Sede Vacante
Sede Vacante is a heavy Goth Metal duo from Greece formed in 2013 which consists of Michael Tiko (male vocals, guitars and synths) and Constantine Alex (female vocals). Both members are highly educated in music – with Michael Tiko having studied at Berklee College of Music, Boston, USA (Master in Guitar Performance) and Constantine Alex having studied in The National Academy of Music “Prof. Pantcho Vladigerov”, Sofia, Bulgaria. Both members have got an extensive live experience. Tiko was the lead guitarist of the Goth/Power metal band “Rage of Romance” (feat. Vicky Psarakis on vocals, The Agonist) and also played as a session guitarist in many local bands, even in the Jazz genre. Alex has been singing for more than 10 years and been a session vocalist in numerous swing, jazz and rock bands. “Skies Infernal” is their debut album which will be released on Pride & Joy Music on November 18th, 2016. The logo and the band’s symbol were made by Gustavo Sazes (Arch Enemy, Firewind etc.), and the record was mixed by drummer and sound engineer Fotis Benardo (ex- Septic Flesh, Six4Nine) and mastered by the Jens Bogren (Fascination Street Studios) in Örebro, Sweden. Releases on Pride & Joy Music: 18.11.2016 Skies Infernal (CD)
Berggren, Stefan
STEFAN BERGGREN is one of Sweden’s best known singers, musicians and song-writers. In his almost 30 years lasting career he played in acts such as Snakes In Paradise, M3, Company Of Snakes, Razorback and Berggren Kerslake Band amongst others and shared the stage with musicians from Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Brian May Band, Uriah Heep und Black Sabbath. Most recently he stepped in as singer for Uriah Heep at a gig in Rosenheim and played in the UK together with Don Airey (Deep Purple) and Neil Murray (Whitesnake, Black Sabbath), Germany. „Stranger In A Strangeland“ marks the release of the first solo album from this exceptional artist and features appearances from old friends such as Bernie Marsden (ex Whitesnake), Stephen Bentley-Klein (Deep Purple), Neil Murray (Black Sabbath, Whitesnake), Tomas Pomma Thorberg (Snakes In Paradise, Four Sticks, Plankton), Sebastian Sippola (Four Sticks ,Plankton), Marcus Jidell (Avatarium, ex Evergrey), Joakim Svalberg (Opeth), Lars Karlsson (Diamond Dogs) and more. The album „Stranger In A Strangeland“ was produced by Stefan Berggren at Berggren Studios in Stockholm, Sweden and mastered by Pete Lynam (California Breed, Glenn Hughes, Slash, Rival Sons) at Infrasonic Sound Studios in Los Angeles, USA. Pride & Joy Music release: 21.10.2016 Stranger In A Strangeland (CD)
AlmaH
ALMAH, led by former Angra singer Edu Falaschi, since the very beginning has been in the focus of the metal head’s attention world-wide as one of the most significant representatives on the Brazilian rock/metal stage. Edu Falaschi, Almah’s leader, composer and singer, has sold more than one million albums in his 25 year spinning career. ALMAH went on a lot of national and international tours and performed at some of the most important events in the world, like the world famous Rock In Rio Festival 2013. In the same year the band played an European co-headlining tour performing 18 shows in Italy, Spain, Germany, France and many more countries. In 2015 the Brazilians took part in ProgPower Festival in the USA and many others important festivals and shows around the globe; more than 100 shows during the band’s history in total. Since their founding in 2006, the band already has released four full-length albums world-wide (‘Almah’, ‘Fragile Equality’, ‘Motion’ and ‘Unfold’). E.V.O is the 5th release in their career.This is a conceptual album which is based on the evolution of the people’s mind and soul during the new age that the world is about to live in – called Age Of Aquarius. The author, Edu Falaschi, visited different subjects that are connected with the main concept, creating a very positive lyric and album atmosphere. Musically, E.V.O brings a fresh and powerful album, with the modern and heavy Almah touch but also a direct connection to the Angra album “Rebirth”. Angra’s album (The first Angra’s album with Edu’s voice). In E.V.O the vocal lines are very powerful, classical and it has a higher pitch comparing with the previous Almah releases. It’s very melodic, clean and more into the bel canto style. Like the old times of Edu Falaschi’s vocals.The compositions are a pleasant travel between Modern Power Metal, Contemporary Rock and Prog Metal. The artwork shows all elements which represent the main concept – especially the woman in the center who visualizes the Aquarius constellation, and also brings – for the first time – the band’s logo in a golden color and a very bright and shiny yellow cover, that fits perfectly with the positive vibration of the record. Pride & Joy Music releases: 23.09.2016 E.V.O
