Moonbound

Moonbound is a project headed by multi-instrumentalist Fabio Trentini that was established in 2006.
The debut album "Confession And Release" was released in 2008, followed by "Peak Of Eternal Light" in 2011. Now, the third album “Uncomfortable News From The Moon” is out to blow you away!

The key however is Trentini whose vocals sound somewhere between Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and even Phil’s son Simon Collins.
The songwriting on this album is absolutely stellar. From the intro-like, massively melodic opener “As Long as the Dream is Real,” to the Crimson meets Genesis first single “Cheetah Conquers the Moon (Part 1)” which features excellent touch guitar from Markus Reuter, this album really sounds like a greatest hits album. Every single song is so memorable, catchy and yeah very prog at the same time.

One of the most interesting tracks is the cover of the Devo song “Beautiful World” which sounds more like it’s a Peter Gabriel song! And that’s the other interesting thing. Trentini uses interesting percussion and programming that harkens back to the 80s. Listen to tracks like “Guidance” or “Get Along” and you will understand what I mean. Fans of 80s era Crimson and Duke era Genesis will find plenty to enjoy here.
Hopefully, people will find this album and give it a good listen. Trentini has a great voice and “Uncomfortable News from the Moon” is packed with great music, start to finish. This is modern prog with a beautiful sheen on it that will have you listening to it again and again.

Fabio Trentini: music/lyrics, production, lead and backing vocals, bass, guitars, keys, programmings.
With:
Pat Mastelotto (Mr.Mister/King Crimson/ Stick Men): drums and percussion, co-production
Markus Reuter (Centrozoon/Tuner/Toyah/Stick Men/Crimson ProjeKCt): touch guitar, co-production

Guest-Musicians on "Unconfortable News From The Moon":

Steve Farris (guitar), Steve George (piano, soprano saxophone), Tim Pierce (guitar), Tony Levin (Bass), Lisa Fletcher (Vocals), Tim Motzer (guitar), Milan Polak (guitar), Simon Michael Schmitt (drums), Luca Casagranda (drums), William Dotto (guitar)

Moonbound 

Dara

Dara is a world rock band from Salt Lake City, Utah.

Dara is a driving confluence of eclectic sounds that carry a message of peace and love through their distinctive style of rock. Their shared purpose has created a unique sound that consists of Benjamin Dara’s guitar and vocals, Kevin Hutson’s bass guitar, and Chris Stilling on drums. Add to this their rich vocal harmonies, they are a force that reaches beyond the music physically into the world. Together Dara explores the inner and outer most edges of what it is to exist in this universe.
Over the past few years Dara has really honed in on a sound they can really call their own. A natural evolution of Benjamin Dara’s debut album “Single Flame” the music pulls from a vast medley of influences from around the world.

Dara’s new album "The Red Tiger Nebula" expands upon the singer songwriter feel into a more psychedelic vision of rock and roll, while remaining true to Ben’s storytelling spirit.


At the age of 11, Benjamin Dara picked up a guitar and fell in love with music. As he grew up, countless musicians, poets, and philosophers influenced his passion. He even incorporates storytelling and wisdom into his songs, and his deep-rooted Persian culture has shaped the sounds of the various bands he performed in. After 15 years of playing guitar, singing, and writing poetry, Ben has perfected his vision with the band Dara.

With more than a three-and-a-half octave singing range and extensive experience with multiple genres, Ben’s songs have been featured on college radio and various west coast radio stations. He was featured in the Salt Lake Tribune, St. George Independent, and Ogden Standard Examiner. He was also an award-winning songwriter on his freshman album as a solo artist, “Single Flame”. Ben’s unique style and years of experience have shaped the sound of Dara, and he is pumped to share this vision with the world.

Dara

Starquake

Starquake is a rock project around singer Mikey Wenzel, who has released one album under the moniker of Mikey and two albums under the moniker Spiritus Mundi.

  
"Times that Matter" is the first release under the Starquake moniker, but it features many of the same musicians as the other releases do.
 

When I first heard the intro of the first tune 'Scenes from a Revolution', I must admit that I groaned. It sounded so cheesy with 80s synthesizer effects. After this, my hopes were not particularly high, but when the rest of the instrumentation kicked in, I was taken completely by surprise. The song turned out to be an epic hard rock track with references to Iron Maiden and 70s progressive rock. Another epic track with 70s prog rock elements is the closer 'Fairytale'. Going straight from a song about failed revolutions to a hard rocking song about UFO sightings, the album has the quirkiness of 70s hard rock. 'I'm Going Mad' seems more inspired by Queen and Gentle Giant with its multi-layered vocals. 'Here I Go Again' is a metallic hard rocker with an awesome sing-along chorus, and a verse line that sounds a lot like the verse line of Iron Maiden's 'Wildest Dreams'. Well, let's give Starquake the benefit of the doubt and classify this as inspiration and not plagiarism, shall we? In any case, it's a nice straightforward track to have following the 21 opus 'Rise and Fall' (which incidentally is my least favorite track). Another Maiden-inspired track is 'No More Hate' which pays homage to 'Wasted Years' and tracks like 'The Clairvoyant'. 

