Brighton-based rock band, Bad Luck Friday release Rebel With A Cause, the third single from their eponymous debut album, on Wednesday 18th January 2023. Released by Wilde Fire Records, the single is available to stream HERE.
“Rebel With A Cause is Bad Luck Friday’s unambiguous statement about Britain’s current political climate,” says the band’s guitarist Steve Brook. “Channelling Rage Against the Machine, the track’s opening riff serves as a rallying call to the disaffected, the downtrodden and jaded alike: get off your rear and get to the front! It’s big, bold and demands to be heard.”
The Rebel With A Cause music video is available to watch, below.
The band’s eponymous debut album is available on CD and limited edition coloured vinyl from www.badluckfriday.com.
Don’t be fooled by the harmonica. Bad Luck Friday is not your typical blues rock band. Will Wilde has a reputation in the blues world as a pioneer of the rock harp, but with Bad Luck Friday, he’s taken the music well beyond its traditional blues roots.
The band formed during the ashes of the pandemic when live music ground to a halt. Frustrated but still determined and highly creative, Wilde teamed up with guitarist, Steve Brook, and together they journeyed inward and developed their original style before bringing in Alan Taylor and Jack Turnbull to complete the line-up. Their fusion of bluesy classic rock and aggressive, contemporary hard rock encompasses anthemic choruses, catchy riffs, searing vocals, and Wilde’s blistering harmonica solos.
ALBUM TRACK LISTING
1. BAD LUCK FRIDAY (3:26) 2. 666 AT THE CROSSROADS (3:16) 3. BANSHEE (3:19) 4. DUST & BONES (4:03) 5. JEALOUS WOMAN (3:36) 6. TAKE THE BEST OF ME (4:18) 7. MISTRESS (4:08) 8. LOW DOWN DIRTY (4:27) 9. BONNIE TO MY CLYDE (3:05) 10. REBEL WITH A CAUSE (4:01)
All songs: Music written by Will Wilde and Steve Brook, lyrics by Will Wilde and Sara Starbuck
BAD LUCK FRIDAY SUPPORT JARED JAMES NICHOLS AT THE BLACK HEART, LONDON ON WEDNESDAY 22 FEBRUARY 2023 – TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE
Werewolves Of London is the long-awaited reissue of the 1998 concert release from British hard rock institution UFO. The show features the reunited classic line-up of the group with guitar extraordinaire Michael Schenker returning to the fold along with founding members Phil Mogg and bassist Pete Way as well as longtime rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Paul Raymond. Joining them for this release is drummer Simon Wright (AC/DC, Dio). Still basking in the glory of their highly regarded 14th album, Walk On Water, the group rocketed around the globe for an extended epic world tour.
Now this fantastic concert album is being remastered and re-released on both physical and digital formats. Hear the group rip through several highlights from Walk On Water (“Pushed To The Limit,” “A Self Made Man”) as well as their best-loved works, the unstoppable juggernauts “Doctor Doctor,” “Lights Out,” “Rock Bottom” and more! By way of previewing the release, the group’s killer version of “Only You Can Rock Me” is being released as a single, which will be followed by the full album on CD and audiophile quality 180 GRAM BLACK vinyl on February 17. Additional vinyl colors – RED, YELLOW, BLUE & PURPLE – will be released a few weeks later on March 24th. Order yours now!
With 2023 less than three weeks old, acclaimed rockers ALTER BRIDGE are back with a new single and music video to launch the new year! The song “Holiday” has been a fan favorite since it was made public with the release of Pawns & Kingslast October, and is currently one of the most added songs at radio worldwide.
The “Holiday” video marks the return of longtime video collaborator Dan Sturgess of Sturge Media – known for capturing the band’s iconic performance with the Parallax Orchestra on Alter Bridge: Live At The Royal Albert Hall. The song is currently impacting US radio and the video for “Holiday” can be seen below!
Pawns & Kings – the band’s seventh studio album – was released worldwide on October 14 via Napalm Records. From the opening riffs of “This Is War” to the title track album closer “Pawns & Kings,”ALTER BRIDGE returns with an album of intense tracks that were born after the cycle for their last album was cut short by the global pandemic. Songs like “Dead Among The Living,” “Holiday” and “Last Man Standing” showcase the signature songwriting the band is known for. The album offers numerous epic adventures, with three songs clocking in over six minutes each. The opus “Fable Of The Silent Son” clocks in at 8:29 and is the longest recorded song in the band’s catalog – a distinction held by “Blackbird” until now. Mark Tremonti steps out of his backing vocal role to take the lead on “Stay,” an introspective ballad that is sure to become a fan favorite live. The band have released lyric videos for the title track “Pawns & Kings”, the now fan-favorite “Sin After Sin” and album opener “This Is War”. These songs all found their way into the band’s set list during their European tour.
