Band : Bullet Train Blast
Album : Nothing Remains
Year : 2012
Genre : Hard Rock
Tracks : 10
Quality :192kbps
Country : Denmark
Tracklist
01. I’m Insane
02. Running Away
03. The Storm
04. Queen Of The Night
05. All The Girls
06. From The Underground
07. Bang Bang Bang
08. A Life In Glory
09. Nothing Remains
10. Dead Man Walking
Energetic, powerfull and fresh killer rock with big danish balls of dynamite that explodes in the ear canals, was my first impression and feeling when I listened to BTB’s album “Nothing Reamains”. They do it with a great dose of attitude and the tight sound is close to knock me out. Martin Larsen on vocals sounds like he is a younger brother of Jesper Binzer in D-A-D.
Easy listening, high tempo and straight forward rock with nice peaks there Niels Hyttel plays some heavy riffs and solos and in my ears does the hard hitting drummer Simon Brøchner make the biggest difference compared to related artists. I’ve got a hard time to pick any favourite tracks, because they have really put up 10 mega hard songs and the guys should be commended for that.
Every minute of the album is filled with great melodies, nice tempo changes, hard rock guitars and tight wheezy delicious rock vocals. The production is perfect and the sound is pure as spring water with whisky on a Friday night. My mind fills with energy and positive feelings when I listen to “Nothing Remains” and that’s the spirit and what it’s all about with rock music!
BTB is a band to keep in mind for the metal festival booking staffs across Europe, this is a coming band with both ambitions and talent to be another big danish music export, just like Volbeat, Royal Hunt and D-A-D. Thumbs up!
Bullet Train Blast is: Martin Larsen – Vocals, Niels Hyttel – Lead Guitar, Steff Gunn – Guitar, Morten Olesen – Bass and Simon Brøchner on drums.
DOWNLOAD : BY SEROPAS
The iconic symphonic rock vocalist returns after a 4-year hiatus.
After a four-year break since her last album, Lana Lane is back with her most powerful release to date, “El Dorado Hotel.” The veteran symphonic rock diva delivers a 10-song tour-de-force of finely crafted original tracks in an audiophile production by husband/keyboardist, Erik Norlander. “El Dorado Hotel” hosts Lane’s usual broad spectrum of musical styles and genres with a cohesiveness that fans of the artist will recognize instantly. The opener, “A Dream Full of Fire,” is a new Lana Lane classic that blurs the line between prog metal and jazz stylings in a mélange that only she can deliver. “Maybe We’ll Meet Again” is a European-styled melodic AOR radio anthem blending classic rock with modern sensibilities. The song, “El Dorado,” is a Lana Lane epic with a soaring chorus reminiscent of her classic, “Queen of Ocean.” The robust “Darkness Falls” introduces an Irish folk style combined with a gothic metal element with its haunting choral vocals and arena-crafted chorus. Then “Hotels” is an acoustic track that evokes jazz standards like “Autumn Leaves.” The tracks, “Believe,” “Life of the Party,” “Gone Are The Days” and “Moon God” add further threads to the “El Dorado Hotel” tapestry. The album closes with the 11-1/2 minute opus, “In Exile” that producer Erik Norlander describes as a “vintage progressive rock epic.”
The musicians of “El Dorado Hotel” are a top-notch group of artists including both new and familiar faces. Lane says about the musicians, “Both Freddy DeMarco and Mark Matthews did some fantastic work on Erik’s solo project, “The Galactic Collective”. I then had the opportunity to play with them both during some live appearances in 2011 when I sang with the band. After having played with the guys and getting to know them, I knew that I wanted them to be a part of this project as well. Then for John Payne, Jay Schellen, Guthrie Govan and Bruce Bouillet (ex-Racer X), as you know, Erik been has playing with John Payne for about 5 years now. When the original 1982 lineup of ASIA reformed a few years back, John Payne formed his own separate band to continue all the work that he had done with ASIA during his 14-year run and many albums with them. So John and Erik tour as “ASIA Featuring John Payne,” and they’ve probably played over a hundred shows together.
