CD

As you can surmise from the caption of this review, this album is in fact the soundtrack to a movie...but not just any movie, and it also is not your common soundtrack! You see, there's a nice story behind the coming along of both! It so happens that Sound City was the studio where Dave Grohl and his band Nirvana recorded the album Nevermind, you see? Situated at Van Nuys, Los Angeles, the studio was renowned for having the best sound where drum recordings were concerned.

This Baroque tinted Progressive Rock act has a somewhat fuzzy history which goes back all the way to 1989. It is apparently the year when the foundation of the current band was laid. Wackily enough, they were already known as Tucana and re-named themselves from Wistaria.

Stratovarius have been around for quite some time now, and this album ‘Nemesis’ is their fourteenth opus so far.  Who thought that this band would be finished, when Timo Tolkki left the band, ought to re-think his or her words? ‘Nemesis’ is an album that is bursting with energy, right from the opening track ‘Abandon’, which goes back to the all too familiar old Stratovarius sound. The second track goes in another direction, and sounds much more melodic, but despite a rather soft piano intro, contains some very heavy riffing.

I have little to no knowledge what's going on in the progressive rock scene at the moment, but I do know this, I enjoyed what veterans Spock’s Beard have to offer. It's prog, so you know what to expect.

I would never have guessed this band comes from France.  After all this is not your typical French metal or hard rock.  Yet they are, and have even been around for the last decade, albeit with different line ups.

The music Shannon plays definitely has its origins in the eighties, and sounds like a cross between hard rock and European heavy metal.  As a matter of fact this album is already their third full release, but I had never before heard of this band.

Rage Of Angels is not a band, but a project.  It is the brainchild of original Ten keyboard player Ged Ryland. He wrote all songs over a 10 year period.

Their comeback album was released shorter than a year ago, and now Player is ready to release some new material upon the world.  This is their sixth album, despite going back to 1977 to trace the roots of this band.

This double CD contains 18 tracks in total two of the tracks rather being a solo then a song, and as a bonus an interview with Brad Gillis and Kelly Keagy.  The songs were recorded in 1997 during a show at the Akasaka Blitz in Tokyo – Japan.

Necrowretch are a French combo with one goal only: METALLL! The band is proud to deny any trend or popularity conquest, so they are about to win my sympathy. One important thing left: doing good music (i.e. song writing + performance). Do they? Will they?

After releasing their comeback album Wheels Of Impermanence, Prosthetic Records asked the guys who were responsible for mixing and mastering that album, to treat their 1996 debut album Food For Thought Substitute and their 2002 album Primal Power Addiction for a reissue.

I had not heard the original version, so it’s impossible for me to compare, but judging on the quality of these songs, for an album that’s 10 years old, this still sounds very fresh.