play fresh material.

TROUBLE - Trouble 1990

2011-11-04T21:23:00.002+02:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Doom Metal

Release Date: 1990

Label: Def American

Following the conclusion of their recording deal with Metal Blade and three years of relative silence, few fans expected to ever hear from Chicago's Trouble again. But maverick producer Rick Rubin surprisingly entered the picture in 1990, signing the band to his Def American vanity label and helping them record the most consistent album of their career. As suggested by its eponymous title, the record found Trouble going back to the essence of their gloomy, Sabbath-inspired sound, yet simultaneously injecting it with fresh ideas and reinvigorated energy, not heard since their 1984 debut, Psalm 9. Indeed, the Trouble L.P. came absolutely stacked with outstanding doom anthems in the shape of the mega-riffic "At the End of My Daze", the organ-infused "The Wolf," and the White Metal staple "Heaven on My Mind." Meanwhile, the impossibly heavy and catchy "R.I.P.," and the especially psychedelic "Psychotic Reaction" (a hint of things to come), vied for supremacy as the greatest heavy metal song Black Sabbath never wrote. Then again, this honor might have just as easily been bestowed upon the band's mournful redirection of first album classic "The Misery Shows (Act II)," or the majestic denouement of album closer "All is Forgiven," thanks to what is quite simply one of the greatest heavy metal riffs ever conceived. Embellished by extended guitar harmonies and solos, said riff also confirmed Bruce Franklin and Rick Wartell's reputation as the best lead guitar tag team in doom metal history. The same championship belt might likewise have been Trouble's, were it not for the unfortunate condition of heavy metal (glam-rock mania!) at the time of this magnum opus' release; a tragic state of affairs which sadly relegated to obscurity what, by all rights, should have been a genre landmark..

Royal Hunt - Land of Broken Hearts 1992

2011-10-26T22:26:00.002+03:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Prog Rock, Melodic Metal

Release Date: 1992

Label: Art Music Group (Russia)

It was the year 1992, the year which saw DREAM THEATER release their classic “Images And Words” album, an album by which all else will be judged in the following years. But it was also the year when the guys from SHADOW GALLERY celebrated their debut and the same goes for the Danes of ROYAL HUNT. But the record has reached my ears only some years after its release and by that time I had already heard the later releases of the band, so it is really hard to tell what my first impression would have been, if this was the first album I heard from the band. I will never know.

But what I know for sure was that I had been really impressed by the other albums and I was eager to hear what ROYAL HUNT had to offer on their debut album. Some of the songs I had already heard on their live record from 1996, but performed by DC Cooper and so the next question arose, how did those songs sound performed by the original singer, cause the performance of DC Cooper is really one of a kind.

I can tell you right now that I wasn’t disappointed by what I heard on the record at all. The music presented here by ROYAL HUNT is a bit different from the music they would play later on, but one can easily recognize who is performing here. It is undeniable that the arrival of DC Cooper gave a new kick to the band and Andre Andersen evolved into a more mature song-writer in time, but these facts by no means diminish the credits this album really deserves. An album which I consider is unjustly shadowed by the later recordings.

And what do the guys offer on “Land Of Broken Hearts”? Well, the music is that typical, very melodic, keyboard-ridden Metal, which here still holds a big share of Hard Rock influences. So the trademarks of the band are already clearly audible, but they were still in need of maturity, which would come with time. The performance of the vocalist Henrik Brockmann is really worthy of praise, he delivers a fine performance and his voice really fits this kind of music and above all he can mould his voice perfectly to fit all the various songs.

In case you are not yet familiar with ROYAL HUNT, maybe you should not begin with this album, but if so then you should always keep in mind that all that is offered here, will be better dressed to size and brought to a higher level in the years to come. Recommended tracks: “Stranded”, “Kingdom Dark” or “Day In Day Out”, the last song also has a video made for.

Rodrigo y Gabriela - 11 11 2009

2011-10-13T06:38:00.000+03:00

Genre: World Music, Flamenco, Acoustic, Folk rock, Latin rock
Format: Flac + cue + log
Released: 2009
Label: ATO RECORDS / RED

01. Hanuman

02. Buster Voodoo

03. Triveni

04. Logos

05. Santo Domingo

06. Master Maqui

07. Savitri

08. Hora Zero

09. Chac Mool

10. Atman

11:11 is Dublin-based Mexican guitar-playing duo Rodrigo y Gabriela's follow-up to their self-titled 2006 debut album. They're the definition of a word of mouth success story; that debut kept them on the road for two and a half years whilst shifting over 600,000 copies worldwide and giving their live performances semi-legendary status. There was even the inevitable live album to boot.

Their success is hardly surprising as their entirely acoustic sound is a ravishingly broad blend of influences. The debt which Rodrigo and Gabriela seem to feel they owe them is the life force of this release. 11:11's title track is a blend of 11 pieces paying tribute to 11 artists dedicated to Pink Floyd and mixed, along with the rest of the tracks, by Colin Richardson, best known for his work with Slipknot and Trivium.

Some of the songs are easy to place in terms of influence; Buster Voodoo is clearly and openly acknowledged as an homage to Jimi Hendrix, while Hanuman gives very clear nods to Carlos Santana, whom one would not have been surprised to hear pop up at some stage. Atman, with its electric guitar solo from Alex Skolnick of Testamant fame, goes out to the late Dimebag Darrell, of Pantera fame.

Eclecticism continues with an array of artistic influence that's less familiar to a western European audience. Chac Mool, named for a style of Toltec statue, is dedicated to the late Jorge Reyes, famed for his trademark blend of Middle Eastern, Indian and pre-Hispanic melodies, whilst Santo Domingo goes to Latin jazz pianist Michel Camilo.

Trying to pick highlights is difficult, for this is an album that flows so well the tracks can seem to blur together with the frenetic finger-picking. Each is a blend of Rodrigo's lead and Gabriela's superb rhythm, both playing over a background of percussion, sporadic piano and a plethora of stringed instruments from all over the world.

All in all, it's a pleasure to listen to. However, if guitar leads devoid of vocals is not your thing, then this is going to become background music very quickly. As good as they are, Rodrigo y Gabriela suffer on record from the overwhelming problem that they're inevitably so much better in a live environment. The reviews of their gigs speak of an ambience and panache that, on this evidence, is simply not possible to recreate at home. - Mike Barnes

Glenn Hughes & Joe Lynn Turner - Michael Men Project 'Made In Moscow 2005

2011-09-16T06:51:00.002+03:00

Format: ape + cue + log

Genre: Blues Rock, Hard Rock, Classic Rock

Release Date: 2005

Label: Inna Records

Made In Moscow is a studio album by the Michael Men Project, a Russian based hard-rock outfit founded by then Deputy Mayor of Moscow Mikhail Men (a.k.a. Michael Men). The album features two guest vocalists in the form of hard-rock veterans Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple/ Trapeze/ Black Sabbath) and Joe Lynn Turner (Deep Purple / Rainbow/ Yngwie Malmsteen). The album was released in July 2005 on Inna Records.

History:

Men had first met Glenn Hughes and Joe Lynn Turner when the pair performed with the Hughes Turner Project in Russia. In 2004 while attempting to put together a hard-rock album project he invited them to perform vocals to give the album some ‘star power’. Although the pair had brought the Hughes Turner Project to a close by this time they joined forces again in September 2004 to write lyrics and record vocal parts for Men’s album.

Made In Moscow has a similar, guitar-driven, hard-rock sound to the Hughes Turner Project albums, with both singers trading vocals.

Along with writing the majority of the music for the album and producing it, Men also plays bass. He gathered a large number of native Russian rock musicians to record the rest of the instrumental parts.

Two versions were issued upon release; the first contained just the nine-track CD, while the second included a bonus DVD which featured a ‘Making of’ documentary, with footage taken from the recording process.

The album itself has not been issued outside of Russia and there are currently no plans for it to be released in other countries.

Shadow Gallery - Shadow Gallery (1992)

2011-09-09T05:25:00.003+03:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Progressive Metal/Progressive Rock

Release Date: 1992

Label: Magna Carta

ProgArchives.com review by "UMUR"

This is Shadow Galleryґs debut album. The album was released in 1993 which was progressive metals heyday. Just about every progressive metal band who released albums in the early nineties were considered innovative and original. I clearly remember those days with joy. Bands like Dream Theater, Psychotic Waltz, Queensrяche, Sieges Even and Fates Warning were some of my favorites back then ( and some of them still are). I didnґt listen to Shadow Gallery then, but itґs really a shame as this album has lots of good elements.

Shadow Gallery is in the eighties progressive metal style that bands like Queensrяche and Crimson Glory is also an exponent for. There is a bit of Dream Theater in the instrumental runs but Shadow Gallery also has strong neo classical US power metal leanings that can be compared to a band like Symphony X. Their solos which are played by both guitar and keyboards have a similar style to the one used by Symphony X. The vocal style is comparable to Geoff Tate from Queensrяche even though I also hear a Midnight ( Crimson Glory) sneer once and again.

The album consists of seven songs and last for about an hour. There are no fillers on the album and every song is memorable. Iґll mention the last song on the album as a highlight. The queen of the city of ice is a really good epic song with very beautiful vocal lines and lots of great acoustic guitar playing. 17:22 minutes of soft progressive metal. In addition to the normal instrumentation of guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals, bassist Carl Cadden-James also plays flute on a couple of the songs, which adds another dimension to Shadow Galleryґs music. The flute is not used extensively though.

The musicianship is really great and one of the best things is the vocals from Mike Baker. He is a very skilled vocalist. I really enjoy both the guitar and the keyboard parts from Brendt Allman and Chris Ingles too. The drums are not very well played though, and itґs definitely one of the weak spots on this album. The other weak spot is unfortunately the production which drowns the bass totally. Therefore I cannot give an analysis of Carl Cadden-James bass playing.

As mentioned the production is pretty awful and it ruins much of my listening pleasure which is a real shame as the compositions are very strong.

If you like soft progressive metal from the start of the nineties this should not be missed even though the production is horrible. I think Shadow Gallery have made a really good album and Iґll be looking forward to listening to the rest of their discography. The music is complex but not in a tech metal way which means that youґre in for a more emotional progressive metal experience compared to the more technical bands in the genre. Iґll rate this album 3 stars.

Billy Sheehan - The Talas Years 1989

2011-07-17T17:58:00.005+03:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Hard Rock

Release Date: 1989

Label: Relativity Records

"Billy Sheehan - The Talas Years", contains 20 tracks of the best of Talas. The disc is split into 2 different sections - Studio recordings from 1982 and the other of live performances from 1983.

Brian May & Friends - Star Fleet Project (1983)

2011-07-10T07:53:00.007+03:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Blues Rock, Hard Rock

Release Date: 1983

Label: EMI Records

This mini-album was recorded by Brian and a group of friends: Edward Van Halen, Phil Chen, Fred Mandel and Alan Gratzer. It is essentially an extended jam session. The vinyl version of Starfleet is now getting hard to find, although these tracks are all available on CD on the Japanese Resurrection mini-album, which is stocked as an import item in many major record stores.