Jay is the drummer in the band, and both Guthrie and Bruce have been the guitarists. Bruce is working with them currently. I of course go to a lot of their shows and have become friends with all of them. It is a great group of people, and they are all very talented musicians. Since we see them so much and Erik plays with them constantly, it was only natural to work with them on this album. And then finally for Mark McCrite, Neil Citron and Don Schiff, all three of them have been on so many Lana Lane albums going all the back to my very first album in 1995. It’s great to continue working with them through all these years.”
Songs for El Dorado Hotel were written by Lana Lane, Erik Norlander and longtime collaborator, Mark McCrite, who comments, “My favorite songs on the album are ‘El Dorado’ (with the fantastic Spanish guitar) and ‘A Dream Full of Fire’ – that’s a really killer ‘classic’ Lana Lane track.” You can hear those two songs from the album in their entirety at the Think Tank Media web site: www.thetank.com/lledh.htm
Lana Lane – El Dorado Hotel musicians:
Lana Lane – vocals
Erik Norlander – keyboards, additional guitars, bass and programming
with
John Payne – harmony and choral vocals, mandolin Mark McCrite – guitars, bass, choral vocals, programming Bruce Bouillet – guitars Neil Citron – guitars Freddy DeMarco – guitars Guthrie Govan – guitar Don Schiff – NS/Stick Mark Matthews – bass Jay Schellen – drums
Produced by Erik Norlander for Think Tank Media, USA
Lana Lane – El Dorado Hotel track list
01 A Dream Full of Fire [8:25]
02 Maybe We’ll Meet Again [5:39]
03 El Dorado [6:12]
04 Darkness Falls [5:12]
05 Hotels [3:40]
06 Believe [6:03]
07 Life of the Party [4:03]
08 Gone are the Days [6:23]
09 Moon God [5:08]
10 In Exile [11:43]
Worldwide release date:
January 25, 2012 on the Think Tank Media and the Avalon (Japan) labels Both label versions contain the identical track listing – there are no bonus tracks on any edition
Download
UNISONIC, the new band featuring former HELLOWEEN vocalist Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen (GAMMA RAY, ex-HELLOWEEN) alongside Dennis Ward (bass) and Kosta Zafiriou (drums) of Germany’s PINK CREAM 69and Swiss guitarist Mandy Meyer (who has previously played with ASIA,GOTTHARD and KROKUS), will release its debut EP, “Ignition” in late January via earMUSIC/Edel. The effort will include the track “Unisonic”plus one demo song and a cover version of the HELLOWEEN classic “I Want Out”, recorded live on October 15 at this year’s edition of the Loud Park festival at Saitama Super Arena, a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Saitama City, Japan.
The “Ignition” cover artwork can be seen below. Also available is a stream of the song “Unisonic”.
A full-length UNISONIC album will be made available in March.
Zafiriou previously stated about the band’s decision to sign withearMUSIC/Edel: “We had several promising labels being interested inUNISONIC, but the enthusiasm of Max Vaccaro and his team convinced us that earMUSIC is the right company for us.”
After the addition of Hansen to the group’s lineup in early 2011,UNISONIC continued the songwriting process for its debut release, incorporating Kai‘s talent for writing great anthemic rock songs into its existing material. The recordings for the album started at end of September at ICP studios in Brussels, Belgium.
UNISONIC‘s music is very versatile and shows a broad approach to heavy rock without sacrificing the power and strong, catchy melodies that characterized the bandmembers’ previous projects.
Commented Kiske: “It feels great to finally bring the band to the studio and record the songs we’ve been working on. We took our time to grow as a band, but it was definitely worth it and we are very proud of the result.”
Added bassist/producer Ward: “We have a bunch of very strong songs and can’t wait until people can hear them. Everyone in the band is now looking even more positive into the future.”
