Chris Rosander
Chris Rosander is a 25 year old musician and songwriter from Örnsköldsvik, Sweden who has been writing songs in the AOR/Melodic and West Coast genre since he was 14 years old. Christian’s musical work includes artists and bands such as Michael Ruff, Paulo Mendonca, Frank Ådahl and X-Romance. In Mars 2020 Rosander signed with the record label AOR Heaven and debuted with his first full-length album ”King Of Hearts” that same year. Since it wasn’t possible to get out to play live shows at that time due to the pandemic, he started the writing process for a new album which now will be released on February 17th, 2023 via Pride & Joy Music. The album also was written & produced by Chris Rosander. In 2022 Chris got invited to guest on a charity project for the Ukraine called Save The Noise. He recorded vocals and guitar tracks on the song “Can’t Take Freedom From Me”, written by Filippa Nässil from Thundermother together with musicians and artists such as Filippa Nässil and Emlee Johansson from Thundermother, Liv Sin (Ex Sister Sin), Martin Motnik (Accept), Snowy Shaw (Ex King Diamond), Chaq Mol (Dark Funeral), Pontus Snibb (Bonafide), Linnea Wikström (At The Movies, Fd Therion, Ronnie Atkins Band), Ross ”The Boss” Freidman (MANOWAR, The Dictators), Søren Andersen (Chad Smith, Glenn Hughes, Marco Mendoza, Neil Murray, Ida Nielsen, Marcus Linnet, Simona Abdallah, Michael Gersdorff, Morten Hellborn) and Ida S (VA Rocks). Chris Rosander says about the new album: “The Monster Inside – Don’t we all have one of those? I know I do, and I believe that the most of us have, metaphorically speaking a monster inside and that’s what this work is all about. I started working on this record in August back in 2020 straight after the release of my debut ”King Of Hearts”. All songs were ready to be recorded in December that same year but due to the pandemic we couldn’t start until late august 2021. I didn’t know when I started the writing process that it was going to be a concept album but when I wrote the song Turn Your Heart To Stone the idea of having all the songs following the same theme felt rather intriguing. It’s not that kind of album where you get to follow the same storyline throughout the track list. On this record you get to hear 11 stories/songs about different people, each got a more twisted/darker side of them self than the other. Basically this album is about different and absurd behaviours and the fact that all of us got a side of our self that we rather not let anybody else see. The Monster Inside.”
Eye
EYE It all started in 8th grade, 1967, the summer of love, in Buckhead, Georgia.Keyboardist John „Langford“ Harrison met guitarist Donny Macleod, and the rest was history.For nearly five decades, they still practiced every night.Why? Because they loved it. From the beginning, they had to have that „Brown“ soun‘.(Translated into laymens terms, that basically means a Marshall on ten).Thus the name ‚Timmy‘.A contradiction in terms, dialectic, or a sucker punch.I am reminded of when Elvis Presley came on the Ed Sullivan show, and said,„Okay, we’re gonna slow it down a little…You ain’t nothin‘ but a houndog!!!That knocked me back on my heels as a three-year-old. So Timmy comes out with a friendly little name,and then proceeds to knock you back on your heels! Heralded as the unsung progressive band of the seventies, that no one“s ever heard of, Timmy boasts an impressive history of associates that includes:Andy West of the Dixie Dregs, Mark O’Conner, world renowned fiddle champ,Vince Welnick, of the Tubes and Grateful Dead,Eddy Offord, produce of Yes and ELP, and engineer on John Lennon’s Imagine, and infamous rock manager Tony Secunda, who managed such acts as Procol Harem, Moody Blues, T Rex, Motorhead, Denny Laine, Chrissie Hinde, and Steel-Eye Span. 1975Marin County CaliforniaTimmy joins forces with Cream of Chicken,replacing guitarist Angie Makurak with Peter Penhallow, (aka Mr. Cheez),and drummer Dave Obiedo with Paul Southard, (aka Paul Zahl…his girlfriends tall!). Peter eventually moves to mini moog, (the ’saxophone‘, as John would affectionately refer to it), Donny moves, from bass to guitar, and John takes over the bass with his killer