AURAS – New Generation (2010)
Hailing from Brazil, AURAS is one of the most exciting new acts to hit the AOR-rock scene in the past few years and with the release of their debut album ‘New Generation’ they are ready to prove the world that acts such as Journey, The Storm, Toto and Survivor have found a credible heir from South America!
Auras was formed in the beginning of 2007 by singer Gui Oliver and guitarist Ferpa Lacerda.
Tired of playing in cover bands and feeling they were musically mature enough, both musicians decided to write some new music.
‘Hungry Hearts’, the first song coming out of this collaboration, was sent out to several producers and musicians around the world, gathering some very warm response.
“New Generation is the result of years of hard work and faith in our music” explains Gui Oliver. “It sounds corny, but it’s really a dream that came true especially for a brazilian band where this kind of music is not very popular”
Being a real band, not just a studio project, Auras had their live debut supporting their idols Jeff Scott Soto and Jimi Jamison in Curitiba, Auras’ hometown.
Hearing the band play, Jamison mentioned that Auras songs took him back to the eighties and reminded him of the great bands of that period.
“Artists like Toto, Journey and Survivor”, tells Gui, “are known worldwide and in Brazil it’s not different: their classic hits are still on the radio. Their music touched me in different ways. It was not only the beautiful and amazing melodies, but their songs also had great lyrics.”
Ferpa also grew up in a musical family and this kind of music was always part of his life.
“Definitely melodic rock and AOR in Brazil is not for the masses but we have a faithful and loyal audience. We received lots of emails of people saying how proud they were of us about the album.”
During the recording process the great jazz drummer Edu Sallum joined the band, and the local studio musicians Matheus Brandon and Hemerson Vieira helped to complete New Generation.
The album was finally mixed and mastered to sonic perfection by Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69, Sunstorm, Place Vendome, Khymera etc.).
01 – Beauty Of Dreams.
02 – Forgive And Forget.
03 – Never Give Up.
04 – In My Arms.
05 – Reach Out.
06 – New Generation.
07 – Forever In Your Eyes.
08 – Hungry Hearts.
09 – That’s The Way Love Goes.
10 – Keep On Loving You.
11 – Out Of Love.
12 – Love To Survive.
Gui Oliver (vocals)
Ferpa Lacerda (guitars)
Matheus Brandon (guitars)
Hemerson Vieira (bass)
Edu Sallum (drums)
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DON’T MISS THIS ONE
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SCORPIONS – Sting In The Tail (2010)
After the release of STING IN THE TAIL, and a three-year mammoth tour, which will take them across five continents, one of the most successful rock bands in the world, SCORPIONS, will be ending their career.
During their 40-year career, SCORPIONS sold over 100 million albums and received many awards, such as the World Music Award and several Echos (the German equivalent to the Grammy).
Today they still play sold-out venues around the world. Not long ago, 152,000 South Americans came to 15 SCORPIONS concerts between Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City.
Their song “Wind of Change” has become an anthem for the fall of the Iron Curtain.
The tour will launch in the band’s home country Germany in May.
After that, they will be touring through North America before they continue their journey through five other continents until 2012.
Guitarist Rudolf Schenker tells that the prospect of ending Scorpions is indeed “really sad, and I don’t even want to think about it.”
But he explains that the band and its management ultimately feel it’s the right move to end the band on a high note with its new album, “Sting in the Tail”, rather than risk a slow decline.
“You can’t think about Scorpions at 70, not moving on stage, playing ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane’ — but on stage it’s not like a hurricane, it’s a very small wind,” he says.
“There’s no stinger, and that’s not good. You’re going back down hill, from big hall to small how, small how to club…Everything has it’s end; the question is it a good end or bad end?
In this case we want to do these things and make it a good end.”
Regarding the Scorpions members’ future plans, Schenker says that guitarist Matthias Jabs has a musical instruments store in Munich, while drummer James Kottak has his own band, Kottak.
