Swedish prog band Isildurs Bane formed in 1976. They’ve recorded a string of albums, but their 2016 collaboration with Steve Hogarth really helped to bring them to a new audience. Their work, ‘Colours Not Found In Nature’ was given a live premier in November that year. A studio recording of the same name appeared in 2017.
ZERO FIRE – The Attic Sessions EP
Canadian metal band Zero Fire’s second EP ‘Second Sun’ was packed with great riffs. By creating a brand of melodic metalcore that also included nods to groove metal and contrasted its heaviness with use of clean vocals, it managed to be very broad in appeal. A year on, ‘The Attic Sessions’ offers fans and newcomers a couple of live recordings that demonstrate both extremes of the band’s sound. While a new studio recording would have been preferable – and a full length album better still – this EP has the benefit of giving a premier to a pair of previously unrecorded tracks.
RADIOHEAD – Live @ Lollapalooza 2016
Few bands have made such a dramatic musical turn as Radiohead between the release of their second album ‘The Bends’ and third album ‘OK Computer’. With ‘OK Computer’ Radiohead continued on a path of musical adventurousness and in looking to move forwards, they looked backwards in terms of influences. Instead of drawing from other indie and alternative sources, the album drew heavily from prog rock experimentation and made the band heroes to many fans of 70s experimental sounds.
BRASS OWL – State Of Mind
Brass Owl unleashed their self-titled debut album in the summer of 2018. While that record was loaded with great riffs and showed promise, it was also fatally flawed. More than great riffs are needed to create great songs and their song writing wasn’t always the most memorable. Also, in frontman Brian Tarter, the band seemed to be hampered by a vocalist who often…overstretched himself.
Unfortunately, since Tarter also supplies those great guitar riffs and actually represents fifty percent of the band on 2020’s ‘State of Mind’, Brass Owl are sort of stuck with him. As a result, it is another album where a massive amount of promise is evident, but the genuine quality doesn’t always come through.
Iggy Pop ‘Bowie Years’ box set track listing revealed
It’s been known for several weeks that a super deluxe Iggy Pop box set entitled ‘The Bowie Years’ is to be released this year. Aside from the announcement that the box set would include 2CD editions of 1977’s ‘The Idiot’ and ‘Lust For Life’, plus a broad selection of live material, any other info has been rather scant.
Now scheduled for a May release, it has been confirmed that the 7CD set will include the following material, with everything on discs 5-7 being previously unreleased: