‘The Ten Years War‘ collection is a box-set of eight records, two rare singles and MQA high-definition digital files.
Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler: names probably drilled into any true-blooded metal fan as the driving forces behind Black Sabbath.
Since forming in 1968, the band made a number of multi-million selling albums and, recently, they’ve been pressed and packaged into ‘The Ten Year War’, a limited edition vinyl box-set of the band’s eight Ozzy-fronted albums plus two singles: the Japanese version of ‘Evil Woman‘ and the Chilean version of ‘Paranoid/The Wizard‘.
All of these are housed in exclusive artwork by street artist, graphic designer and activist Shepard Fairey.
You also get a necklace-cum-USB stick shaped like a crucifix, containing MQA high definition audio of the first eight Black Sabbath albums.
The collection also contains a hardback book of photos of the band during their tours, recording sessions and photo-shoots, a reproduction of the ‘Tenth Anniversary World Tour 1978‘ programe and a reprinted tour poster from the 1972 Seattle Centre Arena show.
If you want to get your hands on the collection, you can pre-order it now for £200.
The Australian power metal outfit Night Legion recently signed with Massacre Records, and announced the release of their self-titled debut this Autumn. They’ve released an official video for the track ‘Hell Below‘.
Night Legion‘s forthcoming album was produced, mixed and mastered by Stu Marshall at Frontier Studio in Sydney, Australia.
The album will also feature guest solos by Ross The Boss and Pete Lesperance (Harem Scarem)! The artwork was created by Dušan Marković.
Night Legion will be released on October 20, 2017 via Massacre Records.
King King have released an official music video for their new single ‘(She Don’t) Gimme No Lovin’.
The single is taken from the band’s forthcoming fourth studio album ‘Exile & Grace‘, released by Manhaton Records on Friday 6th October.
The new single was mixed by Chris Sheldon (Foo Fighters, Feeder and Therapy). The new album promises to deliver even more of a punch from King King, with killer songs performed with true passion by a fist tight line-up.
You can download or stream the new single from iTunes
“Exile & Grace definitely has a rockier feel and sound to it,” says King King’s frontman Alan Nimmo. “We are following our influences from the Classic Rock genre, Bad Company, Whitesnake and Thunder. We really set out to challenge ourselves with this album. We’ve stepped up the quality of song writing and pushed ourselves physically in both performance and delivery!”
King King are pleased to announce their biggest UK tour to date. The band will play a series of high profile concerts, including London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on Wednesday 18th October. Tickets are available from the 24 Hour Box Office:0844 478 0898 and from www.thegigcartel.com.
Jetset Royals is the brainchild of former Steelhouse Lane vocalist Keith Slack and is firmly placed as something different from the torrent of samey project bands that are swamping the rock scene.
From the first bars of opener ‘Wearing It Out‘ you know your in for a bit of a foot stomper. This album is not some AOR fantasy or rock by numbers conveyor belt project.
Joining Keith is axe slinger Gerard Garcia, with bassist Micah Denzlinger making up the rest of the engine room. These three blokes have succeeded in recording an album that sounds far bigger than you’d expect.
With twelve tracks on the album, you don’t come away feeling short changed. From the balls out ‘Take This Pain‘ to the country rock ‘Long Way Out‘, to the ballard, ‘Long Way Out‘ there’s something for everyone!
Highlight tracks for me ‘Take This Pain‘ & ‘Ship Of Fools‘.
‘Solid Book Of Rock‘ is a brand new box set from Saxon, containing nine studio albums released between 1991 and 2009, complete with eight bonus tracks,two bonus CDs (Classics Re-Recorded originally issued with the initial pressings of Killing Ground, and also the Lionheart – Rough Studio Mix originally issued on the 2006 limited edition) There are also three bonus DVDs (originally released as limited edition DVDs with the Lionheart, The Inner Sanctum and Into The Labyrinth albums.
It all comes wrapped up in a 12” x 12” case bound book featuring a brand new cover painting by Paul R. Gregory, plus a 24-page booklet with all the lyrics and credits and photographs.
If you order one of the 500 limited Amazon releases, you’ll also get a framable print of the front cover painting, signed by frontman Biff Byford.