Regarding Hansen‘s addition to UNISONIC, Kiske previously said, “After so many years of abstinence, I had a lot of fun doing my first live shows with UNISONIC in summer 2010, so I agreed to do the short world tour with AVANTASIA. It was a great experience to be on stage with all those great artists, but with Kai it was something different: We instantly felt the magic again and had a lot of fun together on and off stage. We both realized that we want to be together in band again. He was interested in the open musical concept of UNISONIC and finally asked me if he can join the band. I talked to my bandmates and they all felt great about it. His talent as a guitarist and songwriter is an enrichment for the band and we are looking forward to his contribution for the music of UNISONIC.”
Kai Hansen‘s position in GAMMA RAY will be unaffected by his involvement with UNISONIC.
UNISONIC is:
Michael Kiske (vocals)
Mandy Meyer (guitar)
Kai Hansen (guitar)
Dennis Ward (bass)
Kosta Zafiriou (drums)
Genre:Hard Rock / Heavy Metal / Power Metal
Country:Germany
Format:Mp3@Cbr320Kbps
Size:49Mb
Tracklist:
01. Unisonic 03:25
02. My Sanctuary 04:16
03. Souls Alive (Demo Version) 05:14
04. I Want Out (Live Version) 05:32
Download
Artist: Lillian Axe
Album: XI: The Days Before Tomorrow
Released: 2012
Country: USA
Genre: Hard Rock / Glam Metal
Quality: mp3, VBR 264 kbps [V0]
Duration: 54:43
Size: 106 MB
01. Babylon (5:41)
02. Death Comes Tomorrow (5:50)
03. Gather Up The Snow (4:55)
04. The Great Divide (6:26)
05. Take The Bullet (3:23)
06. Bow Your Head (5:04)
07. Caged In (4:42)
08. Soul Disease (4:15)
09. Lava On My Tongue (5:34)
10. My Apologies (4:47)
11. Angels Among Us (European Bonus) (4:06)
Download
Leonard Cohen
Old Ideas
(Columbia)
Rating:
Leonard Cohen’s twelfth studio album in forty-four years opens curiously with a song titled “Going Home,” which both introduces Leonard Cohen as an artist and details the metaphysics of his own creativity. The man needs no introduction, of course: Everybody knows who Leonard Cohen is. We may not necessarily think of him as “a sportsman and a shepherd” or “a lazy bastard in a suit,” but we know the Canadian as a man with a physical voice so deep it sounds like a black hole and a lyrical voice so ominously Old Testament that his business card probably lists him as a singer-psalmwriter.
Stream Old Ideas In Its Entirety
Band Leonard Cohen
Info: Old Ideas
Tracklist: Columbia Records
Info: Canada
Style: Rock, Folk, Blues, Singer-songwriter
Years: 2012
????Upload: 00:41:26
Info: mp3
??????? Time: CBR 320 kbps
Info: 92,7 Mb
Tracklist:
1. Going Home (3:51)
2. Amen (7:36)
3. Show Me The Place (4:09)
4. Darkness (4:29)
5. Anyhow (3:08)
6. Crazy To Love You (3:06)
7. Come Healing (2:53)
8. Banjo (3:23)
9. Lullaby (4:46)
10. Different Sides (4:06)
??????? Leonard Cohen – Old Ideas:
Artist: Diaframma
Title Of Album: Niente Di Serio
Year Of Release: 17.01.2012
Label: Booking & Press
Genre: Pop/Rock, New Wave
Quality: MP3
Bitrate: 320kbps
Total Time: 48 min
Total Size: 116 MB
Tracklist:
1. Vivo Così
2. Entropia
3. Absurdo Metalvox
4. Madre Superiora
5. La Botta Di Energia Del Rock
6. Niente Di Serio
7. Nilsson
8. Tempesta Nel Mio Cuore
9. Carta Carbone
10. Grande Come L’Oceano
11. Anime Morte
12. Un Orologio Rotto
Download
The first album of SOLEIL MOON, ’99s ‘World’s Apart’ was one of the best AOR / West Coast CD’s of the nineties, and still ranks in my Top 50 list of the best of all time. Yes, it’s that good.
Soleil Moon isn’t so much known even between fans of the genre (which it is a crime), nor their members, but all of them are top-shelf music-biz pros – producers, writers, and first-call session musicians – playing the music they love in order to discover what truly matters to them.