The production is not polished, but a tad fuzzy which gives the album a nice organic character. The combination of heavy metal guitars, hammond organs, and spacey 70s prog rock synths works very well, and "Times that Matter" is a fine tribute to 80s metal and 70s prog and hard rock. Some tracks have a slight Deep Purple feel to them while others are ore inspired by Iron Maiden. Mikey Wenzel deploys a singing stye similar to Bruce Dickinson after Dickinson returned to Maiden, but his voice has a slightly rawer quality to it to the point of being a it volatile at times (in particular in the opening track). But it is this rawness which gives the album an extra injection of energy, I think.
The album, while not all tracks appeal to my taste, is an enjoyable listen, and I actually look forward to more output my Mikey & co. Fans of Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, and 70s prog rock should definitely check this album out!

Starquake 

Karfagen

Karfagen (means Karthago), a symbol of glory and wisdom and also it is a never-ending journey into the world of the forgotten past and un-predictable future.
The name Karfagen was first heard in 1997 when Antony Kalugin formed the band at school. While he was studying at the architectural university (1998) he began to record the first Karfagen album.

The Seventh Karfagen chapter is a journey into the myths and legends, a search for the truth within the figments of the imagination, everything and everywhere. It concerns the mighty luck and inexplicable power of “7”.
Things that impress folk so much that it can even become an obsession taking over there whole lives.
“7” Centred around the epic track “Seven Gates” which was created during spring 2015.

Antony Kalugin is a prolific musician and composer from Ukraina. His bands Karfagen, Sunchild, Hoggwash, AKKO (Antony Kalugin Kinematics Orchestra) and AKP (Antony Kalugin Projects) plus his solo albums has gained him many fans in the progressive rock scene.

Antony Kalugin

Hollywood Vampires

The Hollywood Vampires was a group of famous male rock stars in the 70's.
In 2015, the "Hollywood Vampires" is a supergroup hard rock band formed by Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp (the actor!) and Joe Perry feat. a heavy load of well know names as session musicians.

Their s/t debut album was released on September 11, 2015 and will be composed mainly of covers from the 70's with the exception of two new tracks written by Cooper titled "My Dead Drunk Friends" and "Raise the Dead".
Also included is a voice-over titled "The Last Vampire" voiced by Christopher Lee. Being recorded shortly before his death, this marks Lee's final appearance on a musical record.

Members

Touring Band:

    Alice Cooper – vocals
    Joe Perry – guitar
    Johnny Depp – guitar
    Tommy Henriksen-guitar,vocals
    Duff McKagan – bass
    Matt Sorum – drums

Session Musicians:

    Alice Cooper – vocals, harmonica, backing vocals
    Johnny Depp – guitar, backing vocals, keyboard
    Dennis Dunaway – bass
    Bob Ezrin – piano, keyboard, backing vocals
    Perry Farrell – vocals, backing vocals
    Dave Grohl – drums
    Tommy Henriksen – guitar, backing vocals, programming
    Brian Johnson– vocals
    Charlie Judge – keyboard
    Robby Krieger – guitar
    Abe Laboriel Jr. – drums, backing vocals
    Paul McCartney – vocals, piano, bass
    Orianthi – guitar
    Joe Perry – guitar
    Slash – guitar
    Neil Smith – drums
    Glen Sobel – drums
    Zak Starkey – drums
    Joe Walsh – guitar
    Kip Winger – bass guitar
    Duff McKagan – bass guitar
    Bruce Witkin – guitar, bass guitar, keyboard, piano

Hollywood Vampires 

The Black Codex

The Black Codex is a musical series in 52 episodes conceived by multi-instrumentalist, composer & producer Christiaan Bruin (Sky Architect, Adeia, Nine Stones Close, Mayra Orchestra, Chris).

It tells the story of a young man (Ezio) who sets out to draw a map of the world, from a wooden flying machine. However, from the moment he meets Lev, his plans go completely awry.
Lev has a mysterious insight in the patterns in which people behave and is a master of secret plans and schemes. Lev involves Ezio in his quest for an ancient book called The Black Codex.

