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From Mozambique To Minnesota Volume 2 featuring Rich Prewett (2014)

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Rich Prewett From Mozambique To Minnesota Volume 2

Rich Prewett From Mozambique To Minnesota Volume 2 This is a quite ambitious and interesting project I had stumbled into a few years back and yes, I saw the opportunity in it and gave the link to my American guitarist friend Rich Prewett. If I recall it correctly, the first song he made was “Egoista”, then he did “Sonhar” and it was followed soon by another one. Rich did an awesome job mixing those African vocals with good old tasty blues flavors. I told him that it would be great if he put together a whole album out of it and that’s what he did!
And this is really good. Feel good, sound good. Rich Prewett is a quite experience and versatile musician and producer, he made miracles with those vocal stems. The music he created and performed around those vocal tracks it’s a vivid mixture of blues, rock, reggae and Latin vibes and sounds, but maintaining throughout a “world”, an universal flavor of it. This is extremely universal, but still, very particularly Rich.
I love it throughout!! Read more From Mozambique To Minnesota Volume 2 featuring Rich Prewett (2014) ›

John Zorn (Moonchild) – The Last Judgement (2014)

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John Zorn – The Last Judgement (2014)

John Zorn – The Last Judgement (2014) This seems to be the last piece of the mystical-musical puzzle started by Zorn. I’m still in love with the insanely brilliant “Ipsissimus” released in 2010, followed by “Templars-In Sacred Blood” in 2012.
Zorn formed in 2006 the hardcore voice/bass/drums trio of Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn, and Joey Baron which became known as the Moonchild Trio.
Moonchild is the title of a novel written by Aleister Crowley in 1917. Its plot involves a magical war between a group of white magicians, led by Simon Iff, and a group of black magicians over an unborn child. In the novel, numerous acquaintances of Crowley appear as thinly disguised fictional characters. Crowley portrays MacGregor Mathers as the primary villain, including him as a character named SRMD, using the abbreviation of Mathers’ magical name. Arthur Edward Waite appears as a villain named Arthwaite, and the unseen head of the Inner Circle of which SRMD was a member, “A.B.” is theosophist Annie Besant.
Same year two albums of Zorn’s compositions performed by the trio were released: “Moonchild: Songs Without Words” and “Astronome”. Read more John Zorn (Moonchild) – The Last Judgement (2014) ›

AC/DC – Rock or Bust (2014)

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AC/DC - Rock or Bust (2014)

AC/DC - Rock or Bust (2014) Who would believed that there will be a fifteenth AC/DC album in 2014 on 19 February 1980? With a serious six year gap since the release of their previous album, “Black Ice”, and repeated rumors regarding their eminent retirement, nobody really expected one more AC/DC album. But damn, if Rolling Stones managed to celebrated their 50th anniversary in the summer of 2012, it would be a serious treason if the Australian rockers would not have their 40th anniversary with a world tour in 2015! Still in school-uniform outfit, Angus is 59 years old!!
At under 35 minutes, it is the shortest studio album ever released by the band, two minutes shorter than their previous shortest album, “Flick of the Switch”, which was released back in 1983. Looking at the song titles – Rock the Blues Away, Got Some Rock & Roll Thunder, Rock or Bust, Rock the House, Play Ball, Baptism by Fire – it is definitively a genuine AC/DC album: everything just stay the same as it ever was. And – obviously – that’s what most of their fans expect from them. I think bringing in someone like DJ Lethal – for instance – or any other creative fresh mind and not some fancy assh*le like Sonny John Moore (aka. Skrillex), would be a nice touch, but then again, experiments are always involve high level of risk and these guys and their hardcore audience are extremely conservative. Don’t worry guys, the album consist of only good-old Rock’N’Roll!!
The only change is Malcolm and Angus’ nephew Stevie Young replacing Malcolm Young who seems to be seriously ill and unable to perform. Read more AC/DC – Rock or Bust (2014) ›

