8:30

"With a concept about the Greek goddess Persephone, the Andorran band Persefone deliver probably the musical equivalent of a Greek epic in form of a melodic and progressive death metal album named Core. It should be noted that this album is seventy minutes long and have only three songs. Listening to this album in one sitting the first time hearing it, is not recommended, despite that the music is interesting. But regardless of that, how can Core be described? Broad, one way or another, it should at least have something that appeal to most. That does not mean it is recommended for most. But enough of that. What is going on here?The first thing you will hear is a piano, or keyboard more correctly. To be honest, there is not much to say about it. It adds some flavor to a lot of sections throughout the album, but could perhaps be left out without damaging the music overall too much. The piano parts however, are the only thing the keyboard should be doing, the rest feel a little tacky. The guitars pick the pace up, and creativity. These can go from chugging to spastic and alternating riffs, be fast or slow, and help color the music a lot, setting a specific landscape for everything else. The bass guitar is another thing that cannot be said so much about, once in a while, it can be heard, but for most of the time, it seems nonexistent. But when heard, it seem to follow the lead of the guitars. Nothing very impressive, but nothing too bad either. The drumming however is great. There is a lot of force behind them, and the general playing is nothing less than laced with rhythms, sometimes complex and sometimes just simple. But overall, they add a dynamic feel to the music that is vital. Finally are the vocals, that come in a variety of styles, from screaming, growling, roaring and just clean singing. In addition to these styles, are also the female vocals that drop by sometimes, and these are the most enjoyable as they break the monotony of the rawer male vocals.With the mixing, things are overall very good. But the the biggest problem is the drowned bass guitar that can barely be heard in the middle of everything else. The production is fairly good, but can perhaps be a little too gritty for this type of music. As for the musical delivery, it comes in an array of emotions to set the mood, going from aggressive assaults to mournful funerals, along with more hopeful feels. The songwriting is quite good, with each song loaded with sections that demand your attention, whether being aggressive or slow, catchy or perhaps a little jazzy. And yes, that happens a couple of times, with some jazzy delivery, but these are spaced out far too uneven than say the more aggressive sections. There are however some places in between here that really lack anything noteworthy. And those, while they do not occur too often, are quite dragging.But speaking of the length of the album again and the number of tracks, it is hard to imagine Core being a nine track album, but with so few tracks divided on such a length, it can become a little tedious and bothersome. So as mentioned, you should not listen to the whole album in one sitting. Give it time and be patient, and it will pay off.Persefone have done a tremendous job with Core. It is through and through entertainment, though it does lack a little from time to time. But in the end, it does deliver a rather impressive narrative." - Metal Archives

"Lemmy Kilmister had been leading Motörhead for 16 years by the time 1916 was recorded in 1991. Over the years, Motörhead had experienced more than its share of personnel changes -- and in fact, Kilmister was its only remaining original member. But the band's sound hadn't changed much, and time hadn't made its sledgehammer approach any less appealing. As sobering as his reflections on the horrors of World War I are on the title song, he's unapologetically amusing on "Going to Brazil," "Angel City" (an ode to the "beautiful" party people of L.A.), and "Ramones" (which salutes the New York punk band). Whether the subject matter is humorously fun or more serious, Motörhead is as inspired as ever on 1916." - Allmusic Guide

The band's fifth album was a brilliant amalgam of Beatles influenced pop and classically influenced progressive rock. I still get a rise out of hearing "Fire On High". This remastered edition comes with five bonus tracks which are a bit dispensible alternate mixes.