Rudolf himself intends to publish his book, “Rock You Live,” in the U.S. and plans a collaboration with his brother a Michael Schenker — which may include Scorpions’ singer Klaus Meine on some songs.
Good and last album from the legend Scorpions with an ’80s feel, to rock the World!
1. Raised On Rock
2. Sting In The Tail
3. Slave Me
4. The Good Die Young
5. No Limit
6. Rock Zone
7. Lorelei
8. Turn You On
9. Sly
10. Spirit Of Rock
11. The Best Is Yet To Come
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NEWMAN – The Art Of Balance (2010)
It’s been a few years since we heard any new material from Steve Newman, the veritable one man band behind seven previous Newman releases.
The album starts with over a minute of news reports about dead pop and rock stars mixed together.
There’s Cobain, Hutchence and Jackson all lining coffins, paving the way for a very lively song called “Hero To Zero”, about the price of fame. Although the intro is certainly odd and a bit overlong, the song that follows sets the tone for the album perfectly.
It’s fast, melodic and catchy as hell, something Newman has a real talent for producing.
There’s no true influence here, and instead you can take several bands and throw them all in to get an idea of the Newman sound.
Try Brother Firetribe, Ten, H.E.A.T and Foreigner (but not the wussy stuff) for starters and you’ll get some idea of what we’re dealing with.
When Newman turns on the power he is simply brilliant.
The faster tracks on “The Art Of Balance” are by far the best, and “Edge Of The World”, “Endless” and “Stronger” kick some serious ass.
There are plenty of mid paced tracks as well, with some admirably fiddly guitar work throughout.
As well as playing and writing the majority of the album, Newman also delivers a great sound as producer, one I can’t fault in any way.
Vocally, he’s always had a strong voice, and whilst not one of the greats he has a similar range to Eclipse’s Erik Martennson which shows he is no slouch in this department.
If you’re the sort of person who appreciates solid, guitar driven, catchy melodic hard rock, then Newman is someone you really need to be introduced to.
01 – Hero To Zero
02 – Edge Of The World
03 – Endless
04 – The Miracle
05 – Stay With Me
06 – Tumble Down
07 – Wish You Well
08 – Find My Heart
09 – Your Surrender
10 – Break It Again
11 – Forever
12 – Stronger
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BROTHER FIRETRIBE – Live At Apollo (2010)
Having released a couple of phenomenally received albums, ‘False Metal’ and ‘Heart Full Of Fire’, these Helsinki-based hard rockers embarked on their 1st European tour.
‘Live At Apollo’ represents the first live CD release from Brother Firetribe.
Something special about this CD is that it was created entirely from one performance, recorded at the Helsinki Apollo Club.
Guest singer Anette Olzon from the current Nightwish line-up was also asked to appear. There is no denying that Brother Firetribe wanted to give the fans something they had been waiting years for.
Starting with a keyboard intro akin to an 80’s chat show, this is soon overshadowed by quality musicianship from the guitarist and drummer – which incidentally is not outlandish and played at one hundred miles an hour, but precise power chords and simple drum patterns are adopted, which suit the music.
‘Who will you run to now?’ is not a thrash-fest featuring metal wannabes, it’s a group of guys playing songs they love, which just so happen to be heavily influenced by bands of years gone by.
‘Midnite Queen’ starts off with a vocally harmonised intro, an upbeat, feel-good track.
‘Heart full of fire’ is the track which features Anette from Nightwish and represents the duet of the live set.
The crowd adopted a more lively reaction to seeing this addition to the Brother Firetribe line-up and this is a clear highlight of the set.
Anette’s voice is put in the spotlight during this song and she holds her own against the reliable vocal of Pekka.
Ending with the hit song ‘I am rock’, Pekka says “You might as well sing along”. After a couple of smoke-based explosions we’re thrown head-long into the song.
This fivesome always plays it from the heart and ‘Live at Apollo’ serves you with a 14 song set of passionate delivery, big choruses and over-the-top harmonies that comprise a royal flush of pure melodic rock bliss.
