Four years since the release of their critically acclaimed seventh album, ‘The Reckoning Dawn‘, British black metal forerunners Winterfylleth return to the fray with their anthemic new album, ‘The Imperious Horizon‘ on September 13th via Candlelight/Spinefarm.
After a successful European tour with Gaahl’s Wyrd & Gaerea in late 2022, Winterfylleth began work on their eighth album, ‘The Imperious Horizon‘, in early 2023. That writing process led to nine new tracks of intense, atmospheric black metal, that further deepened the strength of material in the Winterfylleth arsenal. The end result is one of the darkest, most enthralling, and most essential records to be released in 2024.

Tonight at Noon: Three of Four Shades of Love marks the 80th anniversary of Charles Mingus' birth and is the seventh recording in a series that pays tribute to his music. The CD features the talents of the Mingus Big Band, a 14-piece rotating ensemble launched in 1991 by the widow of the composer/arranger/bassist, Sue Mingus. The thematic focus of the CD is love and its ten love songs also mark the debut of the Charles Mingus Orchestra, which is featured on four of the songs. The previously unreleased "Love's Fury" features a stellar arrangement by Syl Johnson as well as the very lyrical compositions Charles Mingus never quite received recognition for…

The sprawling double LP Four Letter Monday Afternoon is generally considered the best effort from these jazzy Krautrockers. Rats Road, issued 30 years later, consists of recordings from those same sessions that had to be left off the original release because of lack of space, with material nearly as strong. Like Four Letter, this finds Out of Focus expanded to an 11-piece and stretching out on long jams with loose, funky rhythms and lots of lengthy instrumentals on various brass, keyboards, and guitar. In fact, this record is even more instrumental, with only two tracks with vocals, the energetic "I'd Like to Be Free" and "Tell Me What I'm Thinking Of," the latter which also appeared as a bonus track titled "When I'm Sleeping" on the CD reissue of Four Letter Monday Afternoon…

Mange Tout, Blancmange's follow-up to Happy Families, appeared in 1984. Typical of many second albums, the production is a little glossier, the sound a little less fresh. On Mange Tout, Arthur and Luscombe stick to the pattern they established on their debut, alternating catchy, sequencer-heavy pop with downtempo ballads. Sitar and tabla flavorings continue to play a significant role, as does co-conspirator David Rhodes' guitar. Also typical of many sophomore efforts, Mange Tout at times runs short of material. While the singles "Don't Tell Me" and "Blind Vision" are nigh irresistible, the similar "That's Love That It Is" gets to be a bit much. And though the B-side boasts the nifty a cappella "See the Train" and the pleasing (if disturbingly Thompson Twins-like) "My Baby," a couple of the songs carry the stench of filler. The album's closer - a synth-heavy, nearly eight-minute take on ABBA's "The Day Before You Came" - isn't terrible, just inexplicable.

Throughout his career, Taj Mahal has always been considered a bluesman, which is true enough, since the basis for everything he does has been the country blues, but he is not a traditionalist at heart, and he has always looked for ways to push the blues into new places and shapes. Adding at times rhythms and sensibilities that are drawn from reggae, ragtime, calypso, zydeco, and other genres, Mahal practices a kind of blues hybrid that is his alone, and he has been a huge influence on newer artists like Chris Thomas King and Corey Harris. This collection derives from the five albums he recorded with Private Records during the 1990s, and overlaps somewhat with The Best of the Private Years, released in 2000. Highlights include his version of Doc Pomus' "Lonely Avenue," a bebop blues take on Horace Silver's "Señor Blues," and an atmospheric reading of Goffin & King's "Take a Giant Step"…

One of a series of remastered and sonically enhanced editions of the Vangelis albums recorded for the RCA and Arista labels. All of which come in deluxe digi-pack designs, with masters personally supervised by Vangelis in 2013.
The superb ‘Albedo 0.39’ was Vangelis’ second album to be released by RCA Records and was recorded at Nemo, his personal studio in London, in 1976. This conceptual work, inspired by space and galactic physics, took its name from the planet Earth’s albedo, (the proportion of the light a planet receives that is reflected back into outer space), as it was in 1976.
The album features the iconic ‘Pulstar’ and saw Vangelis push the perceived boundaries of the synthesizer as a musical instrument to new dimensions…

Legendary, long-running Christian heavy metallers Stryper are set to return with their twelfth studio album of original material entitled "When We Were Kings". While the band continues with the pursue of a heavier sound compared to the classic albums of the 80's, Stryper maintain crucial to approach every new album with the mentality that "our best is yet to come." There is no reason why that thought cannot become reality. "When We Were Kings” has it all - everything expected from Stryper and then some.