Known for its signature dual-guitar attack backed by a driving rhythm section, the album’s debut single “Silver Tongue” shot up the charts around the globe and is currently still in the Top 25 in Canada. Its animated music video was created and directed by Ollie Jones of Better Feeling Films (Myles Kennedy, Prodigy, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets) and has garnered over 1.4 million views and counting. Pawns & Kingsfound its way on numerous 2022 year-end lists around the world, and was produced by longtime collaborator Michael “Elvis” Baskette.
The track listing for Pawns & Kings is: 1) This Is War 2) Dead Among The Living 3) Silver Tongue 4) Sin After Sin 5) Stay 6) Holiday 7) Fable Of The Silent Son 8) Season Of Promise 9) Last Man Standing 10) Pawns & Kings
ALTER BRIDGE’sPawns & Kings is now available for streaming via all digital service providers and for order in various physical configurations HERE.
ALTER BRIDGE will continue to tour extensively in support of Pawns & Kings. The band wrapped a tour of Europe last month that had the band making 25 stops over the course of six weeks. The tour will continue throughout North America this year – their first in the market in almost three years.
Mammoth WVH will join them as direct support on the entire tour, with rockers Red playing on the first leg of the tour and newcomers Pistols At Dawn playing on the second leg. Tickets for all shows are now available and more information on tickets and VIP experiences can be found at https://alterbridge.com/pages/tour.
ALTER BRIDGE have steadily climbed to the forefront of hard rock worldwide. They’ve exceeded all expectations and benchmarks with over a billion streams, millions of units sold, glowing critical acclaim, real estate on the covers of Classic Rock Magazine and Guitar World, and storied sets at Royal Albert Hall, the O2 Arena and Download Festival. On this journey, 2004’s debut LP One Day Remains bowed in the Top 5 of the Billboard Top 200 and went gold. In 2007, Blackbird’s title track took flight on the wings of the “Greatest Guitar Solo of All Time,” as voted in Guitarist Magazine, while countless fans etched its lyrics and logo onto their bodies. That album also recently went gold in the United Kingdom. Critical plaudits surrounded the 2013 opus Fortress with “5-out-of-5 stars” from KERRANG! and Total Guitar, as well as Eddie Trunk’s declaration of, “A Top 10 album of the last 10 years.” 2016’s The Last Hero saw them return to the Top 10 on the Top 200. Maintaining this momentum, Walk The Sky made impressions around the globe when it reached #1 on the US Billboard Top Albums, Top 200 Alternative Albums, Top 200 Hard Rock Albums and Top 200 Rock Albums charts, as well as #1 on Canada’s Top Hard Music Albums chart. The album also hit #1 on the Swiss Album charts, landed in the Top 5 on the Canada, UK, Germany, Austria, Scotland and Switzerland charts and closed out the year on Loudwire’s “The 50 Best Rock Albums of 2019.”
These musicians have unassumingly done all of this with a quiet dedication to writing meaningful songs and performing unforgettable shows (and they’ve delivered both with almost alarming consistency). Still, the influential quartet—Myles Kennedy [vocals, guitar], Mark Tremonti [guitar, vocals], Brian Marshall [bass], and Scott Phillips [drums]—ascend to yet another level on 2022’s Pawns & Kings [Napalm Records]. It is the culmination of almost two decades together soaked in blood, sweat, tears, and the triumph earned through never giving up. It represents the bandmates’ dedication to one another and their collective devotion to a devout fanbase.
Ukrainian psychedelic rock trio STONED JESUS will release its new album, ‘Father Light,’ on March 3, 2023 via Season of Mist, making it the band’s debut to the label! The band is now sharing a music video for its brand new song, “Thoughts and Prayers.” The song and video can be found at THIS LOCATION while album art and other details can be found below!
Lead vocalist and guitarist Igor Sydorenko comments: “I wrote these songs mostly in 2019, we worked on them through 2020, recorded them in 2021 and were ready to release them in 2022…and finally the first batch of them is coming out as ‘Father Light’ in 2023! So this is neither our ‘pandemic’ nor our ‘war’ record, this is something I was really obsessed about many months ago – climate change, media numbness, corporations’ impact, social divisions…
“But revisiting these issues years later shows that they’re still important and this is still something that resonates with us – and hopefully will resonate with many other people, too. Musically, I think this is our most diverse and mature record to date, but there’s a good dose of old school Stoned Jesus there too!
