Posted in Cd Reviews

Roadrunner/Warner

MASTODON was formed in 1999 after meeting at a HIGH ON FIRE concert. The debut, “Remission” was released in 2002, and by now they have reached five albums. Apart from the first demo, featureing one Eric Saner on vocals, the band has always consisted of; Troy Sanders, bass/vocals, Brent Hinds, guitars/vocals, Bill Kelliher, guitars/Backing vocals, and drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor.
This album has its flaws. As much as I enjoy the melodic depression of “Black Tongue” and the groovy SABBATH of the nonsensical “Curl of the Burl” I get totally fed up with the space opera rock of the spaced out “Stargasm”. The title track also has a way of making me reach for the fast fwd button, which also goes for the metal take on “Age of Aquarius” called “The Sparrow”...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Lion/Warner

This band or project includes the vocal talents of Göran Edman (ex. YNGWIE MALMSTEEN), Mark Boals (ex. YNGWIE MALMSTEEN), and Carsten Lizard” Schoulz (EVIDENCE ONE). But the band leader is a one Boguslaw Balcerak, a pole who started playing as late as at 16. Things seems to have moved rapidly in Warsaw since then but the difficult task of finding a suitable vocalist delayed them from 2007 onwards. The chosen chance invitation vocalists are apparently Boguslaw´s own favorites. To enhance their opportunities they got Andy LaRocque to master the album. The rest of the band is made up of bassists Kamil Wyzi and Tomek “Zawad” Dybalski, drummer Marcin “Kanclerz” Kwasny and keyboard player Lukasz Dybalski. Everything is described as killer, let´s check it out.

The declara...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Feedback Records/Doolittle Group/Sound Pollution

DANNY NEUBECKER started his career in his teens, but has settled for pop/rock with catchy hooks. He is still in an early stage but seems dedicated to his music, and very focused on social medias marketing. Is the music as digital as his other plans?

The tra-la-la factor of this kind of music is never to be underestimated. Opener “You Light Up My Life” ha a refrain in the vein of an old AOR stomper. The audience is potentially as big as can be, and Danny has a very light and gentle voice that will scare no one off. He sports a Swedish sound, of cause, but with a hint a British boy band of your choice. The authenticity of this kind of music is never easy to prove...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Lion/Warner

SONATA ARCTICA guitarist Elias Viljanen debuted as a solo artist with “Taking the Lead” back in 2002. An unknown at the time, Elias has had a lot of success with his main band, but a a solo artist he allegedly attracted the interest of the legendary STEVE VAI and chartered in the top ten rank of guitar9.com bestseller chart. This re-release is expanded with an unreleased seven track live DVD that has not been previously available.

The short opener “Evoke the Spirit” feels hampered due to its 35 seconds duration. “Evil Rock” is a nicely fast paced piece, a display of a sensitive player who aims for the arena style. I´d say that Elias surprises me on several occasions, but never as much as in “Axemaster”, an impressive track that shows his sensitive playing at its best...

Posted in Interviews

Grá har gjort den perfekta skivan! I alla fall om man får tro Andreas ”Heljarmadr” Vingbäck, sång och gitarr, som bildade bandet tillsammans med Dimman Ljungi, trummor, för drygt ett år sedan. Idag, 2011-11-11 släpps första och självbetitlade fullängdaren och i samband med den en video.
– Två av våra statister höll på att stryka med under inspelningen, berättar Heljarmadr på telefon från Stockholm. Vi hade arrangerat en inspelningsplats ute i skogen med hängsnaror och facklor där statisterna skulle ligga som lik i väntan på att bli nergrävda. Två av dem blev lite överexalterade och lekte för inlevelsefullt med hängsnarorna så de svimmade och spydde men allt gick slutligen bra och det mesta fastnade på film.

Videon illustrerar låten ”Kraft” och på skivan är ...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Det hänger en mysig stämning över KB ikväll som är full av en faslig blandning människor. Här finns både unga som gamla, hårdrockare som skjortnissar. Alla har vi en sak gemensamt, Taj Mahal! För de som inte känner till Mahal så är han en legend inom bluesen. Mahal har haft ett stort inflytande när det kommer till formandet av bluesgenren som vi känner till idag. Under sin dryga 50-år långa karriär har han sammanfogat icke traditionella former inom bluesen, samt tagit inspiration från Karribien, Afrika och Stilla Havet.
Med sig på denna turné har han sina två följeslagare, Bill Rich på bas och Kester Smith på trummor, därav namnet; Taj Mahal & Trio.

Klockan blir 21 och scenen är fortfarande tom, förutom instrumenten då...

Posted in Cd Reviews

”How to get your love” is the second single from the debut album from Red Sky July.

The band are a new name to me, but when you look at the members you’ll see that there is a lot of talent and experience here – you have husband and wife team Shelly Poole (Alisha’s attic) and Ally McErlaine (Texas) plus Charity Hair (The Alice Band). In 2009 they wrote and recorded their album, but Ally suffered a major brain aneurysm and everything was put on hold while he recovered. Last summer the band got back together and wrote some new songs before recording the final version of the album live in Bristol.

This is a fantastic song that I must have listened to 30 or 40 times since it dropped through my letterbox yesterday...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Embodied tar steget ut I världen.

Det är med stor nyfikenhet som jag sätter I Jönköpingsbandet Embodieds debut cd I spelaren! Jag har följt bandet under några år och sett utvecklingen, och jag kan direkt konstatera att debuten inte är något hastverk. Embodied killarna har verkligen gjort ett genomarbetat album, man presenterar 10 låtar och inte en enda av dom känns onödig, att man menar allvar understryks av att man valde King Diamond gitarristen Andy LaRocque som producent. Andy har verkligen styrt upp produktionen och fått till ett sound som passar Embodied som handsken...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Galia Arad is a singer songwriter based in New York. Originally from Bloomington, Indiana. Her classical musician parents and classical voice training steered her directly into the arms of rock ‘n’ roll.

This is Galia Arad’s second album (the first being ”Sand in your bed”). It’s a deceptively simple album – just her singing and playing acoustic guitar, but there’s actually a lot more to the album than that.
The album is a concept album and tells the story of a girl finding love with a young Irishman. The songs are superbly written with the story easy to follow through the songs and with plenty of emotion, warmth and at times bitterness. The guitar playing is nicely done so it never distracts focus away from Galia’s lovely voice but instead merely complements it nicely.

This is de...

Posted in Interviews

Ant May and Rowena Lamb spoke to Stefan, Inga, Sly and Bastian from Van Canto in London when they played as part of the Out of the Dark tour in October and asked them a few questions..

Festivalphoto: How are you enjoying the tour so far?

Van Canto (Stefan): A good tour, many places we’ve never been to before with the band, perhaps on holiday but not the band. We’ve never been to the UK before so it’s very exciting, and right now half of the tour is over and the lat part of the tour will take place in Germany where we are already well known so it will be the routine part of the tour but for now we’re excited for this evening.

Festivalphoto: Have you managed to see much in the UK?

Van Canto (Stefan): No, today I think we had about 3 hours time, and we went to Camden Town, that was nice, sp...