Tracklisting:
Solid Ball Of Rock:
“Solid Ball Of Rock” “Altar Of The Gods” “Requiem (We Will Remember)” “Lights In the Sky” “I Just Can’t Get Enough” “Baptism Of Fire” “Ain’t Gonna Take It” “I’m On Fire” “Overture In B-Minor / Refugee” “Bavarian Beaver” “Crash Dive”
Bonus tracks: “Requiem (We Will Remember)” [single version] “Reeperbahn Stomp”
Forever Free:
“Forever Free” “Hole In The Sky” “Just Wanna Make Love To You” “Get Down And Dirty” “Iron Wheels” “One Step Away” “Can’t Stop Rockin’” “Nighthunter” “Grind” “Cloud Nine”
Bonus tracks: “Princess Of The Night” [live] “Forever Free” [live]
Dogs Of War:
“Dogs Of War” “Burning Wheels” “Don’t Worry” “Big Twin Rolling (Coming Home)” “Hold On” “The Great White Buffalo” “Demolition Alley” “Walking Through Tokyo” “Give It All Away” “Yesterday’s Gone”
Bonus tracks: “The Great White Buffalo” [live] “Denim And Leather” [live]
Unleash The Beast:
“Gothic Dreams” “Unleash The Beast” “Terminal Velocity” “Circle Of Light” “The Thin Red Line” “Ministry Of Fools” “The Preacher” “Bloodletter” “Cut Out The Disease” “Absent Friends” “All Hell Breaking Loose”
Bonus tracks: “Crusader” [live] “Solid Ball Of Rock” [live]
Metalhead:
“Intro” “Metalhead” “Are We Travellers In Time” “Conquistador” “What Goes Around” “Song Of Evil” “All Guns Blazing” “Prisoner” “Piss Off” “Watching You” “Sea Of Life”
Killing Ground:
“Intro” “Killing Ground” “Court Of The Crimson King” “Coming Home” “Until Hell Freezes Over” “Dragon’s Lair” “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got” “Deeds Of Glory” “Running For The Border” “Shadows On The Wall” “Rock Is Our Life”
Classics Re-Recorded [Bonus CD]:
“Princess Of The Night” “Crusader” “Wheels Of Steel” “Motorcycle Man” “Strong Arm Of The Law” “Denim And Leather” “Dallas 1pm” “And The Bands Played On”
Lionheart:
“Witchfinder General” “Man And Machine” “The Return” “Lionheart” “Beyond The Grave” “Justice” “To Live By The Sword” “Jack Tars” “English Man O’War” “Searching For Atlantis” “Flying On The Edge”
Lionheart Studio Audio – Rough Mix [Bonus CD]:
“Witchfinder General” “Man And Machine” “The Return” “Lionheart” “Beyond The Grave” “Justice” “To Live By The Sword” “Jack Tars” “English Man O’War” “Searching For Atlantis” “Flying On The Edge” “Beyond The Grave” [single version]
The Inner Sanctum:
“State Of Grace” “Need For Speed” “Let Me Feel Your Power” “Red Star Falling” “I’ve Got To Rock (To Stay Alive)” “If I Was You” “Going Nowhere Fast” “Ashes To Ashes” “Empire Rising” “Attila The Hun”
Into The Labyrinth:
“Battalions Of Steel” “Live To Rock” “Demon Sweeney Todd” “The Letter” “Valley Of The Kings” “Slow Lane Blues” “Crime Of Passion” “Premonition In D Minor” “Voice” “Protect Yourselves” “Hellcat” “Come Rock Of Ages (The Circle Is Complete)” “Coming Home” [bottleneck version]
Lionheart DVD:
Lionheart – making of “Lionheart – live clip “Beyond The Grave” – promo video 5.1 96k high end sound mix of the album
The Inner Sanctum DVD:
A Night Out With The Boys “To Hell And Back Again” A Night Out With Boys – The Idea A Night Out With Boys – Not Really “See The Light Shining” A Night Out With Boys – Now It Started “Redline” “Suzie Hold On” “Stand Up And Be Counted” “Frozen Rainbow” “Never Surrender”
Into The Labyrinth DVD:
“Perceval” – Biff plays King Arthur in this Spanish film, directed by Pablo Aragues Millan “Let There Be Light” – documentary about the live staging and lighting
Audio interview with Biff Byford – Biff talks about the songs on “Into The Labyrinth”
With the release of ‘Ambition Rocks‘ , their first album in 25 years, and with a new lineup, AOR & Classic Rock band Da Vinci returns with brand new songs.
The group was formed in Norway back in 1986, and after a short round with demos, the band got a record deal with Polygram Norway and released their debut album the following year.