Faith No More – Motherfucker, 5000 copies 7-inch single (2014)

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Faith No More - Motherfucker

Keyboardist Roddy Bottum says in a statement: “It feels apt that the first track we’re releasing is ‘Motherfucker,’ a song about accountability. Basically we’ve created, recorded and mixed a new body of work by ourselves and we’re releasing it on our own label. It’s a huge deal for us to only have ourselves to answer to at this point in our career and the song is about that, where the buck stops via the basic imagery of foie gras production, bondage. . .y’know, stuff like that.”
And here we go, we have the very first brand new Faith No More recording since…. Since 1997? Holly cow! And this is so not Faith No More like that it is exactly Faith No More! Read more Faith No More – Motherfucker, 5000 copies 7-inch single (2014) ›

Gong – I See You (2014)

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Gong – I See You (2014)

Gong – I See You (2014) How old you are? “I See You” will be probably the swan song of this legendary band which spinning around for the last 47 years. Brain-child of Daevid Allen, other notable band members include Tim Blake, Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Francis Moze, Mike Howlett and Pierre Moerlen. Others who have briefly played in Gong include Bill Bruford, Brian Davison, Don Cherry and Chris Cutler.
This is an effervescent mixture of progressive, psychedelic and space rock reaching out the border of jazz fusion and other vivid experiments. With a tasteful addition of mythology.
Gong was formed in 1967, after Daevid Allen — at that time a member of Soft Machine — was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom because of a visa complication. Allen remained in France where he and a London-born Sorbonne professor, Gilli Smyth, established the first incarnation of the band. Read more Gong – I See You (2014) ›

Rise of the Northstar – Welcame (2014)

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Rise of the Northstar - Welcame (Japanese Edition) [2014]

Rise of the Northstar - Welcame (Japanese Edition) [2014] I actually missed this type of straight forward, brutal, NY flavored hardcore. Although this is a French band, this sound just like it was conceived in Brooklyn. Flawless, absolutely brilliant debut album!
They describe themselves: “Rise of The Northstar is a young thrash band whose spirit was born in the back alleys of 1980’s Shibuya. Indeed, Japanese culture, mangas and its “Furyos” all blend into ROTNS’s sound. Through its lyrics, music and imagery, the band created itself a unique identity, bringing together 90’s New York Hardcore, Shonen Manga, Heavy riffs and catchy Rap vibes… Tokyo hold on tight, Rise Of The Northstar is coming.”
It reminds me both of heavy predecessors as Cro-Mags, Madball and Biohazard as freaky American comedy rock acts such as Green Jellÿ.
VITHIA – vocals; EVA-B – lead guitar; AIR ONE – Guitar; FABULOUS FAB – bass and HOKUTO NO KEV – drums delivered a murderous butchery throughout, there is no time to breathing, but head banging! Read more Rise of the Northstar – Welcame (2014) ›

Emigrate – Silent So Long (2014)

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Emigrate - Silent So Long (2014)

Emigrate - Silent So Long (2014) If the name do not ring any bell, I tell you this: Emigrate is a New York based metal band, led by Richard Z. Kruspe, the lead guitarist of the leading Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein. Their sound is a mixture of rock and metal elements with some different resonances and the most exciting thing about their second album it’s the presence of some famous and infamous guest artists such as Marilyn Manson, Lemmy Kilmister (Motorhead), Jonathan Davis (Korn), Peaches, Frank Dellé (Seeed) and Margaux Bossieux (bassist of the all-girl NY punk band Dirty Mary). Bossieux was involved also in the recording of Emigrate’s debut album. She and Kruspe have a daughter and they have an on-again, off-again relationship over the years. Read more Emigrate – Silent So Long (2014) ›

Sanctuary – The Year The Sun Died (2014)

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Sanctuary - The Year The Sun Died (2014)

