Sonic Universehave released their debut album ‘It Is What It Is’through earMUSIC.
The long-awaited full-length debut was produced by Mike Orlando at his Sonic Stomp Studios on Staten Island, NYC and features 10 tracks that twist genres into new sonic shapes, but remain true to each band members’ legacy. Joined by bassist Booker King and drummer Taykwuan Jackson (Sworn Enemy), Sonic Universe breathes soul into hard rock, slams punk into funk and grooves with a special power all their own.
Following the singles ‘I Am,’ ‘Higher,’ and title track ‘It Is What It Is,’Sonic Universe has been praised as “magnificent and fierce” (Power Play Rock & Metal Magazine UK) and “a heady mixture of great singing and great playing” (Rock Candy UK).
Rock It 9/10:“… a fireworks display of intense grooves… enormous hit potential…”
eclipsed 8/10:“Such a groove has not been heard in the rock world for a long time. …Between funk, alternative, rock, and metal, a huge chalice of energy is drawn upon. A powerful debut with a lot of personality and plenty of hardness.”
Having recently debuted live at a radio festival in the US, the band is making plans to put their stars in alignment and bring their Universe to our world.
The Tangent are pleased to release the new album ‘To Follow Polaris’, and to celebrate a video for the track ‘The Fine Line’ has been launched.
Andy Tillison comments of the new album release: “Making ‘To Follow Polaris’ alone has been one of life’s greatest adventures. However alone it may have been though, a lot of people believed in it enough to make it happen: everyone at my record company InsideOut and their publicity departments, everyone in the full lineup of the band who supported me doing it this way and the fans who helped me finance this thing before it was even signed. It has been a massive learning experience. I hope to have created here an album that belongs in this strange and fraught period of time but with a positive eye on the future. Part of making the future better will always be knowing what must be overcome. That’s what this record is about.”
In a year when members of The Tangent could be seen onstage all over the world with Steve Hackett, Soft Machine, Karnataka, David Cross, It Bites, Cyan and others, plus on recordings by those artists and The Anchoret, The Michael Dunn Project, Argos and Retreat From Moscow, it became clear that there was not going to be time to get together for anything more than one gig in April 2023.
So the band agreed that the band’s leader/main writer Andy Tillison would keep the material coming and would make an album by The Tangent entirely alone. It would still be The Tangent. Just for one.
“Besides Which” Andy says, “I’ve always wanted to do this, use what I have learned from Luke, Jonas, Steve, Theo and many other alumni and take it to final production. Now was the time!”
What transpired over the following year is in one sense an “absolutist” solo album and is entirely the work of one person in all aspects including artwork, layout, design, lyrics, composition, performance, recording, production, mixing, mastering and authoring. But in another sense it’s totally Tangent. “I could not have begun to make this record without having had the experiences of working with the band. So although the different instruments are not attempted to be played in the actual style of the normal lineup, they are inspired by the kind of things these guys do.”
‘To Follow Polaris’ is available as a Limited Deluxe Collector’s Edition CD Mediabook (including bonus track and extensive 24-page booklet, Gatefold 180g 2LP vinyl (also including bonus track), & as Digital Album.
1. The North Sky 11:36 2. A ‘Like’ In The Darkness 08:19 3. The Fine Line 08:04 4. The Anachronism 21:01 5. The Single (From A Re-Opened Time Capsule) 05:51 6. The North Sky (Radio Edit) 03:42 7. Tea At Bettys (Bonus Track) 17:32
Produced between January and November 2023, the album features Andy using his multiple keyboards system as normal, but adds to the mix his first ever released performance on Bass Guitar and his second on stick driven (electronic) drums. Add electric and acoustic guitars and electronic wind controller and this is a full band recording in every sense of the word. A recording which shows Andy’s lifelong influence by artists such as Yes, Van Der Graaf Generator, Porcupine Tree, Groove Armada, Earth Wind & Fire, Roger Waters and his bands, Return To Forever, Deep Purple, Gentle Giant, Steely Dan and any band featuring the keyboard player Dave Stewart.
Conceptually Andy claims the album is, ahem, “highly optimistic” but regular listeners to his work will anticipate correctly that this optimism will not be ill founded or over-easy and will be highly critical of obstacles to that optimism and the album will look as much into the dark as it does into the light.
The album is intended to be thought of as a regular Tangent album – but not as the future of the band. It’s everyone’s intention to make the FOURTEENTH album as The Tangent. For Five.
MANDOKI SOULMATES – the international and inter-generational supergroup consisting of rock and fusion grandmasters surrounding founder and mastermind Leslie Mandoki today release the powerful new album, A Memory Of Our Future.