left hand. One of their songs at that time was called „Big Long One“, which says it all.Most of their tunes, mostly written by John, and collaborated with by Donny and Peter, were anywhere from ten minutes to a half hour long, and were these fantastic and beautiful epics with time changes every measure. From 1975 to 1988, various drummers came in and out,while John, Donny and Peter remained as the core of the group. Zahl stayed maybe a year, and maybe came back once or twice,but was eventually replaced with Mitch Hinard, (aka Panda McCaan).The music was a stretch for Panda, but he rose to the occasion and then some and hit excellent and hard. After Panda came Bob, (Uncle Woofy), easily among the best progressive drummers on the planet.The Uncle Woofy period was a height.The tunes were longer, crazier, more beautiful than ever, and played with precision.The band opened for many progressive bands of that era to standing ovations. (Bill Bruford, Dixie Dregs, Captain Beefheart, Allan Holdsworth, Brian Auger, etc.) Next up was Charlie Tapp on drums. Charlie also brought in a few nice tunes.The band was also recruited by famed rock manager Tony Secunda.A shift in the music occurs: shorter tunes, straighter beats.This was a typical shift for progressive bands at this time, e.g. Asia,the early eighties rhing,and Timmy handled the shift with grace. 1983Andy West, bass player for the Dixie Dregs, joined the band. 1984The band made a demo, (The Atlanta Project), produced by Eddy Offord.All the King’s men loved it, just the King’s A and R guys went, ehh! Hello Brain! Paul Chatterton III on the drums. Vince Welnick came in to co-write and produced a few tunes for the „Eye“ CD. 1988„Has anyone seen Peter?“„Hey Peter, when ya comin‘ to rehearsal?“„Guys, I ran away from home to play piano for babies“. Brain left the band soon after Mr. Cheez,and eventually flew into the arms of Godfrom the seat of his Harley.God bless ya, brother. 1990Andy Bishop joins the band on drums, they were a bad ass rockin‘ trio. The Timmy line up at that time was: John (Langford) Harrison, Donny (Jock McNutt) MacLeod, Andy Bishop 30 years of Rock and Roll! So I seriously doubt that this is… The End Bio, originally published in Strtterzine magazine, was written by Peter Mr. Cheez Penhallow, 2005. R.I.P John Gimma Langford Harrison – Jan. 3, 1953 – June 25, 2012 Donny McLeod – Sept. 27, 1952 – Jan. 10, 2010 Releases Eye – Anthology (3 CD Box) TRACKLIST Disc 1 1 Backup Slowdown 2 Broadway Hollywood 3 Taylor Made 4 Lost And Confused 5 Romance 6 Just A Game 7 You Got The Nerve 8 Don’t Wait 9 Backup Slowdown (Alterative Version) 10 All I Need 11 Need Somebody 12 Presence 13 In A Hole 14 Eye Will Watch You 15 All Too Well 16 You Got The Nerve (Alternative Version) Disc 2 1 I’m After You 2 The Hero Is Dead 3 Big Boy 4 Under The Weather 5 Baby/Lady 6 Honestly Lovely 7 It Might Rain 8 Nuclear Affair 9 You Don’t Know Me 10 Right Time 11 Reddi Freddi 12 Baby/Lady (Alternative Version) 13 Honestly Lovely (Alternative Version) 14 Times Got A Way 15 Baby (Unplugged) 16 Reddi Freddi (Alternative Version) Disc 3 1 Don’t Cry 2 Rumble 3 No Man’s Land 4 Witchin’ Time 5 Night Scope 6 Eye 4 An Eye 7 You’ve Gotta Have It 8 Partyin’ Angel Videos Dark Mile – Dark Mile TRACKLIST 1. The Boy2. No Deal3. I Can’t Help You4. Like never Before5. Is Anybody Listening6. Games7. He Said She Said8. Maybe On A Sunday9. Know Me10. Where’s The Love11. United We Stand12. Lies Title #2 Item content. Click the edit button to change this text. Title #3 Item content. Click the edit button to change this text. Playlist 1 Videos Eye – Timmy 0:16
Czakan – State Of Confusion
