Italian dwarven power metal army Wind Rose returns to the forge with their new album, Trollslayer, out October 4, 2024 via Napalm Records! Exploding onto the scene with viral appearances on TikTok and amassing almost half a million followers on the platform, as well as almost a million monthly listeners, Wind Rose have solidified their reputation as a powerhouse in the modern power metal scene.
Everyone remembers Wind Rose’s breakout hit, “Diggy Diggy Hole“ from Wintersaga, which amassed over 50 million streams and views across platforms. Their subsequent album, Warfront, further cemented their popularity, debuting Top 10 on the US Current Hard Music Albums chart…

A great little album of mid 70s funk from Ramsey Lewis - very much in the mode of his Earth, Wind, & Fire related work - no surprise, since the album's dedicated to Charles Stepney, whose influence was such a key part of the sound of the group, and of some of Ramsey's other Kalimba-produced albums from a few years before! Ramsey plays Fender Rhodes, mini moog, and Arp - and he gets help on keyboards from Stevie Wonder and Derf Reklaw, who also plays saxes and percussion on the set.

Here is an excellent example of the US Progressive rock scene of the Seventies: having both technique and excellence, imagination & talent. They seemed to be influenced by a variety of styles. Their sound was a little folky at times, poppy at others, even a little jazzy at times, loosely in the shadow of Kansas, Yes, Genesis, early King Crimson and others, with lots of vocals everywhere.

Instead of settling down in front of the mixing board for another dance album (a lá Technique or Republic), New Order returned in 2001 with a sound and style they hadn't played with for over a decade. Unsurprisingly bored by the stale British club scene circa 2001, the band opened Get Ready with a statement of purpose, a trailer single ("Crystal") featuring a host of longtime New Order staples: a sublime melody, an inscrutable set of lyrics, a deft, ragged guitar line kicking in for the chorus, and Peter Hook's yearning bass guitar taking a near-solo role. Though there are several allowances for the electronic-dance form New Order helped develop, Get Ready is a very straight-ahead album, their first work in 15 years that's focused on songwriting and performance rather than grafted dance techniques…

On his last couple of Warner Brothers albums, Gorilla and In the Pocket, James Taylor seemed to be converting himself from the shrinking violet, too-sensitive-to-live "rainy day man" of his early records into a mainstream, easy-listening crooner with a sunny outlook. JT, his debut album for Columbia Records, was something of a defense of this conversion. Returning to the autobiographical, Taylor declared his love for Carly Simon ("There We Are"), but expressed some surprise at his domestic bliss… "Isn't it amazing a man like me can feel this way?" he sang in the opening song, "Your Smiling Face" (a Top 40 hit). At the same time, domesticity could have its temporary depressions ("Another Grey Morning"). The key track was "Secret O' Life," which Taylor revealed as "enjoying the passage of time"…

In its original form, Crown's Howlin' Wolf Sings the Blues LP was a patchwork compilation of sides cut for the Modern label in 1951-1952, including three songs that had previously showed up on RPM singles, a bunch of outtakes not released on 45, and a couple instrumentals that weren't even the work of Howlin' Wolf himself. The material hails from that confusing junction in his discography where his first Memphis recordings were being leased to both Modern and Chess, which is why material from that era has tended to get released on different labels. Certainly the Wolf's Modern sessions could have been better represented than they were by this 1962 album, but it's still groundbreaking early electric blues, though not quite up to the peaks he'd scale with his best Chess sessions of the mid-'50s to the mid-'60s…

The title of this set by alto saxophonist Paul Desmond refers to his having placed first once again in the alto chair in the Downbeat poll. Released in 1960, First Place Again is the result of an unexpected gathering of the rhythm section of the Modern Jazz Quartet: Percy Heath and Connie Kay, and Jimmy Giuffre 3 guitarist Jim Hall. The four musicians were all unexpectedly at home in New York and took full advantage of cheap, after-hours recording studio time to play out this set of standards and a pair of newer tunes, John Lewis' great blues, "Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West," and "East of the Sun (and West Of The Moon)," from a Princeton University theater work…

"Alice In Wonderland" is a 40 minutes-long piece of work, obviously based on the famous book by Lewis Carroll. It confirms Neuschwanstein's significant importance in German rock history: the band succeeded, from the beginning, in creating a fluid and refined music, intense and suggestive, typical of the creative enthusiasm of the early Seventies. Usually structured around the keyboards parts, the music often underlines vivid and very refined piano pieces. With its strong melodies, its airy and dynamic flute soli, its dreamlike atmospheres, and the subtlety of the guitar effects, influenced by Steve Hackett's style, "Alice In Wonderland" easily takes its place among the best contemporary works of Camel or Focus.

