Thundersteel/The Privilege Of Power (2CD)

"Alternative Rock is not a genre that graces my ears very often, but as always, they are open; as is my mind. The funny thing is, any time I am exposed to something I wouldn't normally find myself listening to, there is always something about that band that has my wanting attention for one reason or another, be it the sound of the vocalist, the mixing, or those infectious hooks in the chorus. For its genre, the ANNEKE VAN GIERSBERGEN (formerly AGUA DE ANNIQUE) is perfectly postulated and is a leading act, with their non-repetitive writing (something I hear too often in commercial rock), excellent vocals and songs leaving you burning with an urge to sing along.Their latest release, "Drive", is no exception; as an album, it proves to be versatile, with no two songs sounding identical, but every song keeping the rhythm and mood to make the album fit piece by piece. "We Live On" feels like a typical pop-rock track, upbeat and driving, with an extremely powerful vocal performance in the choruses by Van Giersbergen. "Treat Me Like A Lady" does not want to be treated like a lady, and takes a noticeably heavier tone, brimming with attitude. "She" begins ever so modestly, making us think we're brought back to some level of calm, but explodes into an incredibly fast-paced chorus for such a Rock band, and includes yet another infectious chorus; something that is fast becoming an obvious highlight. "Drive" – I adore the sound of the bass in this song, the way it is dislocated from the drums, adds another dynamic. Van Giersbergen's even more stellar performance in the chorus demonstrates her large vocal range and versatility. Save for electric bass, "My Mother Said" is an entirely acoustic song and is the softest, most heartfelt song on the album; the band's namesake flawlessly demonstrates her ability to fit her voice around any song to emote any mood wants. "Forgive Me" is especially different, demonstrating unusual chord progressions, totally different instrumentation, and revealing even more, the extent of control that Van Giersbergen has over her range. "You Will Never Change" is upbeat and punchy, through-and-through with an – okay, let us just assume that every song on this album has an infectious chorus; definitely one of my favorites on the album. "Mental Jungle" begins with a strange, Arabic-sounding vocal melody, also featured on the chorus; I do indeed also love this chorus, as well as the interesting chord progressions. Quite easily the most unique song on the album, it strays from the pipeline rock sound that this record has been purveying. "Shooting for the Stars" takes the cake for the 'radiorock' track on the album, where every note, every beat, every lyric, screams commercialism and airtime. Not necessarily a bad song, but not the most interesting on the album. The album closes with "The Best Is Yet To Come" which makes me thing, Anneke has even better music to offer us in the future? The song itself takes first place on the album for me; the presence of the overdriven guitars and bass compliment her voice perfectly to create a powerful and catchy, yet Heavy Rock track, with interesting and unpredictable licks and hooks.Van Giersbergen and her band are quickly cementing themselves as one of Europe's currently most powerful and gorgeous-sounding rock groups, whom don't necessarily always cling to the commercialized, radio cliché sound, although no doubt perfectly suited to long air time. Coming from a metal head who listens to a fair share of female singers, I believe she could sing anything she wanted to, and the band of musicians that have got together and recorded this organic album with her have done so masterfully, and I'm not sure if the best is yet to come." - Metal Temple

12 years after their last release, Braindance are back.  One look at Sebastian Elliot and Vora Vor's photos you will think they were frozen in a time capsule.  Unless the Masters of Disguise are also the Masters of Photoshop they haven't aged at all.  Wow!What also hasn't changed is the sound.  Its classic Braindance and they are giving the fans exactly what they expect.  Sebastian's vocals have always drawn comparison to Peter Steele.  The music is a blend of prog metal - doom - electro-darkwave.  Typically the tunes are set against an epic scale symphonic landscape with an intense rhythmic pulse that allows room for Vora Vor and Crafty guitarist Tony Geballe to shred across.  Tracks are stitched together with samples lifted from film.  Masters Of Disguise is a conceptual work and the presentation is stellar.  The band has always had a relationship with the artists from the world of comic books/graphic novels.  One of the two booklets included is a 16 page comic drawn by Joe Simko.  The entire package is really over the top and quite gorgeous.  I'm emphasizing this because I know its an extremely expensive item and I'm sure cost the band a lot to manufacturer  Keep in mind - we didn't set the pricing on this.  Hopefully you are a fan of the band and can look beyond the price.