product: Czakan – State Of Confusion (re-release) release date: 17.02.2023 format: CD territory: world The time has come: the re-release of the much acclaimed Czakan debut album ‚State of Confusion‘, which was awarded ‘record of the month’ in ‚Metal Star‘ when it was released in 1989 and sold around 25,000 copies in Germany, is imminent! The outstanding re-mastering by Robin Schmidt at 24-96 Mastering Karlsruhe brings the `89 production far more than just to today’s level in addition to having a new label behind it – a storm is brewing! Back home after this release, none other than Reinhold Mack (Queen, Rolling Stones, ELO and many more) contacted the boys and invited them to a weekend at the Musicland Studios in Munich. He put Czakan to the next step of their career. ‘Free Line‘ and ‚She is a Woman‘ were recorded. Two incredible titles that opened the next doors for the band. Frank Bornemann, owner of Horus Sound Studio Hanover and mastermind of German based band Eloy, knocked. In April 1988 he signed Czakan to Edition Metromania – a cooperation with Warner Chappell publishing. The musical fine-tuning of the rough diamond Czakan began. The band reaped the first benefits of this cooperation with the silver medal at the young talent festival, which the Rockfabrik Ludwigsburg organized in cooperation with the magazine ‚Metal Hammer‘ on Boxing Day 1988. In the audience, executives of former German record company Intercord. After many lucrative offers, the band finally decided to sign a record deal with the guys from Stuttgart. In June1989 Czakan boarded the Horus Sound Studios. During that summer they created their first record. ‚State of Confusion‘ was born. Already, after the first feedbacks it became clear that this band easily could measure up with any international competition. A tour across Germany followed as the opening act for Uriah Heep’s 20th Anniversary tour. After that, the trail of this brilliant band unfortunately got lost in the sands of time… …until today …because Czakan is back! With a grandiose remaster of `State of Confusion` and lots of news for spring 2023
Chris Rosander – The Monster Inside
product: Chris Rosander – The Monster Inside release date: 17.02.2023 format: CD & digital territory: world Chris Rosander is a 25 year old musician and songwriter from Örnsköldsvik, Sweden who has been writing songs in the AOR/Melodic and West Coast genre since he was 14 years old. Christian’s musical work includes artists and bands such as Michael Ruff, Paulo Mendonca, Frank Ådahl and X-Romance. In Mars 2020 Rosander signed with the record label AOR Heaven and debuted with his first full-length album ”King Of Hearts” that same year. Since it wasn’t possible to get out to play live shows at that time due to the pandemic, he started the writing process for a new album which now will be released on February 17th, 2023 via Pride & Joy Music. The album also was written & produced by Chris Rosander. In 2022 Chris got invited to guest on a charity project for the Ukraine called Save The Noise. He recorded vocals and guitar tracks on the song “Can’t Take Freedom From Me”, written by Filippa Nässil from Thundermother together with musicians and artists such as Filippa Nässil and Emlee Johansson from Thundermother, Liv Sin (Ex Sister Sin), Martin Motnik (Accept), Snowy Shaw (Ex King Diamond), Chaq Mol (Dark Funeral), Pontus Snibb (Bonafide), Linnea Wikström (At The Movies, Fd Therion, Ronnie Atkins Band), Ross ”The Boss” Freidman (MANOWAR, The Dictators), Søren Andersen (Chad Smith, Glenn Hughes, Marco Mendoza, Neil Murray, Ida Nielsen, Marcus Linnet, Simona Abdallah, Michael Gersdorff, Morten Hellborn) and Ida S (VA Rocks). Chris Rosander says about the new album: “The Monster Inside – Don’t we all have one of those? I know I do, and I believe that the most of us have, metaphorically speaking a monster inside and that’s what this work is all about. I started working on this record in August back in 2020 straight after the release of my debut ”King Of Hearts”. All songs were ready to be recorded in December that same year but due to the pandemic we couldn’t start until late august 2021. I didn’t know when I started the writing process that it was going to be a concept album but when I wrote the song Turn Your Heart To Stone the idea of having all the songs following the same theme felt rather intriguing. It’s not that kind of album where you get to follow the same storyline throughout the track list. On this record you get to hear 11 stories/songs about different people, each got a more twisted/darker side of them self than the other. Basically this album is about different and absurd behaviours and the fact that all of us got a side of our self that we rather not let anybody else see. The Monster Inside.”
