AGE OF REFLECTION return on September 27th, 2019 with “A New Dawn”
In early 2013 Carl Berglund and his old bandmate Jan Skärming decided to fulfil their musical dream, writing songs reduced to its very core by 80’s rock giants. These were songs with emotional harmonies from pure British AOR, with the power of American hard rock, sprinkled with hooks from the new era of Swedish melodic rock. Joining them in the songwriting came Lars Nygren in spring 2014 (vocals), a friend of Carls since high school. When equipped with a ton of hard hitting melodic rock songs written, the missing pieces of the puzzle joined forces. They turned out to be Jonas Nordquist (lead guitar), drummer Michael Sjöö (replaced by Peppe Vikman in August 2018) and Jens Rüttgeroth on keyboards (member since October 2017). In May 2016 they picked four songs and put them onto Spotify, iTunes, and a few other places with amazing reviews and response. In August 2016, the band signed a deal with AOR Heaven for a February 2017 release, and also later with Rubicon Music Japan. “In The Heat Of The Night” was recorded at Studio Thinner, the band's own studio in Vasteras, Sweden, in the spring of 2016. It was produced by AGE OF REFLECTION but the mixing and mastering was done by Erik Mårtensson (Eclipse, W.E.T. a.o).
After the summer 2018, AoR started writing new music for their next album. AGE OF REFLECTIONS tried one of the new songs live at Rockingham festival, and the response was great! They went back into the studio and have now finished all the recordings. Again Erik Mårtensson has been doing the final magic on the album. “A New Dawn” will be released on September 27th, 2019 on AOR Heaven.
In November, AoR is going on a headlining tour in England supported by both A’priori and Atlas UK. After that there is H.E.A.T Festival in Germany. One of highlights in 2020, so far, is the HRH AOR festival in Wales in March.
AGE OF REFLECTION: Carl Berglund: Guitars, Backing Vocals; Lars Nygren: Lead Vocals; Jan Skärming: Bass, Backing Vocals; Jens Rüttgeroth: Keyboards; Jonas Nordqvist: Lead guitar, Backing Vocals; Peppe Vikman: Drums, Backing Vocals
Robert Tepper, hailing from Bayonne, New Jersey, came up in the late 60’s playing in garage bands down on the Jersey shore. It wasn’t until a bit later that Tepper started to get recognition as a song writer with his first top 40 hit recorded by Paul Anka, This Is Love. The song went on to earn an ASCAP award for its popularity that year and broke the top 40.
After moving to New York City, he teamed up with fellow singer Benny Mardones to help with his hit album Never Run, Never Hide. On that record was the iconic song Into The Night. In 2010 Usher released his own version of the song with a new dynamic arrangement.
It was in 1985 when Robert landed his first record deal with Scotti Brothers Records - a subsidiary of CBS. In the studio Tepper was very fortunate to have hired the expertise of grammy awarded producer Joe Chiccarelli who is known for his work with U2, Beck, Elton John and many more. In 1985 Tepper also moved to Los Angeles. It was about this time that actor and director Sylvester Stallone was taken by the song Tepper had written called No Easy Way Out. Prominently featured in the film franchise Rocky the song climbed the charts into the American top 40. Stallone, now a Tepper fan, used his song Angel of the City in his classic movie Cobra giving Tepper the title of the soundtrack kid. Also, Pat Benatar’s recording of La Bel Age off of Seven The Hard Way was another Tepper Marshall composition.
In 1996 the album No Rest For The Wounded Heart was released by MTM Music exclusively for Europe. More recently he released an album that was categorized as an acoustic record with an electric tinge in the early 2000’s called New Life Story. After a long lay off of live performances it was soon after the release of New LifeStory that Tepper started doing shows in Europe. It was there that he met guitarist extraordinaire Pablo Padilla. Padilla, who is one of the premier guitarists in Spain, was soon to continue his musical journey in Los Angeles. Here he became Tepper’s music supervisor for all of his shows.
The new Robert Tepper album Better Than The Rest is a true collaboration between Tepper and Padilla. The writing and recording and mixing of this record took approximately a year. Tepper’s music has appeared in such hit films and TV shows such as South Park, Breaking Bad, Cobra, Rocky 4, and Get Hard.
Long running Orange County, CA metal institution, LEATHERWOLF, have announced a new line-up, comprising drummer Dean Roberts, guitarist Geoff Gayer, and bassist Paul Carman, all of whom featured on the band’s classic “Leatherwolf” (‘87) and “Street Ready” (’89) releases, guitarist Rob Math and introducing new frontman, Keith Adamiak. Work on a new studio album is under way with a view toward a tentative spring 2020 release. One of the first songs completed, “The Henchmen”, is streaming on the band’s Facebook page and YouTube now.
