To be honet, I’ve about had it with live albums from Yes. Haven’t they earned enough money yet ? Since 2005 they’ve managed to release a live album about every two years, some with recent recordings, some with what I’d dare to call ‘prehistoric’ material, If they continue doing this, I guess we’re in for a new record every two years for the next thirty years to come.
Assisted by a score of big names in our music genre, like Michael Sweet (Stryper), Jeff Pilson (Dokken), Tony Martin (Black Sabbath) and a whole list of other artists, this is the first solo album by Veronica Freeman, frontwoman of heavy metalband Benedictum.
Jim Peterik,the driving force behind Survivor and The Ides Of March has in the past collaborated with a score of vocalist, who in the beginning were relatively unknown, but later became big stars.
To name but a few of them : Jimi Jamison, Toby Hitchcock and Dave Bickler.
For this album he teamed up with Marc Scherer, who also lives in Chicago, and despite being a long time musician, was up to know unknown, his main occupation being a jeweler.
Jean Beauvois is probably best known for his work with Crown Of Thorns, but he also played in Voodoo X and even in the Plasmatics, a punkband that was fronted by Wendy O. Williams. Besides that he has also some solo work, as well as playing, producing and writing for and with countless other artists.
Jorn Lande, whom we probably all know, be it as vocalist in Masterplan, his solo work, his work in Avantasia and much much more, has joined efforts with Trond Holter guitarist in Wig Wam. Together they have created this new Rock Opera about Vlad the III, better known as Vlad the Impaler, or even better known as Dracula.
This is already the fourth album since the release of the debut album ‘Sign Of Angels’ in 2010 from Norwegian rock goddess Issa. And under the adagio never change a winning team, Issa continues to bring us a mix of melodic rock, bordering on pop rock at times.
Does the name Erik Martensson ring a bell ? Besides performing in W.E.T. , writing and producing for other musicians like Toby Hitchcock and Adrenaline Rush he’s also the frontman in this Swedish band, alongside Magnus Henriksson.
Pat Travers is a Canadian born guitar virtuoso, who was rather famous some thirty odd years ago, having had success with his 1977 ‘Makin’ Magic’ album and also with his 1980 ‘Crash and Burn’ album. So it’s no shame if you’ve never heard of him if you were born in the nineties or later, since he went out of the spotlights.
But the guy made a comeback in 2012, with a new band lineup, except for drummer Sandy Gennaro who returned behind the skins.
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.