1 – Who Will You Run To Now
2 – Runaways
3 – Wildest Dreams
4 – Midnite Queen
5 – Game they Call Love
6 – One Single Breath
7 – Play it from the Heart
8 – Chasing the Angels
9 – Going Out with a Bang
10 – Break Out
11 – I’m on Fire
12 – Heart Full of Fire
13 – Valerie
14 – I Am Rock
Pekka Ansio Heino – vocals
Tomppa Nikulainen – keys
Emppu Vuorinen – guitar
Jason Flinck – bass
Kalle Torniainen – drums
Anette Olzon (Nightwish) – guest vocals
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TREAT – Coup De Grace (2010)
Twenty-five years after the release of their sensational debut album “Scratch and Bite” and eighteen year since their last self-titled studio album saw the light of day, Swedish melodic rock legends Treat are out to get you on the run again.
“Coup de Grace” is the album that every melodic rock fan hoped for but never dared to dream of: a classic rock masterpiece with thunderous guitars, powerful yet seductive melodies and hook-laden songs, all wrapped up in a production that combines the best of “now” and “then”.
‘It´s been twenty-five years in the making’, says guitarist and main songwriter Anders Wikström. ‘Since day one I knew we had this album in us. The ideas were there. The vision. But it took us this long to find the right tools to make it all come true.
Five albums, millions of miles on the road, a thirteen year long break and a whole new perspective on life to get it right.
In hindsight it now seems that everything we´ve done since we formed the band has been pointing in one direction.
Of course we didn´t know it back then, but this is what we aimed for all along’.
So here we are, in 2010 Treat is releasing their sixth album, not counting the best of “Weapons of Choice”, released when the band reformed in 2006.
“Coup de Grace” is a collection of songs that is so much more than just kick-ass-sing-along-rock´n´roll-songs.
They are more a sort of mini autobiographies from five grown men reflecting on life.
Back then, in the 80´s, it was rock´n´roll twenty-four-seven: big guitars, big choruses, big hair, babes and booze.
‘This album is a statement of who we are today’, explains Anders Wikström.
‘We’re older… yeah, perhaps even wiser. We look at our lives and the world around us in a different way.
I wanted to reflect that in our lyrics.’
The big guitars are still there and became even bigger. The big choruses. The big sound.
TREAT is a rock´n´roll brigade. A force of nature.
Today even stronger and more powerful than ever.
From the opening somewhat haunting prelude, that sets the tone of the album, the right-in-your face rock´n´roll grenade ‘The war is over’, the soul searching ‘Paper Tiger’ to the trademark power ballad ‘A life to die for’, where the band manages to make an epic with a hit feeling, TREAT is telling all the world that they’re back.
Bigger, better and bolder.
We got back together in 2006 because we all missed playing together. We released a compilation album and did a tour, but we weren’t sure what to do next. In 2008 we all felt that we had an album to do, continues Wikström. I started demoing songs and in May 2009 we were ready to hit the studio.
Produced and recorded in Stockholm, Sweden, by Anders Wikström, partly together with keyboard player Patrick Appelgren, “Coup de Grace”, is an album that’s going to stand out in a musical climate where mediocrity and superficiality are an asset but where talent, musicianship and dedication is not required to make the charts.
01 – Prelude / Coup De Grace
02 – The War Is Over
03 – All In
04 – Paper Tiger
05 – Roar
06 – A Life To Die For
07 – Tangled Up
08 – Skies Of Mongolia
09 – Heaven Can Wait
10 – I’m Not Runnin’
11 – No Way Without You
12 – We Own The Night
13 – All For Love
14 – Breathless
Robert Ernlund (vocals)
Anders Wikstrom (guitars, backing vocals)
Jamie Borger (drums)
Nalle Pahlsson (bass, backing vocals)
Patrick Appelgren (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals)
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RECKLESS LOVE – Reckless Love (2010)
Reckless Love is a four-piece group from Finland that plays exceptionally good rock n’ roll.