Not that working with everyone from Beyonce to Richard Marx — as the busy players behind Soleil Moon have done — isn’t a thrill in itself, but this is the project that lets these musical journeymen get in touch with something very personal.
The latest example of what that process sounds like is the second Soleil Moon album, “On The Way To Everything”.
The man who makes it all come to life is Larry King. No, not that Larry King – save the jokes, he’s heard them all.
This Larry King is a mind-bogglingly multi-talented singer, songwriter, player, producer and bandleader who has been a full-time musician of one stripe or another since he was 12 years old.
After his college years, King moved to L.A. in the late ‘80s, forming the group Human Factor. They cut a record for the Warner Bros-distributed Caliber label that earned some attention, but by the early ‘90s, he returned to lucrative session work, becoming an in-demand singer for ‘every jingle that had a guy screaming his balls off’ as he jokingly describes it.Before long, King’s connections led to him becoming something of an entrepreneur, establishing his own recording studio, publishing business, production company, and more — all of which are still thriving – but after this long list of twists and turns, he finally found his way to Soleil Moon.
King sees life as ‘a constant state of reinventing ourselves’, and for him that meant partnering with keyboardist/producer John Blasucci to bring life to some of the more personal songs he’d been writing, ones that wouldn’t become part of his production projects for other artists.
“I like to do material that’s kind of art-rockish, album-oriented… timeless tunes that are more about orchestration and less a ‘let’s make a pop tune for radio and follow the trends’ kind of thing.”, says King.
The pair dubbed their partnership Soleil Moon, expressing the Yin/Yang-like balance of both their working dynamic and their music. Supported by a batch of world-class players (master Michael Thompson on guitars, drummer Kenny Aronoff of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Todd Sucherman of Styx), Soleil Moon released Worlds Apart in 1999, making a big impact on Adult Contemporary radio with ‘Willingly’, ‘Never Say Goodbye’ and the title track.
More than a decade later, Soleil Moon is finally set to unveil the long-awaited follow-up album, “On The Way To Everything”.
Why the wait? For a guy with as many irons in the fire as King, it’s not so easy to get the kind of clear head you need for such an all-consuming labor of love.
The songs were recorded over the past 10 years, whenever King and his cronies could steal an opportune moment in the studio in between other projects.
And while it’s not easy throwing everything you’ve got into an endeavor that’s more about artistic expression than commercial appeal, it’s a risk Soleil Moon is willing to take for the sake of “On The Way To Everything”.
Blending bittersweet, melodic ballads, burning hard-rock riffs, smooth grooves, and anything else that happens to suit their fancy, Soleil Moon has made an album of supreme musicality.
Opener “History Repeats Its Pages” is a pulsing, powerful history lesson lamenting how rarely the human race learns from its mistakes. Lush, soaring ballad “Love the Way You Love” deals with the joys and complexities of romantic relationships. The emotional travelogue really kicks into full gear with “On the Way To Everything,” whose blend catchy rhythms and propulsive pop melody frames a father’s hopes for a newborn child just beginning to play the game of life.
Soon, however, things turn darker; “Goodnight Irene” is about the death of a child, surrounded by a beautiful piano and great atmosphere.
The Americana, power-chord-driven narrative of “Freedom” goes on to reflect on the horrors of child abuse, and the lengths to which a battered boy must go to escape.
Then the churning instrumental rocker “Burn” appears, exploding with a confusion and anger that are natural reactions to the previous track’s tragic tale.
After some infectious odes to aging and wanderlust with “Down”, the transcendent “Move On” returns us to the album’s “life’s a journey” theme, before the big, bold, “Here I Am” closes things out with a statement of joyful acceptance, the kind that can only come at the end of a soul’s long, eventful travels.
“On The Way To Everything” shows clearly that Larry King and John Blasucci have abundant confidence in themselves and the music they make together.
Impeccably produced and arranged entirely by King and Blasucci (who also co-wrote all the tracks), this new album is more Adult Contemporary than its predecessor, still retaining the West Coast / AOR essence blending King’s rock instincts with John’s sleek smooth-flavored approach into a sophisticated slab of music.
“On The Way To Everything” offers high quality music and intelligent lyrics, something that is not easy to find nowadays.
Recommended.
01 – History Repeats Its Pages
02 – Love The Way You Love
03 – On The Way To Everything
04 – Blackbird
05 – Goodnight Irene
06 – Freedom
07 – Burn
08 – Down
09 – Colorado
10 – Move On
11 – Here I Am
Larry King – Lead & Backing Vocals
John Blasucci – Keyboards, Synths, Guitar, Backing Vocals
Chris Siebold – Guitars
Lamaar Jones – Bass
Khari Parker – Drums
USA
AOR / West Coast / AC
Deleted by owner
Old Classic AOR connoisseurs already know NED DOHENY. His solo album ‘Hard Candy’ still remains as top favorite on many lists in the genre, and the follower ‘Prone’, though only released in Japan, was equally good.
Being absent in the business for 17-18 years, Ned is back with the new album “The Darkness Beyond The Fire”.
Doheny was under contract to a Japanese label in early ’90s, and the deal obligated him to deliver a final album. The tunes Ned wrote during that period were some of the most personal of his life, but the pressure to complete the album and the transformation he was undergoing obliged himself to release a body of work that was more demo than a finished product.
Thus, Ned revisted those tunes and re-recorded the whole thing including stellar musicians, with new arrangements and a polished production handled by himself.
The result is “The Darkness Beyond The Fire”, a classy West Coast / AOR recording.
The album takes off with “Between Two Worlds”, a superb breezy melodious track with an organic sound, driven by acoustic guitars, dreamy keyboards and using heavier, only male, top background vocalists: Sherwood Ball (Jay Graydon’s Airplay), Bryan Garofalo (Steve Perry Band), Joseph Williams (Toto) and himself, giving the song now a more depth and life-anchoring meaning.
“Perish The Thought” has a classic West Coast feel, rhythmically rich and deep, with closely arranged vocals supported by the great Maxine Lewis on the background.
On “Too Late For Love” and “Ghostdancer” he introduces some EWI winds of Steve Tavaglione to the arrangement, the background vocals are significantly reduced to avoid the sweetness, singing in a haunting manner coherently on both songs.
“The Secret Society Of Women” is incredibly smooth with a special bitter sounding concept, while “Love In The Rear View Mirror” has a more upbeat rhythm and a catchy percussion.
“Trail’s End” sounds much modern and really American, with a different approach than the rest of the tracks on the album. It’s one of the best and originally composed songs, but all are superbly written here, believe me.
“Life After Romance”, featuring Don Grusin’s acoustic piano, Sherwood Ball and Joseph Williams on backing vocals, has a romantic melancholy tone, and an exquisite, intimate lead vocal performance by Doheny. This is pure West Coast guys…
“In A Perfect World”, once written for a Japanese female vocal trio called Amazons released in 1995 with Doheny singing duet, seems to be the last song he has written and it is yet another everlasting love-affirming song, with a fantastic chorus.
For Ned Doheny his return to the music world took almost 20 years (a conflicting divorce and raise his son in-between) but well worth the wait.
“The Darkness Beyond The Fire” is the most personal album of his career, surely recorded in the way he wanted: with refined arrangements, a careful attention on every detail and a pristine production.
This is a beautifully crafted West Coast AOR album full of classic sounds, from an artist committed to his own style without care to what’s happening nowadays in music industry. “The Darkness Beyond The Fire” isn’t polluted by any actual trend, this is pure West Coast as it should be done.
If you hesitate to get it because you think this style is outdated, let me tell you, without imposing, that you’re terribly wrong… this music is pure class.
Buy it, and re-assure yourself that there are still genuine artists in this world. They need and deserve acknowledgment and applause.
“The Darkness Beyond The Fire” was originally released at the end of 2010 only in Japan, but it is available worldwide since the last month of 2011 with a slightly different cover artwork.
Highly Recommended.
