A wonderful year for music. One of the best. Pretty easy to pick my favourites and even though I haven’t had time to review a good many of these, they have all been in high rotation over the last 12 months. And yes, I will still run through some Reviews In Brief and add as many of these titles to the site. Past my Top 10, the rest were all very hard to put in order – some outstanding titles here, with quality music for all tastes released in 2017.
If you haven’t heard some of these titles, don’t waste another minute, check them out!
01. Harem Scarem – United
02. Eclipse – Monumentum
03. One Desire – One Desire
04. H.E.A.T – Into The Great Unknown
05. Threshold – Legend Of The Shires
06. Night Ranger – Don’t Let Up
07. Heaven & Earth – Hard To Kill
08. Degreed – Degreed
09. [TIE] Mr. Big – Defying Gravity
Tokyo Motor Fist - Tokyo Motor Fist
Kryptonite - Kryptonite
10. Sons Of Apollo – Psychotic Symphony
11. Wayward Sons – Ghosts Of Yet To Come
12. Black Country Communion – BCCIV
13. Night Flight Orchestra – Amber Galactic
14. Brother Firetribe – Sunbound
15. Jorn – Life On Death Road
16. All 4 1 – All 4 1
17. Art Nation – Liberation
18. Code Red – Incendiary
19. Houston – III
20. Riverdogs – California
21. Styx – The Mission
22. Inglorious – II
23. Wildness – Wildness
24. Lionville – World Of Fools
25. [TIE] Newman – Arial
Pick Cream 69 - Headstrong
26. Jeff Scott Soto – Retribution
27. Pride Of Lions – Fearless
28. Ten – Gothica
29. Revolution Saints – Light In The Dark
30. Tony Mills – Streets Of Chance
31. ColdSpell – A New World Arise
32. Midnite City – Midnite City
33. Cheap Trick – We’re All Alright
34. Crazy Lixx – Ruff Justice
35. The Radio Sun – Unstoppable
36. Santa Cruz – Bad Blood Rising
37. Dirty White Boy – Down And Dirty
38. Deep Purple – Infinite
39. Steve Walsh – Black Butterfly
40. Thunder – Rip It Up
41. Kee Of Hearts – Kee Of Hearts
42. Unruly Child – Can’t Go Home
43. Eden’s Curse – Eden’s Curse Revisited
44. Tales From The Porn – H.M.M.V
45. Jim Jidhed – Push On Through
46. Raintimes – Raintimes
47. Age Of Reflection – In The Heat Of The Night
48. Phantom 5 – Play To Win
49. Martina Edoff – We Will Align
50. Bonfire – Byte The Bullet
Song Of The Year
Threshold – Small Dark Lines
Harem Scarem – Here Today Gone Tomorrow
One Desire – Turn Back Time
H.E.A.T – Redefined
Revolution Saints – I Wouldn’t Change A Thing
Harem Scarem – Heaven And Earth
Eclipse – Vertigo
Eclipse – Never Look Back
H.E.A.T – Into The Great Unknown
Threshold – Stars & Satellites
Heaven & Earth – Hard To Kill
Heaven & Earth – The Game Has Changed
One Desire – Hurt
Sons Of Apollo – Coming Home
Sons Of Apollo – Signs Of The Times
Night Ranger – Somehow Someway
Night Ranger – Say What You Want
Mr. Big – Mean To Me
Mr. Big – Defying Gravity
Night Flight Orchestra – Jennie
Night Flight Orchestra – Something Mysterious
Unruly Child – The Only One
Pride Of Lions – All I See Is You
Riverdogs - The Revolution Starts Tonight
MelodicRock Records 2017 Releases
A special mention for the MRR releases of 2017. I would personally rank them all in the Top 50, but in an attempt to remain unbiased, I’ve left them out. But I am really proud of what the label has managed to achieve this year, it’s been MRR’s biggest year for number of releases, plus for sales in total and for individual titles setting sales records.
So what this means – I’ll have to make 2018 even bigger and better and so far it’s looking just that way! Stay tuned for news soon!
A huge HUGE thanks to the artists for believing in MRR and making this small label your home.
Another big thanks to all the journos, media outlets and magazines that featured MRR releases during the year.
And finally a big BIG thank you to all the stores and distribution outlets that also supported MRR and did such a great job getting these out there to fans.
To every single person that bought one or all of the releases this year – you guys ROCK!
Johnny Lima – Johnny Lima / Made In California (Reissues w/Bonus Tracks)
Shotgun Symphony – The Last Symphony (Reissues w/Unreleased)
Don Barnes – Ride The Storm (Previously Unreleased)
Arti Tisi Trilogy – New York City, Back Again & The Reeperbahn (All Previously Unreleased)
Jimmy Davis & Junction – Kick The Wall (Deluxe Edition)(Reissue w/Bonus Live Disc)
Jimmy Davis & Junction – Going The Distance (Previously Unreleased)
Rian – Out Of The Darkness (Debut Album)
Jan Akesson's Shadow Rain – Ascension (Debut Solo Album)
Scherer / Batten – Battlezone (Featuring Songs by Jim Peterik)
Every Mother's Nightmare, Black Label Society's ZAKK WYLDE & Michael Des Barres
In this episode, Every Mother's Nightmare vocalist Rick Ruhl talks about the band's history including their new album GRIND and classic single Love Can Make You Blind.