 

The whole series of The Black Codex will be released on 4 double CD’s, packaged in a mini-album sleeve.

A must for all fans of melodic progressive concept albums.

The Black Codex

Riverside

"Love, Fear and the Time Machine" by Riverside out now!!!

Arguably the band's most mature work, the album sees the band return to the melodic and atmospheric Progressive Rock stylings of its debut "Out Of Myself".

The Polish progressive quartet’s sixth album sees a slight shift in attitude and direction as they delve deep to challenge their modus operandi.

Seems there’s something about prog rock and time travel at the minute. On their new album, you’ll find fellow Inside Out label mates Spock’s Beard singing about Bennett Lamb building a time machine and travelling back to the dawn of civilization…or 1983 as we know it. Now we find Riverside adding the time machine/travel notion into their new album.

Lyrically, there’s a loose thread running through the songs, carrying a message about the impact of making life changing decisions; transformations which on the one hand are exciting and liberating yet on the other, carry the fear of the journey into the unknown. A far cry from Dr Who and Back To The Future, more philosophical and thought provoking and if you’re going to have some sort of theme, why not go for it big style. ‘Love, Fear And The Time Machine’ also continues the playful little idea with this, the sixth album, having six words in the title (the first three had three word titles, while the fourth and fifth followed suit with, you’ve guessed it, four and five word titles).

Having cleared up all the necessary details, how’s the music? By contrast to earlier Riverside it’s arguably verging on mellow and many will feel all the better for it. Also by reining in the length and essentially softening the vocals to a level it makes you wonder why you’d want to hear anything which involves dark screaming . There’s also what sounds like quite a contemporary mix and production – not as metallic as the nu-prog of Leprous and not as old school as Spocks, but more, well relaxed and comfortable in its own skin. Everything seems expansive, open and light – the brightness and space and the calm vibe – maybe in their dabblings into a fresh approach they’ve stumbled upon their niche.

For those who consider album sequencing an art form, this one’s a perfect example of the one that starts with an absolute belter, a real bobby dazzling peach of a track. ‘Lost (Why Should I Be Frightened By A Hat?)’ – a brilliant enough title if ever there were one – has all the hallmarks of a classic album/gig opening song. Building deliberately and atmospherically before the drums kick in combo with a killer guitar phrase and for an added thrill to see how it translates into live performance, check out the uplifting set opening version at the end of the review. Michal Lapaj’s organ, simple yet effective and not for the last time on the album – see ‘Caterpillar And The Barbed Wire’ and the lower key ‘Afloat’ where it’s most effective in setting up the anticipation and mood. Even where the music takes a journey along a slightly more heavy path like it does at times during ‘Under The Pillow’ and ‘Discard Your Fear’ it appears much more subtly rather than a jarring invasion.

Mariusz Duda’s vocals on the album are a revelation. He’s talked about “an optimism and willingness to change for the better” in their attempt to leave behind the expected template set in the seventies and eighties and both musically and vocally Riverside have carried that optimism off to a tee. Some fans may bemoan the fact that nothing on the album which hits double figures in terms of track length yet they show that seven and eight minutes are long enough to make the point. Not so much a case of less is more or clockwatching, but when they go longer on ‘Saturate Me’ and ‘Toward The Blue Horizon’, the latter reminiscent of the direction taken by the more prog orientated Opeth, they show that they can effectively combine the light and the shade without it being too contrasting or grating – more a gentle blurring of the two extremes. It’s also the pick of the two longer pieces although both impress with some nice instrumental sections.

Bringing things to a end is ‘Found (The Unexpected Flaw Of Searching)’ closing off an hours journey through the lost and found circle, delivering ‘Love, Fear And The Time Machine’ as the album that the fans have asked for. But be careful what you wish for. There’s no display of pretentious instrumental virtuosity but a real band energy all combining to show that listening to the fans while at the same time sticking to your own vision is a lethal combo. An unmitigated success and an album which must see Riverside becoming one of Inside Out’s flagship bands.

Discography

albums

2003: Out of Myself
2005: Second Life Syndrome
2007: Rapid Eye Movement
2008: Reality Dream (live)
2009: Anno Domini High Definition
2011: Reality Dream Trilogy (6CD-Boxset)
2013: Shrine of New Generation Slaves
2015: Love, Fear and the Time Machine

EP's & singles

2003: Riverside (Promo)
2003: Loose Heart
2005: Voices in My Head
2005: Conceiving You
2007: 02 Panic Room
2008: Schizophrenic Prayer
2008: Reality Dream Tour 2008
2009: Egoist Hedonist
2011: Forgotten Land
2011: Memories in My Head
2012: Celebrity Touch

Riverside