Eye – Anthology (3 CD Box)
product: Eye – Anthology (mailorder release only!) release date: 20.01.2023 format: 3 CD Box territory: world Remarks: includes 50 tracks from the band’s archives, rare picture material, a 24 pages booklet incl. liner notes written by Mike Varney, ltd. on 500 copies only ———————————————————————————————————- Timmy (EYE) a histography It all started in 8th grade, 1967, the summer of love, in Buckhead, Georgia. Keyboardist John „Langford“ Harrison met guitarist Donny Macleod, and the rest was history. For nearly five decades, they still practiced every night. Why? Because they loved it. From the beginning, they had to have that „Brown“ soun‘. (Translated into laymens terms, that basically means a Marshall on ten). Thus the name ‚Timmy‘. A contradiction in terms, dialectic, or a sucker punch. I am reminded of when Elvis Presley came on the Ed Sullivan show, and said, „Okay, we’re gonna slow it down a little…You ain’t nothin‘ but a houndog!!! That knocked me back on my heels as a three-year-old. So Timmy comes out with a friendly little name, and then proceeds to knock you back on your heels! Heralded as the unsung progressive band of the seventies, that no one“s ever heard of, Timmy boasts an impressive history of associates that includes: Andy West of the Dixie Dregs, Mark O’Conner, world renowned fiddle champ,Vince Welnick, of the Tubes and Grateful Dead, Eddy Offord, produce of Yes and ELP, and engineer on John Lennon’s Imagine, and infamous rock manager Tony Secunda, who managed such acts as Procol Harem, Moody Blues, T Rex, Motorhead, Denny Laine, Chrissie Hinde, and Steel-Eye Span. 1975 Marin County California Timmy joins forces with Cream of Chicken, replacing guitarist Angie Makurak with Peter Penhallow, (aka Mr. Cheez), and drummer Dave Obiedo with Paul Southard, (aka Paul Zahl…his girlfriends tall!). Peter eventually moves to mini moog, (the ’saxophone‘, as John would affectionately refer to it), Donny moves, from bass to guitar, and John takes over the bass with his killer left hand. One of their songs at that time was called „Big Long One“, which says it all. Most of their tunes, mostly written by John, and collaborated with by Donny and Peter, were anywhere from ten minutes to a half hour long, and were these fantastic and beautiful epics with time changes every measure. From 1975 to 1988, various drummers came in and out, while John, Donny and Peter remained as the core of the group. Zahl stayed maybe a year, and maybe came back once or twice, but was eventually replaced with Mitch Hinard, (aka Panda McCaan). The music was a stretch for Panda, but he rose to the occasion and then some and hit excellent and hard. After Panda came Bob, (Uncle Woofy), easily among the best progressive drummers on the planet. The Uncle Woofy period was a height. The tunes were longer, crazier, more beautiful than ever, and played with precision. The band opened for many progressive bands of that era to standing ovations. (Bill Bruford, Dixie Dregs, Captain Beefheart, Allan Holdsworth, Brian Auger, etc.) Next up was Charlie Tapp on drums. Charlie also brought in a few nice tunes. The band was also recruited by famed rock manager Tony Secunda. A shift in the music occurs: shorter tunes, straighter beats. This was a typical shift for progressive bands at this time, e.g. Asia, the early eighties rhing, and Timmy handled the shift with grace. 1983 Andy West, bass player for the Dixie Dregs, joined the band. 1984 The band made a demo, (The Atlanta Project), produced by Eddy Offord. All the King’s men loved it, just the King’s A and R guys went, ehh! Hello Brain! Paul Chatterton III on the drums. Vince Welnick came in to co-write and produced a few tunes for the „Eye“ CD. 1988 „Has anyone seen Peter?“ „Hey Peter, when ya comin‘ to rehearsal?“ „Guys, I ran away from home to play piano for babies“. Brain left the band soon after Mr. Cheez, and eventually flew into the arms of God from the seat of his Harley. God bless ya, brother. 1990 Andy Bishop joins the band on drums, they were a bad ass rockin‘ trio. The Timmy line up at that time was: John (Langford) Harrison, Donny (Jock McNutt) MacLeod, Andy Bishop 30 years of Rock and Roll! So I seriously doubt that this is… The End Bio, originally published in Strtterzine magazine, was written by Peter Mr. Cheez Penhallow, 2005. R.I.P John Gimma Langford Harrison – Jan. 3, 1953 – June 25, 2012 Donny McLeod – Sept. 27, 1952 – Jan. 10, 2010
