Another 15 acts have been confirmed for this summer's Sweden Rock Festival: Scorpions, Kansas, Warlock, Wintersun, Wishbone Ash, The Dead Daisies, Grave Digger, Primal Fear, Lucifer's Friend, Myrkur, Picture, Artch, Art Nation, Lost Society and Bob Wayne & The Outlaw Carnies.
Scorpions have taken their live show to another level with the inclusion of former Motörhead drummer Mikkey Dee in their line-up. This summer, the German hard rock legends are set to play their first show in Sweden with Gothenburg resident Mikkey behind the drum kit, and they will be bringing a spectacular new production and, of course, an amazing catalogue of songs to build a setlist from, such as "Rock you like a hurricane", "Blackout", "Big city nights", "Still loving you", "Dynamite", "The Zoo", "Still loving you", "Alien nation", "Send me an angel" and "Winds of change".
American prog rock icons Kansas have also been reignited lately. Their evergreens "Carry on wayward son" and "Dust in the wind" keep making appearances in movies and TV series, a new band line-up has the band sounding better than they have in many years and recently they released their first studio album since 2000. This summer, they fly to Europe for a single show at the Sweden Rock Festival.
2017 will also be the year when the undisputed queen of heavy metal, Doro Pesch, reunites with guitarist Tommy Bolan for four European shows under the name Warlock. One of these shows will be at the Sweden Rock Festival and the main focus of the concert will be on the bands fourth and most beloved album, "Triumph and agony" from 1987.
With this, the following 26 out of a total of 80 acts have been confirmed for Sweden Rock Festival 2017:
Aerosmith
Scorpions
In Flames
Running Wild
Kansas
Clutch
Venom
Warlock
Gotthard
Rhapsody
Black Star Riders
Candlemass
Wintersun
Y&T
Metal Church
Wishbone Ash
The Dead Daisies
Grave Digger
Primal Fear
Lucifer's Friend
Myrkur
Picture
Artch
Art Nation
Lost Society
Bob Wayne & The Outlaw Carnies
The remaining 54 bands will be announced as they get confirmed this winter and spring.
Deep Purple reveal title, release date and first song from their new album “inFinite”, the highly anticipated follow up to their most recent worldwide chart topping album “NOW What?!”.
“inFinite” will be released on April 7th by earMUSIC.
“Time For Bedlam”, an up-tempo classic Deep Purple song, has just been made available via a lyric video:
The song will be available as instant grat as part of the digital album preorder as well as on all streaming platforms starting from Thursday, December 15th, midnight worldwide with the physical preorder of the album to start at the same time.
A limited edition EP for “Time For Bedlam”, with non-album songs and unreleased recordings will hit the shops on February 3rd.
A documentary movie, witnessing the songwriting process and the recording of the album with producer Bob Ezrin, has been produced, allowing for the first time for the fans to be part of the private band member interactions in the studio.
The movie will be included in some editions of the album and it will be presented before release in various fan events worldwide.
Deep Purple have recently announced their “Long Goodbye Tour”, which will bring the legendary live show once again all over the world.
Deep Purple have not yet answered, in fact, the many questions received by fans from all over the world who are speculating about the meaning of the title “inFinite” and "Long Goodbye".
Singer Ian Gillan has in fact declared:
“If you take it literally you may, quite reasonably, think the ‘Finite’ part of the word describes the life of Deep Purple, with a clear beginning and a nebulous end; but what of the ‘in’ bit? The word infinite is a three-dimensional double edged sword. It describes something that goes on forever in all directions; not unlike its temporal equivalent ‘Eternal’ What’s that all about?
Stephen Hawking declared (in ‘A brief History of Time’) that, before the Big Bang there was nothing. That would put the kybosh on the idea of our universe being Infinite, as he provides a starting point, which is not acceptable to the concept. So, Hawking’s universe in ‘Finite’; by definition; whether he agrees or not.
Ironically, he is quite wrong (scientists always are eventually), therefore the Universe is infinite, which means it will never end, and also means that it never started, and the corollary to that of course is that we don’t exist.