Forcefield - Forcefield III To Oz And Back 1989 (JP Remastered Ltd Mini LP Edition 2007)

2011-07-02T15:19:00.004+03:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Hard Rock

Release Date: 1989

Label: President Records Ltd./Tokuma

Vocalist Graham Bonnet fronts this group consisting of drummer extraordinaire Cozy Powell, guitarists Ray Fenwick and Jan Akkerman, with Chris Cozens on keyboards, and guests like Terry Pack and Mo Foster on bass. The album begins awkwardly with a bit of bombast called "Hit and Run" but gets more hard pop with "Always," a drum beat that Roxy Music utilized on Manifesto, and that Elton John chose for "Healing Hands" under a melody that sounds totally derivative. Rocking harder than "Touch Me," the 1974 hit Fenwick composed for his group Fancy, but not as aggressive as that Top 20 song, there's the balancing act going on here of Cozy Powell's arena rock attitude and Ray Fenwick's pop sensibilities. Graham Bonnet isn't the best choice for a vocal sound on Denny Laine's composition, "Stay Away," and the reggae, almost calypso sound also clashes with what could have been a pure pop masterpiece. "I still got the taste of true love that went bad" is a great, biting Denny Laine line, but Forcefield delivers it with a sledgehammer. Fenwick's work on material by Jo Jo Laine & the Firm on Mercury a few years before this was more in the pocket and had the balance missing here. "Desire" seeks that Journey market, and it is almost there, Fenwick's organ parts and the over-played guitar totally '80s. The final cut on side one, "Tokyo," is instrumental, and the listener gets a break from the vocal overkill of the great hook on the song before. One of the more interesting cuts is a re-working of the Kinks' "Who'll Be the Next in Line," which opens the second side. Production ideas are shamelessly lifted from the 1983 Yes hit "Owner of a Lonely Heart," and while the arrangement is intriguing and might bring a smile to Ray Davies' face, right up to the 1985 "A View to a Kill" nick, it is Graham Bonnet who deflates this party. He does a decent job with the second Denny Laine contribution, "Wings on My Feet," but this production is out of Phil Collins' textbook for the 1985 hit "Easy Lover." Yes, it sounds like Earth, Wind & Fire meets Wings, and it is certainly an odd combination. Both songs written by Laine, it would be interesting to hear the composer performing them, as they seem more suited for a pop album. "Firepower" is more hard stuff with definite guitar riffs, co-writer Johnny Mars' distinctive harmonica, and along with the next track, "Hold On," maybe Bonnet's best vocal performance. "Hold On" sounds like Mickey Thomas and the Starship from 1987 -- it's the strongest hook on the record, and like six of the other ten titles here, it is co-written by producer Ray Fenwick. "Rendezvous" is beautiful. Not only is it more subtle than everything else on To Oz and Back, it is also the most creative and original piece, a stunning instrumental which leads to one conclusion: Had Denny Laine fronted this band instead of merely writing two of the ten tracks, and had he added more of what he gave to the Moody Blues and Wings, this album would be as excellent as the final track. That the vocal work is so disappointing shows the dexterity of the musicians; they still escape with a "good" rating, but just barely. As an instrumental album, this recording by Forcefield would be cherished by many; as it appears in this form, it is a crew of talented semi-name musicians having fun recreating work that was being released earlier in the decade by their friends and peers. It's an interesting experiment. ~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide

Jon Lord - Sarabande 1976

2011-06-26T08:44:00.005+03:00

Format: APE (image + .cue + log)

Genre: Symphonic Rock

Release Date: 1983

Label: Line Records

Notes

Recorded between 3rd and 6th September 1975 at the Stadt Halle
Oererckenschwick near Dusseldorf with the Dieter Dierks Mobile Recording Studio
using AGFA P.E.M. 408 master tape.
Engineered by Martin Birch (The WASP).
Remixed by Martin Birch at Musicland Studios (Munich), assisted by Hans Menzel.
Mastered at Kendun Recorders in Burbank CA.
Produced by Jon Lord and Martin Birch.

Jon Lord - keyboards

Paul Karass - bass

Mark Nauseef - percussion

Andy Sommers - guitar

Pete York - drums

and the Philharmonia Hungarica conducted by EBERHARD SCHOENER

Review from purplerecords

Founder member of Deep Purple, keyboard player Jon Lord needs little introduction to rock audiences. Yet classical music had been a huge part of his musical education, and echoes of his love for the genre imbued the early Deep Purple albums. His interest was then channeled into a series of classical/rock experiments which lasted throughout the seventies.

Jon Lord based his material on a set of dance suites, interpreted with a string orchestra and modern rock instrumentation. His own keyboard playing was stunning, ranging from gentle piano work to heavy Hammond organ riffs. The guitar was played by Andy Summers, just prior to his joining The Police.

A crash of orchestra and cymbals opens this huge work. The title piece is strong, with a cool bass line and Lord's infectious synth, built up with masses of horns, strings, and percussion shifting from Latin moves and sweeping winds to jazzy and romantic encounters. This is *orchestral* rock more than it is *symphonic*, and the record is bold even for 1976.

In the 11-minute 'Guige' we hear remnants of Dave Brubeck's proto-fusion and even Bo Hansson's distant impact, as instruments talk to each other in spirited conversation. The second half grooves smoothly into hip street rhythms, Arabian sand storms, Eastern treasure and T.E. Lawrence. 'Caprice' is first-rate syn-phonic rock sewn into a fascinating quilt of opera, pomp and circumstance and is benefitted by Eberhard Schoener's firm conducting.

Unfortunately, at the time it was released, the album went mostly unnoticed in the storm of Deep Purple's 1976 tour and their split.

Conception - Parallel Minds 1993

2011-06-19T07:59:00.005+03:00

Format: ape + cue + log

Genre:Melodic Metal

Release Date: 1993

Label: Noise Records

Roy S. Khantatat - vocals

Tore Ostby - Guitar

Arve Heimdal - Drums

Ingar Amlien - Bass

Hans Cristian Gjestvang - Keboards

Review - The Metal Observer:
Label-wise released roundabout two months BEFORE the real debut, "Parallel Minds" shows us matured CONCEPTION, the compositions are rounder and more compact, as you can hear in the opening up-tempo-track "Water Confines".

Musically they have stayed true to their sound, slightly progressive Melodic Metal, which mainly lives off Tore Шstby's guitar-wizardry and Khan's brilliant vocals, but both elements are always used for the good of the song, no solo-escapades ruining the flow of the songs or one part growing too dominant. Just as on the debut the production is more than convincing either, each instrument has its clear sound, everything is coming over very powerful.

More classics are "Roll The Fire", more mid-paced, very direct, very intense, great atmosphere, the great ballad "Silent Crying", "The Promiser" with its excellent lyrics and the almost nine-minute "Soliloquy", which covers almost all facets of Melodic/Progressive Metal…

Even though I miss the flamenco-parts of "The Last Sunset", still a great album by a great band, both thumbs up!

Graham Bonnet - Here Comes The Night (1991)

2011-06-10T10:20:00.003+03:00

Format: ape + cue + log

Genre:Rock

Release Date: 1991

Label: President

Graham Bonnet's illustrious singing career includes hit singles "Night Games" and "Since You've Been Gone" with Rainbow. Apart from working with Richie Blackmore and Michael Schenker, he can be credited with having helped the careers of Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, and Chris Impelliteri all of whom played in bands with him. On this set he covers classic pop songs alongside quality original material. Truly outstanding.

Brazen Abbot - Bad Religion 1997

2011-05-29T22:24:00.003+03:00

Format: ape + cue + log

Genre:Hard Rock

Release Date: 1997

Label: USG

Band Members:

Nikolo Kotzev - Guitars, Violin, Piano, Keyboards, Percussion

T H E S I N G E R S:

Joe Lynn Turner - 1, 4, 7, 10

Goran Edman - 3, 5, 8, 11

Thomas Vikstrom - 2, 6, 9

T H E P L A Y E R S: (Europe Guys)

Ian Haugland - Drums

Mic Michaeli - Organ

John Leven - Bass

10 Years ago the success story of Brazen Abbot under the direction of the bulgarien composer/multi-instrumentalist Nikolo Kotzev began. Kotzev formed his own group Brazen Abbot with ex-Europe musicians Ian Haughland and Mic Michaelis as instrumentalists and the two vocalists Göran Edman and Thomas Vikström (Candlemass).

1995 saw the arrival of the debut Live And Learn, for which the guitar maestro earned enthusiastic reviews from all over the world. Eye Of The Storm, recorded with new addition John Leven (also ex-Europe) on bass and Joe Lynn Turner as an additional vocalist, followed one year later with another cavalcade of melodic hard rock. The third Brazen Abbot recording, Bad Religion, impressed with the same line-up and a stylistically similar concept in 1997. Now the terrific first three records will be rereleased.

Adagio - Underworld (2003)

2011-05-22T09:44:00.002+03:00

Format: ape + cue + log

Genre: Neo-classical/Progressive Power metal

Release Date: 2003

Label: NTS

David Readman : Vocals

Stephan Forte: Guitar

Franck Hermany : Bass

Kevin Codfert : Keyboards

Dirk Bruinenberg : Drums

Reviewed by: Larry Daglieri, December 2003

When Adagio released Sanctus Ignis a couple of years ago, the band were met with barrages of reviews calling them Symphony X clones. True progressive metal fans just looking for another quality disc released in their beloved genre found true bliss in the neo-classically driven / song-oriented style of Adagio. With neo-classical guitar wiz Stephan Forte at the helm, and vocalist David Readman of Pink Cream 69 enlisted, the disc was otherwise highly praised and accepted. Since the band was a project and pulled musicians from other highly acclaimed bands such as Elegy, many thought that this would be a one-time deal.

Without warning, Adagio released Underworld and any doubters that this band means business need kindly eat some crow. This is one of the best releases of 2003, and the band certainly has something to say along with making some serious upgrades since we last heard them. Enter in a full concept disc, accompanied by orchestral arrangements, choirs, 13:00 songs, an incredible production, and above standard songwriting. Basically, this is what you get when you cross a progressive metal band with a movie soundtrack influenced by Classical music. The music is guitar driven, of course, compliments of the multi-talented Stephan Forte, who more than makes a passing resemblance to a certain Mr. Romeo. Stephan also had a hand in the production, and also in the orchestral arrangements and choirs. The show wouldn’t be complete without the riveting vocals of David Readman, who has certainly earned the respect of prog metal fans with his ease of performance coming from a hard-rock background to belt out the lead on this opus. His voice is raspy, powerful, and shows that he can still reach outer limits without a strain or effort to be found.

Musically, this is a sophomore outing disc that sometimes either makes or breaks bands, especially progressive metal bands. Adagio has taken the more difficult route and created a special disc here, with a bone-crunching production surrounding a Classical opus injected with a high dose of metal. At times it can be speedy, double bass heavy, but never lingers in one speed for too long without changing tones, moods, or tempo. In between songs, the symphony takes over, as if the metal band left the stage and the symphony orchestra has taken over. As quickly as the orchestra takes over, the metal band asserts itself once again to carry on the Underworld story. There are plenty of keyboards on the disc, ranging from pianos, to synths, strings, and beyond. Of note, the drum playing is simply phenomenal with Dirk Bruinenberg (Elegy) spreading his drum wings outside of Elegy and showing that he is has more chops than humanly possible.

The disc is dark, brooding, powerful and moody and gives little room for breath except between orchestral passages and intros, which drive the story. If you’re thinking Symphony X - V; this is much heavier in the symphonic region. The songwriting is a bit more intricate here, as well as the compositions being more Classically-influenced. One word of caution, do not try to listen to this disc song for song. It is meant to be played in its entirety, as a story, as a concept, which makes the disc that much more artistic and creative to these ears. If you are a fan of blistering neo-classical guitar work, frantic drum work, aggressively powerful vocals, and a metal movie soundtrack, then this is for you. One of the best of 2003 in the progressive metal genre for sure.

Tony MacAlpine - Edge of Insanity (1986)

2011-05-08T10:32:00.002+03:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Rock, Instrumental rock, neo-classical metal

Release Date: 1986

Label: Shrapnel

Album Review by Andy Hinds @ AMG

After Yngwie Malmsteen set the guitar world on fire with his 1984 debut, Rising Force, it was amazing how quickly the clones came out of the woodwork. Within a couple years there were dozens of them, flooding the market with their recorded instrumental extravaganzas. Tony MacAlpine was one of the Yngwie followers, to a certain degree. His debut album, Edge of Insanity, with its all-star rhythm section of Steve Smith and Billy Sheehan (drums and bass, respectively), follows the rough blueprint of Yngwie's model. Soloing over dramatic minor key vamps, MacAlpine catalogs his impressive licks at top speed. But while his chops on the guitar are quite astounding, what is more impressive is that he is equally adept at playing the keyboard. So there's plenty of exciting guitar/keyboard interplay here, including dueling solo sections and unison or harmonized runs, that is quite dazzling. Album highlights include the laid-back album-closer, "No Place in Time," and MacAlpine's impressive unaccompanied piano performance of Chopin's "Prelude 16, Opus 28." The low point is "Quarter to Midnight," a "live solo" that sounds very suspiciously like a studio recording with (rather fake-sounding) crowd noise dubbed in. His second album, Maximum Security, is much better.