With it’s rousing and joyful attitude the band offers a true alternative for today’s rock scene where everything seems too dull, dark and serious.
Reckless Love’s formula is simple; big melodic hair hard rock just for the fun of it!
The band was founded in 2001 and started to gradually gain underground reputation as an energetic live act.
Olli Herman (ex-CRASHDIET) joined the band, and finally took it’s current form and found it’s own recognizable sound.
The result is their blasting self titled debut.
The front and back cover is more than reminiscent of old Motley Crue vinyl records, a shiny chrome logo with the SS of Kiss and the V of Van Halen.
Leather, long hair, a pink motorbike, no “Steel Panther style” irony: oh yes, hair metal is most definitely back.
Let’s call it what it is: HAIR METAL. How did this happen?
Maybe there was a couple of big corporation guys sitting down the pub and deciding this was what we were going to listen to next.
Or maybe, after years of overworking themselves 24/7 in the name of career and mortgages and having everything taken away from them by the recession, people feel, once more, the need for two days a week of good old, shallow, sex, drugs & rock’n’roll.
I’m sure the reasons for this comeback will be thoroughly analysed when, again, the world will turn to grunge.
For now, brace yourself and stock up on the hairspray, because this is just the beginning.
Reckless Love’s self-titled debut album does exactly what it says on the cover.
Just like the logo, the music is loud, sparkly, very retro, well produced and it picks bits here and there from Kiss, Van Halen, Motley Crue, Def Leppard and… you know what I’m talking about.
Cheesy? Sure. Cliché? Maybe. Nothing new? I guess so. Do I care? Honestly, no, I don’t.
This album brought me back to when music was fun.
When people used to dance in clubs rather than just pose, and a night of no strings sex was a safe bet when you were taking home someone of the opposite gender.
Shallow? Bring it on! If everyone would treat themselves to a shallow weekend of sex and rock’n’roll every now and then this world would be a better place.
Crank It to 10 and enjoy!
Highly Recommended.
01 – Feel My Heat
02 – One More Time
03 – Badass
04 – Love Machine
05 – Beautiful Bomb
06 – Romance
07 – Sex
08 – Back To Paradise
09 – So Yeah!
10 – Wild Touch
11 – Born To Rock
Olli Herman – Vocals
Pepe – Guitar
Jalle Verne – Bass
Hessu Maxx – Drums
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N.O.W (Philip Bardowell) – Force Of Nature (2010)
At age six, Alec Mendonça stumbled across the Boston debut album along with some old Beatles records which changed his life forever.
When he turned 14 he started playing more professionally and got a Luthier home made bass.
At age 18 his grandmother offered him the opportunity to have either a car or a decent bass….. although every single hormone in his body urged for a car he went with his heart and got his first fender Jazz Bass special, even recording an album in 1996 that had some air play in Brazil but then it all came to a halt due to sickness in the family.
After a hiatus of 14 years taking care of family business, Alec Mendonça was finally back to the world he loved, the music world.
There were so many tunes popping up into his mind that he decided to form a band and make a record out of it!
N.O.W. was born then, and by joining forces with stellar Brazilian Keyboardist Jean Barros, all the basis of the songs were done in Studio 430.
After 3 months Alec put down 12 songs!
Alec had to travel to the studio so many times he lost count of that, sometimes spending the whole day away from home for months, but it was worth it.
With the demo CD in hand, he only wanted the right vocals to do it and although Alec can sing, his voice is more of a background voice.
Taking his chances, he decided to send the tapes to some people he knew through the internet and caught the attention of gifted vocalist Philip Bardowell (ex-Peter Criss, Ace Frehley from KISS, ex-Beach Boys, ex-Unruly Child) who loved the songs so much that he decided to sing the songs for Alec.
Philip said and I quote : ”Alec, I’ll pour my heart into your songs” and by what you hear on this album, you can be sure he did!
Guitarist Carlos Ivan brought a touch of uniqueness to the album as well, making his guitar lines sound vintage but current at the same time.