There is a metaphysical solution to all this, but it will have to wait until the tour is over because (thanks heavens) there are only 24 hours in a day (for the time being) or 10 hours in a metric day.
More on that later…”
* * *
NOW What?! has charted at #1 in 5 European countries.
NOW What?! has charted in the Top 10 in over 15 countries worldwide.
NOW What?! has gained Gold Status in Germany for over 100.000 copies sold.
The two video releases “From the Setting Sun… (In Wacken)” and “…To the Rising Sun (In Tokyo)”, released on the same day, charted at #1 and #2 in the UK on the same week in the Music Video Charts, witnessing the success of the NOW What?! tour.
Coming on Escape Music - Last Autumn's Dream new album "In Disguise", their 13th album on 20th January. This is the band's favourite songs and influences of all time!
Last Autumn's Dream is:
Mikael Erlandsson: Lead vocals, backing vocals, keyboards & guitar
Peter Pac Soderstrom: Lead and rhythm guitars
Jamie Borger: Drums, percussion and backing vocals
Nalle Pahlsson: Electric bass guitar, lead and backing vocals
Ulf Wahlberg: Keyboards, backing vocals and 'The Big Knob' as usual
On this episode, current KINGS OF CHAOS and former GUNS N' ROSES drummer MATT SORUM discusses Hollywood Vampires and the recent Joe Perry scare, the possibility of a Kings Of Chaos album, remembers singer Scott Weiland, Guns N' Roses, and much more.
QUOTES from the interview:
Joe Perry (time 1.54): "That was pretty scary. In typical Alice Cooper tradition - they show must go on, so we just carried on playing."
Making an album with KINGS OF CHAOS (time 5.21): "I've got people asking me, 'Let's make a record,' but what is the record? I hope that it will, but it'll just have to happen naturally."
GUNS N' ROSES talk starts at 16.42:
Highlights: (17.34) - "I thought I was walking into a straight up rock band that was more like what they were doing on Appetite which was real straight forward rock n' roll music. It was a cross-breed of AC/DC and Aerosmith mixed in with a little Sex Pistols... Mixed with Nazareth. Then along came piano. These epic ten minute opuses. I was surprised."
Steven Adler (19.31): "When it came to learning the Appetite stuff for the live show, I tried to be very respectful of Steven parts and play them how they were written. Obviously, we've been accused of being different drummers but that's natural. I can't play like Steven and Steven can't play like me and that's ok, but when I came into the band they needed that guy that could kind of hold the fort together."
For more about MATT SORUM and KINGS OF CHAOS visit:
Thursday December 15 sees the street date for the new mega issue of Fireworks Magazine. 132 pages crammed full of all the best music from across the melodic rock spectrum.
For lovers of Classic Rock we have interviews with Glenn Hughes, Demon, Graham Bonnet, Bad Company, Black Star Riders, Stephen Pearcy and a surprisingly candid Jack Russell on all things Great White.
On the heavier side of things we talk to Accept, HammerFall, Pretty Maids, Enbound and Kai Hansen while over on the more AOR/MHR fringes we catch up with FM, Mecca, From The Fire, Seven, White Widdow, Cornerstone and many more!
On a more historical note we have a very open and honest discussion with Fast Eddie Clark on his departure from Motorhead and subsequent formation of Fastway, catch up with ex Tygers of Pan Tang vocalist Jon Deverill and talk to the guys from that wonderful US band New England on their new live album and likelihood of new music.
Add to this all your favourite new regular features such as The Bands That Time Forgot, The Vinyl Countdown, Sisters In Rock, Breaking Bands, Unsung Heroes, The Experts Guide as well as a one-off look at ways of getting your music books published and our writers’ Best of 2016 lists, and not forgetting your free CD with over 70 mp3 songs and additional pdf — so can see how much Value For Money we love to give our readers.
Available from most WH Smith shops across UK from this Thursday 15th December.