"2014 surely seems to be a year of fruitful reunions; CARCASS is one we could see coming from a mile away, but alas, one name stood somewhat overshadowed by the band’s guitarist-mastermind’s main band, ARCH ENEMY; Chris Amott has brought ARMAGEDDON back to life, “Captivity And Devourment”: the first new material from the band since the last album, “Three”, in 2002. A band known for each album being a completely separate entity, genre-wise, “Captivity And Devourment” retains the blistering Melodic Death Metal from the first album, but combines modern nuances, and Chris’s own clean vocal performances, first heard on the last ARMAGEDDON album, and later, on his solo album work. This release is what ARMAGEDDON and the more aware of ARCH ENEMY fans have been waiting for the past 12 years.Fully unified and re-energized, the frontman position now takes the form of thunderous coarse vocalist Matt Hallquist provides the majority of the vocal delivery; a supermassive, unrelenting delivery of harsh growls, yet Chris’s clean singing deliveries are thoughtfully emblazon a number of tracks; the man is a master guitar player, and that is what this album shows. That being said, he a skilled vocalist in his own right.The title track opens the album, and what a monster of a song it is; hinting that this will be the band’s heaviest album to date, it explodes forth with a blast-beaten intro, before subsiding into a pummelling series of groove-ridden riffs. A powerful reminder that the ex-shredder of one of the world’s biggest Melodic Death Metal bands has once again made a foray into the Extreme Metal world, as such, the guitar work on this track drew a smile to my face.  “Locked in” is a bit more mellowed in the heaviness department, but is thickly substantiated with meaty riffs, and soaring, double-kicked sections, though the top dollar are the deliciously-catchy chord progressions .“Thanatron” was one of the first tastes we were given earlier this year, of the band’s new material. Beginning with a crisp, acoustic passage, some of the riffs on this track are as heavy and robust as you’ll hear on the album; a strong Groove Metal sound drives the main riffs. The necksnapping headbangery of this track shovels the coal into the massive engine that powers this album, from the beautiful and up-beat acoustic interlude of “Background Radiation”, through to one of my two favourite piece on the album, “The Watcher”. Seemingly more epic in stature, as the massive, thrumming intro riffs would give away, it certainly pulls no punches. This track happens to be strongly-embellished with clean vocals, not necessarily provided in the lead vocal sense but noticeable nonetheless. Chris commands the lyrics with an unusual style of delivery, sitting somewhere in the mid-range and capable of powerful belts, but with a mysterious, almost Gothic nuance about his singing. Quite frankly, he sounds like no one else I’ve ever heard; the grandiose, soaring section partway through the track will surely convince of this.A power metal enthusiast at heart, I was secretly hoping for more vocal belts; I was met with this and more on “Equalizer”, my other favourite. A virtuosic guitarist at heart, fans of his guitar playing will be at the very least satisfied and sated with the stellar lead work on this track. Chris certainly made no mistake in taking on the  best musicians for the job, either; I couldn’t be more pleased with the line-up after listening to this album, particularly the thundering bass tone provided by Sara. In fact, the overall production of this album is to be highly commended; seemingly, deliberately raw, it is far from overproduced, and everything comes across as far more organic, definitely playing a part in the heaviness factor.Am I approaching this with rose-tinted glasses/headphones? Hardly; ARMAGEDDON is a different band now. Something bigger, something stronger, and hopefully that little bit more infinite. Either way, this is the calibre of comeback I had been hoping for." - Metal Temple

First time on CD for this killer slice of kosmigroov.  Michael Naura is a jazz pianist who recorded for MPS and ECM in the 70s.  Call was originally released on MPS back in 1970.  MPS was a very eclectic label.  They touched on electric jazz rock, free jazz, straight up jazz and pure schlock.  It was a very hard label to pin down and there is a voluminous amount of releases on the label.  Collectors have finally focused on digging through the MPS catalogue and prices are starting to soar.  I recently picked up a vinyl copy of Call and it cost me a cool $100.  Ownership of the MPS catalog has bounced around a bit and now Edel is beginning a large reissue campaign.  We hope to cherry pick through the catalog and pick up titles we think would be of interest to our customers.The Michael Naura Quartett consisted of Michael Naura (Fender Rhodes), Wolfgang Schluter (vibes), Eberhard Weber (bass), and Joe Nay (drums).  If you like vibes Mr. Schluter is your guy - he's all over this album.  He seamlessly integrates with Naura's electric piano.  The rhythm section is amazing. Eberhard Weber's bass will rock your house and Nay is very creative.  All together the music has a phenomenal flow to it that will suck you in.  While it never crosses over into rock it perfectly captures that time period in the late 60s/early 70s when jazz musicians were beginning to experiment with electric instruments.I was never much of a vibes guy but Schluter's playing really grabbed my attention.  Add in the killer sounds of that Rhodes and you've won me over.  For the jazz converted this is a BUY OR DIE disc."“The new pieces have little in common with the bebop and cool jazz influences of the old Naura quintet.” So wrote journalist Siegfried Schmidt-Joos in his 1970 liner notes to pianist and bandleader Michael Naura’s album Call. Joos went on to say that Naura had assimilated “the contemporary sounds of free jazz and rock” as well as “the collective playing styles of the younger generation of musicians.” His first album in eight years definitely showed Naura in a new light. Two members of his old quintet, vibraphonist Wolfgang Schlüter and drummer Joe Nay were still in on it, and both had effortlessly mastered – as had Naura – the new rock and blues-oriented styles. With the addition of Eberhard Weber, a jazz-rock trendsetter had stepped into the band. “This musician from Swabia with the face of an old Botticelli angel,” as Nauradescribed the electric bassist, had a substantial impact on the new quartet’s sound. The pieces on this MPS recording are all written by Naura. Born in 1934, Naura broke off his journalism studies in Berlin to become a musician. Vibraphonist Schlüter was with him when Naura formed a band in the 1950’s. This first band was heavily influenced by pianist George Shearing’s style. Naura and Schlüter have continued to play together on into the new century. Drummer Joe Nay, who Naura prized as “the perfect incendiary”, died in 1990."

Our good friends in Delain have signed a worldwide deal with Napalm Records.  The band is planning a new studio release for early 2014.  In the interim we have Interlude.  Its a CD/DVD collection of unreleased and non-album material.  Some of this dates back to the April Rain line up while other tracks are from the We Are The Others sessions.  The band also kindly included some live tracks from their Female Metal Voices X festival appearance.  Further, there is a (PAL Region 0 format) DVD that includes video footage from the festival, promo videos, and backstage footage.  My extremely biased opinion is that this is a must own.