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Video Of The Week
22 November
Too much choice this week, so let’s get straight to it. THUNDERMOTHER’s ‘Dead Or Alive’ is a track lifted from their ‘Dirty Or Divine’ album, set for release in February on AFM Records: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAtbOal4wNs
From Finnish prog metal act THE HYPOTHESIS comes ‘Where The Dreams Come To Die’, a cut from their ‘Evolve’ album, issued by Noble Demon in October: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9KA0Rf3fnw
ENEMY INSIDE have a new album ‘Venom’ due in February on Reigning Phoenix Music, and this cut ‘Fck That Party’ features Clawfinger’s Zak Tell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYLjMw2KCMM
Finally, Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen are back in business once more. The second SMITH / KOTZEN studio album ‘Black Night / White Noise’ is set for release via BMG in March, and as the first taster from the album here’s ‘White Noise’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pABdwOwpjGI
8 November
As I was MIA last week, here’s a bumper crop to make up for my absence. Let’s start with the latest from the talented band ERAMNESIA that features Aimee Zambrana and Patrick Reilly. We’ve covered them before here on JTo and the more they slowly drip-feed really classy songs into the metal ether they more the demand for a full album grows. Great band, great song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKHTC2lebTg
‘Apathy’ is the debut single from Finnish dark rock duo GRAVEYARD ANGEL, made up of instrumentalist Mika ‘Alde’ Ahlqvist and LAB frontwoman Ana. The band have signed to Inverse Records, and an album will be following shortly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0VUjqB4LI8
HANGMAN’S CHAIR were extremely impressive on their recent tour with Dool, and with the French quartet’s next album due in February, here’s a taster in the shape of ‘Kowloon Nights’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b46lN5zqSjQ
And from their upcoming album ‘Between You, God, The Devil And The Dead, due in January on AFM Records, here’s AVATARIUM with ‘I See You Better In The Dark’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFKfPIV_aZc
25 October
Perhaps a little different from Epica, ‘The Ghost In Me (Danse Macabre)’ comes from their upcoming new album, and the clip was created in collaboration with De Efteling theme park, often called “better than Disneyland” by locals and apparently a favourite day out for all the band members. And why not... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWoTDpU5G9k
And here’s Metalite with ‘Blazing Skies’ (a track off their ‘Expedition One’ album which came out back in January) shot live at Sweden’s Skrgsrojët festival to liven up what here is a dull and dreary October day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIJE0lSLTQg
18 October
Tides Of Nebula are one of those bands I’ve got a great deal of time for. Their album ‘From Voodoo To Zen’ was my favourite album of 2019, and now from their long-awaited follow-up ‘Instant Rewards’ comes ‘Rhino’, a classic slow-burner from the Polish instrumentalists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OilyNx_mkDM
And on tour with Kamelot in the UK soon are Frozen Crown. ‘I Am The Wind’ is the latest clip from their new album ‘War Hearts’, due out today on Napalm Records: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1mnCqgjKGo
On a sadder note, I would like to send my condolences to the family and friends of Michelle Kerr, a fabulous PR person whom I enjoyed working with. Her passing at such a young age is a great tragedy.
11 October
The news that a 40th anniversary re-issue of Ratt’s ‘Out Of The Cellar’ is due on 25 October – with the addition of a bonus track ‘Reach For The Sky’ recorded at the album sessions but left in the can till now – is sufficient to unearth the ridiculously Eighties’ clip for ‘Round And Round’. Bizarrely, there was a time when all metal music videos looked something like this. Isn’t it great! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u8teXR8VE4
Fast forward to the present day, and here’s the latest from Ad Infinitum, a clip for new single ‘Follow Me Down’ taken from their ‘Abyss’ album, released today on Napalm Records. The band are on tour with Kamelot, and not to be missed... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwJv6zkI4Es
4 October
I’m torn between three this week. ‘No Time To Live Forever’ comes from the upcoming release from Xandria entitled ‘Universal Tales’ and makes for an extremely attention-grabbing opening cut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cEeIInxooA
Impellitteri’s first album appeared in 1988, but the guitarist is still coming up with some cracking material. The new album ‘War Machine’ is due on 8 November, but ‘Power Grab’ has been issued as the first clip from the album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ9lL1pSR0U
In a different but no less exciting vein comes the Zac Schulze Gang with ‘Woman’, a single released next week to coincide with their support slot on Samantha Fish’s upcoming tour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx3lxVE6RRM
27 September
From the upcoming third solo album ‘To Shoot Another Day’ (released on 1 November) from the enigmatic but utterly brilliant Rosalie Cunningham comes the first single ‘In The Shade Of The Shadows’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbY8JPHicPQ
Touring the UK later in the year Vola have a new album ‘Friend Of A Phantom’ also due on 1 November on Mascot Records. The latest clip ‘Cannibal’ is a cracker, and features Anders Fridén of In Flames: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-5xyCwH0mk
20 September
‘Strife’ is the first single from Italian band Stranger Vision’s upcoming album ‘Faust Act.1 : Prelude To Darkness’ which is due on 8 November. On the strength of this cut it’s going to be a cracker! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoVoyUtzvmc
And from the upcoming album ‘PowerNerd’ by everyone’s favourite Canadian metal polymath, Devin Townsend, come a second clip ‘Jainism’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IypFEGztl-4
6 September
The highlight for me of this year’s Stonedead Festival was KK’s Priest. Here’s their new clip ‘The Sinner Rides Again’, the title track of the band’s second album. Flying Vs and hair aplenty – what’s not to like? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR4Exl_FlzM
And from Montreal come the excellent The Damn Truth with a rather bonkers video for ‘Love Outta Luck’, the second lift from their upcoming fourth studio album, set for release next year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D3HH2_Pkeo
Out now: ‘All Systems Go – The Neat Singles Vol One’ (Cherry Red / Hear No Evil)
A real labour of love, this one. I wrote the sleeve notes to the original Neat CD compilations 20+ years ago, but I was never happy with the way the singles were split, with the A-sides on one CD and the B-sides on another, rather than keeping both sides of each single together. So, armed with a stopwatch, a pad, and a lot of patience ‘All Systems Go’ was pulled together. The four CDs in this set start with that original Tygers Of Pan Tang 7” ‘Don’t Touch Me There’, which set the ball rolling, and ends with NEAT 38, Venom’s ‘Warhead’. There’s a second volume to follow to complete the legendary label’s single releases but in the meatime, by my reckoning, what you get here is 27 different bands, 36 singles, 81 tracks and nearly 5 hours of music. Oh, and 4,000 words of text.
“Focussing on the As and Bs of Neat’s up-and-coming metallers, ‘All Systems Go’ features four CDs of balls-to-the-wall metal... A killer tribute to what was ‘Allegedly Britain’s No.1 Independent Heavy Metal Label’” – Fistful Of Metal
"The seven-inchers released via Neat Records were a near-failsafe guarantee of excellence... The focal tracks come from Neat’s ‘big names’... But the real gold is in the lesser-lauded tracks, notably Fist’s erudite ‘Name, Rank And Serial Number, Jaguar’s certifiably insane ‘Axe Crazy’ and White Spirit’s Purple-tinged ‘Back To The Grind’.” – Classic Rock (8/10)
