CD

One of the most active guys from the Extreme Metal scene from Spain must be a guy who goes under many nicknames, amongst which Erun Dagoth.

Ear Music has been reissuing some of  Deep Purple’s back catalogue, and this is the latest release in this series, a live recording dating back to 1971, recorded at Long Beach Arena in Long Beach – California, where they played as opener for Rod Stewart and The Faces.

25 years ago, a band from Jacksonville – Florida released their debut album, an album that was highly praised, and whose first single was immediately picked up by some radio stations over the US and Canada.

Sad, but true, the story of this band that could have become big, soon ended.  Some of the members staid in the music business, like their guitarist Bobby Ingram, who joined Molly Hatchet, and singer Ron Perry, who recorded and toured with his band The Ron Perry Connection.

Venom was formed in 1979 in Newcastle Upon Tyne – UK.

Dan Reed, formerly of Dan Reed Network has released his third solo album titled ‘Transmission’.

Not being what you could call a fan of Dan Reed Network themselves, finding their music a bit to ‘polished’, something you could have heard a lot back in the eighties on American Forces Network, and sounding a bit like Hall & Oates, I was curious what this solo album would sound like.

Formed in the mid eighties in Krefeld, Germany, Blind Guardian continue releasing some very fine albums.  They started under another name however, calling themselves Lucifer’s Heritage at first, changing their name to Blind Guardian shortly after signing their first record deal with No Remorse Records.

Striker is not exactly a new name in the Metal scene, seeing as bands with that name go back to the early '80s in the US, first an early Power Metal act which only left us a 1982 single before splitting up, then a Heavy Metal band from Florida which gave us a single in 1985. In the late '80s a Heavy Metal act came from Amberg (Bavaria) in Germany (they had a first run from 1988 to 2005, and then regrouped in 2010). 2009 saw the formation of an Austrian Thrash Metal act, but their status is currently uncertain...and then there was also a Hard Rock act from Seattle!

Hailing from London, UK, Steak was founded in 2010 by a foursome of musicians who took musical influences from the greater bands in the Stoner Rock, Desert Rock, and Fuzz Rock genres.

Founded at the end of 2002 as a Progressive Rock trio, this Lozère based French band (actually, they're from Marvejols in the South of France, a town situated squarely in the middle between Clermond-Ferrand and Montpellier – in effect, some 174 km by road from Montpellier, by way of Millau) recorded an album entitled N'Importe Où..., and then fell into oblivion, as first the bassist and then the guitarist successively left the band. End of the story for those guys...!

Since 2008, a Columbus based musician known only as Cloudkicker has been releasing instrumental Post-Rock/ Prog Rock-Metal material (2008's The Discovery and The Map Is Not The Territory; 2009's Portmanteau; 2010's Beacons and ]]][[[; 2011's Let Yourself Be Huge and Loop; 2012's Fade, and 2013's Subsume – some of which were EP's, others full-lengths) which he made available for free download through the internet.