Current Issue

22. November 2017

Supersonic Blues Machine , Lance Lopez

The name says it all: Here comes the SUPERSONIC BLUES MACHINE

"Californisoul" is the second album of the Supersonic Blues Machine. The Californian bluestrio, consisting of drummer Kenny Aronoff (Sammy Hagar, Paul McCartney and others) as well as songwriters Lance Lopez (guitar, vocals) and Fabrizio Grossi (bass, production), is well networked and invites an illustrious group of musicians into the studio and on stage. This time Eric Gales, Walter Trout, Robben Ford, Steve Lukather and Billy Gibbons will be there.

eclipsed: Fabrizio, how do you get all these people together?

Fabrizio Grossi: If you think that we just open up our address book and call around and then everyone sends us their part by e-mail, you're wrong. It's not about a collection of well-known names to spice up our mediocre songs. (laughs) I or rather we have known these musicians for years or decades and give them the opportunity to get involved for a few concerts or a song.

22. November 2017

The Darkness

THE DARKNESS once again give free rein to their predilection for glam metal and queen choir songs

Although the British hard rockers The Darkness haven't delivered a weak album yet, it's already clear after a few runs that "Pinewood Smile" is at least as good as the famous debut "Permission To Land" (2003). Among the ten new songs there is not a single gap filler, and the attitude and playfulness of the band are absolutely stirring. A return to top form? You could say that

Guitarist Dan Hawkins - the driving force behind The Darkness along with his brother Justin - is preparing for the tour when the interview with eclipsed takes place. As the 40-year-old reveals right at the start, the band has a new lighting system at the start, with Hawkins trying to coordinate the correct lighting of a cowbell (!). A spinal tap moment that wonderfully expresses the self-ironic attitude of the group.

eclipsed: The title of your new album quotes the famous Pinewood film studios near London. Does one have to imagine a film star smile under a Pinewood smile?

21. November 2017

Kalamahara , Underground

The German retrorock trio KALAMAHARA only knows challenges, no borders

eclipsed: Alex, on the photos on your website you still look quite young. How old are you? How long have you been together?

Alex Beyer: Hans and I are 28 and have known each other almost as long. We grew up together and have been making music together since I can remember. In the province of Mecklenburg there was also a lot of time for this. I started playing guitar at the age of five. We did the first sessions at ten or eleven and the real first constant band came at 14. We kept them up with breaks until 2012. That was more in the direction of grunge/alternative. After the dissolution I changed to the drums and got to know Clemens, who had his 30th birthday last week, in Leipzig. I joined his former band as a drummer, but I have played in sessions and jams for quite some time and a short time later after a change of line-up - Hans replaced the old bass player - Kalamahara developed.

20. November 2017

CD-Sampler

KOYO - Strange Bird In The Sky (5:36)
Album: Koyo (2017)
Label/Distribution: 88 Watt/Cargo
www.koyoband.com

A promising opener that makes you want a whole world, which reveals itself in the following three quarters of an hour. Keyboards, drums, guitar and sounds of birds condense to a modern Proghymne, which even Porcupine tree standards messes up. Great cinema and an even greater promise

15. November 2017

Jimi Hendrix , The Jimi Hendrix Experience

JIMI HENDRIX - The leap into the bottomless pit

No, a reputation like Donnerhall did not precede Jimi Hendrix when he climbed out of the plane on 24 September 1966 in London at the side of his new manager, the ex-animal bassist Chas Chandler. But only a few months after his arrival the man from Seattle was on everyone's lips. And by the end of 1967 he had not only taken guitar playing, but rock music as a whole into a new dimension. "Suddenly this stranger comes running along, and all hell breaks loose," said Jack Bruce. We follow Hendrix' numerous stations in this year, which was so decisive for him, when the incomparable jumped off the Rainbow Bridge.

15. November 2017

Lunatic Soul , Mariusz Duda , Riverside

LUNATIC SOUL - The end is approaching

Mariusz Duda and Riverside are back on track after the difficult year 2016. How happy the 42-year-old musician really is can only be guessed between the lines. During Riverside's ongoing European tour he gives eclipsed insights into the backgrounds - including the emotional ones - of the new Lunatic Soul album.

eclipsed: You explained that you wanted to free me from the events of 2016 - including the death of Riverside founding member Piotr Grudziński - with the new Lunatic Soul recording. Did that work?

15. November 2017

Blues Pills

BLUES PILLS - We want more, we want more

The front row of the Blues Pills was completely ready to talk, as she knows that "Lady In Gold: Live In Paris", which she recorded in October 2016 in the Halle Le Trianon in front of 1200 enthusiastic fans and which will be released on November 3rd as Blu-ray or DVD plus double CD, is her best live product so far.

But the home advantage spoke for an interview with Dorian Sorriaux, Blues Pills' French guitarist. Swedish colleague Elin Larsson says about him: "There will come a day when I will proudly claim to have played with Dorian in a band"

And US bassist Zack Anderson adds: "When Cory [Berry; original drummer fired in 2014], Elin and I discovered Dorian back then, we knew he'd make the difference." Besides Sorriaux, Anderson and Larsson, Berry's successor André Kvarnström and keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Rickard Nygren were on stage during the "Lady In Gold" tour.

15. November 2017

Sons Of Apollo , Mike Portnoy

SONS OF APOLLO - Dream Theater 2.0, my ass!

In the nineties Mike Portnoy and Derek Sherinian played together for five years at Dream Theater. Then the band unbooted the keyboarder in favour of Jordan Rudess, who is still in office today. Sherinian founded Planet X, toured with Yngwie Malmsteen and Billy Idol, joined Black Country Communion and had a highly acclaimed solo career. He renewed his musical relationship with Portnoy after he left Dream Theater in the instrumental supergroup PSMS (Portnoy, Sheehan, MacAlpine, Sherinian). Out of the spirit of this formation Sons Of Apollo were finally acquired, as the bandleaders revealed in the conversation.

eclipsed: It all started with PSMS, right?