The Petards have tried the impossible. In the early years of rock music, they met as a completely isolated German band from the provinces to achieve their national breakthrough on their own - the dream of international fame in the back of their minds. In their seven-year career, the Petards have made thousands of appearances, five long-playing records, a dozen singles and a lot of experience that groups in this country have been struggling with to this day. They were among the pioneers of German rock music who faced the thankless task of bringing new music to the rural areas of the Republic, where beat or rock music had previously only been accessible via radio. Although bands like the Petards met a starved and enthusiastic audience there, they were usually denied the boring recognition for their fundamental musical fieldwork.

Arild Andersen's Electra was composed for the Spring Theater in Athens for their production. These "18 Scenes," as they are subtitled, represent various cues and serial music for the production of Sophocles' deeply moving classic. Andersen collaborates with both European and Greek musicians here, among them the great vocalist Savina Yannatou, guitarist Eivind Aarset, drummer Patrice Héral, and trumpeter Arve Henriksen. The music is heavily arranged, taut, and spacious. Everything is understated yet utterly dramatic. Voices, drum programs - courtesy of Andersen and Nils Petter Molvær - brass, electric guitars, chorus, and solo voices are given direction by Andersen's bass and conducting, allowing a sort of musical story to emerge that not only informs but works independently of the dramatic work they accompany…

Riff Raff, co-led by Brit keyboard boss Tommy Eyre and bassist Roger Sutton, grew out of the Mark-Almond Band. Before meeting Jon Mark, Eyre had played with Joe Cocker's Grease Band. The pair decided to form solo projects while with Mark-Almond, and recruited vocalist Alan Marshall, drummer Kenny Slade, and guitarist Martin Ball. This lineup was never formalized, though they had recorded demos and even finished some tracks for a debut album for Richard Branson. The amalgam of jazz, rock, and soul was intoxicating and was a fine emotional alternative to the Canterbury bands, which were much more concerned with complexity than groove. The music included here features all seven of those original finished tracks as well as the first four recordings of the final band lineup after Marshall and Slade left.

Sting recorded 'The Bridge' during the pandemic with a coterie of trusted musicians beaming into his studio remotely. That easy sense of musical camaraderie, connection and kinship is on full display in the lead single 'If It's Love', an unabashed pop song which is lent wings by a whistled refrain, joyful handclaps, and uplifting brass and strings. The urgently staccato, electric guitar-driven 'Rushing Water' soars with Sting's trademark melodic invention and vivid imagery. The decidedly romantic 'For Her Love' is a delicate pledge that harkens back to some of Sting's classic ballads.

Since releasing their self-titled debut album in 1995, Gov't Mule have remained close to their trademark bluesy hard rock roots. While they cover classic blues tunes regularly, they apply that musical signature. Heavy Load Blues marks the first time the quartet have recorded an album devoted strictly to blues. They cut it in one small room in a New England studio standing very close to one another – without headphones – using small vintage amplifiers. The band played stripped-down blues live from the studio floor; the few overdubs were added later. The 13-song standard version of the set offers six excellent Warren Haynes originals alongside covers by masters such as Ann Peebles, Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, Bobby "Blue" Bland, and others. Haynes co-produced the set with John Paterno.

Voyage is the ninth and final studio album by Swedish group ABBA, released on 5 November 2021. It is the group's first album of new material in 40 years following The Visitors (1981), and contains 10 songs all composed by ABBA's songwriters, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. The album was supported by a double A-sided single release, "I Still Have Faith in You" and "Don't Shut Me Down", released alongside the album announcement on 2 September 2021. A digital concert residency, also called ABBA Voyage, will take place in London beginning May of 2022.

Although it shook the band's fan base to its core, the acrimonious departure of vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover served to rejuvenate Deep Purple in time for 1973's aptly named Burn album, which unquestionably showed huge improvement over their lackluster previous effort, Who Do We Think We Are. And in an interesting twist rarely attempted before or since, new recruits David Coverdale (vocals) and Glenn Hughes (bass and vocals, ex-Trapeze) traded lead singing duties on virtually every one of its songs – an enviable tag team, as both possessed exceptional pipes.