"As many of you already know from an earlier Facebook post, we have parted ways with our vocalist Michael Olivieri for a second time. This move became inevitable due to disagreements over the band's musical direction, as well as business and personal issues. Fortunately, we were able to find a promising young vocal talent in Keith Adamiak right in our own OC backyard. Keith has a great metal voice, is 100% dedicated to the cause and full of enthusiasm, and has shown us that he has what it takes for LEATHERWOLF to move into the future with confidence.”
"As we move forward, the new incarnation of LEATHERWOLF will feature the twin guitar duo of Geoff Gayer and Rob Math, along with a third guitar player we will announce when the time comes. The Triple Axe Attack lives on! Paul Carman, who is out in Colorado these days, has also re-joined the fold and will provide rhythm section duties alongside Dean Roberts on the new album. Right now, our main focus is on writing and recording new material. We've had Roy Z (BRUCE DICKINSON, JUDAS PRIEST), who’s been a fan of the band going back to our backyard party days, in the studio with us helping to dial things in. Everybody has been contributing riffs, lyrics, arrangements, melody lines, with 4 songs completed so far. Check out “The Henchmen” to give you an idea what we’ve been up to. Classic early LEATHERWOLF with a twist.”
"Last but not least, we are stoked to announce that we will be back in Europe next year to play the Bang Your Head!!! festival in Germany, the first 2020 show to be officially confirmed. We plan on stringing together a bunch of summer shows around BYH to promote the new album and introduce the new line-up. We can’t wait to see you all again. Until then - onward and upward, metal soldiers!"
Frontiers Music Srl is pleased to announce the release of The Ferrymen's sophomore album entitled “A New Evil” on October 11, 2019 -
The band, featuring Ronnie Romero (vocals), Magnus Karlsson (guitar) and Mike Terrana (drums), have also released a music video for the title track.
The Ferrymen released their debut album in June 2017 and took fans of the European melodic metal sound by surprise as they seemingly came out of nowhere. With songwriting and fretwork handled by ace Swedish guitarist Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear, Magnus Karlsson's Free Fall), the awesome vocals of singer Ronnie Romero (Rainbow, CoreLeoni), and drummer Mike Terrana (Axel Rudi Pell, Tarja, Rage) bringing the heavy metal thunder, the band quickly found their home in the hearts of fans of the classic DIO sound combined with heavier, updated songwriting textures and arrangements.
Musically, fans can expect in "A New Evil" a very heavy, melodic metal album fusing the songwriting and epic structures of the widely praised ALLEN/LANDE records (guitarist Magnus Karlsson was the main architect of the first three critically acclaimed releases) with the powerful vocal approach of Romero (let's not forget that Romero was hand-picked by legendary Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore to be the lead vocalist for Rainbow's recent reunion shows). True heavy metal fans are of course quite familiar with the well regarded Terrana and what his drumming skill set brings to the table on a heavy metal album of this nature. And what metal album would be complete without some stunning artwork? Renowned artist Stan W. Decker's album cover rounds out this colossal heavy metal offering.
""A New Evil" is a bit heavier and more progressive,” says Magnus Karlsson. "I’m always learning and try to improve my songs and productions each time out. Working with Ronnie and Mike is a such a great experience. I can concentrate on the writing and whatever I will come up with I know they will nail it! This time Jacob Hansen (Pretty Maids, Volbeat, etc.) did the mix and it works really well with the heavy style.”
“I think it's a great album and people are gonna love it as they did with the first one,” adds Romero. “Everybody knows Magnus' skills to write great music, so it’s really easy to like every song on the album. This time was maybe even easier to work together because is the second album and we know each other better, he knew how to get my best performances, so I’m very proud about my work and grateful to have Magnus working side by side with me.”
"I have a few favorites like 'Don’t Stand In My Way', 'Bring Me Home', and 'A New Evil'. But a very special song for me is 'No Matter How Hard We Fall'. When you hear Ronnie in that chorus you will get goosebumps,” continues Magnus. Ronnie’s favorite is “'Bring Me Home', but I’m really looking forward to when people can hear the whole album because I'm sure they are gonna love every second of music on it!”
"A New Evil" will be a shot of adrenaline for all lovers of melodic metal, so mark you calendars for October 11, 2019!