Vivaldi Metal Project
The VIVALDI METAL PROJECT is a music creation born from an idea conceived and developed by Italian keyboard player, composer and producer MISTHERIA (solo artist, Bruce Dickinson, Rob Rock, Roy Z, Artlantica). The project is a symphonic-metal opera based on Antonio Vivaldi’s Baroque masterwork “The Four Seasons”, featuring more than 130 amazing metal and classical artists, orchestra, a string quartet and three choirs from all over the world. The album features 14 tracks – all the movements from Antonio Vivaldi’s original score plus two original new songs written by MISTHERIA. The impressive roster of artists probably makes this titanic album the biggest all-star project ever! Back in 2013, MISTHERIA started thinking about making a metal version of “The Four Seasons”, a masterpiece that he loved and kept listening to since his childhood. MISTHERIA started to play and record all the movements on the piano but then felt that a parallel symphonic-metal version would have been the perfect continuation. Therefore, he recorded and uploaded a short trailer on the web to start engaging musicians. A few days later, Italian bassist and composer Alberto Rigoni (solo artist, TwinSpirits, Kim Bingham, The Italians, BADASS), who had already collaborated with Mistheria by recording bass on his previous solo album “Dragon Fire”, learned about the project and contacted MISTHERIA offering his support to work on the project as co-producer. Also, MISTHERIA made the “innovative” choice – never done so far – to add lyrics and singers to “The Four Seasons” which, as composed by Vivaldi, is an instrumental work. For this important task, he invited Douglas R. Docker who perfectly translated the producer’s concept into brilliant lyrics. Additional lyrics were written by Mistheria, Rob Rock and Lance King. A cast of 10 awesome arrangers joined MISTHERIA creating epic and memorable music, combining a standard metal band lineup with strings, orchestra and choir: Douglas R. Docker, Francesco Dall’O’, Frank Caruso, Gabriels, Keiko Kumagai, Nicolas Waldo, Pawel Penksa, Tomas Varnagiris, Yannis Androulakakis and Zhivko Koev. The cast furthermore includes performances by Mark Boals (Malmsteen, Royal Hunt), Fabio Lione (Rhapsody of Fire, Angra), Edu Falaschi (Almah), Rob Rock (Impellitteri), Mike Lepond (SymhonyX), Dani Löble (Helloween), Ruud Jolie (Within Temptation), Mark Cross (Firewind, Scorpions), Steve Di Giorgio (Testament), Rolf Pilve (Stratovarius), Victor Smolski (Rage, Almanac), Ruben Israel (Delain), John Macaluso (ARK), Marco Sfogli (James Labrie), Chris Caffery (Savatage), Mark Wood (Trans Siberian Orchestra), Dirk Verbeuren (Soilwork), Atma Anur (Tony MacAlpine), Vitalij Kuprij, Anna Portalupi (Tarja Turunen), Sean Tibbetts (Kamelot), Martijn Peters (Stream of Passion) and many more. It took more than 2 years of intensive non-stop hard work to get the album done. Mixed and mastered by Ivan Moni Bidin at “Artesonika” recording studio in Italy and assisted by Fabio D’Amore, the album is a full 74 minutes of intense, passionate, fascinating, powerful and majestic experience! Production, ideation, concept and artistic direction by MISTHERIA. Co-produced by Alberto Rigoni. www.vivaldimetalproject.com / www.mistheria.com / www.albertorigoni.net Releases on Pride & Joy Music: 22.07.2016 The Four Seasons (CD & download) 09.09.2016 The Four Seasons (2-vinyl) 19.01.2018 The Extended Sessions EP
Lichtgestalt
When the German NDH/Gothic/Metal band LICHTGESTALT from the Rhine Ruhr/ Münsterland area was founded at the end of the year 2013, it became rapidly clear that this group will start through in their scene immediately. Only a few months and steady rehearsals later, the self-titled debut EP “Lichtgestalt” was released in 2014 on the band’s own label Lichtgestalt Music. The EP marked a big success and charted straight away in the Top 30 of the German DJ Club Charts. Their first full-length album „Motorenherz“ saw the light of day in April 2015 on the Danse Macabre label. The specialized press celebrated the record as, for instance, powermetal.de wrote that “the track ‘Tiefenrausch’ impressively demonstrates that only this band is able to the claim the rights on the crown of German, hard music…”, whilst Orkus magazine even attested that the quartet had created a new musical genre: “Theatrical, spaced out, different….Lichtgestalt with their debut album firsthand creates a new genre – “Neuen Harten Stream” (new, hard Steam)….”