“Studio tinkerer Mandoki insists on the highest quality: with analog signal processing throughout, from microphone to vinyl pressing, this production is an example of precision and passion. This dedication can be heard in every collective note and in every solo.” -AUDIO+stereoplay
“Featuring a who’s who of prog, jazz and rock luminaries, “A Memory of Our Future” doesn’t just bridge stylistic boundaries — it blows them up entirely.” -The Prog Report
“Through his activities as a musician, producer, studio owner or committed commentator on socio-political contexts, one runs the risk of overlooking the fact that Leslie Mandoki has formed a magnificent band with his Soulmates, which has now presented its masterpiece.” – MusikWoche 19/2024
In celebration of the release of A Memory Of My Future that was recorded in a complete analog fashion, Mandoki Soulmates present a new video for their latest single A Memory Of My Future – a profound journey of self-discovery and reflection, where memories mix with hopes and dreams.
Leslie Mandoki reflects: “This song is about our idealism, we children of Woodstock, and about our disappointment. This is what I call in the song our “toxic sadness,” and “defeat in victory.” What a victory it was in 1989 that the wall came down in Berlin. We could have built a human paradise….. This is a memory of our future.”
In addition, Mandoki Soulmates celebrate their album release by representing diversity at the world’s leading audio trade fair HIGH END in Munich from May 9th to 12th at the MOC Munich. The trade fair organizer HIGH END SOCIETY Service GmbH is embarking on a new path of cooperation with world-famous artists, and The Mandoki Soulmates will emphasize this year’s motto of the trade fair “Long live diversity in audio”.
Tracklist 1. Blood in the Water – 06:54 2. Enigma of Reason – 10:06 3. The Wanderer – 05:03 4. The Big Quit – 08:35 5. Devil’s Encyclopedia – 05:47 6. A Memory of My Future – 06:26 7. I Am Because You Are – 04:32 8. My Share of Your Life – 07:48 9. Age of Thought – 04:38 10. Matchbox Racing – 06:56 11. We Stay Loud – 05:25 12. Melting Pot – 05:51
After their successful 30 Years Anniversary Tour through Europe, the Soulmates will be performing a special open-air concert in the courtyard of the Munich Residenz on August 15, 2024 and play the new album live.
Mandoki Soulmates are: Leslie Mandoki Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) Mike Stern Al di Meola Randy Brecker Till Brönner Bill Evans John Helliwell (Supertramp) Cory Henry Richard Bona Steve Bailey Simon Phillips (Toto) Tony Carey (Rainbow) Nick van Eede (Cutting Crew) Jesse Siebenberg (Supertramp) Mark Hart (Supertramp)
“Science fiction, Shakespearean tragedy, the evocative force of nature, the tumult of emotions, and the contradictions of mankind in war and religion. All of this is encapsulated in ‘No One Falls Like a God’, the debut album of the metal/prog band UDAL CUAIN.”
The album is out via Agoge Records in digital format and is available in every platform.
Udal Cuain, which in Scottish Gaelic means “to be tossed around by the ocean”, is a band that plays mostly metal but takes inspiration from many other genres such as classical and electronic music.
Udal Cuain begin to compose their first songs in 2018, with the main reference of seminal bands such as Crimson Glory and Savatage and the best metal of 80s and 90s, but with the heart corrupted by the vampiric atmosphere of the early Cradle of Filth albums.
The band, based in Florence, consists in vocalist/keyboardist/pianist Alessio Parretti (ex Dark Age/Jaws of Fate), bassist/guitarist Matteo Meucci (Coram Lethe).
After a whirlwind of high velocity singles that included the first ever song released on a slice of pizza, a viral moment with famed bald headed music critic and a vast conspiracy theory involving Garth Brooks, Louisville thrash metalheads, BELUSHI SPEED BALL have at last released their massively anticipated new album Stellkira now!
Commenting on the monumental release, lead vocalist Vinny Crastellano says:
“As a wise man once said, ‘The cream will rise to the top.’ We are so proud to present the world with our Seventeenth Chapel, Stellkira. The greatest generic crossover pizza thrash album to feature a catorcycle on the cover. An unrelenting disasterpiece that is guaranteed to make you forget all about your stay at Saltburn. This truly is our favorite musical composition to date. And we know it will be yours too! You can’t make the scene if you don’t got the green.”
Featuring the standout tracks “My Favorite Color Is Pizza,” “This Is The Peak” and “Garth, Let My Family Go,” Stellkira is a relentless, unbridled, aural assaulting thrill ride of thrash chaos that’s chock full of ludicrous lyrics and absolutely punishing riffs.
Reserve your table at metal’s Chuck E. Cheese and grab a piping hot slice of Stellkira from one of the best bands in pizza thrash game to do it!