The title Horse Rotorvator is explained in the liner notes as a device large enough to "plough up the waiting world," created from the bones of the horses of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Bay City Rollers this isn't. On the group's second full album, Coil continue the refinement of brute noise and creepily serene arrangements into a truly modern psychedelia, from tribal drumming and death march guitars to disturbing samples and marching band samples and back. Balance shares the same haggard, mystic vocal delivery common to fellow explorers of the edge like David Tibet and Edward Ka-Spel, but he has his own blasted and burnt touch to it all. His lyrical subjects range from emotional extremism of many kinds to blunt, often homoerotic imagery (matched at points in the artwork and packaging) and meditations on death…

There was no shortage of good psychedelic albums emerging from England in 1967-1968, but Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake is special even within their ranks. The Small Faces had already shown a surprising adaptability to psychedelia with the single "Itchycoo Park" and much of their other 1967 output, but Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake pretty much ripped the envelope. British bands had an unusual approach to psychedelia from the get-go, often preferring to assume different musical "personae" on their albums, either feigning actual "roles" in the context of a variety show (as on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album), or simply as storytellers in the manner of the Pretty Things on S.F. Sorrow, or actor/performers as on the Who's Tommy…

Ten years Serious Black, ten years of melodic Power Metal, with the license to create anthems: Since their founding in 2014 the band enthuses their fans not only with five studio albums by now but also at concerts and festival appearances around the globe. The decadal birthday Serious Black celebrates now, releasing their latest output: On September 27th, 2024, "Rise Of Akhenaton", their meanwhile 6th full length album, will be released via AFM Records.
Serious Black stylistically went back to their roots, but at the same time, due to the modern production by Lochert und Bob Katsionis, "Rise Of Akhenaton" sounds more diversified than ever. The interim focus on progressive directives has now changed to more catchy arrangements. Anno 2024, straight, classic Power Metal - the style the band once got to be known for - reigns again.

Herb Ellis had previously recorded with fellow guitarists Charlie Byrd, Joe Pass and Freddie Green, but this early Concord album was his first meeting on records with Barney Kessel. It is of little surprise that the two complementary players (who had both been with the Oscar Peterson Trio at different times in the 1950s) work together quite well. With fine support from bassist Monty Budwig and drummer Jake Hanna, Kessel and Ellis (both generally easy to identify) swing their way through some mostly little-played standards, including "Early Autumn" and "Dearly Beloved," plus a few originals by the co-leaders. Fans of the bop guitar will want this sprightly collaboration.

New remastered CD release for Camel's classic 1978 studio album with bonus track & deluxe booklet with photos & liner notes. After recording a string of successful albums with Camel, Breathless would be the last studio album to feature Peter Bardens and heralded more line-up changes for the band. Former Caravan and Hatfield & The North member Richard Sinclair had already been in Camel for some months and was soon joined by his cousin Dave Sinclair in a new Camel line-up. Breathless features traditional Camel music along with the Canterbury influences associated with Richard Sinclair, making for a unique album. This Esoteric Recordings reissue has been re-mastered from the original master tapes and includes the single version of Rainbows End as a bonus track.

Cafe Del Mar Volume 18 is collaboration with the leading artists that have played a major role in the history of Cafe del Mar and shaped the Сhillout music culture over the years. 20 of the tracks are especially composed for this project, which encapsulate the original spirit of Cafe del Mar. Volume 18 sees the return of many iconic artists such as Afterlife, Moby, Chicane, Bent and Underworld back to the series.

Although they only attained the huge success of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and the Beach Boys for a short time in the mid-'60s, time has judged the Byrds to be nearly as influential as those groups in the long run. They were not solely responsible for devising folk-rock, but they were certainly more responsible than any other single act (Dylan included) for melding the innovations and energy of the British Invasion with the best lyrical and musical elements of contemporary folk music. The jangling, 12-string guitar sound of leader Roger McGuinn's Rickenbacker was permanently absorbed into the vocabulary of rock. They also played a vital role in pioneering psychedelic rock and country-rock, the unifying element being their angelic harmonies and restless eclecticism…