Rock fans beware of this ! I’ve never been that keen on folk rock, with the exception of a few bands like Big Country or The Dropkick Murphys (although you can hardly say that they play folk rock in the traditional way).
And despite being around for some 27 years I’d never heard of this band, so I guess it’s not a band you hear frequently on the radio.
Steve Rothery is the guitarist, and longest running member of the band Marillion. This is his first solo-effort, despite being active in the music business for over thirty years (he started in Marillion in 1979).
Reload is a relatively new rock band that was formed in 2012 in Larissa – Greece. The musicians in their line-up are mostly coming from other Greek bands (I’ve never heard of before). This album war first released on their home market in August 2014, and is now re-released all over Europe.
Basically what you get here is a collection of AOR/hard rock songs. The songs themselves are nothing exceptional, but they’re good. You could say I’ve heard it all before, but that doesn’t matter in this case. I mean there’s far worse than this out there.
Once again I will take care of an ‘old’ album, because that’s my way of showing gratitude to a label that cares about music and bands rather than money (though I am sure each single album they will sell, maybe because of this review (?), might be welcomes with open arms; and why not anyway). No, seriously, Aesthetic Death were so kind to offer me this debut of Dutch formation Ortega as part of a hugely interesting parcel, so there is no reason why not to write at least some words about it.
North Black are a Russian one-man outfit by Asmodeus (Svart Faalskhet). With Filosofi Svart Skog, North Black bring sixty six minutes of Symphonic Black Metal that totally lacks of originality, but believe me if I assure you that the fan of this specific genre will adore this piece!
I’ve made the choice to write one single review for these two albums. No Bros was an Austrian hard rock band, that had some success in the early eighties. As a matter of fact the basis for this band was laid in 1974, when Klaus Schubert and Michael Außerhofer founded the band Target. They changed their name to No Bros at the end of the seventies.
It’s hard to believe, but the original ‘Defenders Of The Faith’ album was released way back in 1984, that’s three decades ago. I was still a teenager then….
To release the thirtieth anniversary, Sony Music now releases a remastered version of this album, that originally was released on EMI Music, and adds two discs containing a live registration of a show Judas Priest played on May 5th 1984 at the Long Beach Arena in California.
Jorn Lande, whom we probably all know, be it as vocalist in Masterplan, his solo work, his work in Avantasia and much much more, has joined efforts with Trond Holter guitarist in Wig Wam. Together they have created this new Rock Opera about Vlad the III, better known as Vlad the Impaler, or even better known as Dracula.
Swedish Label Nordvis were focusing on their native scene especially in the past, but with some open-mindedness they are signing bands from other countries too, and that’s a good thing. Especially when thinking about their joint-venture with Bindrune, you might find some non-Swedish formations. Anyway, another name to add to this list is Izah. Izah are a Dutch collective, releasing their debut full length via Nordvis.
This is already the fourth album since the release of the debut album ‘Sign Of Angels’ in 2010 from Norwegian rock goddess Issa. And under the adagio never change a winning team, Issa continues to bring us a mix of melodic rock, bordering on pop rock at times.