All the songs reflect some stories that happened in my life or in the life of people I miss or lost.
The rest I hope becomes history…. as you can be sure that a lot of love and emotion have been put into the making of this album, it’s a 32-year-dream coming finally true… so enjoy and play it out loud!
01 – Can’t Make It (How Can I?)
02 – Listen To Your Heart
03 – Lonely Soul
04 – Once That Feeling Comes Again
05 – You
06 – Idols Grace
07 – Peace Of Mind
08 – Long Hard Way
09 – Hail Mary
10 – Im Free (But Not Ready To Go)
11 – Midnight Call
12 – No Time 4 Goodbyes
Philip Bardowell (vocals)
Alec Mendonça (bass, vocals)
Carlos Ivan (guitar)
Caio de Carvalho (guitar)
Jean Barros (keyboards)
Erik Leal (drums)
Mixed by : Martin Kronlund
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BRIAN HOWE – Circus Bar (2010)
Long regarded as one of rock’s legendary voices, Brian Howe started his career in 1983 as lead vocalist for Ted Nugent on the “Penetrator” album and fronting its band on the subsequent world tour.
In 1984, drummer Simon Kirke and guitarist Mick Ralphs asked Brian to replace Paul Rodgers as the lead singer in Bad Company.
Brian decided to accept the offer and continue the legend of the band. This was not an easy task, but along with Kirke and Ralphs, Brian created, wrote, recorded and toured for the following 10 years, headlining every major venue around the globe.
Along with Bad Company’s highly acclaimed 1993 live CD “What You Hear Is What You Get – The Best of Bad Company – Live”, Brian wrote and sold with Bad Company something like 19 million of records, highlighted by such radio and video hits as “Holy Water”, “If You Needed Somebody,” “No Smoke Without A Fire,” and “How About That,” – not to mention a few of the group’s previous hits as recorded on the “live” CD.
Thirteen years after the release of his debut solo album “Tangled in Blue” (later renamed “Touch” in Europe), Brian is back and ready to unleash his awesome new solo album entitled “Circus Bar”.
“When I decided I wanted to make a new CD” tells Brian, ”I wanted to try to make everything memorable and enjoyable.
Therefore I set aside a week for writing with my new producer Brooks Paschal and I decided we would go down to my favourite place in the entire world: Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, an incredibly inspirational place for me to be.
We realized after three days that we had written enough songs for the CD and that took any pressure I had been feeling away and it soon became obvious that the CD should be named after that wonderful little bar where we spent our evenings eating, drinking and listening to the local music.
The bar was started by circus performers and still has posters and pictures of all the great circus acts from throughout the years”.
Some friends helped Brian in shaping up “Circus Bar”, an album, which promises to be a career landmark for this amazing singer: Wayne Nelson of Little River Band dropped by the studio for a few days and also Pat Travers popped in and played guitar on “My Town”.
“I didn’t want to have too many “established” musicians on the record because I wanted to keep the feel somewhat fresh and spontaneous”, explains Brian.
The album includes also two stunning – newly recorded – remakes of the Bad Company hits “How ‘Bout That” and “Holy Water”.
01 – I’m Back
02 – Life’s Mystery
03 – There’s This Girl
04 – It Could Have Been You
05 – I’m surrounded
06 – Flying
07 – How It Could Have Been
08 – My Town
09 – How About That
10 – Feels Like Coming Home
11 – If You Want Trouble
12 – What Am I Feeling
13 – Holy Water
14 – Little George Street
Brian Howe (vocals)
Brooks Paschal (guitar)
Dean Aicher (guitar)
James Paul Wisner (guitar)
Tyson Shipman (guitar)
Pat Travers (guitar)
Brooks Paschal (bass)
Miguel Gonzalez (bass)
Wayne Nelson (bass)
Matt Brown (drums)
Luke Davids (keyboards)
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HUMAN TEMPLE – Murder Of Crows (2010)
Finland’s premier melodic hard rockers Human Temple are back!