Stellkira Tracklisting: 1. My Favorite Color Is Pizza 2. This is the Peak 3. Eels and Escalators 4. Get to the Point 5. Glass Bones and Paper Skin IV 6. The Adventures of Rick and Mortarion 7. Garth, Let My Family Go 8. Griffith Did Literally Everything Wrong 9. The Hash Slinging Slasher 10. The Accountant’s Due (Stab the Katana) 11. Tater Tot Eyes
BELUSHI SPEED BALL Tour Dates, remaining shows: May 16 – Akron, OH @Buzzbin * May 17 – Detroit, MI @ PJ’s Lager House * May 18- Milwaukee, WI @ Milwaukee Metal Fest (The Rave / Eagles Club) * June 21 – Atlanta, GA @ The Star Bar ** June 22 – Piedmont, SC @ Tribbles ** June 23 – Boone, NC @ Lily’s Snack Bar ** June 24 – Richmond, VA @ Cobra Cabana ** June 25 – New Hope, PA @ John and Peters ** June 26 – Baltimore, MD @ The Crown ** June 27 – New Haven, CT @Cafe Nine ** June 28 – Lebanon, ME @ NEDMFTB FEST ** June 29 – Rochester, NY @ The Bug Jar ** July 3 – 7 – Trutnov, Czechia @ Obscene Extreme August 31 – Sept. 3 – Montague, MA @ RPM Fest August 31 – Sept. 3 – Cookeville, TN @ Muddy Roots
Belushi Speed Ball is a Kentucky-based band founded in 2013 as a studio project amongst friends with a penchant for cliché crossover thrash. Their first live performances came soon after, enthralling a rapidly growing fanbase with a uniquely interactive brand of theatrics and unorthodox approach to releases and merch.
Dubbed “one of the funniest fucking things I have heard this year” by The Needle Drop’s Anthony Fantano, Belushi Speed Ball are inspired by bands from Toxic Holocaust and Anthrax to Gwar and Municipal Waste, to whom they simultaneously play homage and satirize a mean comment from a fan in their song “Ripping off Municipal Waste”, which was voted one of Leo Magazine’s top 20 songs of 2022. With a reputation for both trashing venues and meticulously cleaning them up after each individually themed performance, Belushi Speed Ball are masters of executing the unthinkable. From playing out of a Mad Max-esque moving van and starting Terminator-inspired 300-person Nerf gun fights to releasing entire albums in N64… or Furby… formats, nothing is sacred as they continue evolving as, in the words of Metalsucks, “a freakshow of blistering thrash dedicated to laughing its ass off at blistering thrash.”
This year, Belushi Speed Ball are readier than ever to keep that momentum going, with yet another album mastered to perfection by Joel Grind of Toxic Holocaust, as well as a host of festival appearances, tours, and merch set to drop over the months to come.
Belushi Speed Ball Lineup:
Vinny Crastellano – Vocals Jamison Land – Guitar Derrek Tipton – Guitar Tony Hazelip – Bass Daniel Neel – Drums
Hungarian extreme groove metal pioneers OMEGA DIATRIBE are ripping the veil off the creation of their pulverizing music video “Stench Of Demise,” which has already amassed a staggering 100,000 views on YouTube!
Dive deep into the inky underworld of “Stench Of Demise” with the band’s exclusive behind-the-scenes look:
“Stench Of Demise” is the face-melting first single from Omega Diatribe’s latest sonic assault, the critically acclaimed album ‘Deviant’. This unrelenting record marks the band’s fifth studio album and stands as a testament to their ever-evolving sonic mastery. ‘Deviant’ is available now under the Hungarian label Metal.hu Records.
Co-produced by the band and meticulously mixed and mastered by the legendary Tue Madsen (Meshuggah, Suicide Silence, The Haunted) at the renowned Antfarm Studios in Denmark, ‘Deviant’ is a sonic rebellion encased in a collectible 8-panel DIGIPAK CD and two vinyl variants. The album features a potent blend of reimagined classics like “Molecular Torsion” alongside a wrecking crew of brand-new anthems including “My Sphere,” “Mindreader,” and of course, the earth-shattering “Stench Of Demise.”
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s ASA unveil the long-overdue release of "Collective Failure" + first music video for title-track! Check it out and stay tuned for more news! Click image to watch the video
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
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Visionary artist KIMMO KUUSNIEMI's ANCIENT STREAMING ASSEMBLY (ASA) have released “Aurora Nuclearis”, a powerful 12-minute audiovisual experience, dedicated to the Late Keyboardist Esa Kotilainen. - Click image to watch the video
Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 