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If there's one thing those with a somewhat broader taste for music will agree upon, it's that Neal Morse is quite a personality in the Progressive Rock world.

How painful : a Metal band with its first 3 albums (2001's Revolution Revolución, 2003's Confession and 2005's One Nation Underground) out on Roadrunner Records...and there's not even one in my collection, nor any of the albums which followed (2008's Enigma, 2010's Dead New World and 2012's Epidemia), and that with the sales figures of the two first albums already exceeding a million copies! I guess I' have to make some kind of mending, by relating to you the band's history in a nut-shell?

Long live Rock’n’Roll, and long live Harem Scarem. I was very sad when the split of the band was announced in 2008, and rejoiced when it was announced that the reunited band would be headlining the 20130 Firefest festival in Nottingham UK, and even more so when it was announced they were recording three new tracks for the re-issue of ‘Mood Swings (II)’, an album which I’ve only recently bought by the way.

Ahum...it would appear that it's but a good thing, that I always check into a band's past when first coming across it. You see, goin' on just this latest release, I would've categorized Four Year Strong (abbreviated to FYS from now on) as being an up-tempo “Easycore” act, and looked for its previous material accordingly. But it so happens, that musically speaking, FYS has been somewhat fickle in the past, say even somewhat unreliable to a certain degree.

Alright, let's do a quickie...that's what I thought yesterday evening, before picking up the info I'd gathered about this Gothic Metalcore act from Schwarzenfeld, in the Bavarian region of Germany, and realizing I had a bigger job ahead of me than I'd reckoned for.

Black Antlers are a pretty young project with members from both the U. S. of A. (Justin Palmieri, the guy behind the superb i AM Esper-project) and Croatia (Robert Bekič, also involved with different solo-outfits). Both guys worked together before, or better, at least they released some split-material for their solo-projects (i AM Esper versus Mental Cage).

Phrenetix are a very young four-piece from Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, formed in 2011 and consisting of (female) guitarist / vocalist Lina, bassist Daumantas, guitar player Tomas, and drummer Jonas.

Rock Werchter, one of the greatest festivals in the world.  What once started as a little one day festival in 1975 in Werchter Belgium in a tent, has now become very big, and lasts four days; with multiple podia.

Belarus is not necessarily the ‘biggest’ country within the Black Metal scene, though there are several pretty interesting acts out there. Despite quite an impressive curriculum vitae, Zaklon, a project by Temnarod (also involved with e.g. Desolate Heaven, Hreswelgr, Pogost, Defunctus Astrum or Unlight Forest), is not that known at all outside the borders of the former U.S.S.R.

It might seem odd, but Black Metal and India, doesn’t it sound like a weird relationship? Indeed it is. I know a couple of (highly interesting) Death Metal acts from out there, but Toxoid, well, they are my first acquaintance with the Indian Black Metal scene. Once again it is, of course, Transcending Obscurity (at least the India-based sub-label) that gives the opportunity to our half of the globe to learn about them. Thanks, Kunal!