Progressive metal guitar virtuoso Tony MacAlpine began his musical education as a classically-trained pianist and violinist; his subsequent rock recordings retained a pronounced classical influence, incorporating elements of jazz and fusion as well. He debuted in 1986 with the instrumental Edge of Insanity, recorded with an all-star line-up including bassist Billy Sheehan and ex-Journey drummer Steve Smith; for the follow-up, Project: Driver, MacAlpine formed the band M.A.R.S. with drummer Tommy Aldridge, vocalist Bob Rock and bassist Rudi Sarzo. The group quickly dissolved and MacAlpine returned to his solo career, additionally forming his own label, Squawk; after 1987's Maximum Security, he founded another group, dubbed simply MacAlpine, with singer Alan Schorn, keyboardist Mark Robertson, bassist Mike Jacques and drummer Billy Carmassi. The band's lone record, Eyes of the World, appeared in 1990, and MacAlpine returned to instrumental projects for the remainder of the decade, issuing a series of albums including 1992's Freedom to Fly, 1995's Evolution, 1997's Live Insanity and 2000's Cab. Cab 2 followed in 2001. by Jason Ankeny @ AMG

Colosseum - Live 1971

2011-05-01T12:05:00.003+03:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Progressive Rock

Release Date: 1971

Label: Castle Records

Richie Kotzen - Richie Kotzen 1989

2011-04-23T07:22:00.002+03:00

Format: ape + cue + log

Genre: Instrumental rock

Release Date: 1989

Label: Shrapnel

By the time of Richie Kotzen's debut album in 1989, Mike Varney's Shrapnel label was cranking out young guitar virtuosos like an assembly line; it seemed like each week, a fresh-faced teenaged prodigy would emerge from the Shrapnel stable with a self-titled debut, backed up by an all-star rhythm section. Pennsylvania's Richie Kotzen was one of these. With bassist Stu Hamm and ex-Journey drummer Steve Smith behind him, he added yet another all-instrumental shred guitar album to Shrapnel's catalog. But, fortunately, he avoided many of the cliches that plagued many of his contemporaries. Rather than attempting wide-screen neo-classical melodrama, his style here is offbeat and humorous; witness the hilarious stop/start dynamics of "Unsafe at Any Speed," with its cartoonish scherzos and ridiculously over-the-top blasts of rapid-fire guitar fills. Kotzen obviously owes a debt to Steve Vai here, but adds his own quirks to the formula. The production assistance of labelmate Jason Becker also helps to distinguish Richie Kotzen from the other predictable-sounding stuff on the Shrapnel label; the record is mixed bone-dry instead of reverb-drenched, which adds a more personal charm to the proceedings. Both Kotzen's chops and tone would improve greatly over the next year or so, but this is an interesting entry in the genre nonetheless. ~ Andy Hinds, Rovi

Epica - Feint 2004 (2MCD)

2011-04-10T09:18:00.003+03:00

Format: ape + cue + log

Genre: Gothic/Sympho Metal

Release Date: 2004

Label: Transmissi

Simone Simons: Mezzo-soprano vocals

Mark Jansen: Guitar and grunts/screams

Ad Sluijter: Guitar

Yves Huts: Bass

Coen Janssen: Synthesizer and piano

Jeroen Simons: Drums

FEINT is a four-track EP by Epica. The release contains previously unavailable and alternate versions of already released songs.

Double single taken from the goth-metal band's 2003 debut album 'Phantom Agony', features eight tracks on two CDs. Disc one features the title track, 'Feint', b/w 'Leif Al Din', & two non-LP tracks, 'Feint' (unreleased piano version) & 'Triumph Of Defeat' (unreleased instrumental track). Disc two features the title track, 'Cry For The Moon', b/w 'Run For A Fall', & two non-LP tracks, ''Cry For The Moon' (unreleased single version) & 'Run For A Fall' (unreleased single version). Transmission. 2004.

Gordian Knot - Gordian Knot (1999)

2011-04-02T17:28:00.005+03:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Progressive Rock, Metal, Instrumental

Release Date: 1999

Label: Sensory

AMG Review
Star-studded projects often add up to very little, but Gordian Knot's eponymous debut turns out to be one of the best progressive rock albums released in the last years of the second millennium. And that's thanks to the fact that Sean Malone held on to the reins, guiding the project to its goal of finely crafted guitar-driven instrumental songs. Malone has a prog metal background, so do most of his guests (Cynic drummer Sean Reinert, King Crimson guitarist Trey Gunn, Dream Theater bassist John Myung, along with Ron Jarzombek and Glenn Snelwar). And yet the album only has a couple of tracks that can be qualified as "metal" ("Rivers Dancing," "Singularity"). Everything else falls into the guitar craft of the likes of David Torn and Robert Fripp. "Galois" opens the set with a seductive soundscape. "Code/Anticode" is the album's main showcase, an intelligent prog rocker with a solid rhythm section and a catchy modal melody. "Reflections" manages to make a menacing metal verse and a classical guitar chorus walk hand in hand like two lovers. "Srikara Tal" and "Redemption's Way" work as a soloing frame over a slightly North African percussion backdrop. They feel a bit overstretched, but the guitar work adorning them is worth the extended durations. The album ends with "Grace," a delicate ballad played on the Chapman stick that dissolves into soundscapes to take listeners back to where they started. If it weren't for a couple of overlong or self-indulgent tracks, this album would be a masterpiece. As it is, it still deserves the attention of any guitar fan.

Frank Zappa - Trance Fusion 2006

2011-03-27T07:20:00.007+03:00

Format: ape + cue + log

Genre: Instrumental rock

Release Date: 2006

Label: Zappa Records

Eddie Hardin - Wizard's Convention (1976)

2011-03-13T09:04:00.005+02:00

Format: ape + cue + log

Genre: Hard-, Blues-, Classic Rock

Release Date: 1976

Label: Repertoir Records

Eddie Hardin - vocals, various instruments

Ray Fenwick - vocals, guitar, backing vocals

David Coverdale - vocals

Roger Glover - bass

Glenn Hughes - vocals

Jon Lord - piano

Mark Nauseef - percussion, drums, bells

Tony Ashton - piano, vocals

Mo Foster - bass

Les Binks - drums

Henry Spinetti - drums

Ric Lee - drums

Rick van der Linden - piano, various instruments

Pete York - drums, percussion

Mike D'Abo - vocals

Mike Smith - vocals

Jimmy Helms - vocals

John Crocker - alto sax

John Slaughter - guitar

The Chris Barber Band - various instruments

Having witnessed first hand the enjoyment and musical freedom experienced by Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover during the making of his 'concept' "Butterfly Ball" album ex-Spencer Davis Group keyboardist Eddie Hardin felt sufficiently inspired to partially follow suit by inviting a variety of musicians who he'd always wanted to work with to contribute to a new studio
project he had in mind. Recalls Hardin "Basically I'd written quite a lot of songs which I felt maybe suited other peoples voices and styles rather then my own." Some of the 'other peoples voices' he enlisted to help him included ex-Manfred Mann vocalist Mike D'Abo, ex-Dave Clark Five man Mike Smith, future Londonbeat mainman Jimmy Helms and ex-Deep Purple members David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes. "Glenn was great, he came to the studio, had a bottle of whiskey and some fish 'n' chips and then laid down his vocal".
Complementing Hardin's astute choice of vocalists was his equally canny choice of musicians. Roger Glover helped out on bass whilst Purples keyboardist Jon Lord appeared on "She's A Woman". Amongst the drummers featured were ex-Fancy / judas Priest man Les Binks, ex-Herd member Henry Spinetti, former Ten Years After member Ric Lee, future Ian Gillan sticksman Mark Nauseef and Hardin's old Spencer Davis Group / Hardin & York sidekick Pete York. Leading session bassist Mo Foster appeared throughout the album whilst guitarists included Chris Barber man John Slaughter and another ex-Spencer Davis Group member in Ray Fenwick. Mr. Hardin himself sang lead vocals on The Craig Song" and "Make If Soon" as well as tinkling the ivories on a variety of tracks whilst keyboardists Tony Ashton (ex Ashfon Gardner & Dyke and later in Paice Ashfon Lord) and Rick van der Linden (ex-Ekseption) also helped out.
With such an array of talent if seems incredible that the album never charted. However as the LP was originally released on Christmas Eve 1976 if made it impossible for people to buy it until stores reopened after the Xmas holidays by which time most record stores had forgotten about if whilst coping with the post Christmas rush of record tokens and demands for TV advertised compilations leaving "Wizards Convention" to sadly disappear from sight. Collectors, however, might like to note that we've added six bonus tracks from the original sessions for the "Wizards Convention" album to this CD.
"Looking Forward To Tomorrow" features lead vocals by Billy Ocean, Eddie Hardin handles the role on "Time For Another", "The Put Down Song" and "Goodnight Children" whilst on "Summer Days" and "Seems I'm Always Gonna Love You" he's joined by ex-Elf / Rainbow / Black Sabbath vocalist Ronnie James Dio.
Eddie Hardin recalls having had a lot of fun making the album and to this day regards if as "The best album I've ever recorded".
When you consider his involvement with the likes of the Spencer Davis Group and his work with people of the calibre of John Entwhistle and Roger Glover that is indeed praise of the highest order. - Review by Mark Brennan

John Macaluso & Union Radio - The Radio Waves Goodbye (2007)

2011-03-05T08:18:00.005+02:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Progressive Metal / Rock / Fusion

Release Date: 2007

Label: Lion Music

John Macaluso - Drums

James LaBrie - Vocals

Mike Dimeo - Vocals

Don Chaffin - Vocals

Dina - Vocals

Shelly - Vocals

Adrian Holtz - Vocals

Suzy - Vocals

Jack Frost - Lead Guitar

Alex Masi - Lead Guitar

Marco Sfogli - Guitars/Bazuki

Chris Caffery - Guitars

Alex Rastopskin - Guitars

Larry Meyeer - Bass/Guitars

Robert Katrikh - Guitars

Vitalij Kuprij - Keyboards/Piano

Dimuti - Keyboards/Rhythm Guitars

Marty Mallinger - Keyboards

Derrik Weiland - Piano

Randy Coven - Bass

John Macaluso is one of the most respected drummers in rock. He has played on close to 200 albums, including on the highly acclaimed Ark albums, Yngwie Malmsteen's Alchemy, and TNT's Realized Fantasies. Obviously, this has helped him get some of progressive metal's finest musicians on his first solo album, which he set out to make the best ever album of his career.

The list of singers appearing on the album is stunning. From Dream Theater's James Labrie to Riot's Mike Dimeo and the new Ark vocalist Adrian Holtz, the vocal performance on the whole record is nothing short of jaw-dropping. The disc begins with the Labrie-sung "Soul in Your Mind", whose overall flow recalls Dream Theater circa Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence thanks to Vitalij Kuprij's atmospheric keyboard contributions. Macaluso's drumming is central on this song, and is arguably among his greatest performances ever. Kuprij weaves moody synth lines around the drums and a thudding bass figure while Labrie sings aggressively, leaving plenty of space for both a synth and guitar solo respectively.

Ark came to a halt when Jorn Lande left the band after 2001's amazing Burn the Sun, still among prog metal's greatest offerings. Many fans questioned whether Macaluso and Ostby could find a replacement, but despite numerous rumours, nothing much came of it. Finally, Macaluso introduces the new Ark singer Adrian Holtz (with whom they were planning to cut a new CD before shelving the idea). Holtz' vocals are incredible -- he is a monster singer and is poised to become my discovery for new voice of the year. Possessing a brilliant midrange tone, he has the ability to shift from smooth, delicate phrases to soaring screams without overdoing it. He sings on five of the songs, all of which are amazing in different ways.

Obvious reference points while describing this truly progressive metal disc would be Pink Floyd's psychedelic parts blended with the gripping melodic edge of Ark and the hallmarks of instrumental music. "The Prayer Pill" and "Dissolved", arguably the best songs on the album, are both delivered by Holtz. Both pieces are more keyboard-dominated than guitar; dark-toned synth patches cover Holtz' indelible vocal melodies, supported by sweet back-up singing courtesy of Donna and Laura Macaluso. "Dissolved" boasts modern keyboard effects drilled into the mix, juxtaposed with some Middle Eastern flavour, and is carried by jazzified soundscapes and an eerie blend of psychedelic guitars and funky bass groove. The production of this song is totally mindblowing -- perhaps the best I've heard on a Lion Music artist.

Riot and Masterplan singer Mike Dimeo's unique vocal style should also be attributed to this album's success. There are only a handful vocalists who are capable of singing any style this perfectly, and Dimeo is one of them. Vitalij Kuprij's somewhat electronic snynth intro on "Mother Illusion" is so progressive and different from 98% of music out there that I'd never believe a singer like Mike Dimeo would be asked to sing on it. This guy is simply unbelievable, and actually reminds me a good deal of Jorn Lande. Despite never picking up pace, it feels especially tailored for him, and Macaluso's kick drum tones are still unmatched. Dimeo also sings on "Gates to Bridges", which also features Savatage guitarist Chris Caffery ripping it up, but Kuprij's laidback, mood-intensive playing saves the piece from being a typical hard rocker.

