This is a few months late but the point here is not to talk about the single itself but how the talented Anette Olzon is able to replace the almost legendary Tarja Turunen; she was asked more or less politely to leave the band in October 2005. Having listened to every track they recorded and admiring their work it is hard to not talk about that.

So after about a long search lasting not far off a year and a half, with around 2000 demos from all over the world they selected Swedish Anette Olzon. She has a style which is in many ways different than her predecessor. There is no doubt that the classically trained Tarja can reach notes in a way that Anette can not but that is not the problem. The thing is that for the first time Nightwish is sounding happy and catchy. Amaranth is a very good piece of work but it is just not fully their style. They are back but they are not bigger, better and more beautiful than they have ever been.

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Tags: Anette-Olzon, Dark-Passion-Play, nightwish, Tarja-Turunen

Artist name: Iced Earth
Album name: Framing Armageddon: Sometheing Wicked I
Gender: Power Meta
Label: SPV
Release date: September 11, 2007
ZMErating: 8/10
Website: http://www.icedearth.com/

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There are some metal bands which like to wallow in their misery, some which like to party hard, and some which refuse categoricaly to indulge in any of the aforementioned well-traveled roads. Iced Earth is that kind of band.They specialize in triumphant sounding metal and show the masterful guitar work of founding member Jon Schaffer (”Something Wicked Part One”) and also the multi-octave vocal gymnastics from former Judas Priest frontman Tim “Ripper” Owens (”Infiltrate and Assimilate”). The other musicians also prove to be very talented and show off their musical prowess.Clocking in at nearly 70 minutes it is epic, both in length and musical vision. The songs are dense and the more you listen to them the more you notice the incredible amount of detail.

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Tags: Framing-Armageddon, Framing-Armageddon:-Sometheing-Wicked, Iced-Earth, Jon-Schaffer

Months of speculations and rumors, concerning a alleged Led Zeppelin reunion, came to a end this afternoon (4 P.M. 12 September), after the three surviving members of the group Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones confirmed the reforming was going to take place, but for a one time show only. They will be joined John Bonham’s son Jason, with whom they will play a benefit gig at the O2 Arena, better know as the Millennium Dome, in the memory of the band’s late producer Ahmet Ertegun, who died at a Rolling Stones performance in December.

At the commemoration show Led will also be joined by The Who’s Pete Townshend, former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, Foreigner and Paolo Nutini ( more names are sure to be announced in the future). The event will take place on November 26, tickets are on sale starting from today at the somewhat high price of £125 ($254), the O2 Arena is 20.000 seats strong so expect a fast sell-out. All profit will be donated to the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund, which provides students with annual scholarships to universities in the UK, USA and Turkey.

Tags: Led Zeppelin

It seems so, all facts lead to it, although a few months back Robert Plant denied any such rumors, in his characteristic fashion, saying “If there was one, then there wouldn’t be enough doctors to support it!”. What facts, do you say? Well for starters at the beginning of the week English ticket adverisers put ads out offering tickets for a Led show at the O2 Arena, London. News has it founding members Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones together with late drummer John Bonham’s son Jason on drums are set to play there the first gig of a grand reforming tour, in memory of their Ertegun Ahmet. The band’s promoter Harvey Goldsmith urged people not to buy the alleged tickets as they aren’t unauthorized sources,but not denying the event all together in any way. Ticket masters goof? Seems likely.

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Tags: Phil-Collins

The people at BGO (Beat Goes On) records recently re-mastered Lita Ford’s first two releases and stuck them on one disc. Those who like what she sings probably had them recorded to some cassette. Dancin’ On the Edge is the epitome of what all other female rockers should strive for in an album. The track Dancin on the Edge keeps the fast pace moving along. Run with the $” and “Hit and Run” are Loverboy-style rock, not quite metal yet too hard for pop. Much of the other selections are in this same vein.

Her first album, Out for Blood, does sound a bit like Ford’s previous band the Runaways and the sound is amateurish sometimes as they try to find the hard rock undertones reaching to establish a style. It is lively and energetic and that makes the album noticeable. The real prize here is Dancin’ on the Edge (originally released in 1984) which made Lita go in that hard rock direction.

The production values are much stronger than the debut with a more professional sound. There is also some vocal improvement and she finds a bit of her own guitar style. The sound is much like what Ratt or KISS were doing at the same time. What makes the album is that the band manages to keep the songs interesting by having new riffs and making the album is that they interjected many new riffs which makes the tracks not be so repetitious. That is a trap that too many hard rock artists fell into.