Autumn’s Child – Starflower
product: Autumn’s Child – Starflower release date: 20.01.2023 formats: CD & digital territory: World excl. Asia Mikael Erlandsson needs no further introduction when it comes to melodic rock. He has released six successful solo albums and a lot of titles with groups like Phenomena, Salute among others. Between 2006-2018 Erlandsson fronted the Swedish super group Secret Service which he toured with live all over the world. Together with the fantastic guitar player Andy Malecek from the successful German hard rock band Fair Warning he founded the band LAST AUTUMNS DREAM in 2003 which also featured Ian Haugland, Mic Michaeli and John Leven of Europe fame at the time. Last Autumn’s Dream went on releasing another 14 albums with different line ups including great musicians like Jamie Borger (Treat) and Marcel Jacob (Talisman). They toured Japan, England and Germany but decided to take a break in 2018. Shortly after, Erlandsson founded the group AUTUMN’S CHILD who have released three extremely successful albums so far (“Autumn’s Child” – 2019, “Angel’s Gate” – 2020, “Zenith” – 2022). January 2023 sees Autumn’s Child returning with their fourth album “Starflower”, their second release via Pride & Joy Music. The group still features Michael Erlandsson on vocals, keyboards & guitars, Pontus Åkesson on lead guitar, Robban Bäck on drums, Claes Andreasson on piano and Magnus Rosen on bass. “Starflower” was produced by Mikael Erlandsson & Claes Andreasson, mixed and mastered by Mikael Andersson at Soundport Studios, Sweden; drums recorded by Mikael Andersson at Soundport Studios.
Barnabas Sky – What Comes To Light
product: Barnabas Sky – What Comes To Light release date: 20.01.2023 formats: CD & digital territory: world The melodic hard rock all-star project BARNABAS SKY, led by German guitarist and songwriter Markus Pfeffer (LAZARUS DREAM/WINTERLAND), launches its sophomore album „What Comes To Light“! Stylistically, the project of the multi-instrumentalist from Kaiserslautern combines groovy guitar riffs, catchy choruses, distinctive voices of several singers with international reputation, spherical synth sounds and filigree solos to a timeless rock melange way beyond short-lived trends. Once again on board are TYKETTO’s Danny Vaughn as well as SILENT RAGE’s Jesse Damon, whereby the former impresses with energetic vocals on the title track and the latter is supported with choirs by AOR legend PAUL SABU on the elegiac earworm „Grant Me A Wish From Heaven“. For the first time, Doogie White (RAINBOW, ALCATRAZZ, RISING FORCE etc.) is on board for the classic rock steam hammer „Circus Of Delight“ as well as Dan Reed (DAN REED NETWORK) with the synth-hooked „Take A Ride“. Also featured are Roy Cathey (COLD SWEAT, THE FIFTH), Dirk Kennedy (HITTMAN), Carsten „Lizard“ Schulz (DOMAIN, EVIDENCE ONE), Lee Small (SWEET, LIONHEART, PHENOMENA) and metal legend Alan Tecchio (WATCHTOWER). In addition to these already established singers, the exceptional vocal talent Deibys Artigas Venegas (PREINCARNATION) from Venezuela, who is just 30 years old, is on board as an insider tip. The impressive cover design was done by Stan W. Decker (POWERWOLF, MEGADETH etc.) and the mastering by Rolf Munkes at Empire Studios (MICHAEL SCHENKER, MAD MAX, VOODOO CIRCLE etc.). Line-up: Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Guitarsynth: Markus Pfeffer Vocals: Danny Vaughn, Dan Reed, Doogie White, Jesse Damon, Roy Cathey, Dirk Kennedy, Lee Small, Carsten Lizard Schulz, Alan Tecchio, Deibys Artigas Venegas Drums, Percussions: Thomas Rieder Backing Vocals: Paul Sabu, Stephan Hugo
Alicate
Alicate was formed in the late eighties by Lead vocalist Jonas Erixon and bass player Fredrik Ekberg. In the early years they played mostly local venues but were able to release a 7” single called “The End/Too Shy To Take It” which is a collectors piece today. Fast forward to 2006 where the band reformed and started to work on new material that resulted in their first full length album called “World Of Anger” that was released in 2009. The success of this album and the popularity of their concerts, led to the release of their second album, “Free Falling” in 2013. Their third full length album, “Unforgiven To Be Forgiven”, followed in 2018 together with a Live EP called “Live At Forum”. The creativity