On the guitarist front, besides Chris Caffery, John Macaluso has also hooked up with the rising force Marco Sfogli, whose work on James Labrie's Elements of Persuasion blew everyone away. Sfogli first weaves dense acoustic guitars on the Floydian cut "Shimmering Grey"; and then shows us the real deal when he injects a searing guitar force on the seven-minute instrumental "T-34". Having heard this song like a dozen times on repeat, I can't help but wish Macaluso would release another solo disc, all instrumental this time. It is the absolutely inspired songwriting that sets this piece apart from hundreds others; there are dazzling synths, pianos, octopus drumming, and of course the godly Marco Sfogli on this song.

If you, like me, always hoped to hear a full-blown drum solo by Macaluso, for a good four minutes, "Pretzel" is going to be your song. The dialogue between the young girl and John in the intro is hilarious, and pokes fun at all those fans who tend to go to the bathroom during shows while the drummer cuts it loose. It is one long yet totally disciplined drum solo by one of rock's best. Period. Being a solo album, Macaluso also sings lead vocals on one song, the totally jazzy "The Six Foot Under Happy Man", but I wouldn't really consider it among the album's strongest cuts. What I, however, must mention is Dimuti, who is credited as guitarist, keyboardist, and bassist on various songs, and every time I was blown away by something and checked out who it was, I came across his name. I bet lots of prog fans will want to check him out if they're unfamiliar with him.

Another high point of the CD is "Things You Should Not Know", again featuring Adrian Holtz at the helm, and if anything on the new Ark CD is going to be in this vein, everyone be prepared to be blown away. It features some nice flute melody, cool Kuprij acrobatics, phenomenal drumming, and face-ripping guitar work by Alex Masi, another Lion Music artist. Speaking of which, Lion Music reminds me a lot of Magna Carta in the 90's (remember when they were still a cool label?) where every musician would guest on each other's albums, and add their own signature to the compositions. This disc reminds me a lot of that -- and it contains striking melodic strength with top-notch musicianship without overstepping the limits of the compositions.

Lyrically, the album seems to explore themes of religion, the occult, and spirituality; but fear not, there is nothing preachy here. In fact, the airy keyboards, creepy sound structures, and somewhat spacey overall vibes unite seamlessly with the subject matter discussed.

This is going to be a top release of 2007. Highly recommended.
Reviewer: Murat Batmaz

David Cross – Memos From Purgatory (1989)

2011-02-27T16:56:00.003+02:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Progressive Rock, Jazz Rock/Fusion

Release Date: 1989

Label: KING Records

(Review from progarchives.com, scaruffi.com)

This is the first album David Cross released under his own name. Like on his later albums, Cross is supported by several other musicians, but more than his other albums, “Memos From Purgatory” sounds like a solo album, even though three of the eight songs were written by Sheila Maloney. The album is completely instrumental.

David Cross also directed the staging of “Memos From Purgatory” at the Half Moon Theatre and other venues using dancers, musicians, lights, slides, etc.

David Cross - violin

Pete McPhail - saxophone

Sheila Maloney - keyboards

Simon Murrell - bass

Dan Maurer - drum

Biography by Geoff Orens

The violinist for King Crimson from 1972 to 1974, David Cross later launched a solo career with the David Cross Band, which featured an interesting sound comprised of violin, bass, keyboards, drums, and saxophones.

David Cross was born in Turnchapel, England, near Plymouth. After leaving King Crimson, Cross formed the improvisational rock group Ascend, and spent the better part of the 1970s and 1980s composing for and working with theater groups in a variety of capacities. His first solo release was Memos from Purgatory (1989), which was later staged by Cross. With the David Cross Band, Cross moved between improvisational pieces and more composed ones. While the music bears some similarity to 1970s King Crimson, it is slower-paced with musical phrases and ideas that appear out of nowhere and disappear as quickly, leading some to call his music underdeveloped. 1998's Exiles was more song-oriented and featured guest appearances by Crimson alumni Robert Fripp, Peter Hammill, John Wetton, and Peter Sinfield. In 1999, Cross formed Noisy Records.

Northern Kings - Reborn (2007)

2011-02-20T19:14:00.004+02:00

Format: ape + cue + log

Genre: Symphonic Metal, Power Metal

Release Date: 2007

Label: Warner Music Finland

Northern Kings:

Marco Hietala - vocals

Tony Kakko - vocals

Jarkko Ahola - vocals

Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto - vocals

Musicians:

Two Finger Choir: Backing Vocals

Vili Ollila: Piano, Keyboards, Programming

Erkka Korhonen: Lead & Rhythm Guitars

Erkki Silvennoinen: Bass

Anssi Nykanen, Sami Osala: Drums, Percussion

Review from amazon, revelationz.net

Northern Kings is a Finnish symphonic metal cover supergroup. The Kings are comprised of four vocalists, who are all frontmen of successful Finnish heavy metal bands — Marco Hietala from ‘Nightwish’ and ‘Tarot’, Tony Kakko from ‘Sonata Arctica’, JP Leppaluoto from ‘Charon’ and Jarkko Ahola from ‘Terasbetoni’. Each vocalist has his own trademark sound, including deep, satanic, operatic metal rock vocals. It’s all-consuming and larger than life.

The band masterminded the idea of recording their own metal versions of an electic selection of pop staples. Unlike most bands who try to reproduce the sound and arrangements of the original songs, the Northern Kings have deconstructed the arrangements, by coming up with their own renditions, most of which is backed with metal guitars, a full symphonic orchestral backing, and electronic enhancements.

The general vibe on the album is to give the metal makeover a fully orchestrated backing (string section, the works), with some electronic noodling thrown in . The metal guitars are prevalent, but there is the northern vibe of the band’s renditions. It’s not a gimmick, but it is very dramatic, very lush and grandoise sounding.

The sonic attack of the bands’ take on each song just blows you away. Unlike most artists or bands who record a cover, the version is traditionally inferior and not a patch on the original. It’s quite an accomplishment to take a song like Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’ or Lionel Richie’s ‘Hello’ and give it a new lease of life.

Hearing songs from a variety of genres and decades turned completely on their heads is an awesome way to spend the afternoon, especially when the tracks are tackled with such passion and no thought to consequence in forcing the listener to think outside the box.

You’ve heard these songs before… just never like this.

Delain - Lucidity (2006)

2011-02-20T11:07:00.004+02:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Gothic Metal, Symphonic Metal

Release Date: 2006

Label: Roadrunner Records

-Miembros-

Martijn Westerholt - Keyboards

Charlotte Wessels - Vocals

Ronald Landa - Guitar, Vocals

Rob van der Loo - Bass

Sander Zoer - Drums

Miembros Anteriores

Ray van Lente - Guitar

Anne Invernizzi - Vocals

Roy van Enkhuyzen - Guitar

Tim Kuper - Drums

Colaboraciones

Marco Hietala (Nightwish, Tarot)

Ad Sluijter (Epica)

Ariën van Weesenbeek (God Dethroned)

Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation)

Liv Kristine (Leaves' Eyes)

George Oosterhoek (Orphanage)

Guus Eikens (Orphanage)

Jan Yrlund

Lucydity es el impresionante álbum debut de Delain, un proyecto único de Rock Gótico iniciado por el Tecladista Martijn Westerholt. (ex-Within Tempation). Él se ha rodeado de un número de músicos extremadamente talentosos tales como el Bajista Marko Hielata (Nightwish, Tarot), el Guitarrista Jan Yrlund (ex-Lacrimosa) y la vocalista Noruega Liv Kristine (ex-Theatre of Tragedy, Leaves’ Eyes).

Un número de renombrados músicos Holandeses de Rock tmbién contribuyeron al proyecto: La cantante Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation), el guitarrista Ad Sluyter (Epica), el baterista Ariën van Weezenbeek (God Dethroned) , el cantante George Oosthoek y guitarrista Guus Eikens (ex-Orphanage). Delain también tiene lugar para el nuevo talento: la Joven y relativamente desconocida cantante Charlotte Wessels (ex-To Elysium) contribuyendo con la mayoría de las voces en el álbum.

Imagina esto..Has sido parte de una banda por 5 años, y cuando finalmente terminan, eres incapaz de cosechar el fruto del éxito! Eso le pasó a Martijn Westerholt. Desde 1996 hasta 2001, él fue un miembro de tiempo completo de Within Temptation, por ahora una de las bandas de rock holandesas más exitosas e internacionalmente renombradas.

Mientras su hermano Robert y sus compañeros goth-rockers holandeses continúan en la conquista del mundo, Martijn fue forzado a dejar la banda por una enfermedad crónica. Pero el no se dio por vencido. Tan pronto como se recuperó físicamente comenzó a escribir canciones de nuevo, al principio fue sólo una manera de pasar el tiempo, pero con ello se sintió tan bien, que decidió hacer música a un nivel profesional, una música que era más fuerte día con día. Lento pero seguro, su idea para un proyecto musical empezó a tomar forma.

Martijn hizo una lista de músicos talentosos y empezó contactar con cada uno personalmente, mandándoles demos y haciendo llamadas telefónicas. Mas pronto de lo que esperaba su lista empezó a materializarse en un proyecto de talla internacional. Lo llamó “Delain”, inspirado por The Kingdom of Delain de “The Eyes of the Dragon(Los ojos del dragón) de Stephen King.

En Julio del 2005, Delain firmó un contrato de grabación con !Roadrunner Records!, la última etiqueta del metal y el socio ideal para Delain por sus contactos internacionales y su conocimiento del género. Muy pronto, Delain empezó a grabar su álbum debut en Alemania, Finlandia, Suecia y en los Países bajos con Oliver Phillips y el mismo Martijn en el escritorio de la producción, mientras Stefan Helleblad (Opeth, Rammstein and Dark Funeral) hizo el mezclado final.

Delain es una banda excepcional por que desde que este proyecto empezó, Los músicos y vocalistas en Lucidity (los cuales son muy variados) dejaron toda su marca plasmada. “Quise alentar la interacción entre los diferentes músicos,” dijo el líder del proyecto Martijn. Pero a pesar de su papel prominente, él dió suficientes espacios para contribuciones personales. “Pienso que es importante crear una vivencia positiva en el estudio, tenía la última palabra con respecto a todo el sonido, pero me cercioré de que mi ego no se interpusiera en el mejor resultado final.”

A pesar del hecho de que Delain es, primero que nada, un proyecto, Martijn y la talentosa Charlotte Wessels hacen la base de la banda, Martijn escribió la mayoría de las canciones, mientras la característica voz de Charlotte le dan a Delain su propia identidad. Su sereno y dulce sonido difiere de la mayoría de las voces de Opera del estilo muy típicas en el genero gótico. Martijn conoció a Charlotte por casualidad cuando ella tenía 18 años. Él no estaba en busca de una vocalista líder en este tiempo, así que sólo le preguntó sobre escribir letras y partes vocales. Pero cuando la escuchó cantar unos cuantos tracks en el estudio, se impresionó tanto que de inmediato le preguntó si quería unirse a Delain.

Lucidity contiene algunos duetos interesantes: Liv Kristine canta con Marko Hielata en ‘Day For Ghosts’ y con Charlotte en ‘See Me In Shadow’. LA peculiar voz de Sharon den Ade es un gran contraparte para la intensa voz de Marko en ‘No Compliance’, mientras la voz gutural de George Oosthoek combina muy bien con la voz pacifica de Charlotte en otras pistas.

A pesar, o debido a, la diversidad de músicos y vocalistas en el álbum, las canciones en Lucidity forman una unidad atractiva. Las características musicales de Delain son los prominentes teclados, coros deslumbrantes y cambios de tempo, adherido con guitarras “Heavy”, baterías rápidas y poderosas y grandes melodías. “Amo la música hermosa, melancólica y poderosa, incluso la eufórica, pero lo más importante para mi es la vibra que una canción tiene ” explica Martijn.

El lanzamiento del álbum será precedido por el lanzamiento del primer sencillo “Frozen”, que contiene los mismos ingredientes de la mayoría de las canciones de Lucidity: coros pegajosos, rasgueos fuertes, solos de guitarra, coros, pero también un cambio más suave y melódico. En resumen, es una gran probada de todo lo que Delain tiene para ofrecer.
themetalknights.wordpress.com

Gary Moore - Wild Frontier (1987) [2003 Virgin Remaster]

2011-02-11T21:26:00.007+02:00

GARY MOORE

1952-2011

On Sunday 6th February 2011 musician Gary Moore died in his sleep of a heart attack while on holiday in Spain.