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Tags: dancing-on-the-edge, dancin`-on-the-edge, KISS, lita-ford, out-for-blood

Artist name:
Korn
Album name: Untitled
Label: EMI/Virgin Records
Gender: Nu Metal/Industrial Metal
Release date: July 31, 2007
ZMErating: 7/10
Website: http://www.korn.com/

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After in their previous album, 2005’s “See You On The Other Side“, Korn recorded without their old time guitarist Brian ‘Head’ Welch (who apparently decided to follow the path of God) another hard blow struck the band. Their drummer David ‘Calvin Klein’ Silveria, who’s tripping rhythm defined the nu-metal paradigm, took a break from music and went in hiatus, leaving the band as a trio. This didn’t discourage Korn in any way, carrying on with their music and recordings, their efforts being materialized in the band’s latest work dubbed “Untitled“. Do not confuse this with the debut self-titled. A self titled release has an identity. An album published under the statement of “why not let our fans just call it whatever they wanna call it” (’Untitled’ is how the press chose to call it) shows an identity crisis.

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Tags: Korn

Paul Stanley, guitarist and lead vocalist, for one of the ‘80 rock icon bands KISS, had some serious heart issues during a sound check, which required immediate medical treatment, this Friday 27 July.

As Paul was absent the rest of the band (Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer) was forced to complete the gig, at Soboba Casino, about 90 miles east of Los Angeles, as a trio. This is actually the first time in the band’s history they’ve performed as anything but a quartet.

The 55 year old singer, released a statement on his website, shedding some light on the matter:

“During sound check yesterday, my heart spontaneously jumped to 190 plus beats per minute where it stayed for over an hour necessitating paramedics to start an IV and give me a shot to momentarily stop my heart and get it into a normal pattern “

Tags: KISS

Led Zeppelin are considered by most critics the true pioneers of Heavy Metal, but also they epitomized the synthesis of multiple influences that characterized the best of 70s rock, while producing music that was stamped with their own dynamic identity. Along the years Led has had a brilliant career, spanning through their 12 year existence until John Boham tragic death, selling over 300 million records all around the world, releasing 8 LPs (all #1 both US and UK), thousands of gigs and a lot more, if any band deserves a last tribute, its Led Zeppelin.

This tribute has been materialized in the form of “Mothership”, a the ‘best of’ Led LP that is scheduled for release this fall, on November 13. The package will be consisted of a two disc set, containing 24 of the best Led songs, like “Stairway To Heaven”, “Whole Lotta Love” or “Kashmir”, hand picked by the surviving members of the band themselves. You can buy the LP in two versions “Deluxe” and “Collectors” edition featuring a bonus live DVD, together with 4 LP vinyl.

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Tags: Led Zeppelin, Mothership, The-Song-Remains-the-Same

It seems all Metallica members are working hard on their ‘08 album, spending long hours in the studio to bring the best out. Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum, good friend of Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, is amongst the first to listen to a few of the tracks from the new album. He describes them ’sick’, ‘long’ and ‘fast’, with awesome solos of epic lengths. Don’t belive me ? Read on:

“Lars is a good friend of mine. He played me the demos from San Francisco, and I turned and looked at him and I said, ‘Master that shit and put it out.’ It’s ridiculous. The demos were sick. Eight-minute songs, all these tempo changes, crazy fast. It’s like, ‘Dude, don’t get slower when you get older, but don’t get faster!? How are you gonna play this live?’ And then me and Lars were out partying all night, and he had to go in the studio the next day and do this stupid like nine or ten minute song, and I was laughing at him — because he played me the demo of it, and it was [sings really fast drum part], so fast. I called him, and said, ‘Dude, how are you feeling?’ He was like, ‘Dude, I’m hurting.’ They’re cutting everything to tape, no fuckin’ Pro Tools — live, no clicks. Bitchin’. I dig it. I’m really excited for them.”

Tags: Lars Ulrich, Matt-Sorum, Metallica, Velvet Revolver

Fresh from their Pitchfork performance, Mastodon delights us once more with a awesome video for their track “Sleeping Giant”, from 2006’s metal masterpiece “Blood Mountain“. The video is great, to say the least, director Roboshobo perfectly glimpsing the tracks meaning and lyrics. The video is set in a Sci-fi world, most likely in a space science laboratory. A blind humanoid, of apparent great intellectual capabilities, maybe divine, is set intro a chamber by two priests where he’s buried, after which life appears on his surface. Life develops from early reptiles to advanced humanoids, that eventually self destroy their micro world, through nuclear holocaust, revealing the the carbonized remains of the blind man/god.

The man behind the video, director Roboshobo was kind enough to shed some light. Via headbangers:

The concept for the video was kind of my take on the mythology that seems to be encapsulated in the album,” he begins. “I thought the reference to ‘Father Snake in the song sounded like an actual priest of some sort and thats where the robot came in…

Turning the blind man into a miniature landscape that evolves and eventually commits nuclear suicide — that was my take on the ’sleeping giant — like a volcano that’s threatening to erupt.

I also liked to think that the point of the ritual was to cultivate a crystal skull from the man’s bones after being in the earth for so long — sort of like the way coal turns to a diamond under pressure.

Tags: Blood-Mountain, Mastodon, Sleeping-Giant