. Since May 2015, the band around the charismatic singer Thomas C. Hertz regularly shows live that they’re also capable to transfer their energy from the studio onto stage. In the year 2015, LICHTGESTALT also successfully toured twice with the German NDH iconic band STAHLMANN and started to play first headline shows. In line with their live activities, guitarist and song-writer Der Heizzer and singer and lyricist Thomas C. Hertz began the song-writing of their sophomore album “Tempus Fugit” which will be released on May 26th, 2017 on the Pride & Joy Music label with Edel distribution in their native country of Germany. In the meantime, the group, which furthermore still consists of Lippman on bad guitar and Brukke on drums, finished more live shows during the year 2016 which included a performance at prestigious Gothic Castle Festival and some club shows. In February 2017, LICHTGESTALT will hit the road together for a 14-day European tour together with the Metal bands ALMANAC & GLORYFUL and continue to play club shows and more festivals during the year to support the “Tempus Fugit” release. The year 2017 will without any doubt the year of LICHTGESTALT! Line-up: Thomas C. Hertz (vocals), Der Heizzer (guitar), Lippmann (bass), Brukke (drums) Pride & Joy Music releases: 10.06.2016 „Böse Fee (Live)“ (digital single) 26.05.2017 „Tempus Fugit“ (CD & download)
Falaschi, Edu
“Moonlight” is the first solo album of ex-ANGRA frontman EDU FALASCHI (currently ALMAH) dedicated to the 25th career anniversary of the worldwide known Brazilian singer and composer. The album presents acoustic versions of the most significant songs of Falaschi’s career in Angra and Almah, all the material was rearranged for the voice accompanied by piano, guitar and orchestra in order to present an outstanding mixture of rock, jazz, classic and popular music highlighting harmony and melody itself on the first place. The album is a quintessence of Falaschi’s career in leading Brazilian bands with 16 records released worldwide, a national “Golden disc award”, more than one million CDs sold, countless world tours, appreciated by fans all around the globe, especially in Japan, Europe and South America. “Moonlight” was recorded in São Paulo and Jundiaí (Brazil) at WINK Studio and mixed and mastered by Caio Cesar. Falaschi here performs together with several respected Brazilian musicians such as Tiago Mineiro (piano) who represents the Brazilian jazz and popular music scene; maestro and violinist Adriano Machado (string arrangements), creator and conductor of the Symphonic Orchestra Villa Lobos. Also, there are two special guests – João Frederico Sciotti known as “Derico” (flutes and saxophone) and Sandami (percussions). The cover artwork was created by Brazilian designer Gustavo Sazes (Almah, Kamelot, Sepultura, Arch Enemy, Morbid Angel, Manowar, etc.). Edu Falaschi’s “Moonlight” includes older and more recent hits of “Angra” and “Almah” such as Nova Era, Rebirth, Heroes of Sand, Spread your Fire, Bleeding Heart, Wishing Well and Breathe. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edufalaschi.officialpage Web: www.edufalaschi.com.br Pride & Joy Music releases: 20.05.2016 „Moonlight“ (album)
Rigoni, Alberto
Alberto Rigoni is an Italian bass player and composer, internationally known for his career as a solo artist and as a member of the progressive rock band TwinSpirits, Lady & THE BASS and co-producer of the Vivaldi Metal Project. His solo albums (Something Different, Rebirth, Three Wise Monkeys and Overloaded, worldwide released between 2008 and 2014), between progressive rock metal and fusion, also feature legendary musicians such as Kevin Moore (ex Dream Theater), Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson), Göran Edman (ex Yngwie Malmsteen), Michael Manring and many others. Alberto has been featured on the cover of magazine such as Bass Magazine Japan, Bass Musician Magazine (Japan), Bajos Y Bajistas (Spain) and Basistas (Poland). Moreover, On March 2015 the prestigious Bass Guitar Magazine (UK) released Alberto’s CD anthology called “Into THE BASS”. Alberto has also recorded for several international artists such as Italian pop singer Alexia and is now