was reaching soaring levels when Covid sadly hit the world and put the progress on hold for the band. However, Jonas Erixon still wrote songs and collaborated with some high profile artists and wrote/co-wrote songs for Giant, Skills (with Billy Sheehan and Brad Gillis) and Sweet Oblivion (Geoff Tate) During the Pandemic, work also started on new material for Alicate. The band looked for a natural progression from their last album that would result in a more “distilled” version of the band, adding even more hooks to the songs. Four years after the release of their last album, ALICATE returns to form with a brand new album called “Butterfly”!! This new record consists of 10 hi-octane tracks that can be categorized as Hard Rock with a large dose of melodies in them. Releases on Pride & Joy Music: – Butterfly (2022)
Pearls & Flames
Pearls & Flames consists of a couple of friends from Sundsvall and Söderhamn who have been active in the Melodic Rock scene since decades. Markus Nordenberg is the main-man and driving force behind this AOR and Westcoast project. He has been the lead singer in an early version of Swedish hard rock masters Lion´s Share and continued as the lead singer and one of the songwriters in Big Price before moving on as one of the members of Coastland Ride that have released three much appreciated albums in the vein of AOR and Westcoast. Nordenberg is joined by guitarist Sven Larsson (Street Talk, Coastland Ride, Groundbreaker, Fergie Frederiksen and many more) who also has two solo albums under his belt where he was the main songwriter delivering songs in an exciting blend of AOR, Westcoast and Fusion. Tomas Coox, who is a much-appreciated session keyboardist playing live with among others Coastland Ride Live band and Roulette SWE, completes the line-up. In 2019 when Coastland Ride made the decision to stop making music together it was a natural step for Markus to ask Tomas and Sven Larsson to join in as they both were in the Coastland Ride live band. It also felt natural to pick up the band name Pearls & Flames again. The guys started up recording some songs but due to different circumstances it nearly stopped there. During the Covid Pandemic Markus got in touch with well-known Swedish guitarist, songwriter and producer Tommy Denander (Prisoner, Radioactive, Alice Cooper, Paul Stanley, Tina Arena, House of Lords and many more). The two songwriters connected, and the recording process really got a boost. Since then, a very creative collaboration started which now has resulted in “Reliance”. “Reliance” is the debut album of Pearls & Flames, and the album title is a reminder of that all the things in the world are linked together. It´s all about different kind of relations and that we all need each other in different ways. The songs were recorded at various studios in Sweden and produced by Pearls & Flames, Tommy Denander and Anders Rybank (Can We Find The Love, Temple Of Lust, It Never Took Away Your Smile and (I Don’t Know Who I Am) Anymore); Wires And Frames was produced by Sven Larsson and all other songs by Pearls & Flames and Tommy Denander. Artwork by Tomas Coox, mixed by Tommy Denander at Holliewood studios and mastered by Mike Lind at Masterplant. Releases On Pride & Joy Music: – Reliance (2022)
C.O.P.
C.O.P. (Sweden) is a Swedish Melodic Rock band of the highest order formed in 2014 who with “State Of Rock” has released one of the finest AOR albums in 2015 via the AOR Heaven label. Fronted by extraordinaire singer Peter Sundell (ex-Grand Illusion, Decoy), the three piece which is completed by Christian Sundell on drums & keyboards and Swedish guitar wizard Ola af Trampe (ex-Grand Illusion) now returns with a classy sophomore release via Pride & Joy Music! The first letters of the three musicians’ forenames together result into C, O & P. And “Enemy” continues exactly where “State Of Rock” stopped – Peter Sundell’s with his high pitched and powerful voice once again sets new standards for the genre. Backed up by his younger brother Christian on drums & keyboards who also wrote all songs for this release and the extremely talented guitarist Ola af Trampe who also mixed the album and mastered it together with Jakob Lindahl, C.O.P. II come along as a pretty unique dream team! On “Enemy”, powerful hooks combine with pomp and brilliant hooks and each and every song. Releases on Pride & Joy Music: – Enemy (2022)