BLACK SABBATH - From the Swabian Province to the World
It's done. The live chapter Black Sabbath has been finished since February 4, 2017 with the last concert of "The End Tour" in their hometown Birmingham. One of the first stages of the Doom and Metal pioneers in 1969, even before the first album was released, was Baden-Württemberg. The first concerts in Germany as Black Sabbath took place in the Swabian province. Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward felt so at home there that even when they were already in the charts with their first LP, they returned to the charts at the end of April 1970. We accompany Sabbath on her first years as a tour band and garnish the whole thing with exclusive photos.
AYREON - Six billion years in the future
New albums by Arjen Lucassen are always an event. Especially when it's the continuation of his almost cult Ayreon saga, which is almost revered by fans. With the double CD "The Source", now the ninth album of the opulent rock opera project, the Dutchman once again takes us into the infinite vastness of his self-made sci-fi parallel world.
PROCOL HARUM - Novum Harum
50 years of Procol Harum. 50! The band is jumping something for this extraordinary anniversary. It's a new studio album. First in 14 years. And "Novum" is anyway only the twelfth recording in the long career of the English formation, which in the sixties delivered "A Whiter Shade Of Pale", one of the biggest long runners in rock history. The last remaining founding member, Gary Brooker, is only conditionally able to speak well of these. Otherwise, however, it chats away from the liver about his group's past and future.
TEN YEARS AFTER - A Space In Time
Not ten, but fifty years later! In 1967, The Jaybirds renamed themselves Ten Years After. In the following years, the quartet from Central England was to develop into one of the leading, most explosive blues rock acts. His legendary appearances at the Newport Jazz Festival and Woodstock in 1969 and at the Isle Of Wight the following year played a major part in this. Leo Lyons remembers the history of the band with us in 2017.
KAIRON; IRSE! - Land of a thousand ideas
Kairon; IRSE!, the Shoegaze psychedelics from Seinäjoki, Finland, have released their second album "Ruination", a great album, which will be especially popular with progfans. Because the quartet around frontman Dmitry Melet has worked out all sorts of twisty themes that are held together by falsetto-like vocals, vintage keyboards, fuzz guitars and pop hooklines. A hearing pleasure of the special kind.
DAVE DAVIES - Among Brothers
No way Kinks-Reunion: with "Open Road" Dave Davies, just seventy years old, presents a new solo album - because his big brother does the same as well and thus thwarts the plans for a new collaboration. How far this has advanced and how difficult the good Ray can be, eclipsed learned by satellite switch from New Jersey.
FANTASTISCHE ALBEN, ABER... - eclipsed nagging at rock milestones, Part 2
In December 2015, we had for the first time set ourselves the goal of producing recognised classical albums of rock history. Not to join in the canon of praise, but to criticize, to get rid of what members of the eclipsed team had always disturbed at certain "milestones of rock music", at albums that regularly appear in lists of the best. Now the editors are going to go on and nag at what everybody should like, what everybody should like...
THE AFGHAN WHIGS - Demon sex with Uncle Jimmy
When Greg Dulli has a good day, the boss of the Afghan Whigs is the most grateful interlocutor one could wish for. As for the presentation of his eighth album "In Spades", in which the tall, corpulent man from Ohio lets some real roar off the pile. About old heroes and dark desires. The one Jimmy Page lacks the sense of humor for.
BIG BIG TRAIN - New naturalness
With last year's masterpiece "Folklore", the octet Big Big Train from the English Midlands gave the term "folk music" a completely different, progressive meaning. These days the successor "Grimspound" came into the trade. A quieter, more unagitated work than the opulent, multi-faceted 2016 production, the new album is more in keeping with its predecessor's title, because this time it's folk versus rock influences that really prevail.
The former permanent gritgram MARK LANEGAN shows irritating signs of satisfaction
"When I first heard his new album, I thought, "Something's wrong here," laughs Mark Lanegan's bosom buddy Greg Dulli from the Afghan Whigs. "Mark sounds happy for the first time. I said to him, 'Dude, what's the matter with you?' And he said, 'I guess I'm completely satisfied with myself and the world.'" No wonder, at 52 Mark Lanegan has reached the point he always dreamed of, both professionally and privately. He is in a steady, stable relationship, renounces nicotine, alcohol and drugs, lives in a nice little house in Glendale, a bourgeois corner of Greater Los Angeles, has two dogs and two cats as child replacements and can live very well from his music.
FATES WARNING have released their acclaimed album "Awaken The Guardian"
Last year Fates Warning celebrated the 30th birthday of their masterpiece "Awaken The Guardian". To pay tribute to this progmetal milestone, guitarist Jim Matheos reactivated the original line-up for two festival shows in Germany and the USA. The recordings of both performances are now available as "Awaken The Guardian Live" (a detailed review of this release can be found in this issue). We grabbed singer John Arch to chat about the shows. "The preparations took over a year," explains the 57-year-old, who lives just under two and a half hours by car northeast of New York.