Our second interview is with iconic guitarist ZAKK WYLDE. He discusses Black Label's Society's new album Grimmest Hits, touring with Corrosion Of Conformity, the upcoming Ozzy Osbourne dates and looks back at his time with Ozzy.
And to end the show, we talk with former Detective & Power Station singer Michael Des Barres. Topics covered include Led Zeppelin, being TVs Murdoc on MacGyver, Ronnie James Dio, Silverhead, Detective, KISS covering Ain't None Of Your Business, Power Station, Fleetwood Mac, penning hit single Obsession and much more.Â
Mitch also offers his thoughts on the current DIO hologram tour.
USB3 sold out quite some time back, but due to there being a few faulty drives, I had to order some replacements. Unfortunately the supplier of the custom drive wasn't able to supply, so I have just 5 regular USB drives that I can offer - first in first severed.
MelodicRock.com celebrates 20 years online with the release of USB Drive.
This giant 128GB drive celebrates the best of MelodicRock.com from 1996-2016 and was limited to 100 units ONLY.
MR USB3 with full content, but regular 128G USB - 5 ONLY! $79
AVAILABLE NOW - 5 ONLY
CONTENTS:
MelodicRock Fest Australia– Official Bootleg Footage (3-4 camera mix) featuring:
SISTERS DOLL – Full Set!
VANISHING POINT – 3 Tracks
PAUL LAINE – Select Tracks
THE RADIO SUN – Full Sets! (Electric & Acoustic!)
ERIK GRONWALL – TBA
BB STEAL – Select Tracks
WHITE WIDDOW – Full Set!
TEARGAS – Full Set!
ECLIPSE – TBA
SERPENTINE SKY - TBA
Complete 2-Day High-Res Photo Galley of all artists
MelodicRock Music –
New MRCD Digital Compilation – Best of MelodicRock featuring participating artists
MRCD – the COMPLETE set of MRCD Compilations, Volume 1 – Volume 13. In HiQ 320kbps MP3 and also featuring the bonus tracks offered for select compilations at the time
Bonus MRCD Compilation – Best Of The Unreleased (Featuring the best exclusive songs from the MRCD series in one place, with maybe an exclusive track or two…)
MelodicRock Records – Best Of – Volume 1, 2 and 3 (#3 coming up…)
Collection of Assorted Video Clips
Bonus Ebook of the entire MelodicRock.com Interviews from over the years, with the addition of some exclusive never before published interviews!)
BONUS!! MRF1 – More concert footage from the weekend back in 2007!
ADDITIONAL CONTENT
USB2 CONTENTS & DETAILS:
MRF4 Footage -
Friday 7th Heaven – FULL set! 2hrs / 6 Camera Mix Stan Bush – FULL set! 60 mins / 5 Camera Mix Adriangale – FULL set! 65 mins / 6 Camera Mix Johnny Lima – FULL set! 45 mins / 5 Camera Mix Grand Design – 3 Tracks / 5 Camera Mix Maxx Explosion – 4 Tracks Madman's Lullaby – FULL set! 44 mins / Single Camera Shoot The Radio Sun – FULL set! 42 mins / Single Camera Shoot
Saturday Heat – 2 Tracks (Point Of No Return & Living On The Run) 6 Camera Mix Heaven’s Edge – FULL set! 65 mins / 4 Camera Mix Guardian – FULL set! 64 mins / Single Camera Shoot Tango Down – 5 Tracks / 6 Camera Mix Paul Laine – FULL set! 78 mins / 6 Camera Mix Bombay Black – FULL set! 43 mins / 5 Camera Mix House Of Shakira – 3 Tracks / 4 Camera Mix Talon – 5 Tracks / 5 Camera Mix
Frontiers release the self-titled debut album from Sweden's ReVertigo.
Revertigo is a Stockholm-based duo formed by Mats Levén on vocals (Therion, Candlemass, Official Yngwie Malmsteen) and Anders Wikström on guitar (Treat). As close personal and musical friends for nearly 30 years, Revertigo is the next chapter in an ongoing collaboration culminating with the self-produced new album.
TRACKLISTING:
1. Hoodwinked
2. Sailing Stones
3. Symphony Of Fallen Angels
4. The Cause
5. Gate Of The Gods
6. False Flag
7. Unobtainium
8. Luciferian Break Up
9. Joan Of Arc
10. Break Away
11. In Revertigo