Acknowledged as one of the finest guitarists that the British Isles has ever produced; Gary Moore’s career dated back to the sixties. Moore graced the line-ups of several notable rock bands including Thin Lizzy, Collosseum II and Skid Row, to name but three, and to this year maintained a highly successful solo career.

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Rock

Release Date: 1987

Label: Virgin Records

Gary Moore - guitar, vocals

Neil Carter - keyboards, vocals

Bob Daisley - bass

The drums are sequenced with a drum machine, but the programming is uncredited in the liner

notes of the album
Additional engineer: Chris Porter.
Additional producers: Pete Smith, James "Jimbo" Barton, Mike Stone.

Wild Frontier is a 1987 album by Gary Moore. His first studio album after a trip back to his native Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1985, this album has several songs about Ireland and even the music itself is steeped in Celtic roots. The title track was intended to be sung by Phil Lynott, however Lynott's death in January 1986 prevented that. The album is dedicated to the memory of Phil Lynott, with the words "For Philip" on the rear cover. This album contains the hit "Over the Hills and Far Away", which reached #20 in the UK as well as a cover of the Australian band The Easybeats' hit of the middle of the 1960s, "Friday on My Mind".

"Over the Hills and Far Away" was covered by the Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish on their 2001 EP of the same title, and Swedish viking metal band Thyrfing on their album Urkraft.
This album attempted to repeat the pop-metal formula of Gary Moore's 1985 album, Run for Cover, but falls short for various reasons. First, the songwriting wasn't quite up to par and except for "Over the Hills and Far Away, the title track, and "The Loner" - a beautifully moody guitar instrumental, Moore seemed to be going through the motions. Second, and most fatal was the decision to use a drum machine throughout the album; a failed experiment which just plain sounds wrong. Still, this is hardly a bad record, just slightly disappointing. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia

UK remastered reissue of the Irish guitarist's 1987 album includes three bonus tracks, 'Loner' (Extended Mix), 'Friday On My Mind' (12 Inch Version), & 'Out In The Fields' (Live). Virgin. 2003.

Allmusic Album Review: Billboard

Marty Friedman - Dragon's Kiss (1988)

2011-02-05T19:11:00.003+02:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Instrumental rock, neo-classical metal

Release Date: 1988

Label: Shrapnel

Dragon's Kiss is the debut studio album by guitarist Marty Friedman, released in 1988 on Shrapnel Records.

Marty Friedman – guitar, bass guitar, co-producer

Jason Becker – additional guitar solos (tracks 1, 6)

Deen Castronovo – drums

Mike Varney – producer

The Story
"Dragon's Kiss" features guitarist Marty Friedman in an intense classical/speed metal instrumental full of complicated changes, impressive solo work, and incredible drumming from Deen Castronovo. Jason Becker contributes his guitar talent's to two tracks "Saturation Point" and "Jewel". "Dragon's Kiss" is real eye opener for those seeking something fresh and inventive, and is an exciting collectable for fans of Marty's guitar work with Megadeth.

Planet X - Universe 2000

2011-01-29T14:22:00.005+02:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Progressive Metal/Rock

Release Date: 2000

Label: Inside Out

Derek Sherinian - Keyboards

Virgil Donati - Drums

Tony MacAlpine - Guitar

Tom Kennedy (guest) - Bass

After a little bit of confusion whether if Derek Sherinian's "Planet X" was the first album, Universe made it clear that Planet X (the band) was to be a trio. With Derek and Virgil Donati already on the list, they just needed a rip-roaring guitarist - Tony MacAlpine answered the call! Tom Kennedy guest starred on bass on some of the tracks of the album. Tony also layed down a couple of bass tracks while working on Universe.

Steve Morse Band - The Introduction (1984)

2011-01-22T17:48:00.005+02:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Instrumental Rock, Guitar virtuoso

Release Date: 1984

Label: Musician

There's a reason Steve Morse is one of the most respected guitarists alive; he's a virtuoso that can speak, sing and cry through his instrument with a sense of melody that touches on the divine. Like seemingly every Morse album I've ever heard, The Introduction is the kind of disc you spin once to give a good first listen, then end up spinning incessantly for the next week just because there's so much to hear. It touches on any style it comes across but leaves no mistake just who you're listening to. As an introduction, though, it's probably not the best one to pay full price for. I'm happy my first buy was the wonderful Structural Damage instead.
First off: there's a lot to recommend this album. The opening "Cruise Missile" ranks with the most powerful, blazing road anthems the man's produced. The rock/jazz/country diversity he showed through all those Dregs albums is in fine form, as you can probably guess from titles like "Mountain Waltz" and "General Lee." The playing is skilled enough to make fellow musicians grit their teeth with envy. It's heavy enough to wail out of your speakers and happy enough to bring a bright ray of sunshine into any day. Most importantly, the writing is just as important as the performances themselves; those who like good string-bending and those who look for a good composition will both find a lot to enjoy here. Those who like a good lyric should just be warned that Steve does instrumental work.

Then why does it not quite live up to its title? For one thing, it stands at a quick 34 minutes. For another, it's in dire need of remastering - it sounds pretty good if you crank the volume up a lot, but it lacks the near-perfect sound mix of later offerings like Major Impacts. Forgivable, true (it was 1984 after all), but along with the fine remastering treatment some of the Dregs catalogue has been receiving, The Introduction is past due for a sonic overhaul of its own. The guitar world will be just that much better for it. If you know Morse's music already and want to hear more, you wouldn't want to be without any of them. If not, a good starter would be Structural Damage (if you can still find it), High Tension Wires or this year's Split Decision. It only takes one to get hooked.. ~ Amazon.com

Vinnie Moore - Mind's Eye (1986)

2011-01-15T07:50:00.004+02:00

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Instrumental Rock, Guitar virtuoso

Release Date: 1986

Label: Shrapnel

1. In Control
2. Daydream
3. Saved By A Miracle
4. Hero Without Honor
5. Lifeforce
6. N.N.Y.
7. Mind's Eye
8. Shadows Of Yesterday
9. The Journey

AMG by Robert Taylor :

Who's faster: Yngwie Malmsteen or Vinnie Moore? That was the question back in 1986 when this recording was released. An obvious clone of Malmsteen, Moore burst upon the scene proving that, yes, someone else could play "that fast too." The problem with Mind's Eye and the subsequent genre of shredding that followed was that it became stagnant. Malmsteen turned heads from all musical styles because of his technical proficiency back in the early '80s, but those same heads quickly turned away to find out that there was little more being offered than really fast scales. The speed alone was not enough to hold many rock or fusion fans' interests for very long, as each guitarist seemed to be playing the same ideas, just at faster speeds. Without being too hard on Moore, he is one of the more interesting of the shredders and has one of the cleaner sounds. Ironically, Tony Macalpine is the keyboardist here and would soon emerge with an identical sound to Moore's. The better moments here are on the more aggressive numbers such as "In Control" and "Saved by a Miracle," with the latter containing a decent drum solo by the underrated Tommy Aldridge and a fine acoustic introduction by Moore. Mind's Eye is a classic in the shredder community, but rates as just a display of technical ability to the casual listener.

Santana - Santana 1969 [2007 UDCD 773]

2011-01-01T11:31:00.006+02:00

Genre: Rock/Pop/Soul

Style: Rock, Blues-Rock, Fusion, Latin Rock

Format: flac + cue + log

Label: Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab [UDCD 773] 2007

Original Release Date: 1969

*The Santana legend on record starts here, a multi-million-seller that popped two great singles ( "Jingo," "Evil Ways" ) and became a concept album listening experience in the bargain. Released in-store the day after Woodstock (August 19, 1969), the LP mixed the classic Santana recipe: a rockin' bitches brew of Soul, R&B, Afro-Cuban, Mexican, blues and jazz, and cooked it through the free form jam mode that ruled the Fillmore West stage. The original 6-man lineup cut this LP in three weeks: Carlos Santana (guitar, vocals), Gregg Rolie (keyboards, vocals), Dave Brown (bass), Mike Shrieve (drums), Jose "Chepito"Areas and Mike Carabello (percussion).

1. Waiting
2. Evil Ways
3. Shades of Time
4. Savor
5. Jingo
6. Persuasion
7. Treat
8. You Just Don't Care
9. Soul Sacrifice

Carlos Santana - vocals, guitar, congas, percussion

Michael Shrieve - Drums

Neal Schon - Guitar

Tower of Power - Horn

Luis Gasca - Trumpet

Jose Chepitу Areas - Percussion, Conga, Timbales

Gregg Rolie - Organ, Organ, Piano, Piano, Keyboards, Vocals, Vocals

Coke Escovedo - Percussion

David Brown - Bass

Mike Carabello - Percussion, Conga

Alberto Gianquinto - Arranger, Arranger

Before the arrival of Carlos Santana's eponymous band, the San Francisco rock scene drew the inspiration for its jam-oriented music mainly from blues, rock, and Eastern modalities. Santana added Latin music to the mix, forever changing the course of rock & roll history. On Santana's groundbreaking debut album, the group mixes Latin percussion with driving rock grooves. Santana's unique guitar style, alternately biting and liquid, vies with the multiple percussionists for the sonic focus. Unlike later efforts, Santana's first album features an abundance of loose collective compositions based on a couple of simple riffs ("Jingo," "Soul Sacrifice"). This approach allows for Santana and his bandmates to flex their improvisational muscles to fine effect. The high energy level on SANTANA is infectious--the laid-back feel of other '60s S.F. groups was clearly not for Carlos and company.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 150 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The Sony Legacy Edition of Santana's 1969 self-titled debut album is exactly the kind of deluxe treatment that the repackaging and remastering of a classic album deserves. Fine liner notes by Hal Miller guide the listener through the historical journey of this record. First, there is a stunningly remastered version of the original album, front and center with alternate takes of "Savor" and "Soul Sacrifice" added, as well as a studio jam. Musically, Santana is the spot on the map marking the point where everything came together, mutated, and changed. Here Afro-Cuban son, blues, rock, jazz, and funk collided head on, and decided to become something else. Gregg Rolie's swirling, atmospheric organ provided the sonic root equation. Santana's guitar provided the frenzied flight, and Michael Shrieve's Elvin Jones/Roy Haynes-inspired driving kit work provided a dynamic commensurate with the visceral nature of rock. This was not aided, but made possible and furthered by the percussion work of Joe Areas and Michael Caravello, and anchored to earth only by David Brown's rock-solid, dirty-assed bassing. Sure, "Evil Ways" was a monster single, but it doesn't begin to tell the story of the album. Interestingly, with the all the bonus material added, the album doesn't even tell the story of the album. What does offer the key is disc two, which includes the band's original studio sessions for the album -- before the addition of Shrieve and Areas to the band. These tracks, almost all of which appeared in different form on the final version, revealed a talented, original, but loosely focused and slightly timid jamming ensemble that put together some compelling riffs and ideas, but hadn't jelled in a studio setting. Add to this Santana's complete Woodstock performance (with four previously unreleased tracks which took place before the album's release date) and the listener gets floored just contemplating the final release. That in four months, this band had gone from being green and naïve to becoming command performers. This is a remarkable, welcome, and definitive addition to the Santana catalog and raises the watermark for all reissues as well...T. Jurek

Ferrigno, Leal & Kuprij - Promised Land 2003

2010-12-20T08:16:00.005+02:00

Label: Lion Music

Date: 2002

Genres: Progressive Metal, Neo-Classical Metal

Format: wv + cue + log

01. Promised Land
02. The Prisioner
03. Death & Illusions
04. Inner
05. Ethiopia
06. Eternal
07. Vigilante
08. The Prophecy

Vitalij Kuprij keyboards

Marco Ferrrigno guitars on left channel

Javier Leal guitars on right channel

Philip Bynoe bass

Jon Doman drums

Reviewed by Christopher J. Kelter

I had no idea what to expect when I put "Promised Land" into the CD player. It was pretty obvious that it was going to be instrumental music as I could see no credit given to a vocalist. Also, I had a vague idea about virtuoso keyboardist Vitalij Kuprij's role in Artension, but hadn't heard his playing in any manner, shape, or form (oops, I was wrong - I've heard Kuprij on James Murphy's "Feeding The Machine"). Of course, it goes without saying that I'd never heard of the two feature guitarists on "Promised Land" either; Marco Ferrigno and Javier Leal were complete unknowns to me.

