GOTUS – Gotus

Gotus? In terms of band names, that’s pretty ugly. It certainly isn’t terrible – that would be reserved for the likes of Smoking Gives You Big Tits, Dohny Jepp, and Fuck Yeah Dinosaurs, all of which not only have the misfortune to exist, but also the distinction of somehow being better than anything else those bands could come up with – but it certainly doesn’t inspire. It was chosen with solid reasoning, however: it’s a portmanteau designed to advertise the fact that this European supergroup features members of Gotthard and Krokus. That should be enough alone to secure the melodic rockers a decent audience, but in many ways, the biggest draw here is their choice of vocalist.

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THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #25

Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the individual mp3s that have landed in our inbox over the previous few weeks. Always a home for the varied and eclectic, this selection is no exception. In this – hopefully entertaining – batch, we bring you some solid sounding shoegaze, some synth based alt-pop from New Zealand, some hazy sounding indie folk and even a nod to big band swing sounds. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!

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KINGS CROWN – Closer To The Truth

The name Martin Kronlund will be familiar to many melodic rock fans. Between 2010 and 2015, the Swedish guitarist almost seemed omnipresent. Throughout that time, he was a member of Lover Under Cover, Salute and the reformed White Wolf. He was also a guest on the Ged Rylands all-star project Rage of Angels. In addition, he provided technical/production duties on albums by Departure, Ilium, M.ILL.ION, Saracen and Elevener. For a time it was hard to get away from the bugger.

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MERV SPENCE – Phenomena Recovered

When you think about musicians associated with classic rock bands, the name Merv Spence is unlikely to be one of the first that’ll spring to mind. In fact, there are several hundred vocalists that’ll be part of the fan consciousness before this Irish vocalist even gets a look in. …And it’s with good reason. He first made inroads into a career in 1982 when he replaced Pete Goalby in Trapeze, but that association imploded by the end of the year when guitarist Mel Galley left to join Whitesnake, putting an end to a great band. Spence recorded an album with Trapeze that year, but it remains unreleased. He later joined Wishbone Ash, an association which was again brief, but yielded one album – 1988’s ‘Raw To The Bone’. By that point in their career, Wishbone were past their best and, as such, it was a release that was only really heard by the die-hard fans.

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HEAVENS EDGE – Get It Right

The 1990 debut from Heavens Edge is held in high esteem by some melodic metal fans. Released during the tail end of the big hair boom, the record mixed different rock and metal styles with some inconsistency, but when the record really hit the mark, it showed off a really talented band. From high octane solos and riffs on loan from Judas Priest’s ‘Point of Entry’ on ‘Play Dirty’, to unashamed party rock derived from Warrant (‘Skin To Skin’), a passable take on a Ratt-ish sound (‘Bad Reputation’) and even a couple of melodic rock standouts (‘Come Play The Game’, ‘Find Another Way’), it became an album with something of interest to many hard rock fans at the time. Unfortunately, their musical enthusiasm didn’t translate into mega worldwide acclaim – or sales figures – and following a few years of swimming against a musical tide, the band split in 1993.

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