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Bordeaux… I do appreciate some of the wines coming from that era, even though not every sub-region out there can completely please me (I am a connoisseur-amateur, with a profound passion for wines and distillates, but that’s another story). However, there’s another Bordeaux-based existence I do appreciate enormously: Year Of No Light. This band was formed at the beginning of this century and they did record a handful of highly acceptable releases with a mostly breath-taking atmosphere.

You know, Hydra is the first album by this Dutch band I've had to review, and part of the reason for that, of course, is the fact that Within Temptation went through several changes in musical direction during its career, which started back in 1996 when the band was founded by singer Sharon den Adel and rhythm guitarist/ grunt singer Robert Westerhof.

It's been 3 years since Zwevezele based (the small town, population ca. 5000, is situated in the West-Flanders province, and lays roughtly in the middle of Brugge and Kortrijk) Belgian quartet TrafficjaM self-released its debut full-length album Headstrong (review done by yours truly), and since then some interesting changes happened. First of all, a new member entered the fold in the form of bassist Hanz, whom turns out to be a perfect match/ complement to guitarist TJ's rawer lead vocals.

This is a long awaited re-issue of Theocracy’s original 2003 album, that was getting harder and harder to find.  And while on the original record the drums were programmed, and it also had a not too good production, for this re-issue the drums were re-recorded by Theocracy’s drummer Shawn Benson and the album itself was also completely remixed.

Stonecast are: Franck “Kanon” Ghirardi (vocals), Seb “Cazu” Casula (rhythm guitars), Bob “Flying” Saliba (lead guitars), Lionel “Beev” Antonorsi (bass) and Kenny Earl “Rhino” ex-drummer Manowar.

A French band formed in 2002 in Marseille with some influence from Iron Maiden, Iced Earth, Blind Gardian and Manowar, but the hold their own identity and modern approach.

The band’s acclaimed and hard-to-find debut album, the self-titled Spiritual Beggars from 1994 is re-issued with over 70 minutes of unreleased bonus material as 2 CD of 3 album via Century Media Records. Spiritual Beggars is the blueprint for Spiritual Beggars’ future albums for years to come although it does not reach the perfection of some of those (Ad Astra is my fave), but still this is a worthwhile re-issue of a near-perfect slice of stoner rock debut by a young fresh band, composed of very talented players (

Ach...the Scorpions...seems weird, but thinking back it was my younger brother whom got me interested in Hard Rock music, and I remember that, before he introduced me to Kiss (the band which took me over the line to start a collection of records), his two foremost band in his collection were AC/DC (which I originally found sounding far too sharp – but that was due to the lousy small record player he had) and Scorpions (the band which I originally branded as “too sweet” for my taste – of course, I redeemed myself discovering

Uhm...for die-hard fans only, I guess!

Here's what the booklet says : “The British heavy Metal legends produce a series of alternative takes on classic favorites to herald a worthy new entry to the Saxonian Insitute Of Metal!...

...There is always feral beauty in a raging beast...and with Unplugged And Strung Up, Saxon's selection of unique, fresh and adventurous interpretations of material previously heard only with raw Heavy Metal thunder, the point is triumphantly underscored. …”

Running Wild could be called a dinosaur, because they were formed way back in 1976, and besides a hiatus of some three years between 2009, when they split up, and their reformation in 2011, have kept around, with many personnel changes over these years. 

Merely a year has passed since the release of their ‘Shadowmaker’ album.  This album seems to go back to their nineties releases, and as far as I’m considered, is not a bad album, but also an album that will not remain in your memory for too long.  It’s some standard eighties/nineties metal no more no less.

Poemosia an Italian symphonic metal band members: Tina Gagliotta (Voice), Marco Monaco (Guitar), Ciro Scognamiglio (Bass), Giuseppe Carillo (Keyboards) and Vincenzo Grande (Drums) and Sakis Tolis (growl voice on Anemone).