Regardless of the players, one spin of "Promised Land" will have your head spinning if you are a fan of the neoclassical style of instrumental metal. Often this style is associated with one guitarist (Vinnie Moore, Tony MacAlpine, Yngwie J. Malmsteen) or occasionally two guitarists (Marty Friedman/Jason Becker). But to hear three virtuosos sharing inspiration, pushing each other, and adding their distinctive musical voices to the performances herein was quite a trip. The music veers more to the style of Yngwie J. Malmsteen and Tony MacAlpine than anyone else I’ve mentioned so far.

Guitarist Javier Leal gives off vibes like a possessed mix of Yngwie J. Malmsteen and Tony MacAlpine as he struts his six-string histrionics. Guitarist Marco Ferrigno has a more diverse approach to his sections. All the while, keyboardist Vitalij Kuprij is laying down a melodic foundation for the music to take flight as well as taking a number of opportunities to solo and give the proceedings a non-guitar explosion into instrumental heaven.

Bassist Philip Bynoe and drummer Jon Doman are pretty much relegated to true rhythmic support, but occasionally get the chance to elevate the music with their skillful playing to near-Liquid Tension Experiment heights. That, my friends, is high praise.

"Promised Land" is a thoroughly enjoyable listen for those of you who enjoy instrumental metal.

Vega - Andaluza (1978)

2010-12-05T15:04:00.005+02:00

Year: 1978 (reissue — 2003, Dro East West)

Label: Fonomusic

Style: Progressive rock

Genre: Prog-folk / Flamenco-rock

Format: APE (image) +CUE+LOG

1. Triana
2. Zona rosa
3. Origen
4. Arco Iris
5. Andaluza
6. Lamentos

Tomas Vega - guitars

Guty Lopez - bass

Larry Martin - drums

Pedro Ample - percussion

Rafael Guillermo - piano, organ, mini-Moog

Enrique Carmona - guitar

Julian Llinas - string arrangements

ProgArchives, erik neuteboom:
In the early Nineties I bought some Spanish progrock magazines (Sirius) in order to improve my ‘one-year-Spanish’ and to discover more of the exciting world of Spanish progressive rock. In one Sirius I noticed an add in which Angel Romero (a known Spanish proghead from Madrid who later moved to the USA) offered his entire progrock LP collection because of a dust-allergy. I felt like a vulture but it was no problem to him, he was happy with my appreciation for the socalled Rock Andaluz, the wonderful blend of Spanish flamenco and progrock. I asked him for advise and bought albums from Cai, Azahar and Vega. On this debut LP guitarplayer Tomas Vega delivers a pleasant progressive blend of flamenco and rock.

1. Triana (3:55): This track is a transition from Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz his work. It contains a cheerful climate and a swinging rhythm-section featuring jazzy inspired flamenco guitar runs, a bit polished string-arrangements and an exciting duel between flowing electric guitar and fast flamenco guitar.
2. Zona rosa (5:53): The first and final part sounds romantic with warm flamenco guitar and tender acoustic piano runs. In between a swinging rhythm and splendid flamenco guitar work, great electric guitar overdubs (howling with echoes from early Triana), propulsive conga percussion and a dynamic rhythm-section.
3. Origen (5:07): This song delivers the most obvious Morish atmosphere (for many years Andalusia was occupied by the Arabs in medieval times): a mid-tempo with an adventurous rhythm-section, exciting flamenco guitar and fiery electric guitar (again some great overdubs), evoking bands like Triana, Mezquita and Iceberg (also Rock Andaluz).
4. Arco Iris (3:30): It starts with warm and sensitive flamenco guitar and soaring strings. Then an accellaration delivering a mid-tempo with powerful electric guitar, sparkling Fender Rhodes piano and again exciting flamenco guitar play.
5. Andaluza (5:32): The titletrack (a transition from Spanish composer Enrique Granados) has a romantic undertone due to the romantic string- arrangements, bringing Alameda to my mind. The jazz inspired flamenco guitar work reminds me strongly of the pivotal and innovative flamenco guitarist Paco De Lucia, outstanding!
6. Lamentos (6:06): The final song delivers great interplay, sensational electric guitar overdubs and alternates between mellow with romantic piano and sensitive flamenco guitar and swinging with fiery electric guitar (an Andalusian undertone).

ESSENTIAL SPANISH PROGROCK!!

Colosseum - Daughter of Time (1970) /1998 Castle Remaster/

2010-11-30T07:26:00.009+02:00

Genre: Progressive Rock

Format: APE (image + .cue)

Released: 1970

Label: CASTLE

1. Three Score And Ten, Amen
2. Time Lament
3. Take Me Back To Doomsday
4. The Daughter Of Time
5. Theme For An Imaginary Western
6. Bring Out Your Dead
7. Downhill And Shadows
8. The Time Machine

Jon Hiseman: Drums, producer

Dave "Clem" Clempson: Guitars, Vocals

Dave Greenslade: Organ, Keyboards, vibraphone

Mark Clarke: Bass, vocals

Chris Farlowe: Vocals

Dick Heckstall-Smith: Saxophones

Barbara Thompson: Flute , Saxophones

Louis Cennamo: Bass

This band had potential. This band had good players. This band really knew how to merge art-rock with jazz so that it would preserve both the emotionality of the former and the colourfulness of the latter. This band lost James Litherland on guitar/vocals and replaced him with equally nimble guitarist Dave Clempson.
And then this band went ahead and replaced its lead singer. And lo and behold, here we have the 'King Midas In Reverse' principle. It's a good thing I've never heard any of Chris Farlowe's solo stuff; if he sounds just as shitty on his regular releases, it spared me a couple of really bad dreams, and if it wasn't until his short stint in Colosseum that he began to sound like that, I would have managed to tolerate a severe disappointment. Anyway, Farlowe's vocals on this album are dreadful. They are pretty powerful, yes, he's belting as if he's trying to get out of his skin, but you can never tell, never ever tell if the guy's primary wish is to sing like (a) a pretentious operatic crooner, (b) a passionate soulster, (c) a hoarse grizzly jazzman, or (d) a dumb rip-roaring cock-rocker. He milks all four of these emplois, as it seems to me, at absolute random choice; the song can begin as an art-rock aria and then transform into a metal rocker or a jazz-pop throwaway, all at a single wave of Mr Farlowe's vocal cords. Don't get me wrong, he's got a good pair, but it's been long proved that it's not the vocal capacities that matter, it's your ability to make the best of 'em that does. And this guy is simply horrendous in this respect. Yuck, I've never been so let down by anybody's vocals since I last listened to Mr Coverdale. Minus one point to Mick Jagger who had the nerve to ever promote this guy, much less giving him 'Out Of Time' to cover. Mick, how could you? There's only one track on the entire album that I can tolerate vocalwise, that would be 'Downhill And Shadows'; not sure if it's Farlowe on vocals there, but if it's him, that's one example of a nicely done, laid-back bluesy work. That's the problem, though: it's the only straightforward blues number on the entire record, and while it's excellently done and features dazzling and highly expressive guitarwork from Clempson, it's still little more than a well-done blues number. With some Really Good Guitar Playing. In the Clapton tradition. Or, maybe a bit sharper than Clapton's usual style. Let's say, "in the Jimmy Page tradition, but without the Jimmy Page gimmickry". The other six songs all represent Colosseum's "typical" art-jazz-rock brand, well-aranged and well-played but, unfortunately, spoilt by the vocals. One of the tracks is a Jack Bruce cover ('Theme For An Imaginary Western'), that, for some reason, was a real favourite of every band that was in some way associated with Jack at the time (I already mentioned the Cream-Colosseum connections, and it was also done by Mountain, one of the members of which was Cream's producer). But I must say that I actually find the Colosseum originals more inventive and less monotonous. Thus, 'Three Score And Ten, Amen' nicely vibrates from funky verses to all-out "epic" choruses pinned upon Greenslade's ominous organ pounding that brings the so much desired medieval notes into focus. Don't be put off by Heisman's drumming, either - he's using his set in a creative way, which means he's bashing all over the place, but he really knows what he's doing. Plus, the rabid wah-wah licks on the tracks can't be disqualified, either. 'Time Lament' is pretty depressing... er, could be pretty depressing. Why didn't they bring out a Peter Hammill to do the vocals on that track? It would be right up the guy's alley; a radical, blistering theatrical delivery would set the scene quite right. The title track slowly rises from humble beginnings to a magnificent climax, just like an art-rock is supposed to (but NEVER like a jazz-rock is supposed to, and yet it is jazzy in its own way). 'Take Me Back To Doomsday' never impressed me that much, but the instrumental 'Bring Out Your Dead' ROOOLES. First, it ain't got no Chris Farlowe. Second, Chris Farlowe doesn't sing on it. Third, Chris Farlowe doesn't do ANYTHING on it. And... oh yeah, it's pretty energetic too. Kinda. Sorta. Nice little instrumental, soon to be forgotten. Anyway, I'd gladly give the album a high 11, low 12, were it not for the fact that (a) I have just added another person to my - very very short - list of intolerable vocalists, and (b) the last track, called, 'The Time Machine' and recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall, is an eight-minute drum solo. These guys were sure taking their Cream legacy a bit too hard. For such a short album, eight minutes of a drum solo is, er, well, you get my drift. The most curious thing is that no review of this album you'll ever find on the Web, so far, at least, won't mention that 'The Time Machine' is just a drum solo. In fact, I may be mistaken, but I think that in one review or short bio of the band, I heard 'Time Machine' being called an 'epic highlight' of the album or something like that. Score for those who insist that reviewers rarely listen to the records they review, especially if nobody's ever heard of these records. Why bother, indeed? It's one chance in a million that somebody will discover their arrogance and set them straight. AND THAT CHANCE HAS ARRIVED! But wait, did I yet tell you about the cool album cover? Look at it. Ain't that a really cool album cover? And yeah, Colosseum took their Roman name very seriously. Too bad they didn't have the brilliant idea to throw Chris Farlowe to the lions on their first live date. Just imagine the popularity!

Talisman - Talisman (1990) {2003 2CD European Remaster}

2010-11-08T07:48:00.004+02:00

Genre: Hard Rock
Format: flac + cue + log
Released: 1995
Label: Rock Treasures

DISC 1:

1. Break your chains
2. Standin' on fire
3. I'll be waiting
4. Dangerous
5. Just between us
6. Queen
7. Lightning strikes
8. Day by Day
9. Women, whiskey & songs
10. Great Sandwich

DISC 2:

1. Break Your Chains (Demo)
2. Under Fire (Demo)
3. If You Need Somebody (Demo)
4. Dangerous (Demo)
5. Oceans (Demo)
6. Lightning Strikes (Demo)
7. Day By Day (Demo)
8. NJBBWD (Demo)
9. Just Between Us (Live)
10. Eternal Flame (Live)
11. Scream Of Anger (Live)
12. NJBBWD (Live)
13. Let Me Love You (Live)

Jeff Scott Soto
-- lead vocals
Marcel Jacob
-- bass
Christopher Stehl
-- guitar
Mats Lindfors
-- guitar
Mats Olausson
-- keyboards
Peter Hermansson
-- drums

Yeah here is the first Talisman album in the orginal Airplay/Vinyl Mania edition, and this group have a fantastic heavy and melodic sound, and Jeff Scott Soto is a fantastic frontman indeed, and the songwriting of Marcel Jacob is really over the top, yeah you probely know everything about this group already, but here is a short story of the group.

Talisman was formed by bass player Marcel Jacob, who had previously played with among others Rising Force, John Norum Group and Power. While Jacob was playing with John Norum, he started working on tracks which he thought would end up on Norum's second solo album. The singer on those demos was Göran Edman, also in John Norum Group at that time. But Norum rejected the songs and, in the meantime, Göran was offered the opportunity to join Yngwie Malmsteen's band.

Jacob found himself with record label interest but no band when he was later contacted by the label which had originally showed some interest in the demos.

Auditions among Swedish vocalist were unsuccessful but Cary Sharaf ex Wasa Express guitar player suggested Jeff Scott Soto: he was called, he got the material and agreed to join the band. Both Soto and Jacob had played on Yngwie Malmsteen's Marching Out in 1985, touring in support of the album to some acclaim, particularly in Japan.