Sanctuary - The Year The Sun Died (2014) It was the middle of the 80’s when this band blew out of blue and delivered one of the best ever heavy metal album entitled “Refuge Denied”, produced by Dave Mustaine of Megadeth and released in 1987 by Epic Records. Afterward they toured with Megadeth and Warlock.
The band consisted of Warrel Dane (vocals), Lenny Rutledge (guitar), Sean Blosl (guitar), Jim Sheppard (bass) and Dave Budbill (drums), and they were from Seattle – just like another great band of those times, Queensryche. Actually “Refuge Denied” was a deadly explosive mixture of Iron Maiden type of European heavy metal, some subtle Queensryche flavors and power, respectively speed metal grindings. And, not at least, the Warrel Dane type of blood-freezing high pitch screams. It was perfect!
Their second album, “Into the Mirror Black” was released in Europe in 1989, while the US version came out the one year later. “Mirror Black” was a darker, slower, eventually more Queensryche style of progressive metal related album. A video clip for the song “Future Tense” was made and received some airplay on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball. During the tour – with Fates Warning, Forbidden and Death Angel – guitarist Sean Blosl left the band and he was replaced by Jeff Loomis.
Their bad luck was called grunge. That new genre made their hometown more famous then Jimi Hendrix ever did and unfortunately they had a record deal with a major label which over-night wanted to turn them into a Pearl Jam copy. The pressure form the record label and tensions inside the band lead in 1992, Sanctuary to officially disbanded.
But the story actually didn’t ended there. Warrel Dane, Jim Sheppard and Jeff Loomis formed a new band called Nevermore in the same year. Dave Budbill lives in Florida, and he is currently the drummer for Alive Inside. Sean Blosl is creating music and film through Golden Flower Media, while Lenny Rutledge became a musical producer, and has his own studio. Lenny actually helped Nevermore on the demo sessions of their 1998 third album, “Dreaming Neon Black”. Read more Sanctuary – The Year The Sun Died (2014) ›

Celldweller – End of an Empire, Chapter 01: Time (2014)

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Celldweller New Album End of an Empire

Celldweller New Album End of an Empire Klayton is Celldweller and his – finally – back! Independent artist and producer, personifying the sound of the iPod generation, he creates a hybrid fusion of digital and organic elements: intricately designed soundscapes constructed from Dubstep, Drum & Bass and Electro, woven together with aggressive Rock/Metal and Orchestral elements. Celldweller ignores genre boundaries and creates a pioneering vision of the future of electronic music.
Follow-up to the 2012 ‘Wish Upon A Blackstar,’ Celldweller delivers the first glimpse of his 3rd artist album, “End of an Empire” and has released the title track for his upcoming new album. Out on September 16, 2014, through Klayton’s own record label FiXT, ‘End of an Empire (Chapter 01: Time)’ features 5 new, original tracks along with remixes from Breathe Carolina, Comaduster, KJ Sawka and OCTiV. Read more Celldweller – End of an Empire, Chapter 01: Time (2014) ›

Snurfu – Play This Game (2014)

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Snurfu 2014

Snurfu 2014 It’s not brain surgery, but only rock’n’roll and it feels good as it is. And probably it’s not much left to say because it’s that type of rock you love it or hate, but if you love it, you will have to play it loud and grab a beer!
While I have wrote about their debut EP “Bag of Bones” back in 2009, recently I wrote about Massive and their ass-kicker world-wide re-released debut album “Full Throttle” and it seems that the good old rock’n’roll it’s back in trends again. Well, probably it’s still not fancy as the electronic layers and bass drops, but I still can’t think of something better if you gonna have a party!
Fans of AC/DC and Massive will enjoy it, but it also have a nice glam/sleaze touch here and there. Sometimes feels like Poison and Motorhead are jamming together. Songs like “Boo”, “Stepto-Cock” or the title track will ringing in your ears for days. More like this, please! Read more Snurfu – Play This Game (2014) ›