The debut album from ex Heavy Pettin's Gary Moat & Burnt Out Wreck is going to be released on 10th February 2017. 'Swallow' is a huge slice of full on, punchy classic hard rock with guitar riffs galore! Released on TRHRC through Cherry Red Records, this album is every bit as good as you would expect from one of Scotland's original rock n rollers, Gary Moat.
'Swallow' is co-produced by Gary Moat and Steve Rispin (Asia, Inglorious) at his Liscombe Park Studio, mastered by Pete Maher (U2, The Killers, Jack White, Rolling Stones etc) and is set for a February 2017 release.
The band will be playing their first live show at the Giants Of Rock in Minehead in January 2017, alongside the likes of Steve Hackett, Ian Anderson, Iain Paice, Phil Campbell, Slade, Gun, Dare and many more.
Tracklist for the album:
Burnt Out Wreck
Swallow
She’s The One
Pulling It Out
Talk About Love
Medusa
Flames
She’s A Dirty Love
Your Love (Is All I Need)
Rocking Man
Best Of Your Life
Burnt Out Wreck have now confirmed the full line up for the band, and it is:
Gary Moat - vocals, rythm guitar
Alex Carmichael - bass, backing vocals
Adrian Dunn - guitar, backing vocals
Paul Carnevale - drums
Gary Moat - the man at the back is now at the front! The Heavy Pettin' drummer is now the driving force of BURNT OUT WRECK and very much in control of the fire that's burning. Gary has just signed to TRHRC through Cherry Red, the paper is inked and the music flowing. He has also signed to Eddie Levy at The Chelsea Publishing Company Ltd. TRHRC, Martin Darvill, Daniel Earnshaw and Gary are very excited at the signing and look forward to the album's release in February 2017.
"So .... I have signed a new worldwide record contract with The Right Honourable Recording Company Ltd through Cherry Red and a new worldwide publishing contract with CHELSEA MUSIC Publishing Company Ltd. I am very very excited and honoured to be working with them. The album is set for release Feb 2017. Thanks for all your support and kind words, it was worth the wait......It is a crazy experience to be doing this again but I am loving it!"
Gary Moat.
Swedish AOR band Osukaru are about to release their brand new album "The Labyrinth" in March 2017, which will be their 4th full length studio album, but also their first ever concept album. It was mixed by Viktor Stenquist (Beseech, Amorphis, Narnia) and Attila Bokor (Morph, BOA, Osukaru).
"The Labyrinth" is a love letter to classic fantasy movies from back in the day and in particular the 1986 fantasy flick "Labyrinth", thereof the album title.
"The idea was to write songs that when played in the order they appear on the album, they would tell the overall story of the spectacular and magical movie 'Labyrinth', but with each song still being able to stand on its own" Oz says. "But as a twist, our version of the story is more from the antagonists point of view, as I would imagine the book read by the protagonist in the first scene of the movie is as well. So by going from that angle, we found a lot of interesting stories and themes to build our songs on."
"The Labyrinth" sees Osukaru taking one step back and two steps forward into their already established AOR-with-an-edge territory, raising the keyboards and the melodies just another notch.
Oz: "I'd say that this one is our most AOR oriented release since 'Salvation', but it's also our most hard hitting rock album to date."
The album artwork was, as always, created by Oz himself and this time we see returning model Isabelle Högbacka being back as their blindfolded heroine for the first time since "Salvation" in 2012.
"THE LABYRINTH" track list:
01. Maze of Mind
02. The Stories We Tell
03. Voices In the Dark
04. Edge of Night
05. It's Only Forever
06. Voodoo (Who Do?)
07. Poisonous
08. Undying Rose
09. The Offering
10. Moonlight Silhouette
Osukaru:
Oz Osukaru - guitar, keyboards
Fredrik Werner - vocals, guitar
Lisa Eugenia - keyboards, vocals
Olof Gadd - bass
Vidar Matensson - drums
"The Labyrinth" will be available on CD and digital download (via City of Lights Records / Membran Entertainment Group), vinyl (via Blastzone Entertainment), and as a limited edition collector's box set only available at http://osukaru.bandcamp.com