In February 1989 recordings for the first album took place in Stockholm with Christopher Ståhl (Power) and Mats Lindfors (Norum, Grand Slam) on guitars, Peter Hermansson (220 Volt, Norum) playing drums on some tracks and Mats Olausson (Yngwie Malmsteen, Glory) on keyboards. Jacob programmed the rest of drums and played all rhythm guitars with the help of the producer Mats Lindfors on Women, Whiskey and Songs

Unfortunately, Electra, the label Jacob was signed to, went bankrupt just when the mixing was finished and the album'release was delayed. Meanwhile, Soto's US-based project Eyes got signed. Jacob left for Los Angeles to help Eyes demo and record what would be their first release. During this time an employee of the label that had originally signed Talisman moved to a new label and the masters of the first album were bought from the bankrupt label. So Talisman was eventually released in February 1990 on the Airplay/Vinyl Mania label. The first single I'll Be Waiting reached number 2 in Sweden's singles chart and 33,000 copies of the album were sold in two months in Sweden.

Еpica - The Phantom Agony 2003

2010-10-17T10:30:00.004+03:00

Genre: symphonic metal
Format: flac + cue + log
Released: 2003
Label: The End Records

1. Adyta (The Neverending Embrace)
2. Sensorium
3. Cry for the Moon (The Embrace That Smothers, Pt. 4)
4. Feint
5. Illusive Consensus
6. Facade of Reality (The Embrace That Smothers, Pt. 5)
7. Run for a Fall
8. Seif al Din (The Embrace That Smothers, Pt. 6)
9. Phantom Agony

Simone Simons
-- mezzo-soprano
Mark Jansen
-- guitars, grunts, screams, orchestral arrangements
Ad Sluijter
-- guitars
Coen Janssen
-- synths & piano, orchestral and choir arrangements
Yves Huts
-- bass guitar
Jeroen Simons
-- drums

Epica Orchestra:

Thomas Glöckner - violin
Andreas Pfaff - violin
Tobias Rempe - violin
Marie-Theres Stumpf - viola
David Schlage - viola
Jörn Kellermann - cello
Cordula Rhode - cello
Andrè Neygenfind - contrabass

Epica Choir:

Melvin Edmonsen - bass
Previn Moore - tenor
Bridget Fogle - alto
Cinzia Rizzo - alto
Annie Goeble - soprano
Amanda Somerville - soprano, vocal coach

Additional musicians

Olaf Reitmeier - acoustic guitars on "Feint" and "Run for a Fall", engineer
Annette Berryman - flute on "Run for a Fall"

Marcel, ProgPower Online, 7/03

"A new chapter in the successful book of Gothic Metal is written by guitarist and composer Mark Jansen (ex-After Forever), so forget everything you have heard so far and prepare yourself for the awesome beauty of Epica. Inspired by the Arab culture, Epica brings a unique blend of classical orchestra and choir, brutal grunts and screams and the exquisite mezzo soprano vocals of Simone Simons. (...) From the moment you hear the first notes of ‘Adyta’, you are captured by the beautiful and mysterious atmosphere of 'The Phantom Agony', where Arab and Latin influences are mixed with powerful drums and shredding guitars and garnished with grunts and screams by Mark Jansen. Vocalist Simone Simons is a true revelation, as she seemed to have walked right out of an opera, straight into Epica, and it is a pure delight to hear her sing. The use of a real choir as well as choir samples add to the atmosphere in the songs. (...) Of course, if you listen to The Phantom Agony, you hear a sound which is very similar to After Forever, no surprise as mark Jansen was one of the main songwriters in After Forever. However, do not make the mistake to view Epica as just a clone of After Forever! Epica is an entirely separate band with their own sound, that differs enough from After Forever, as it is less metal and more classical influences...."

Jon Lord - Windows (1974)

2010-10-08T08:09:00.003+03:00

Genre: Jon Lord Music
Format: ape + cue + log
Released: 1974
Label: Purple Records

1. Continuo on B.A.C.H
2. Window - 1st Movement - Renga
3. Window - 2nd Movement - Gemini
4. Window - 3rd Movement - Alla Marcia Allegro

Glenn Hughes
-- Bass and vocals
JON LORD
-- Keyboards
Tony Ashton
-- Vocals
David Coverdale
-- Vocals
Pete York
-- Drums
Ray Fenwick
-- Guitar

Orchestra Opera conducted by Eberhard Schoener

Review by purple records

"Windows" was Jon's fourth experiment at merging elements of rock and classical music, and was recorded live during June 1974. Jon had been asked by German festival organisers to perform a special concert in Munich, and got together with conductor Eberhard Schoener to compose a new piece especially for the evening. In fact, two works were performed. WINDOW comprised three movements, including a reworked section from his earlier album GEMINI SUITE. The second piece, CONTINUO ON BACH, saw Jon and Eberhard having his stab at finishing a composition which had been left uncompleted upon Bach's death. The piece had been put together for a German show the previous year, but this was the first time it had been recorded.

The Munich Chamber Opera Orchestra performed alongside Jon Lord, fellow Deep Purple players David Coverdale (vocals) and Glenn Hughes (bass), and a host of rock luminaries including Ray Fenwick, Pete York, Tony Ashton, and others - with Eberhard Schoener on moog.

Windows is at times a demanding listen, but the ever-changing musical textures, and the sheer quality of the performances, have delighted and intrigued listeners for twenty five years now.

The original gatefold album was deleted back in the late seventies, and is now a very collectable artifact. This exclusive 25th anniversary reissue will be welcomed by fans everywhere, especially in the UK where it has never been issued on CD. The CD has been cut from the original quarter inch Abbey Road masters for the best possible sound quality while the 12 page colour booklet carries detailed notes, plus contemporary cuttings and memorabilia.

Robert Plant - Pictures At Eleven 1982 (JPN.Remastered + Expanded)

2010-09-23T07:58:00.006+03:00

Genre: Rock
Format: ape + cue + log
Released: 1982
Label: Swan Song, Rhino Entertainment Company

After the long, hot journey in the Zeppelin, an oasis. Robert Plant’s first solo album is rooted in the music of Zeppelin, of course, but that’s not to say he’s tied to the past. Rather, he branches out, embracing a lighter, crisper studio sound that indulged in familiar exotica while shedding the heavy intensity of Led’s epic arrangements. You’ve seen the swagger of “Burning Down One Side” and “Worse Than Detroit” before, but unchained from his former band Plant could pass for Steven Tyler in a serious mood. Drummer Phil Collins keeps the beat on its toes, Cozy Powell is more a student of the Bonham school, and the core of Robbie Blunt, Paul Martinez and Jezz Woodroffe are as tight as any band Ozzy brought along for the ride. If you’re looking for a lost Zeppelin album, better to bark up Coda’s tree. If you’re looking for Plant’s genius in full flower, you really want Principles. Pictures At Eleven is simply a stake in the ground; a declaration that there would be life after Zeppelin, and it would look something like this (cue the moody “Like I’ve Never Been Gone”). What’s most impressive about Pictures is that Plant and Blunt come up with some awfully good material. Clearly, I hadn’t given Plant a large enough share of Zeppelin’s glory, and Pictures makes plain that much of what was best about that band (that indefinable groove, the heavy caravans of emotion driven through dark endless night) emanated from the singer. I’d always seen him as something of a slightly more substantive Roger Daltrey, and I didn’t count on Pictures At Eleven being so close to the genuine article. (Meanwhile, Jimmy Page, the grand architect, was noodling out inconsequential soundtracks.) It’s not the first time I’ve put my money on the wrong horse. It was, however, the first time that anyone from the legendary Led dared to get back in the saddle. To his eternal credit, Plant came in riding tall like we remembered.

1. Burning Down One Side
2. Moonlight in Samosa
3. Pledge Pin
4. Slow Dancer
5. Worse Than Detroit
6. Fat Lip
7. Like I've Never Been Gone
8. Mystery Title

Bonus tracks:
9. Far Post
10. Like I’ve Never Been Gone (Live)

ROBERT PLANT
-- vocals, mixing, design
ROBBIE BLUNT
-- guitars, mixing assistance
PHIL COLLINS
-- drums
PAUL MARTINEZ
-- bass
JEZZ WOODROFFE
-- keyboards & synths, mixing assistance

Cozy Powell
-- drums (4,7)
Raphael Ravenscroft
-- sax (3)

Notes:

Remaster of the original 1982 album with two bonus tracks. Track 9 originally was a b-side on the Burning Down One Side UK 12" single, and Track 10 was recorded on tour supporting the Principle Of Moments album, but is previously unreleased.

Tracks 1 to 9 recorded at Rockfield Studios, Monmouth. Track 10 recorded at The Summit, Houston, TX, on Sept. 20, 1983.

Album remastered at Digiprep.

Bonus tracks remastered at RAK Recording Studios.

Therion - A'Arab Zaraq Lucid Dreaming 1997

2010-09-20T07:22:00.006+03:00

Genre: Modern Classical, Symphonic Metal, Heavy Metal
Format: flac + cue + log
Released: 1997
Label: Nuclear Blast

Sound: This is probably the best album to introduce new listeners to Therion. This is a very well orchestrated and guitar oriented album that dips even towards classical music. The choirs and duos in this album are also very intriguing to hear. This is also the second post pure death metal album showing the shift from former death metal to progressive/gothic metal.

Lyrics and Singing: The lyrics are first of all Written by Thomas Karlsson the leader of the occult group "Dragon Rouge". These Lyrics always tell the Beliefs and ideals. The choirs and singer both chime in finely and sound good with the music. The female and male duets are also a good listen with shifts. The solo soprano singers just like on Lepaca Kliffoth though on this album the singers are greatly impressive. The lyrics if dissected by what is being said can be moving or at least challenge how one thinks.

Impression: I like this album the most of any Therion I have heard. If you like bands like Nightwish and also Kamelot this is somewhere in between in sounds. I really like the Symphony of the Dead Instrumental and The Quiet Desert are great tracks. I sometimes wish this was a little less symphonic and more metal oriented yet it is a true Masterpiece nonetheless. If This was Stolen I would be happy the person had the taste to find this and be angry I would have to wait to get this shipped but would certainly buy this again. I personally think this is also the best way to listen to Therion for the first time as appose to Deggial which takes a bit of an open mind and a taste for classical music. ~ Reviewed by: tbarrettl

1. In Remembrance
2.Bl

ack Fairy (European Metal Version)
3. Fly To The Rainbow
(Scorpions cover)
4. Children Of The Damned
(Iron Maiden cover)
5. Under Jolly Roger
(Running Wild cover)
6. Symphony Of The Dead
(new instrumental version)
7. Here Comes The Tears
(Judas Priest cover)

Therion Versions
8. Enter Transcendental Sleep
9. The Quiet Desert
10. Down The Qliphotic Tunnel
11. Up To Netzach / Floating Back

Original Soundtrack "The Golden Embrace"
12. The Fall Into Eclipse
13. Enter Transcendental Sleep
14. The Gates To A'Arab Zaraq Are Open
15. The Quiet Desert
16. Down The Qliphotic Tunnel
17. Up To Netzach
18. Floating Back

Christofer Johnsson: Guitar, Hammond organ, Keyboards, Gran Piano
Piotr Wawrzeniuk: Drums, Vocals
Jonas Mellberg: Guitar, Keyboard
Lars Rosenberg: Bass
Dan Swanö: Vocals
Tobbe Sidegård: Vocals
Peter Tägtgren: Additional lead guitars
Gottfried Koch: Acoustic guitar, Grand Piano

All choir and solo opera singing on this album were done by
Bettina Stumm: Soprano
Raphaela Mayhaus: Soprano
Marie-Therese Kubel: Alto
Ergin Onat: Tenor
Klaus Bülow: Bass
Joachim Gebhardt: Bass

CD in a 4-page foldout Digipak with additional booklet containing liner notes.

Tracks 1-3 recorded during the "Theli" session at Impuls Music Studio, Germany, Jan-March 1996.

Tracks 4-5 recorded in a session at Abyss Studio, Sweden, June 1996.

Tracks 6-7 recorded at Impuls Music Studios, Germany, Dec. 1996. Track 6 was originally released onthe "Beyond Sanctorum" album in 1992. At first, it was also planned to rerecorded "Dawn OfPerishness" from the "Symphony Masses" album, but as the result wasn't suitable, Christofer Johnssondecided to go for a Judas Priest cover instead.

Tracks 8-11 recorded in a session at Impuls Music Studios, Germany, Dec. 1996. The tracks are socalled "Therionized" versions of the songs from the soundtrack.

Tracks 12-18 taken from the original soundtrack to "The Golden Embrace" Art Movie (1997) by PerAlbinsson.

