White Skies – Black Tide
product: White Skies – Black Tide release date: 04.11.2022 formats: CD & digital territory: world White Skies is a UK based AOR band formed by former Samson/First Strike vocalist Mick White, former Ya Ya guitarist Ray Callcut and former Double Cross/Dante Fox keyboard player Pete Lakin. Just prior to the start of the pandemic in 2020 Mick and Ray (who were old friends from the eighties) had discussed the idea of writing a pure AOR album very much in the style of the giants of the genre Journey, Foreigner and Toto. As the world entered lockdown the writing process began and it was clear from the first couple of songs that they had a natural songwriting partnership. Ray suggested bringing in his longtime bandmate Pete as the songs were going to need a gifted keyboard player to really take them to the next level and the nucleus of the band was formed. The writing continued over the course of the next year with the tracks being honed down to twelve songs that the three musicians were satisfied were the best of the best they had written and the recording process continued in their separate home studios while the pandemic continued to grip the world. Finally the mixes were undertaken by Pete to painstaking detail and the album ‚Black Tide‘ was completed in the Spring of 2022. The band were very quickly offered a deal by German rock label Pride & Joy Music and will be released on the 4th November 2022. Prior to shooting the video for ‘What Do You Know About Love?’ White Skies added the talents of ex Blood Red Saints bass player Rob Naylor and ex Red White and Blues drummer Daz Lamberton. With the line up now complete White Skies plan to tour the album extensively throughout 2023.
Legions Of The Night – Hell
product: Legions Of The Night – Hell release date: 04.11.2022 formats: CD & digital territory: world After the huge success of LEGIONS OF THE NIGHT’s debut album in the year 2020 during the pandemic, “Sorrow Is The Cure”, the Germany based Power Metal group now returns with the sophomore release “Hell”! The group still exists of Jens Faber (Dawn of Destiny, MalefistuM, ExoS), drummer Philipp Bock (Dawn Of Destiny” and sexceptional singer Henning Basse (Metalium, ex- Firewind, Mayan). “Hell” continues exactly where the previous album has stopped – on this new release the typical Power Metal trademarks like huge melodies, powerful riffs and catchy choruses are present all over the released which is topped by an incredible performance of singer Henning Basse! “Hell” once again was mixed by mastermind Dennis Köhne (u.a. Orden Ogan, Sodom, Lacuna Coil)!
Stranger Vision – Wasteland
product: Stranger Vision – Wasteland release date: 04.11.2022 formats: CD & digital territory: world Do progressive & power metal still have a chance to sound fresh and original, without losing their authentic and charming spirit? If you believe that the answer is „no“, you have probably never listened to STRANGER VISION. STRANGER VISION were born in 2019, aiming to create and realize an extremely personal vision and sound. Catchy music, but not cheesy. Magniloquent, but not tawdry. Technical, but not complex. Modern, but not pimp. And powerful, above all. The captivating energy of STRANGER VISION comes from the toughness of an exquisitely metal impact and the penetrating power of the melodies. Their style is proficient at generating violent and pleasant sensations, both on artistic and emotional level. Despite the rich songwriting and accurate arrangements, the creative process of STRANGER VISION is very free and spontaneous. Some sources of inspiration can be found in the limitless storytelling skills of Savatage, the percussive intensity of Symphony X and the fluent harmonic layers of Blind Guardian, but any influence is deeply reworked by the unique personality of the band. Shortly after the successful debut album Poetica, the sophomore opus Wasteland hits the bullseye once again. A 58-minutes-long musical journey showing STRANGER VISION’s talent for crating memorable riffs, epic vocal melodies, compelling rhythms, uplifting orchestrations, while working out a quite unique conceptual approach for their genre. The interest of STRANGER VISION in human sciences – with special regard to literature, poetry and philosophy – is deepened in thoughtful lyrics, yet open to free interpretation. Wasteland is a concept album celebrating, exactly 100 years after its first publication, Thomas Stearns Eliot’s eponymous poem, published in 1922 and considered one of the great masterpieces of modern poetry. Wasteland also features some stunning collaborations with prestigious international guests, such as Tom S. Englund (Evergrey, Redemption, Silent Skies) on the song The Deep and the almighty Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian, Demons & Wizards) on the title-track. A pretty consequence of STRANGER VISION’s victory at the Imagination Song Contest hosted by the Bards of Krefeld themselves. Magnificently mixed and mastered by Simone Mularoni (DGM) at the renowned Domination Studio in San Marino, the new album Wasteland will undoubtedly pursue the never-ending path of a steadily growing career, which can finally take flight along with the complete restoration of concert-related activities. The artwork was designed by Gustavo Sazes (Angra, Firewind, Cyrah etc.) Far from being a studio project, STRANGER VISION are more determined than ever to establish their artistic consistency and unleash all the power of Wasteland, definitely a game-changing record in the Italian and international metal scene. Do progressive & power metal still have a chance to sound fresh and original, without losing their authentic and charming spirit? The answer is “yes“. Its name is STRANGER VISION.
C.O.P. – Enemy
product: C.O.P. – Enemy release date: 07.10.2022 formats: CD & digital territory: world excl. Asia 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.
Alicate – Butterfly
product: Alicate – Butterfly release date: 07.10.2022 formats: CD & digital territory: world 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.
Pearls & Flames – Reliance
product: Pearls & Flames – Reliance release date: 07.10.2022 formats: CD & digital territory: world 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.