“Anyway, enjoy this one and fingers crossed for 2024′ release of ‘Mother Dark’ – the moodier, more personal, more experimental sister album to ‘Father Light.'”
For those who might be unfamiliar with STONED JESUS, the band is well-known for their explosive single, “I Am The Mountain,” which reached a whopping 15 million views on YouTube! The iconic clip can be found HERE.
Pre-orders for ‘Father Light’ are now live and can be found HERE. Pre-save ‘Father Light’ on your favorite streaming service HERE.
The artwork for “Father Light” was created by Anton Pcholkin.
Tracklist “Father Light” 1. Father Light 03:35 2. Season of the Witch 11:34 3. Thought and Prayers 06:22 [WATCH HERE] 4. Porcelain 08:09 [WATCH HERE] 5. CON 04:10 [WATCH HERE] 6. Get What You Deserve 09:08 Total: 43:00
STONED JESUS recently announced their appearance on the mighty Hellfest of 2023! More information on tours/festival for 2023 will be announced on a later stage.
Ukrainian prog-stoner trio STONED JESUS held their first rehearsal since the Russian invasion in the middle of July 2022. It was a moment the band dubbed as “surreal” and justifiably so — the regular ritual of band practice was made impossible by the war. The members of STONED JESUS — Igor Sydorenko (vocals/guitar), Sergii Sliusar (bass) and Dmytro Zinchenko (drums) — captured the moment for their social media channels. A broad smile of defiance and satisfaction can be seen on their faces. Regardless of the senseless havoc and destruction reaped upon their homeland, STONED JESUS would play on. It was the resumption of a music career temporarily thwarted but not defeated by evil.
Since 2009, STONED JESUS has served as one of Ukraine’s leading forces in heavy rock. Sydorenko, a veteran of the Ukrainian music scene, formed the band after stumbling upon some heavy and angry riffs that would become the song “Occult.” He fed off his Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin influences and was soon turned onto Electric Wizard and Sleep, two bands who mastered the art of bold, lurching heaviness, thus creating a sonic template to abide by.
The band was initially dubbed “STONED JESUS from the Outer Space” but shortened to the much crisper Stoned Jesus. The name was trimmed down out of necessity — Sydorenko wanted to legitimize the band immediately. “I realized that this may cause some problems,” he told the Psychedelic Baby webzine in 2010. “Some people wouldn’t take our music seriously, then. I don’t mind jokes and having fun, but music is always the most serious thing for me.”
Two demos ensued before STONED JESUS’s debut LP, 2010’s First Communion. Recorded in two hours, First Communion was a promising offering that dove headlong into the world of heavy stoner rock, with three songs going over the ten-minute mark for hypnotic effect. The album eventually saw a proper reissue in 2020, introducing it to a new group of fans. Seven Thunders Roar followed in 2012 and included “I’m the Mountain,” a 16-minute epic jam that has since become a live staple. The album also introduced a bevy of acoustic guitar and softer vocal approaches from Sydorenko.
The Harvest came next in 2015, deftly transitioning Stoned Jesus from sludge into new terrain, including alternative and progressive rock. This is a credit to Sydorenko’s evolving songwriting style and desire to never allow STONED JESUS to repeat itself. “It works brilliantly for the likes of Motörhead or AC/DC, but we’re not that legendary yet,” he told Outlaws of the Sun webzine in 2015. “So, let’s experiment, shall we? Let’s play with the genres, the sound, the song structures, the melodies, the timings — yes, my favorite trick!”
Pilgrim came next in 2018, which until now, has been the band’s career-defining moment. Stoned Jesus’s original plans were to record its follow-up in 2020. That, of course, was sidelined by the pandemic. The band then entered Spivaki Records in Kharkiv in July 2021 to record nine songs at 75 minutes. Two-thirds of the material was mixed and mastered before the invasion, leaving the final run-time of six songs at 43 minutes.
The result is Father Light, the band’s first for Season of Mist. The album catches Stoned Jesus in full bloom. The foundational elements of STONED JESUS’s sound remain (fuzzed-out rock, driving bass lines and maximum groove) and are once again augmented by the combination of Sydorenko’s gentle clean vocals and hook-laden chorus choices, along with an array of ornamental guitar melodies. And, in true STONED JESUS fashion, the journey is often the reward: The cuts on Father Light expand and shift — all the while, the band’s trademark heaviness serves as the guide.
