Progressive metal power force ODD DIMENSION have revealed the details of their log-waited third album, ‘The Blue Dawn’, which will be released on March 26 on Scarlet Records. The tracklist is as follows:
1 Mission N°773 2 Landing on Axtradel 3 The Invasion 4 Escape to Blue Planet 5 Solar Wind 6 Life Creators 7 The Blue Dawn 8 Sands of Yazukia 9 Flags of Victory 10 The Supreme Being
Following the critically acclaimed ‘The Last Embrace To Humanity’ (2013), which left a permanent mark on the international progressive metal scene, ‘The Blue Dawn’ marks a turning point in Odd Dimension’s career: the band is more mature and expressive than ever, courtesy of the valuable contribution of the new members and some international special guests, including Derek Sherinian (of Dream Theater, Black Country Communion and Sons Of Apollo fame) and Roberto Tiranti (Labyrinth). But is musically and conceptually that the band went through the most outstanding evolution, from the early philosophical-humanistic topics to a more practical and concrete orientation, which conceives music as a cure for their fears and a catalyst of desires. ‘The Blue Dawn’ is, infact, an intriguing existential Sci-Fi concept-album in the vein of Rush’s ‘2112’, which is beautifully portrayed by the cover artwork of none other than renowned artist Gustavo Sazes (Angra, DGM, Firewind, James LaBrie).
Symphonic power metallers WINTERAGE have released a video for the song ‘Orpheus and Eurydice’, in coincidence with the official release of their new album ‘The Inheritance Of Beauty’.
This is how the band commented: “The song displays the wide spectrum of sounds and influences within Winterage’s music: from power metal to opera singing, violin melodies, folk interludes and symphonic orchestrations. It tells the ancient story of Orpheus and his descent into hell in the presence of Hades, in order to bring his wife Eurydice back to life. The video climax is reached during their ascension to earth while he turns his glance to her (quoting ‘The Metamorphoses’ by Ovid)”.
Featuring Fiamma Odorico as Eurydice, the videoclip was directed and edited by Giancarlo Galante (VisionAir Production).
ANNEKE VAN GIERSBERGEN announced the release of her new solo album ‘The Darkest Skies Are The Brightest’ last year. Today sees the release of the second single and video of said album, called “Hurricane”.
Anneke comments on the single as follows: “For the new album I wrote a lot of songs filled with messages of love and heartache, but I also went on a more propulsive journey, with darker storytelling. The percussive opening groove of ‘Hurricane’ is maintained until a slightly ominous middle section. The track closes with heavy drums and a glorious trumpet solo.”
‘The Darkest Skies Are The Brightest’ is available for pre-order. The album will be available as eco-friendly CD Digipak (plastic-free), as 180g Gatefold LP (incl. the album on CD) & as digital album. It will be released on February 26th, 2021.
“The Darkest Skies Are The Brightest” – Tracklist: 01. Agape 02. Hurricane 03. My Promise 04. I Saw A Car 05. The Soul Knows 06. The End 07. Keep It Simple 08. Lo And Behold 09. Losing You 10. Survive 11. Love You Like I Love You
The album’s title, ‘The Darkest Skies Are The Brightest’, refers to the idea that, when facing personal challenges, we are forced to find answers to life’s biggest questions. But, at this point in her near-three-decade-long music career, this solo album – and, crucially, the heartbreak that inspired it – was not something Anneke van Giersbergen ever anticipated writing.
In 2018, Anneke began working on new material for her metal band, VUUR. Although their debut album, ‘In This Moment We Are Free – Cities’, was met with a mixed reception, fans were warming up to their heavy, progressive sound. Therefore, a rapid follow-up album would surely establish Anneke’s return to fronting a metal band. However, behind the scenes, these were troubled times.
Anneke shares, ”My belief in VUUR saw me spend all my savings on recording VUUR’s debut album and taking the band on the road. After completing our first touring cycle, I realized that more VUUR would mean yet more, huge financial risks.”
To make matters worse, in 2018, her long-lasting marriage, which had always been wonderful, unexpectedly saw a storm approaching. Anneke adds, “I instantly knew I needed to write music about fixing my life. This creative endeavour would be far too personal for a VUUR album. And it would also require solitude.”
With just her acoustic guitar and basic recording gear, Anneke retreated to a small house near the woods, just outside her hometown of Eindhoven. She let go of the pressures of what VUUR’s future might be, and fell into the meditative process of writing a solo album. In 2019, work continued on the new songs. In 2020, Anneke asked her friend and producer, Gijs Coolen, to help finish the album.
