While catching up (again) and updating the event calendar pages, we noticed a change in Arena's line up -- Vocalist Damien Wilson has joined, filling the vacancy left by Paul Manzi's departure.

While doing some data cleanup, I found these news bits I was queueing up for April! You see,I keep attempting to post some roundup of new albums coming out but then work commitments swallow me up whole and... I have to start again. This was the start again... and then... Anyway, looking behind and ahead, but in no particular order:

So, the new group Pattern-Seeking Animals released their follow up to their self-titled debut on May 15, 2020 (InsideOut Music). Called Prehensile Tales, it will feature 6 six songs, the longest at 17 minutes: "Raining Hard In Heaven," "Here In My Autumn" (the first single, view/listen below), "Elegant Vampires," "Why Don’t We Run," "Lifeboat," and "Soon But Not Today."

As of 4:25pm PT Sep 12, 2020

In response to the Covid-19 (or coronavirus) outbreak, we wanted to post here a update regarding many upcoming festivals' status. Of course, many bands are cancelling or postponing tours and we have updated the Event Calendar as well. As we update this page, we'll highlight the changes with a "new" icon.

The following festivals have been rescheduled (or cancelled for 2020, and their 2021 dates announced):

September 2020:

• Artrock - Festival Reichenbach - rescheduled for September 18 - 20, 2020

November 2020:

• We Lave Rock, rescheduled for November 28, 2020

You might have thought it escaped our notice that Genesis - well, 3/5ths of Genesis - have plans to reunite and tour. It did not. It just failed to travel down our arms, to fingers, to keyboard. Dates have been announced - but whether Covid19 has other plans... We shall think positively!

So yeh, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks will tour together as Genesis under the banner The Last Domino? ("The Last Domino" being a song on their Invisible Touch album released in 1986 - god, I feel old).

The tour will hit the UK only... though one can always speculate that if the tour goes well, tickets sell (one show is already sold out!) and all, well, who knows what 2021 could bring.

Current tour dates are below and on our Event Calendar [tour rescheduled, see further below for new dates -ed].

By now, you have all heard the devastating news that Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart passed away at the age of 67 after a 3 year battle with brain cancer. Any lover of music will surely know his name and the music of Rush, if only for their signature hit "Tom Sawyer." But there were Rush albums before Moving Pictures and many after (all worthy of checking out). All of these albums marked by the three unique talents of Geddy Lee (bass, vocals, keys), Alex Lifeson (guitars, backing vocals) and Peart. Considered by many - including yours truly - to be one of the best drummers in the world, Peart also had a very personal take on the world. Influenced by Ayn Rand, among others, his lyrics were always literate and insightful. And, of course, his drumming - dynamic, powerful, subtle and always tasteful. He was not one for flash for the sake of flash. He didn't have an enormous drumkit because it looked impressive - though it did - but to bring life to tones and textures, moods...

Single Released In Cooperation With Suicide Zero Organization

Talisman, the band founded and created by the late Marcel Jacob in 1989, have written, produced and recorded a new song entitled “Never Die (A Song for Marcel)” for their fallen brother who took his own life 10 years ago on July 21, 2009. Get the song here: orcd.co/talisman.

The video fo 'Never Die - A Song for Marcel Jacob' can be viewed here (and below): youtu.be/qUh0lcTC1I0.

Surviving members Jeff Scott Soto, Jamie Borger and Pontus Norgren penned the song as a tribute to Jacob as well as the legacy of music they created from 1990 - 2007.

Speaking of Mike Portnoy, the other project he is involved in, Sons Of Apollo, will be releasing MMXX on January 17 via InsideOut Music. This is their second studio release, following on the heels of the live release Live With The Plovdiv Psychotic Symphony (Aug 2019). You can watch a video for the first single, Goodbye Divinty below.

About the track, Mike Portnoy comments, "From the minute we finished writing 'Goodbye Divinity,' I knew we had our album opener and the first release off the album. I even remember posting on social media how excited I was about the song the day I tracked it! The song has an immediacy that grabs you right away: great riffs, flashy playing and hooky vocal melodies. All of the elements that make up the SOA sound.

Hard to believe we are already in the year 2020! Are we going to look back? Well, hindsight is 2020. So, yes, probably, but not here, not now.

Looking ahead to what 2020 will bring us in terms of new or reissued music, although we have the "facts" all listed in our "Release Calendar," because we get more info and quotes and such about these new releases, we wanted to pass along the "salient bits," as it were.

Let's start with The Neal Morse Band, who will release a live album on March 6 called The Great Adventour - Live In Brno 2019." This will be the first release under their new contract with InsideOut Music, who had released his second solo album It's Not Too Late in 2002, and 2015's The Grand Experiment.

UK progressive rock band Pallas are taking a look back at their past with the first in a series of archival releases, The Edge Of Time, to be released December 12, 2019 via Bandcamp only (at this time) available "in many formats including lossless, complete with a selection of alternate versions." But this not your typical archival release:

From the band's press release:

It was reported yesterday that André Matos, one time vocalist with Angra and Shaman, passed away on June 8, 2019, the result of a heart attack; he was 47.

Matos is probably best known for fronting Angra, the Brazillian classically-influenced progressive/speed metal band. Their recording debut came with 1993's Angel's Cry, followed by 1996's Holy Land (my personal favourite). A couple of EPs and album later, three-fifths of Angra had left, including Matos.