STONED JESUS subsequently resumed live activity in July 2022 with European festival dates and runs with countrymen (and labelmates) Somali Yacht Club and then VOVK. The shows provided the band the opportunity to air two of the songs that would end up on Father Light: “Con” and “Porcelain.” Moreover, the dates were an outlet for the band to connect with waiting audiences who supported their music and cause of raising money to help those impacted by the war.
The idea that music is the ultimate escape has never rung truer in light of what happened to Ukraine in 2022. The prospect of brighter days lies ahead, making the Father Light album title even more appropriate.
As 2022 drew to a close, the members of STONED JESUS posted their final message for the year, epitomizing their resilience and optimism:
All the missiles in the world can’t destroy freedom. Nothing will stop truth.
Line-up: Lead-Vocals and Guitar: Igor Sydorenko Bass and backing vocals: Sergii Sliusar Drums and backing vocals: Dmytro Zinchenko
Recording studio – Spivaki Records, Ukraine Producer / sound engineer – Artem Altunin and Dmytro Zinchenko Mastering: Metropolis Studio, London, UK – Andy “Hippy” Baldwin
Recording line-up – Igor Sydorenko (Arlekin, Voida, Krobak, Snakerider) – lead and backing vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, organ on track 3 – Dmytro Zinchenko (Doomed City, Orkectr Che, Sekunda Kota, Smeyushiysa Tigr, Small Depo) – drums and percussion, backing vocals – Sergii Sliusar – bass, backing vocals
The new year has hardly begun, and some great news has already arrived from the far north. Swedish heavy metallers ENFORCER have listened to their fans and revived their classic track ‘Running In Menace‘. Today, the band has released a fresh, re-recorded version of the track originally released in 2010, launching them into the new year headfirst. Along with the song re-release, the band have revealed a new video, which shows exclusive clips of the Swedes, filmed during their last European tour in spring 2022.
ENFORCER‘s Olof Wikstrand comments: ”Let’s kick off the new year with some exclusive stuff! Last year we had an Instagram vote for your favourite album song that we don’t normally play. And the winner was… ”Running in Menace” from 2010! So, we decided to include that in our set, but also, we re-recorded the song during a soundcheck in Warsaw and put together a tour video for it. Hope you all enjoy it!”
Swedish heavy metal band ENFORCER formed in 2005 by lead vocalist and guitarist Olof Wikstrand. The first two albums Into The Night (2008) and Diamonds (2010) established the band’s loyal fanbase and left a long-lasting imprint in the heavy metal world. With increasing success in the underground scene, ENFORCER led and created a worldwide movement later referred to as ‘the new wave of traditional heavy metal’. In 2012 the Swedes were recognised for their impressive musical repertoire and signed a worldwide record deal with the biggest metal label in the world, Nuclear Blast Records. Since then, the band have released three more studio albums with Death by Fire (2013), From Beyond (2015) and Zenith (2019). To date, ENFORCER have toured the world over, playing the biggest festivals and garnering a global fanbase. The culmination of their tireless work ethic resulting in the release of two live albums, Live By Fire (2015) and Live By Fire II (2021). ENFORCER have proved themselves both live and on record, and in 2023 they stake their place amongst the world’s most renowned heavy metal bands.
Finnish atmospheric progressive metallers ALASE are set to release their second studio album ‘A Matter of Time’ on April 14th 2023 via Finnish Inverse Records. A new single & music video ‘Clear Sky Is Not a Curse’ is released today and it’s available here: https://push.fm/fl/alase-clear
Guitarist Janne Lunnas comments:
“We chose Clear Sky Is Not a Curse as the first single taken from the album as the song is pretty straight-forward but still progressive. This song was born as our other guitarist Mikko sent me the intro’s clean guitar tracks and I started to build other elements on top of them. The song is filled with hooks and it represents many musical elements of the album. Once again our lyricist Ninni Swan managed to capture fragile emotions that many people can relate to. Vocalist Juha Tretjakov sang almost every song on this album and he was a perfect fit as the vocalist for Clear Sky Is Not a Curse as well.
If I would need to compare the song to other bands, I think this song is pretty much in the same ballpark style-wise with Katatonia and VOLA as they combine beautiful elements to crushing heavy drumming and riffs in similar way.
Aarni Visuals filmed a music video to be accompanied with this song and I think they nailed it great how the atmosphere matches with the song.”
CURRENT LINE-UP: Guitars: Janne Lunnas Guitars: Mikko Häkälä Bass: Ari Miettinen Drums: Ville Aatsinki Lyrics: Ninni Swan
THE ROCK ALCHEMIST – Italian Rock Band from Turin with a strong sonic identity that blends modern rock with progressive, hard, alternative, and pop elements!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 