playing bass with Canadian rock singer and songwriter Kim Bingham (Nelly Furtado), The Italians and the Crystal Music Project, sharing stages with artists such as Alan Parsons, Jørn Lande, Paul Gilbert and others. Rigoni is now releasing his fifth solo album BASSORAMA which will also feature Doug Wimbish, Divinity ROXX, Stu Hamm, Nik West, Steve Lawson, Anna Sentina, Lars Lehmann and Remco Hendrix. Links: http://www.albertorigoni.net/ https://www.facebook.com/AlbertoTHEBASSRigoni Videos: https://youtu.be/Rk4bzXco6HY https://youtu.be/YWckLdjoLJk Line-up: Alberto Rigoni (all instruments), Divinity ROXX (Beyoncé, bass on #5), Nik West (Prince, bass on #10), Stu Hamm (Satriani, Gambale, bass on #3), Lars Lehmann (Vinnie Moore, UFO; bass on #6, ), Doug Wimbish (Living Color, bass on #4), Anna Sentina (bass on #2), Steve Lawson (bass on #6), Remco Hendrix (bass on #7 & 9) Pride & Joy Music releases: 15.04.2016 BASSORAMA (CD digi-pack)
Tainted Nation
Tainted Nation comprises of five musicians who have all in their own right been involved in world tours, festivals and recordings. Boasting members and ex-members of Helloween, Firewind, King Diamond, The Poodles, Eden’s Curse, Lionsheart and others. This line up has so far released an acclaimed debut title F.E.A.R, which hit like a hammer across the loins of Rock music. Possibly a slightly unexpected direction taken in this hard hitting commercial slice of music, the album has helped Tainted Nation to move forward at a rapid pace. With live appearances in the UK and Europe, including festivals and a hugely successful tour of Spain. All of these received some great reviews. On 26.02.2016, Tainted Nation is looking forward to the release of their follow-up album entitled “On The Outside”. This record was recorded in Tewkesbury, UK and Stockholm, Sweden, and produced & mixed by Pete Newdeck. Pontus Norgren of Hammerfall has co-written the tracks “Live And Die”, “Karma” and “Back To Earth” and provided a couple of guest solos, Nick Workman (Vega) appears as backing vocalist on the track “On The Outside” and Issa is performing a duet with singer Pete Newdeck at “Pulling Me Under”. Line-up: Pete Newdeck (vocals), Mark Cross (drums), Pontus Egberg (bass), Ian Nash (guitars), Joel Peters (guitars) Web: https://www.facebook.com/officialtaintednation
Bridge To Mars
With influences like Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, Yes, The Black Crowes, The Who, Soundgarden, Rush, Black Sabbath, Van Halen and yes … ABBA!… BRIDGE TO MARS from Stockholm, Sweden, have managed to create their own unique sound. JJ and Thomas played together when they were in Glenn Hughes’s band and also with the Hughes Turner Project. JJ’s made nine albums with Glenn Hughes and the Hughes Turner Project and has written a number of songs for Hughes. Thomas Broman was in Hughes’ touring band for four years and also did two European tours with the Hughes Turner Project. After having toured with each other for years, backing other rock-stars up, JJ Marsh and Thomas Broman thought it was time to do something together as a band – which they did in 2013 when they founded BRIDGE TO MARS. The trio later was completed by bearded bass-master Robert Hansen. Thomas Broman’s previous work also includes music for Great King Rat, Electric Boys, Send No Flowers, John Norum, Silver Ginger 5, Firebird, Humanimal, Conny Bloom and Michael Schenker. Robert Hansen is also the bass player in the Swedish prog-rock band Beardfish and has been involved in many other projects. JJ Marsh: Guitar/vocals Robert Hansen Bass Thomas Broman: Drums and cowbell
Last Days Of Eden
LAST DAYS OF EDEN is a stunning band from Spain performing symphonic folk metal. The band released their first album, “Ride The World”, in 2015, getting amazing reviews from all around the globe. In 2016 they played their first European tour, with more than 25 shows in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, and Spain. Led by female singer Lady Ani, she puts the sweetest tones to the tunes. Their melodies not only include bagpipes, violins, and whistles, but also a full symphonic orchestra, all wrapped in a solid metal package in every song. The new album “Chrysalis” has been recorded and includes 11 amazing and encompassing tracks that will take your mind on an unforgettable journey. The record was produced by Dani G. and mastered by Mika Jussila (Nightwish, Stratovarius, Amorphis, etc.). Last Days Of Eden releases on Pride & Joy Music: – Ride The World (2015) – Chrysalis (2018)