Here’s the title track from the new album out this year from The Darkness, “Last of Our Kind”…

It’s pretty darn great, and the whole album’s not too bad as well…

Check out the guitar solo starting at 2:34, which is very tasteful and nicely paced with a little bit of flash sprinkled in at just the right moments (like around the 3:00 mark)…

Of course, the track’s secret weapon is that nifty falsetto vocal work…

District 97 has their new album coming out next week.

But you can listen to the totally killer track “Takeover” from it right now — streaming over here.

Prog on!

Rush is the cover story on Rolling Stone:

Teenage Neil was a brainy misfit in a middle-class suburb 70 miles from Toronto who permed his hair, who took to wearing a cape and purple boots on the city bus, who scrawled “God is dead” on his bedroom wall, who got in trouble for pounding out beats on his desk during class. His teacher’s idea of punishment was to insist that he bang on his desk nonstop for an hour’s worth of detention, time he happily spent re-creating Keith Moon’s parts from Tommy. For years, Peart wore a piece of one of Moon’s shattered cymbals around his neck, retrieved froum a Toronto stage after a Who concert, and his current drum kit includes a sample trigger bearing the Who’s old bull’s-eye logo.

In their early years, opening for practically every major band of the 1970s, Peart and his bandmates — singer-bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson — were disturbed by what the drummer would later describe as the “sound of salesmen.” “We would hear them give the same rap to the audience every night,” says Peart. “ ’This is the greatest rock city in the world, man!’ That was creepy. I despise the cynical dishonesty.”

Eve Tushnet has a thoughtful review over at TAC of a super-cool new album; here’s a taste:

The songs explore many of Darnielle’s recurring themes: memory, what it’s like to feel nostalgia for a childhood and adolescence that were marked by abuse and fear, the escape into an inner world of imagination, and the way not only gentler emotions but thwarted rage find a haven in that imaginary world. Pro wrestling is a storytelling sport (like figure skating, the sport onto which I passionately project my own issues) and so it’s made for people who need a primary-colors story that’s better than the one they’re living.

The album opens hard on the piano chords of “Southwest Territory” (place is once again a character in the Mountain Goats’ songs), and the songs find a rhythm that alternates between nostalgia and ferocity. There are a lot of fathers and sons in these songs.

In the mood for some more guitar instrumental virtuosity that will instantly rip your face off and slowly melt your brain?

Here ya go! This song is absolutely exhilarating and I find it never fails to lift one’s mood. Enjoy!

Paul Gilbert, “Silence Followed by a Deafening Roar”

Start your day right and make this blazing little instrumental the overture to your entire week.

It has one of those dazzling, unexpected moments of supreme metal transcendence when, after a perfectly executed build-up has established the preparatory musical foundation, the guitar comes sailing in majestically at 2:17 and plays a mellifluous, face-melting solo until 2:44.

This is one of my favorite guitar solos ever. It’s so perfectly thrilling, it just doesn’t get any better than this in the world of inspiring power prog metal. Glorious!

Fans can tune in on June 13th at 8:00pm PT here: https://screen.yahoo.com/live/event/steven-wilson.

And “PT” means Pacific Time, not Porcupine Tree…

The Man of Much Metal recognizes the excellence of BBT’s newest work:

If the quality of music on ‘Wassail’ is anything to go by, ‘Folklore’ could be a very special album indeed and, whilst I don’t like to make wild predictions or jump to conclusions, we might just be looking at Big Big Train’s best yet. At the very least, I expect the octet to further cement their place within the upper echelons of the progressive rock world, and rightly so. I’m so glad I have Big Big Train in my life. Consider me one very excited and impatient chap.

Progarchy presents — Metal Mondays!

This week: Haken, “Streams”

Why? Because we are convinced, from extensive listening experience, that metal actually achieves its full potential whenever it gets its prog on…