Throughout the completion of the album, Anneke’s fragile, acoustic song-stories were fused together with an alchemy of panoramic strings, horns, and percussion. The resulting 11-track record has all the intimacy of Anneke serenading an audience of one, combined with surprising departures into swampier, foot-stomping grooves.
The Japanese art of kintsugi has inspired Anneke to use a repaired heart as the album’s symbol. Kintsugi teaches that bringing together the pieces of a broken object – with the use of a precious metal – adds value and uniqueness to it. And, instead of giving up on their marriage, Anneke and her husband decided to take the time to mend their bond. They now cherish the repaired heartbreak as something profoundly valuable.
Their journey through this personal storm, and the album that Anneke created in the eye of it, proves that the darkest skies truly are the brightest.
TRANSATLANTIC – the Prog Supergroup of Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy, Roine Stolt & Pete Trewavas – are pleased to announce their fifth studio album ‘The Absolute Universe’, set for release on the 5th February 2021. Representing the band’s first new music since 2014’s ‘Kaleidoscope’, with ‘The Absolute Universe’ the band have done something unique and created two versions of the record: ‘The Absolute Universe: The Breath Of Life (Abridged Version)’ & ‘The Absolute Universe: Forevermore (Extended Version)’.
Today they have launched the video for ‘Looking For The Light’, a track which features on both versions of ‘The Absolute Universe’. Watch it now here:
Mike Portnoy comments: “Looking For The Light is one of the heavier tracks on The Absolute Universe. In the tradition of Transatlantic sharing all lead vocals, this track gave me my showcase to deliver the lead vocals as it called for a bit more of an aggressive approach. This is one of the few tracks that remains primarily the same and appears on both versions of the album. However not content to keep it simple, the version included on the music video is actually a unique version which combines both Looking For The Light and its Reprise from later in the album into one combined version available only here in this video.”
Watch the previously released video for ‘The World We Used To Know’ here, and the previously released video for ‘Overture/Reaching For The Sky’ here.
Each album will be available on CD, LP & Digitally. But there will also be what has been called ‘The Absolute Universe: The Ultimate Edition’, which collects both versions together in one lavish package that includes 5LP’s, 3CD’s & a Blu-ray that includes a special mix that combines both versions into a third unique version in 5.1 surround sound with visuals and a behind the scenes documentary. All editions have artwork created by Thomas Ewerhard featuring the airship by Pavel Zhovba.
As Mike Portnoy explains: “We’ve got two versions of this album. There is a two CD presentation, which is 90 minutes long, and a single one – that’s 60 minutes. However, the single CD is NOT merely an edited version of the double CD. They each contain alternate versions and even in some cases, new recordings. We wrote fresh lyrics and have different people singing on the single CD version tracks as compared to those on the double CD. Some of the song titles have also been changed, while others might remain the same, but compositionally what you’ll hear has been altered. You must appreciate that what we have done is unique. We revamped the songs to make the two versions different.” Pete Trewavas adds: “We did write some new music for the single CD, what’s more, there are also differences in the instruments used on some of the tracks across the two records.”
Initial tracking began in September 2019 when the band met up in Sweden to write and arrange the new material. As Portnoy explains: “Over a period of 10-14 days, we mapped out the songs. Then we all went back to our home studios and did the recording. That’s the way we always do it. At one point, though, it was suggested that instead of doing what was by that time going to be a double album, we should just be content to do a single CD.”
“What happened was that everything kept expanding and expanding,” recalls Stolt. “Therefore we decided it made sense to make it a double album. It was Pete and Neal who then came out and said they felt this would be too long, and we should reduce it to one…But we were already recording, and it didn’t seem feasible to cut it back. There were so many pieces that each of us loved in what we were planning and didn’t want to lose. That’s when we ended up in discussions over the best way forward.”
This album also marks a return to the concept album for Transatlantic. “Well, the idea of Transatlantic deciding to do a concept record this time around won’t shock anyone, right?” laughs Portnoy. “What we have is essentially one giant composition, split into chapters. The storyline is about the struggles facing everyone in society today.” “We didn’t start out with the idea of this being conceptual,” admits Stolt. “The way things work with us is that we have a load of ideas, and these are developed spontaneously when we meet up. Everything happens in the moment.”
So, how does this new ground-breaking album compare to Transatlantic’s previous four albums?
“I always try not to compare albums as much as possible,” insists Morse. “It’s very difficult when you’re trying to be creative, because your natural instinct is to constantly compare. But in order to create you have to kind of step away from that. Having said that, I would say this would have more in common with ‘The Whirlwind’ album (the band’s third, from 2009) than others that we’ve created.”
