When Ian Fraser "Lemmy" Kilmister died on December 28, 2015, it was automatically the end of Motörhead: Ultimately, all the remaining members of the group, no matter how long they were around and how much musical input they provided, were always just "sidekicks" to the band's founder. But not only Lemmy himself, Motörhead also became a legend, especially in the last 20 years of their existence, when the group managed to captivate an increasingly diverse audience that ended up being far larger than is the norm in the hard rock and heavy metal cosmos

Already the sensational album title challenges the question. Who is the singer of the New York prog rock band IZZ talking about? Is "The Most Dangerous Woman In America" Laura Meade herself? Or which woman(s) is she thinking of? Musically, the second solo album is also convincing. An electronic soundscape has swept away the rest of the tender folk in her Kate Bush/Tori Amos brand of artpop

Strong women are muzzled in society

The covid pandemic has thrown most bands' plans into disarray, but few acts have used the inability to tour as creatively as King Buffalo, who have three albums coming out in 2021. Of course, this wasn't planned, as singer/guitarist Sean McVay explains, "I don't think we would have been able to tackle three albums if it wasn't for the pandemic. We would have spent a considerable amount of time on the road if everything had gone according to plan, and not been able to spend as much time writing."

The first of the three albums, "The Burden Of Restlessness", sounds typically like the psychedelic stoner sound of the Americans, but the lyrics seem more thoughtful and personal than in the past. "I've been struggling with my mental health for quite a while. There were some difficult family situations that came to light. Coupled with the circumstances of the pandemic and an increasingly frightening social and political environment, I got myself into a hell of a situation ..."

Wolfgang Becker and his two comrades-in-arms of the trio Schwarzbrenner, based in Ratingen, North Rhine-Westphalia, are seasoned blues men. Especially idols like Cream or Rory Gallagher have taken a liking to the formation around the 65-year-old mastermind. At the same time, the singer and guitarist is a "fine spirit", as he describes himself, "a passionate follower of the classical romanticism of Novalis or Hölderlin".

But on the band's current twelfth album after two and a half decades of existence, entitled "Zauberworte" ("Magic Words"), there are now lyrical settings by rather more unknown Romantics such as Achim von Arnim (1781-1831) and Clemens Brentano (1778-1842) as well as by the "house poet" Georg Heym, who worked a century later. Lyrically, one is transported to an enchanted magic garden, entirely in the tradition of "Des Knaben Wunderhorn".

The world is full of outcasts and people whose little lives have nothing to do with the media success stories we are encouraged to emulate on a daily basis. One of the last songwriters to persistently take on the stories of these unremarkable everyday heroes that we find not only in the provinces but also in the big cities is John Hiatt. The Heartland rock bard has been showing his heart for the forgotten majority on the fringes for decades, but especially after the trials of the Lockdown, his new album "Leftover Feelings" takes on a whole new weight.

It sounds like the checksum of empathy and wisdom. "I just like telling stories. Stories about people, places and things. I couldn't write an abstract song. It always has to be about something that people can relate to. When I write a song, I take the opportunity to communicate about the things that are on my mind." ...

It's a strange feeling when the phone rings and a sonorous, self-confident voice answers with the words "Hello, this is Jakob Dylan". The internet teaches that he doesn't like questions about his famous father at all, and of course he has enough to say about the new - convincing - album "Exit Wounds" by his band The Wallflowers. But in the end he is ready to say a few sentences about his father.

eclipsed: Why did you take almost a decade off while not releasing a Wallflowers album or a solo album?

Jakob Dylan: Actually, the break wasn't planned to be that long, but the pandemic got in the way, the new album has been on hold for over a year. Before that, though, I had to get out of the grind and try other things. Not that I didn't feel like making music anymore, but it's important to take a step back and see things from a different perspective. So one of the things I did was make this film about the Laurel Canyon scene ..

In his main profession, Tim Husung from Hagen is a drummer and as such has been on the road a lot with the band John Diva And The Rockets Of Love, also in their home country; touring in California and Arizona, among other places, has left its mark on the visual language of his debut. "The motherland of rock'n'roll for me isn't just the USA though, it's England too. If you can pick up the vibe in the US though, it's certainly formative."

Just like his musical preferences, where he names The Cult first, followed by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Gov't Mule, Blackberry Smoke, Rival Sons. What he particularly likes about the latter is "how they bring that old school character into the modern era". Something he also tries to do. So there is no Hammond organ replacement, but the original to hear ...