"Formed in Athens, the band PSYCRENCE saw the light of day in 2009, in December 2010 they released a self-produced demo EP entitled “Distance” which has received an excellent and very encouraging acclaim by the press and the fans alike, a fact that’s leads PSYCRENCE to play many stages in their native country, it includes an highly rewarded spot at the famous festival's "Tunes In Progress" bill.Now it’s time for the release of their debut album, “A Frail Deception” and it’s time for a deep analysis of this burning platter, full of progressive elements, both inherited from the new and old tradition, melted and boosted carefully, with the additions of some down tuning heaviness and many intriguing atmospheric sounds. Their music style and its definition is hard to explain but it also contains a tons of familiar elements subtly borrowed to many legendary heroes… You’ll name it, isn't it?! As an example, the first tune “A Losing Game” starts with a melodic pattern of piano enhanced with layers of synthesizers overdubbed by an asymmetric guitar riffage, very classic in its construction and perfectly measured and dosed, with an impressive Lead vocals performance in order to complete this archetypal picture of the Progressive Metal of the 90’s… Nothing really new but the tradition is respected and honored by such a smart and fine introductive track.The sonic production work gets a result near to perfection, scoring the privilege of being clear and strong in the exact doses, the best way to give justice at their amazing playing talents and developing an enjoyable path of sounds for songs like “Convergence” as it belongs to a more difficult breed of composition that really need some more time to penetrate your psyche… See you at the Coda. With the continuity of those four cuts that follow now “Forced Evolution” / ”Moral Decay” / ”Subconscious Eyes” / ”Incised Path” it reveals to us another side of their specifies, it holds a new density but also a real melodic richness, the opulent and refined Keyboards / Guitar harmonized canvas, built under a perfect construction of a complex duo is jaw dropping, the rhythmic section is tight as any Modern Power Metal but with a more elaborated harmonic maze on the top of it. The sharp riffing duet of guitars can be at the same time sophisticated and chaotic, bold and delicate, insidious or vicious but also elusive, their manic riffage is on the insistent mood, hypnotic or fierce and their solos spots are technically improved yet particularly demented in “Moral Decay”… ”Incised Path” contains also a bunch of NWOBHM flavors compensated by a still very relaxed kind of proggy crooning courtesy of singer Takis Nikolakakis.“Distance” is indeed another superbly crafted song, it's a Darker number hiding into a real progressive outfit, because of the arrangements as it builds itself layer after layer, until surprisingly providing a new found intensity and a new edge in the chorus section, starting with an incessant creeping riff that leads to another damn fine solo interaction. The track n°8 “Reflection” is another guitar driven, a fast paced and heavy thing, drums part are more direct, less audacious than the early titles but with a fury of melody improved by this always fantastic voice somewhere between Andy Kravljaca (ELSESPHERE / SEVENTH WONDER / SILENT CALL / AEON ZEN) and Nils K. Rue (PAGAN’S MIND / ex-X-WORLD 5 / ex-EIDOLON) with some hints of Tobias Sammett’s vibrato“Hold Close The Flame” is the closing number and surely the most addictive of all, a slower pace, an ethereal clean guitar motif and an emotive vocals performance in the early QUEENSRYCHE‘s musical inspiration, in spite of the title being close to a famous track of the mythical “Warning”, the signature style is palpable and concrete, it's crystal clear to me that it belongs to an idolatry homage to the Tate / DeGarmo / Wilton legacies.After the glorious releases by compatriots WARDRUM or UNTIL RAIN, I will believe that something musically exceptional is happening in this Mediterranean Hellenic territory, much alike the Italian phenomenon and its legions of talented group appearing like a spontaneous generation of talented spirits in the vein of FATES WARNING / QUEENSRYCHE / CIRCUS MAXIMUS / REDEMPTION / AEON ZEN or EUMERIA. A very classy collection of songs in the key of smartness and elegance, exquisitely set in an evaluative mood in order to conquer the hearts but mostly the mind of those Progressive Metal lovers." - Metal Temple

Remastered edition with 2 bonus tracks."The third and final album of what could be called Journey's cocoon phase (Escape would give birth to a fully formed butterfly and put the band through the stratosphere), 1980's Departure would also be the quintet's last with keyboardist/vocalist Gregg Rolie. Produced by Geoff Workman and Kevin Elson (essentially both engineers turned producers), the album continued to build on the band's previous two recordings, but offered an added edge, arrangement-wise. This was likely due to the fact that the band had walked into Automatt Studios with 19 new tunes and proceeded to record most of them live, eventually trimming down to 11 songs. Catapulted all the way up to number eight on the Billboard Top 200, Departure was the band's highest charting album to date and got off to an explosive start with the driving riffs and chorused vocals of "Anyway You Want It" (another radio smash that would chart Top 25). Never sounding tighter, the quintet then launched into "Walks Like a Lady" (another future FM staple, climbing to number 32) and a string of outstanding rockers, including future concert opener "Where Were You" and the stop-go-stop-go energy of "Line of Fire." On the other hand, elegant power ballads like "Good Morning" and "Stay Awhile" would foreshadow the band's future commercial triumphs on Escape. And even though it packs the occasional filler like "Someday Soon" and "Homemade Love" (a weak attempt to boogie that falls absolutely flat), Departure is a solid record all around. Soon, Rolie would be replaced by the greater pop-savvy songwriting muscle of former Babys keyboard man Jonathan Caine, and Journey would go from huge cult act to monster superstars." - All Music Guide

The seeds for The Fullness Of Time were planted with the band's self-titled debut in the summer of 2002. That album features members of Fates Warning, Steel Prophet, and Symphony X. Redemption leader Nick van Dyk prevailed upon his close friend, Fates Warning lead singer Ray Alder, to take the producer's chair.The band quickly gathered a following in the metal underground, and received rave reviews from the press, which recognized the band for its combination of intensity, progression and melody. The German magazine Rock Hard awarded it 9 out of 10 points. The accolades culminated in a performance at ProgPower in September 2002. Alder also joined the band on stage as a guest performer.With a newly revised lineup in place, Van Dyk set to work writing and recording the follow-up, and upon hearing the completed music, Alder asked to join the band as its full-time vocalist in the summer of 2004. The band recorded its sophomore release, The Fullness of Time, and van Dyk selected Tommy Newton, known for his production work with such bands as Conception, Ark, Helloween and UFO, to mix and master the record.Once again, the music combines heaviness, complexity and irresistible melody drawing on such diverse influences as Kansas, Savatage, Iron Maiden, Fates Warning, Dream Theater, Rush and Megadeth. The Fullness of Time promises to be one of 2005's most unique and compelling offerings in the prog/power genre.

2LP vinyl edition featuring the remixed and remastered version of the unexpurgated Voyage 34. Originally released as a now OOP single in '92, Voyage 34 is the ultimate psychedelic space rock head trip.