Their 2004 debut “Insomnia” received rave reviews, and the fans have been eagerly awaiting a follow-up.
Now the wait is over, so be prepared for a “Murder Of Crows”.
The foundation of the Temple was laid way back in the late eighties, when vocalist Janne Hurme and drummer Petri Lehto formed their first band.
The guys were highly impressed by Kiss, Dokken, Crüe and the likes, so the style of the music just had to be hard rock, yet always with a keen ear for a good melody.
In 1998 he and Petri formed Human Temple, determined that this band would take the next step and become something bigger than their previous bands.
Their first album saw the light of day in the summer of 2004.
The next years passed quite fast, and the band went through a few line-up changes.
In the summer of 2009, they felt that the time was right for album number two.
They entered the Noise camp studio in Turku, chose the best 10 songs from their selection of new tracks, and started the recording process.
With a little help from some friends like Jani Liimatainen (ex-Sonata Arctica, Cain’s Offering), Erkka Korhonen (ex-Urban Tale, Ari Koivunen band) and Vesa Virtanen (Twilight Guardians), they created a worthy successor to “Insomnia”.
“Murder Of Crows” stays true to the sound of the debut, while adding some new elements to it.
Next to the band’s highly melodic AOR anthems such as “Just One Night”, “Ghost Of You” and “What About My Broken Heart” you’ll find some more metallic tracks, flat-out hard rocking and even atmospheric pop-rockers.
This is a great album filled with hook laden songs and if you love keyboards then you will get plenty on Murder Of Crows!
1 – Not My Fault
2 – Empty Stages
3 – Just One Night
4 – Promised Land
5 – Lie
6 – Yours Cold Blooded
7 – Ghost Of You
8 – Emily
9 – Secret
10 – What About My Broken Heart
JANNE HURME : Lead Vocals
HARRI KINNUNEN : Bass
PETRI LEHTO : Drums
JORI TOJANDER : Keyboards
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TRAGIK – And We All Turn To Dust (2010)
Phil Vincent’s band TRAGIK comes with a new album, a collection of tunes that visits an eclectic variety of styles from milder AOR and melodic rock to metal-like hard rock.
The opener ‘Overture 3′ provides a point of difference to what you’d normally find opening up a hard rock CD, with a symphonic and at times bombastic opening instrumental sequence.
Boston meets Mastedon perhaps? of course they did something equally unusual on last years album too.
Movin’ on, ‘Jaded’ is the first rocker to land on our plate, an uptempo rocker with good use of vocal harmonies and hard driving drum work.
‘Can’t Find The Words’ is an intense mid-tempo affair with a (dare I say it) House Of Lords styled thickness applied.
‘Black And White’ is for all of those who are spectrally challenged, a fast paced rocker that is quite sad-sack in terms of the lyrics.. it’s about a guy who’s lost his missus… ‘all the color is gone in my life.. all I see is black and white’.
‘At The Shore’ is quite a cruisy number, lots of flanging guitar and seashore sound effects, occasionally it’ll beef up a bit.
‘Before It’s Gone’ is a pleasant number, ‘Long Way From Home’ is a bit slower tempo with AOR ideals, topped off by Phil’s Rik Emmett’s flavored mid-range falsetto.
The closer ‘Nothing’ features Billy Roux on most of the instruments, Billy has appeared on some of Phil’s previous recordings.
Tragik continues to deliver some quality material, and even though the lider Phil Vincent considers themselves to be the best unknown band around, you’ll find that continued exposure on sites like this plus other similar sites, will make that statement redundant over time.
01 – Overture III
02 – Jaded
03 – Can’t Find The Words
04 – Black & White
05 – Giving In
06 – At The Shore
07 – Before It’s Gone
08 – Long Way From Home
09 – Shadows Of Loneliness
10 – Nothing
Phil Vincent – vocals, bass, keyboards
Damian D’Ercole – guitars, percussion
Dirk Phillips – drums, keyboards
Billy Roux – guitars, bass, drums on ‘Nothing’
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