Mentalist – Empires Falling
product: Mentalist – Empires Falling release date: 16.09.2022 formats: CD, LP, Box & digital territory: world excl. Japan MENTALIST, the Saarbrücken Germany based Melodic Metal group, like maybe no other recently new band has managed to left big, positive marks in the Power Metal scene! After the big success of the debut album „Freedom Of Speech“ (2020), the German/ Swedish foursome consisting of Peter Moog (guitars), Thomen Stauch (dr., ex BLIND GUARDIAN), Kai Stringer (guitars) and Swedish exceptional singer Rob Lundgren just slighty scraped past of the German official media control album charts with their 2021 effort „A Journey Into The Unknown“ (trend charts: #63)! On iTunes, MENTALIST reached an impressive #2 as highest position at the Metal charts, and the fans of the Facebook group „power Metal“ with 110K followers voted „A Journey Into The Unknown“ as best Power Metal release of the year 2021! „Empires Falling“, the third full length by the German/Swedish outfit, now continues where its predecessors have stopped! Oliver Palotai (keys, Kamelot) und Mike LePond (b., Symphony X) again joined MENTALIST as energetic guests on keyboards and bass. On this release, outstanding musicianship teams up with fabulous melodies and fine, subtle arrangements as parts of epic, stirring and enery-driven songs which reinforce the high quality of MENTALIST! The front cover artwork again was designed by Andreas Marschall (u.a. Blind Guardian, Running Wild), the mix & the mastering once more was handled by Jacob Hansen (Volbeat, Amaranthe, Pretty Maids etc.). „Empires Falling“ will be released on September 16th, 2022 on CD, digital, and as golden-coloured 2-LP. A tour for autumn 2022 is currently in preparation.
Hartmann – Get Over It
product: Hartmann – Get Over It release date: 16.09.2022 formats: CD, Lp & digital territory: world Oliver Hartmann is considered with his band HARTMANN since their debut ’Out in the cold’ (2005) as one of the best modern German Rock-/Hardrock acts. Besides that he’s well known as highly respected singer, guitarist and sideman of the metal megaseller Avantasia, projects as Rock Meets Classic, as ex-At Vance singer and as front man of the successful German Pink Floyd tribute Echoes, Since then the band has released 9 successful albums, has toured with well known acts as Toto, Uriah Heep, The Hooters, House of Lords and celebrated their 15th anniversary in spring 2020! After the release of their anniversary album ’15 Pearls & Gems’ in April 2020 which again received great reviews world wide and followed by a special acoustic tour in summer / autumn 2021, now the band will release their new and tenth album ’Get over it’ on Sept 16th! Again co-produced by Sascha Paeth (Avantasia, Beyond The Black, Kamelot) and with the guest musicians Jimmy Kresic on keys (Rock Meets Classic) and Ina Morgan on additional choirs (Avantasia) it can be called the most homogeneous album so far. It contains eleven new tracks in the bands’ typical genre of modern AOR- and Melodic-Rock and is aimed at fans of Foreigner, Gary Moore, Thunder or even Bryan Adams. Besides a few summer festivals the band will be on tour again this autumn with 12-15 shows in Germany and Switzerland and supplemented by 4-5 shows in Spain. All tour dates will be presented by Guitar-Magazin, Eclipsed, FGN-Guitars and ROCKANTENNE, Germany’s No 1 Rock-Radio station!
Terra Atlantica – Beyond The Borders
product: Terra Atlantica – Beyond The Borders release date: 16.09.2022 formats: CD & digital territory: world “Beyond the Borders” is the next milestone in the history of Terra Atlantica, pushing the boundaries of the genre by adding stage musical elements and creating a new world full of magic and adventures. Set in the year 1848, the story takes place two decades after the predecessor “Age of Steam”! With the British Empire being defeated, the vacuum of power in Europe has led to the uprising of the Prussian dynasty, ruling over the continent with a fist of steel. A group of young people set out on a quest to fight against this oppression with the aid of a magical stone which supposedly will guide them the way to Atlantica. But they are being followed! A pursuit across land and sea begins… Guest performances by Anders Sköld (Veonity), Alex Hunzinger (Ex-Aeternitas) and Joan Pabon (Tragedian). The album was mastered by Jacob Hansen (Volbeat, Pretty Maids etc.)
Bad Baron – Ace Of Hearts
product: Bad Baron – Ace Of Hearts release date: 26.08.2022 formats: CD & digital territory: world You might be tempted to assume that you’ve come across yet another Scandinavian sleaze rock band, following a path well-trodden over the past few years by bands like Crashdïet, Santa Cruz and Reckless Love. But you’d be wrong. Bad Baron, hailing from the metal mecca of Finland, do things a little differently. From their breakout debut ‘Sweet Talker,’ that hit the airwaves of national station Radio Rock in February 2021, to their latest ballad ‘Lost In The Night,’ Bad Baron have proved again and again that they can take all the best parts from the golden age of rock music, wrap them up in an exhilarating hook filled package, and fearlessly cast it out into a world that never truly stopped loving yesteryear’s rock titans. Leading the band on vocals and bass is 2020 Voice of Finland contestant Lauri Huovinen, who cut his teeth playing in bands in the wintry northern city of Oulu. Guitarist Tommy Widdow and British keyboardist Alex Kron bring the pulsating riffs, vintage synths, and facemelting solos, while Sammy South keeps the beat with the (very) occasional drum solo. ‘I’m a massive fan of the AOR and glam metal that came out of the 80s,’ says Lauri ’Whitesnake, Journey, Mötley Crüe and so on, so it was amazing to find people who want to keep that flame burning in a time where rock musicians have to try harder than ever to cut through.’ With big looks, even bigger hooks, and more gratuitous key changes than you ever thought possible, Bad Baron set the bar just a little bit higher.