01 – Between Two Worlds
02 – Perish The Thought
03 – Too Late For Love
04 – Ghostdancer
05 – The Secret Society Of Women
06 – Love In The Rear View Mirror
07 – Trail’s End
08 – Life After Romance
09 – In A Perfect World
10 – I Will Let You Go
Ned Doheny: Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards, Percussion, Producer
Musicians:
Keyboards: Cat Grey, Don Grusin, Greg Mathieson
Bass: Cat Grey, Jimmy Haslip
Drums: Gary Mallaber, Joey Heredia, Michael White
Percussion: Luis Conte
EWI: Steve Tavaglione
Violin: Charlie Bisharat
Background Vocals: Sherwood Ball, Brian Garofalo, Joseph Williams, Maxine Lewis, Leslie Smith, Marliyn Scott
Download
TOWER CITY, the American trio who formed in 1988, are best known for their album ‘A Little Bit Of Fire’ which has a cult following amongst AOR loving fans worldwide, largely in Europe.
The album, recorded back in 1992 with the help of Mike Slamer (Streets, Steelhouse Lane, Seventh Key) features some of the best AOR / Melodic Rock songwriting you are ever likely to hear, sadly looked destined to never be heard, until the now defunct German label MTM Records released the album in 1996 gaining high praise to the band.
With the songs on that album having been written and recorded in the early nineties, by 1996, the band had since become known by the name Colorvine, which delivered a more progressive and alternative form of melodic rock that gained them a solid fan base within the USA.
Now here we are in 2011 and the music of Tower City will be heard in a way it never has before.
The band has remastered a selection of their best songs (including titles from the second ’98 album ‘All Or Nothing’), along with 4 new tracks that have been recorded in the last 7 years, entitled “The Ones That Matter”.
Saltis brothers said;
“We have never been inactive as musicians. Our music may not have been represented as we felt it should have the first time around.
We went back and looked at a lot of the tracks, picked some of our favorites, and revamped a collection that we could be proud of presenting to those listeners that still cared.
The 4 new tracks are representative of our growth together after the Tower City days.”
For me personally, Tower City’s music is littered with virtually everything that I love about the Melodic Rock / AOR genres.
Together with Steelhouse Lane, Tower City carried the flame during the second half of the nineties. In fact, both bands were somehow connected. Steelhouse Lane’s mastermind, Mike Slammer, helped this band in the artistic production department, songwriting and playing some guitars.
Tower City is a very, very good band, with a late ’80s MR/AOR arena style full of trademark hooks, lush melodies and monster choruses.
As brothers Saltis like to say: “Time passes, people change, but the good music remains!”
Highly Recommended.
01 – Moonlight
02 – Little Bit Of fire
03 – Smoke (New track 2011)
04 – In These Arms
05 – Talking To Sarah
06 – Ain’t Nobody To Love
07 – Say You Love Me (New track 2011)
08 – Six Strings (New track 2011)
09 – I’ll Sleep Tonight
10 – Love And Money
11 – Surrender
12 – Hot Water
13 – When It All Falls Down
14 – Wishbone (New track 2011)
15 – Closer To The Heart
16 – Hungry
Larry Saltis – Lead Vocals, Guitars
Tim Paul Weiner – Bass, Backing Vocals
Heath Saltis – Drums, Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Additional Musicians:
Scott Sanders – Guitars & Backing Vocals
Mike Slamer – Guitar
Billy Cioce – Drums
Download By SandFord 192 Kbs
“Overwhelming Love” – a favorite of mine on this album. With lyrics that tear at your heart such as, ”Let us be ruined by your overwhelming love“, and ”if we could see just one glimpse of who you are than we would be undone“. The song styling is driven by a contemporary rock beat with great guitar work throughout. This song truly speaks the heart of Moore when he states, “‘Saying Grace’ is an album about thankfulness. The last few years God has let me walk some hard roads with people I love. These songs were born of those journeys. My prayer is that they will be good traveling companions. I wrote them to encourage all our hearts that we are loved, and cared for. That on our best, or hardest, days we would be overwhelmed by God’s great love for us.”
Saying Grace released in August 2011. Certainly an album I would highly recommend.
-Review by Kerri Thomson
(album provided by artist)