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Massacre/Sound Pollution

This is the fourth offering by old school hard rock band THE ORDER. The band has roots in bands like the excellent thrash outfit GURD, as well as JESR, PURE INC. etc. Apparently this lot wants to relive the eighties, who wouldn´t?

Opener “The Power of Love” has a familiar ring to the riff, and is an unashamed homage to the finest of hard rock with a 25 year pedigree. Vocalist Gianni Pontillo knows his Paul Stanley, and don´t hesitate to sound more than a bit alike. “Long Live Rock´n´Roll” is nothing like the RAINBOW tune, but contagious albeit not up to par with the opener. To spoil the fun I must say that there is nothing in here but high octane 80´s hard rock and hair metal that either chases chicks or goes on a rampage...

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Escape/Sound Pollution

Behind the moniker OXYGEN stands the quartet of Tony Niva, vocals (ex. ZANITY, ex. SWEDISH EROTICA, NIVA, ex. LION`S SHARE etc.), guitarist Roger Ljunggren, keyboardist and backing vocalist Marcus Persson, plus drummer Bengan Andersson. Tony released his first NIVA effort in Japan in 1994, and he has been pretty much active as a writer or in a band situation ever since. The style is of cause typically Swedish, with a slight American/Canadian early eighties touch.

“Janitor of Love” opens up the proceedings nicely, but the title is a bit lame. The song is quite alright apart from that, and the same goes for the ultra-Swedish “Anything for You”...

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Massacre/Sound Pollution

Ludwigsburg´s female fronted epic/goth metal merchants VOICES OF DESTINY return with their second outing. One change of personnel later the band is now lead by Maike Holzmann, the others are still founding members Christopher Gutjahr, guitars, and bass player Jens Hartwig, plus keyboard player/growler Lukas Palme and drummer Erik Seitz. A convincing album with more variety and heaviness is the message in the info sheet. Let´s check.

An intro is an intro, but the first track to feature vocals is the keyboard-laden title track. “My Separation” fares little better but the more refrain focused “Dreams Awake” is more in line with what I want from the band...

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THe Birthday Massacre are back with their fifth album – Hide and Seek. The Toronto based synth rockers formed in 1999 and released their first album in 2002. Since then they’ve been very consistent , releasing albums every 2-3 years, and with each album evolving their sound slightly rather than going in for radical changes. This approach has brought them a loyal fanbase.

The album was mixed by guitarist Rainbow and Dave Ogilvie (Skinny Puppy, Nine Inch Nails, Killing Joke, Marilyn Manson) who worked with the band on their last two albums.

”We wanted ‘Hide And Seek’ to have a certain depth and atmosphere, so we took time to create a lot of new sound textures that would complement running throughout it”, explains TBM guitarist Rainbow...

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Batabeat is a musical project combining computer-assisted sound designs and live music. Musicians and music styles differ according to the various events or projects that Batabeat participates in. Guillaume Soucy is the mastermind behind this Montreal based project.

”Le projet Senecal” is a tribute to Patrick Senecal, a top horror writer from Quebec, who is sometimes referred to as the Quebec Stephen King. The album is a concept album, with each track being based on a different one of his books.

While I’m not usually a fan of instrumental albums, this really is something that little bit different as its use of sound effects as well as the music really adds something extra to it and that really helps each track stand apart from the others and makes it far more enjoyable to listen to...

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Where to start with this review? OK Eloah are an Austrian band, who’s name is one of the hebrew words for God. The lineup for the album is huge – an astonishing 13 members playing acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, saxophone, trombone, piano and flutes as well as vocals.
Musically it’s quite unusual. I can only describe it as Jazz blended with Prog rock, alternative and new age – it’s a really quite bizarre album. That’s not meant in a negative way – it’s just a very strange album, but sometimes strange is good.

The music is dominated by the acoustic guitar which is extremely well done, and the saxophone and trombone add something extra to reall make the songs stand out from almost anything else you’ll have listened to.

I have no idea if the first track title actuall...

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Neal Schon is best known as the guitarist and a founding member of Journey. Over the past four decades he’s released fourteen albums with Journey as well as five solo albums and has earned numerous gold and platinum albums. He’s also performed with Joe Cocker, Sammy Hagar, Paul Rodgers, Larry Graham, Betty Davis, Michael Bolton, fusion legend Jan Hammer and supergroup Bad English,as well as a variety of side projects. In short then he’s got a pretty damn impressive CV.

Having said that, this album is an instrumental, and I’m always slightly dubious about instrumental albums. They’re almost always recorded by a guitarists – possibly as a way to make sure they take centre stage rather than the singers...

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Steve Winwood released his second solo album, ”Arc of a diver” in December 1980. A multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, he recorded everything on the album himself. On its release the album peaked at number 13 in the album charts and managed a very respectable 20 weeks in the chart.
It’s a real classic album that has comfortably stood the test of time – listening to it now it’s still stunningly good. It’s only fitting then that Universal have decided to give it the Deluxe Edition treatment.

So what do we get with the Deluxe edition. Firstly Disc one is the album itself, sounding crystal clear and top quality. Then we have a second disc with the extras. There are different versions of three of the songs plus a BBD Radio 2 Documentary – ”Arc of a diver: The Steve Winwood story”...

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This brand new ABBA collection includes all the hits and more on 2CDs and 1DVD. It’s available in three different versions – a double-CD, a DVD, and a Limited Edition package featuring the two CDs, the DVD and an illustrated 28-page booklet.
The DVD features remastered versions of all the official ABBA promo clips including two previously unreleased videos: Conociéndome, Conociéndote and Gracias por la música (Spanish versions of Knowing Me, Knowing You and Thank You For The Music).

So, it’s a very good collection for anyone wanting an ABBA compilation, but I do have to wonder what sort of person wakes up thinking ”There just aren’t enough Abba compilations around – the world needs another one”...

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BOB MARLEY IN DUB VOL. 1
Bob Marley remains reggae’s greatest icon and a monumental musical figure of our time and continues to inspire and influence people around the world, his legacy continues to resonate as his music is revealed and rediscovered by new generations.
IN DUB VOL. 1, the first in a series of collections of classic, rare and new dub excursions from the Bob Marley & The Wailers catalogue, will be released physically for the first time on September 10th 2012 by Island/Tuff Gong.

This collection was previously released in digital format only in 2010 with several tracks making their CD/vinyl debut...