Looking back on the Norwegian melodic rock of the 80’s, one of the bands to leave a major impression were undoubtedly Oslo’s Da Vinci. Enjoying as much radio play and charting nationally in the same league as Return, Stage Dolls and TNT, Da Vinci released two albums, ‘Da Vinci‘ and ‘Back in the Business‘ and a single in 91 ‘Ain’t No Goodbyes/ Blame It On The Radio‘.
Their greatest hits were ‘Forever in My Heart‘ and ‘Tarquinia‘ from the first album; and ‘Call Me a Liar‘ and ‘9&10‘ from ‘Back in the Business‘. DaVinci was touring constantly from late 86 to 92 and did over 600 performances in Norway. They also played as support for Status Quo on their Christmas Remedy tour in 1989 in Great Britain together with Ole Evenrude. The last concerts were two gigs at Wembley Arena. They split up in 93, but Selboskar, Westlie and Aass continued to write songs together for a few years. Some of these demo songs were illegally released in Europe.
Jarle Måløy moved to the north of Norway. Bjørn Boge started Street Legal together with Bjørn Olav Lauvdal and Selboskar was in the band on keys several years. Gunnar Westlie formed his own band called Tjugods and Lars Aass started working as a songwriter at Waterfall Productions. In 2004 Selboskar and Westlie started to write AOR songs together again and formed Eidsivating with the drummer from Son of Angels, Geir Digernes, and after some years with a lot of songs and different members, this project ended up in today’s Da Vinci.
‘Ambition Rocks‘ was produced by Sverre E Henriksen and DaVinci; drums recorded in Oslo at Klang Studios with Johnny Skalleberg. The album was mixed by Sverre E Henriksen in hangar 7 and mastered by Nick Terry. Artwork & videos by Dag Selboskar.
Lionheart was formed in late 1980 by Dennis Stratton (lead guitar/backing vocals, ex-Iron Maiden), Jess Cox (lead vocals, ex-Tygers of Pan Tang), Steve Mann (lead guitar/backing vocals, ex-Liar), Rocky Newton (bass guitar/backing vocals, ex-Wildfire) and Frank Noon (drums, ex-Def Leppard). The band began playing gigs including regular shows at London’s Marquee Club but had problems maintaining a consistent line-up. The core personnel of Dennis, Steve and Rocky remained but various singers passed through the band including Rueben Archer, John Farlham and Bob Hawthorn. They eventually settled as a 4-piece with Dennis and Rocky sharing lead vocal duties. The drummer’s stool was variously occupied by Les Binks (ex Judas Priest), Niko McBrain (ex Trust and subsequently Iron Maiden) and Clive Edwards (ex Wild Horses).
Between 1981 and 1984 Lionheart played regular live shows and filled the support slot for tours by both Def Leppard and Whitesnake. In between gigs they spent many hours writing and recording demos of new songs while searching for a record deal. It wasn’t until 1984 that CBS Records in the USA offered them a contract, by which time they had recruited Chad Brown on lead vocals. They flew over to Los Angeles in March 1984 to record their debut album Hot Tonight with Kevin Beamish in the production chair and session man Bob Jenkins, who had previously worked with Leo Sayer and Kiki Dee, on drums. The album was recorded at the legendary Sound City Studios in Van Nuys and mixed at Kendun Recorders.
Upon their return to the England Lionheart recorded a high-budget video for the single ‘Die For Love‘. The late comic genius Rik Mayall played the part of the mad professor, which in later years achieved cult status on YouTube due in part to the wonderfully wooden acting of the band! Unfortunately, planned UK tours as support to Kansas and Foreigner were cancelled at the last moment. Promotion of the album suffered and Lionheart found themselves in limbo. Chad Brown left the band in 1985 to be replaced by Keith Murrell, with Toby Sadler coming in on keyboards. More demos were recorded with the new line-up but unfortunately the momentum had been lost and the band eventually broke up. Rocky went on to record backing vocals on 2 Def Leppard albums and join Michael Schenker with Steve, while Dennis spent 15 years with Praying Mantis.
In 2016 Dave Herron, promoter of the Rockingham Festival in Nottingham, asked Lionheart to reunite for one performance and all original members, apart from Chad Brown, did so. The reunion created quite a stir, not least within the band itself, and it was decided to carry on with the subsequent recording of a new album followed by an acclaimed appearance at Sweden Rock.
The new record, ‘Second Nature‘, was created between November 2016 and May 2017 and was produced, engineered and mastered by Steve Mann in his own studio in Hannover. A mini tour of Japan with Praying Mantis was scheduled for June/July with further UK shows with Airrace in November/December. The album release on AOR Heaven throughout Europe is set for 25th August.
