Oh yes, I had expectations for this album! I never heard of artist Trond Øie before, and this album Expectations seems to be his solo debut. The sleeve looks very good and I really like the artwork that is used. The album is on the short side-only four tracks making the album 25 minutes long, so […]
Ok, so I’m a little late with this news, but I just saw that the San Francisco Bay area thrash legends, Testament, recently announced the release of a new forthcoming album. The Brotherhood of the Snake will be released via Nuclear Blast on October 28, 2016.
I really enjoyed their last album, 2012’s Dark Roots of the Earth. Testament is a metal band that has become better and better since their inception in the 1980s. They brilliantly combine their style of thrash with straight-up metal and a few toned-down heavy rockers. They are very similar in style to Metal Allegiance, which isn’t surprising since guitarist Alex Skolnick plays for both groups.
The band has said that this album will be even thrashier than their previous albums, with about half of the songs being thrash metal. The album will see singer Chuck Billy singing in his signature heavy voice, while avoiding the death vocals of their earlier albums. Basically, if you liked Dark Roots of the Earth, you’re probably going to like the new album.
Check out their website for more details.
Thrash on, Progarchy, and enjoy your Metal Monday.
Classic Rock Legends Wishbone Ash ‘Take It Back’ on North American Fall Tour
Musical journey through back catalog plus selections from recent recordings on tap
Wishbone Ash, one of the most influential guitar bands in the history of rock, bring it to their North American fans on the 2016 “Take It Back” Tour. As they celebrate their 47th anniversary at shows from Denver, CO, to New York City, the guys will present time-honored classics and deep tracks from the back catalog, as well as material from recent recordings.
Continue reading “Wishbone Ash Announce Fall North America Tour”
The great folks over at the DPRP (where I am proud to be a writer, as well) have just released a Round Table Review of the new Anderson/Stolt album, Invention of Knowledge. Three great reviews of a fantastic album.
If you like classic 70s Yes and you also like Roine Stolt’s godlike work on the guitar, then this is the album for you.
Check out InsideOut for more info on the album, and be sure and read the DPRP reviews.
The fun started early. Fans were eager for rehearsal information, opportunities to just shake hands with the band. We’re all so grateful they are back in the area. Looking amazing too…check out these pictures. Many thanks to Rob Waller who was on the ground for a quick hey to Good Man Curt Smith. Nice photos! […]
Put a couple of decades on the protagonist of “Lush Life,” put him on the West Coast with some other wicked habits, and you’d come up with something like “Babylon Sisters,” from Steely Dan’s final masterpiece, Gaucho. A commercial success but critical dud at the time of its release, Gaucho has grown in stature, but still it lingers in the shadow of its forebear, Aja. Gaucho, though, is the perfect extension of Aja, a further distillation of Steely Dan’s trajectory towards its God-in-the-details hybrid of jazz and rock. Its slow, studied strut, coupled with a bell-clear production, supports the record’s stories of 70s California decadence, delivered in Donald Fagen’s most pronounced ironic drawl. Drug use and sketchy sexual adventure are linked to characters who are too old, too rich, too emotionally distant, and even so the oily discomfort they evoke is dispelled by the deeply funky, freewheeling grooves — courtesy of such players as Bernard Purdie, Mark Knopfler, Chuck Rainey, Joe Sample, Rick Derringer, the Brecker brothers, Don Grolnick, Larry Carlton, and on and on — and the sense that this is sharp character study and cool observation. “Babylon Sisters,” the album’s opener, cycles through first, second, and third person, appearing on its face to be an old dude telling the story of his hookup with (perhaps more than one) much younger woman, with veiled references to cocaine or meth use, but other voices intrude, those of the women and also those of his friends, the latter warning him away from a life that he himself recognizes is beyond him. As in many of Steely Dan’s songs, narrative clarity isn’t the point as much as the delivery of the words with the music, an impressionistic approach which brings a dark tonality, towards sadness, to the characters in “Babylon Sisters” and to Gaucho as a whole. It’s less Hotel California and that album’s obvious metaphors, and more the tricky psych-scape of film noir L.A., set even more ominously to music that is bright and sunny and colorful, with a distinct slither. Classic Rock’s Less Than Zero.
*Above image, detail of Israel Hoffman’s Guardia Vieja, used for the cover of Gaucho.
The very first episode of Backstage with Iris! The interviews you will hear are with Adam Holzman (Steven Wilson, Miles Davis), and a duo interview with Michael Bearpark (Darkroom,Tim Bowness, no-man) and Elif Yalvaç (Cloudscapes). You can listen to the show here (NOTE: this Mixcloud link is NOT the end of the post, please scroll down for more […]
Wow wow, wow wow, you have to read this fun list over at the Telegraph. It starts off like this:
From the moment 18-year-old Kate Bush stepped on to the stage at Top of the Pops and gave a career-defining performance of Wuthering Heights, she has beguiled and baffled with her every unhinged shriek and wild, wide-eyed gesture.
Since that extraordinary 1978 debut, she has released a further 30 singles, despite being anything but your typical singles artist. Bush’s greatest hits – and even those that failed to much trouble the charts – all display a creativity and variety unparalleled in pop music.
Artist: Karmakanic Album Title: Dot Label: InsideOut Music Date Of Release: 22 July 2016 Karmakanic have been around for a good few years now, formed in 2002 by Jonas Reingold, the bassist for the arguably more familiar band The Flower Kings. Also involved with Kaipa and The Tangent, Karmakanic was conceived to be the vehicle […]
via Karmakanic – Dot – Album Review — The Blog of Much Metal
This is one of the bands who actually discovered me through my review work, and asked me if I was interested in writing an album review for their second album named Rise Of The Waterfowl. This was a though album to review, because these gentlemen made something quite brilliant. I love the album sleeve, the […]
via Farmhouse Odyssey – Rise Of The Waterfowl (2016) — Grendel HeadQuarters
Progarchy 