For Trewavas, ‘The Absolute Universe’ is a momentous project.“I think it is right up there with the very finest albums we’ve done. As the others have said, it compares very well to ‘The Whirlwind’, which I believe represents Transatlantic at our best. As on that album, we took our time to write and arrange everything, and that shines through. I am very excited for people to hear it.”
Transatlantic were originally formed in 1999, releasing their debut album ‘SMTPe’ the following year as well as its follow-up ‘Bridge Across Forever’ in 2001. Following a 7-year hiatus, the band reconvened to record and release the much-acclaimed epic 77-minute, single-track album ‘The Whirlwind’ followed by a world tour in 2010 which included an appearance at High Voltage Festival in London where they were joined by legendary Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett. The band’s fourth album ‘Kaleidoscope’ arrived in 2014, going on to win ‘Album Of The Year’ at the Progressive Music Awards.
This year, 2021, for CADAVERIA means 20 years of activity as a band. To celebrate this anniversary, the group has unleashed for streaming the albums ‘Far Away From Conformity’ (2004), ‘In Your Blood’ (2007), ‘Horror Metal’ (2012) and ‘Silence’ (2014) on their official YouTube channel.
The Shadows’ Madame (2002), already streamed on December 21 as an early Xmas gift for their fans, completes CADAVERIA full length discography, now available (with visualizer, HQ audio and lyrics in the videos’ description) in the Playlist tab of CADAVERIA YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/cadaveriaofficial
Here’s Velo (The Other Side of Hate), taken from Silence album:
Moreover, the group led by Madame Cadaveria, who came back to the metal scene in October with the singles Return and Matryoshcada, is thrilled to announce the release of another brand new single, entitled ‘Divination’, which will see the light on February 10, 2021 in all digital platforms.
Divination artwork is unveiled “piece by piece” on the Instagram profile @cadaveriaofficial
Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to CEO Pat Gesualdo of The Metal Hall of Fame on January 17 2021 and he confirmed to The Metal Voice (Facebook Live) that this year their 5th anniversary there will be a Hall live show and a gala in some capacity, Gesualdo said,” You have places like Florida that are completely open and then other places like New York that are closed, these are all issues and are things that play into everything. So we are going to do a combination of things that we are working on right now that we are going to be rolling out. New updates to the website, new major partnerships. We will probably do a combination of things, definitely a live event will happen and the Gala in certain ways as we have a partnership with Amazon as well as streaming in other areas.We are not going to let the virus beat us in any way shape or form.”
Gesualdo also announced the first inductee into The Metal Hall of Fame for 2021 he said, “legendary Rock Photographer Mark Weiss will be inducted into The Metal hall of Fame for 2021, Mark is a great guy, a great human being and has really captured the metal movement and has been there for so many iconic moments and times in our music history. Very well deserved for sure.”
Watch interview on The Metal Voice Facebook page, here:
Press Release from Facebook Metal Hall The Metal Hall of Fame has been the go to event for years, thanks to you the fans who make this possible and absolutely incredible, year after year. The Metal Hall of Fame Gala has been responsible for many historic metal events, Including Don Airey’s surprise Induction for Black Sabbath co-founding member Bill Ward, (especially after not seeing each other since recording Black Sabbath’s 1978 “Never Say Die” album). Having Brian May take part in Joe Satriani’s Induction, having Metallica Induct Megaforce Records founders Jon and Marsha Zazula, Our idea to get Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne to have Lee Kerslake get his Platinum Record Awards for “Blizzard of Ozz” and “Diary of A Madman,” albums after 36 years, Inducting Judas Priest at Wacken Open Air, Inducting Anthrax at Heavy Montreal, and Kerri King’s surprise Induction for Brian Slagel and Metal Blade Record’s 35TH Anniversary, among others. These are just some of the Iconic moments from the Metal Hall of Fame that we’ve shared together with fans for years, all over the world.
The Metal Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization that enshrines forever, those legendary musicians, artists and music industry executives who are responsible for making Heavy Metal music what it is today. Their contribution to the genre is invaluable, and they keep inspiring Heavy Metal fans throughout the world, from generation to generation. The Metal Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization, and was developed by a team of Iconic music industry executives to enshrine forever, those Iconic musicians and music industry executives who are responsible for making Heavy Metal music what it is today. Their contribution to the genre is invaluable, and they keep inspiring Heavy Metal fans throughout the world, from generation to generation.
The Metal Hall of Fame does an Annual Celebrity Induction Gala every January in Anaheim CA, and also has an on-stage induction ceremony at Wacken Open Air, the world’s largest heavy metal festival In addition, the Hall is part of the D.A.D. Program, which helps children fight disabilities on a Global basis, and joins with the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund.
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