Track 3 originally performed by Scorpions (1974).

Track 4 originally performed by Iron Maiden (1982).

Track 5 originally performed by Running Wild (1987).

Track 7 originally performed by Judas Priest (1976).

Neil Zaza - When Gravity Fails 2006

2010-08-25T07:05:00.003+03:00

Genre: Instrumental Rock
Format: ape + cue + log
Released: 2006
Label: Melodik Records

1) Something Anything
2) Purple Plush
3) Cinematic
4) In My Dreams
5) Bleed
6) Celestine
7) Danza Della Notte
8) Heavyocity
9) My Only Son
10) My Dearest
11) Ultra
12) The Awakening
13) Before the Throne

Neil Zaza (Lead, Rhythm, Baritone & Bass Guitars, Synth)
Michael Anthony (Bass)
Timothy M. Bradford (Keyboards)
Bill Cioce (Drums)
Peter Frampton (Guitar)
Doug Johns (Bass)
Scotty Kormos (Drums)
Mark Leach (Hammond B-3 Organ)
Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Keyboards)
Bobby Rock (Drums)
Jordan Rudess (Keyboards)
Steve Smith (Drums, Percussion)
T.M. Stevens (Funky Bass)
David Strieter (Keyboards)
Garry "GMan" Sullivan (Drums)

Anyone that is familiar with Zaza’s work will know that his work is a near perfect marriage of

melody and flash and "When Gravity Fails" is perhaps his ultimate exercise yet in this art form.

"When Gravity Fails” is a superb instrumental album. I defy anyone to listen to this album and not be blown away. Zaza really has come up with an ace with this record, and whilst "Melodica" was a very good album, ‘”When Gravity Fails” can be considered to this point Zaza’s magnum opus. Stylistically it has all the right ingredients, yet there is an element of passion here that is

often missing from instrumental works even from the perceived big name instrumental market leaders. On the basis of this album (not to mention Zaza’s back catalogue), Neil Zaza deserves to be at the very top of the guitar elite. ESSENTIAL. - Virtuosityone.com

Now comes When Gravity Fails, the Ohio native's eighth CD loaded with 13 melodic hard-rock gems, jaw-dropping solos and an even more impressive guest list than Staring at the Sun that would make better-known players squeal. Unlike other instrumental guitarists, Zaza is smart enough to retain control of his playing. Sure, When Gravity Fails lifts off with lots of soaring, high-pitched arena-rock soloing (part of what makes the record so refreshing and endearing), but nary a single note sounds out of place. Nor does Zaza ignore his fellow musicians. In fact, “Cinematic” emerges as one of the album's prettiest and best songs precisely because Zaza allows Rudess a mesmerizing piano solo in the middle, accented by Frampton's classic-rock fretwork. The man's example is one that many younger players - and even some older ones - should heed. We need more musicians like Neil Zaza. - Sea Of Tranquility ~

California Guitar Trio with Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto - CG3+2 (2002)

2010-07-03T06:14:00.005+03:00

Genre: Progressive Rock
Format: flac + cue + log
Released: 2002
Label: Inside Out Music

Allmusic Review: Review by Franзois Couture Since 1998, the California Guitar Trio has regularly toured with expanded versions of the band. The fan favorite is no doubt the quintet form with King Crimson members Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto. A live album, Live at the Key Club, was made available in 2001 through the CGT Direct Collectors' Series. CG3+2 takes the quintet in the studio to record their repertoire. The track list includes a couple new CGT compositions, jams and studio constructions credited to the whole group, a few more of those incredible covers the band is known for, and a few old favorites revisited. Granted, "Melrose Avenue," "Blockhead," and "Train to Lamy," all dating back to the trio's first two albums (Yamanashi Blues in 1994; Invitation in 1995), suffer a bit from overexposure, but having a rhythm section to back them up is a whole new thing — "Melrose Avenue" turns into a splendidly driving album opener. The group compositions, in which engineer Bill Munyon also had a word, are not as satisfying as the trio's own songs. Somewhat looser, they don't pack as much energy or beauty as "Skyline" and "Eve," the two new pieces co-written by the team of Bert Lams, Paul Richards, and Hideyo Moriya. The highlights are provided by the covers: Yes' "Heart of the Sunrise," the Mahavishnu Orchestra's "Dance of Maya" (did someone mention virtuosity?), and two delightful Japanese traditional tunes rearranged by Moriya — "Zundoko-Bushi" even includes bits of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" and "Vrooom." CG3+2 is only half new to the fans and constitutes a meager offering composition-wise. But if the idea of the guitar trio being backed by such a skilled rhythm section makes you salivate, then by all means grab it. You won't be disappointed!

I love these guys and I may like this cover of Heart of the Sunrise evenbetter than I like hearing Yes perform it.

01. Melrose Ave

02. Skyline

03. Dancing Anne

04. Heart Of The Sunrise

05. Hanagasa

06. Zundoko Bushi

07. Blockhead

08. Dance Of Maya

09. Swampy Space

10. Swampy Return

11. Train To Lamy

12. Eve

13. What I Am

14. The Chase

Bert Lams: guitar, tenor guitar
Paul Richards: guitar, slide guitar
Hideyo Moriya: guitar, mando-cello
Tony Levin: bass, Chapman stick
Pat Mastelotto: traps and buttons

Produced by Bill Munyon & Pat Mastelotto with the CGT and Tony Levin

Recorded at Wire, Austin TX, 2-5 Sep 2001

Engineering by Bill Munyon, assisted by Todd Dillon

Additional mixing and assistance: Paul Richards, Bert Lams

Mastered by David Singleton, Alex Mundy; additional mastering by Jim Wilson

Art direction and design by Ioannis, Alan Chappell

Digital paintings & photography: Ioannis

Band photos by Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto

Notes: (****)

The California Guitar Trio were all once students of Robert Fripp's and have a long association with King Crimson and Tony Levin, for example guesting on Levin's Pieces of the Sun. Levin had toured before with the CGT when he and Mastelotto joined them to make this CG3+2 quintet for touring in 2001. After touring (and a live album, Live at the Key Club), they went into the studio and made this. (The initial plan had been for a tour and album had been with Terry Bozzio rather than Mastelotto on drums, but Bozzio dropped out shortly before touring began.)

Release was originally planned on Discipline Global Mobile, but cutbacks at DGM meant CG3+2 emerged on InsideOut.

CGT's Paul Richards described the album as "very different from any previously released CGT studio album. It features more of the electric/improvisational style of the CGT and has some amazing playing by Pat and Tony." "Heart of the Sunrise", "Dance of Maya", "Eve", "Melrose Avenue", "Zundoko-Bushi" and "Train to Lamy" were all heard on that earlier touring, while tracks (9), (10), (13) and (14) represent the sort of improvisation that had been going on. Pieces like "Melrose Avenue", "Blockhead", "Eve" and the cover of "Dance of Maya" date back further still. The cover of "Heart of the Sunrise" (which, of course, Levin played while in ABWH) is very nice: Howe's, Wakeman's and even many of Anderson's parts are covered by the CGT on guitars, while Levin and Mastelotto add their own flavours to the rhythm section.

VA - A Special Tribute To Pink Floyd 2005 [SIS 4158-2]

2010-06-25T20:28:00.004+03:00

Genre: Progressive Rock
Format: ape + cue + log
Released: 2005
Label: Silver Star

01. Tommy Shaw, Ritchie Kotzen, Tony Levin, Mike Beard, Edgar Winter - Money
02. Doug Pinnick, Gary Hoey, Mike Porcaro, Greg Bissonette, Derek Sherinian - Welcome To The Machi
03. Chris Squire, Alan White and Billy Sherwood (Yes) - Comfortably Numb
04. Steve Lukather, Marco Mendoza, Vinnie Colaiuta - Shine On You Crazy Diamond
05. Bob Kulik, Jimmy Haslip, Scotty Page, Pat Torpey, Jeff Scott Soto - Us And Them
06. Glenn Hughes, Elliot Easton, Tony Franklin, Aynsley Dunbar - Young Lust
07. Jason Sheff, Dweezil Zappa, Tony Franklin, Aynsley Dunbar - Run Like Hell
08. Robben Ford, Tony Franklin, Aynsley Dunbar, Steve Porcaro - Any Colour You Like
09. Fee Waybill, Ronnie Montrose, Mike Porcaro, Gregg Bissonette - Another Brick In The Wall
10. Bob and Bruce Kulick, Bobby Kimball, Mike Porcaro, Gregg Bissonette - Have A Cigar
11. Rick McAuley, Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, Phil Soussan, Eric Singer - Breathe (In The Air)

Robin McAuley - Vocals
Doug Pinnick - Vocals
Steve Porcaro - Keyboards
Mike Porcaro - Bass
Jason Scheff - Vocals
Billy Sherwood - Guitar, Producer, Engineer, Vocals
Jeff Scott Soto - Vocals
Philip Soussan - Bass
Pat Torpey - Drums
Derek Sherinian - Keyboards
Marco Mendoza - Bass
Kris Solem - Mastering
Richie Kotzen - Guitar
Tommy Shaw - Vocals
Fee Waybill - Vocals
Elliot Easton - Guitar
Aynsley Dunbar - Drums
Jimmy Haslip - Bass
Gary Hoey - Guitar
Mike Baird - Drums
Gregg Bissonette - Drums
Vinnie Colaiuta - Drums
Edgar Winter - Saxophone
Tony Franklin - Bass
Bobby Kimball - Vocals
Bob Kulick - Guitar, Producer
Bruce Kulick - Guitar
Tony Levin - Bass
Steve Lukather - Guitar, Vocals
Ronnie Montrose - Guitar
Chris Squire - Bass, Vocals
Dweezil Zappa - Guitar
Robben Ford - Guitar

Having listened to their albums and live recordings a zillion times, I'm always looking for fresh interpretations of Pink Floyd. Most tributes phonographically copy the original band or fall embarrassingly short in the attempt. Both types are dull. "A Special Tribute to Pink Floyd" falls into the first category. That written, there is nothing wrong with this recording. The musicians perform well and the production is excellent. Unlike the Easy Star All-Stars that did a reggae tribute, this is just straight rock. The esteemed Australian Pink Floyd Show also plays literal versions, but it's a live experience. The Aussies appreciate the futility of making such an audio recording. The listener is better off passing this one by and enjoying the originals.

Forcefield - Forcefield II The Talisman 1988

2010-06-11T20:31:00.003+03:00

Genre: Hard Rock
Format: ape + cue + log
Released: 1992
Label: President Records Ltd.

1. The Talisman
2. Year of the Dragon
3. Tired of Waiting For You
4. Heartache
5. Good Is Good
6. Carrie
7. Without Your Love
8. I Lose Again
9. The Mercenary
10. Black Night/Strange Kind of Woman
11. I Lose Again - (Instrumental Version)

An Anglo-Dutch project featuring ex-FOCUS man Jan Akkerman, the band would attract an enviable array of experienced Rock talent over a series of albums. FORCEFIELD also comprised ex-FANCY vocalist / guitarist Ray Fenwick. Ray had also been a member of the IAN GILLAN band in 1976 and also cut the bizarrely titled 'Keep America Beautiful Get A Haircut' solo album in 1971 (Decca SKL 5090). The FORCEFIELD debut comprised a clutch of re-worked well known Rock standards such as DEEP PURPLE's 'Smoke On The Water', LED ZEPPELIN's 'Whole Lotta Love', THE KINKS 'Set Me Free' and 'You Really Got Me' and CREAM's 'White Room' and 'Sunshine Of Your Love'. The featured musicians included the WHITESNAKE rhythm section of drummer COZY POWELL and bassist Neil Murray, SERGEANT vocalist PETE PRESCOTT and bass player Mo Foster.
A second effort, 1988's 'Forcefield II - The Talisman', had Fenwick joined by JAN AKKERMAN. On vocals would be BLACK SABBATH's TONY MARTIN with Powell back on the drums. - RockDetector

...In the late 80s Cozy became involved with guitarist Ray Fenwick's Forcefield project. This was a series of albums, starting with the self-titled Forcefield, in 1986, which featured various musicians from the Deep Purple family tree (e.g. Graham Bonnett, Don Airey, Neil Murray, Bernie Marsden, Micky Moody, Tony Martin, Mo Foster... and the list goes on). The songs covered on that first album included (what else?) Smoke On The Water, as well as Sunshine Of Your Love, White Room, Whole Lotta Love, You Really Got Me...
This was followed by Forcefield II - The Talisman in 1987 - Cozy Powell - a personal take