CD/DVD Releases: More Release News From InsideOut: Threshold, Saga, Ayreon
InsideOut Music will release the first "best of" double album by British prog metal band Threshold on Nov. 19th 2007.
The Ravages Of Time - The Best Of Threshold will contain over 140 minutes of music incl. songs from all studio albums plus some unreleased radio edits.
Detroit based Progressive Hard Rock band Tiles' new album Fly Paper will be released by the end of January 2008. Initial pressing will contain bonus tracks. Please visit www.tiles-music.com for more details. The release dates are: Germany, Austria & Switzerland - January 25, 2008; Europe - January 28, 2008; North America - January 29, 2008
Fly Paper was produced by Terry Brown and will include the following tracklisting:
1. Hide In My Shadow
2. Sacred & Mundane (w/ Alex Lifeson)
3. Back & Forth (w/ Alannah Myles)
4. Landscrape
5. Markers
6. Dragons, Dreams & Daring Deeds (w/ Kim Mitchell)
7. Crowded Emptiness (w/ Hugh Syme)
8. Hide & Seek
Additional special guests include Sonya Mastick (percussion), Matthew Parmenter (keyboards & vocals) and Nate Mills (vocals) throughout.
Saga will release 10,000 Days, a new album and their last with vocalist Michael Sadler. The band will tour in October in support of the new album, which will be released October 22, 2007. Here is the tracklist of 10,000 Days:
1. Lifeline
2. Book Of Lies
3. Sideways
4. Can't You See Me Now?
5. Corkentellis (instr.)
6. More Than I Deserve
7. Sound Advice
8. 10,000 Days
9. It Never Ends
Initial pressing in a high-class digipack!
In early 2008 InsideOut Music will release a new Ayreon double album. The science fiction concept piece will be the biggest in Ayreon history and features 18 (!) different singers and a host of guest instrumentalists.
Confirmed vocalists at this moment are: Jorn Lande (ex-Masterplan), Tom Englund (Evergrey), Jonas Renkse (Katatonia), Anneke van Giersbergen (ex-Gathering), Simone Simons (Epica), Ty Tabor (King's X), Bob Catley (Magnum), Floor Jansen (After Forever), Liselotte Hegt (Dial), Magali Luyten (Beautiful Sin), Phideaux Xavier (Phideaux), and Arjen Lucassen himself. Ed Warby (Gorefest) drums and Ben Mathot (Dis) plays violin. More vocalists will be announced soon! Ayreon's new opus will be available as regular, special and high-class limited edition.
Also on the horizon for Insideout, a new Seiges Even album, Paramount. To talk of a comeback in the original meaning of the word wouldn?t be quite correct, after all Sieges Even never disappeared completely, having brought out a brilliant album in The Art Of Navigating By The Stars only two years ago, following an extended creative hiatus. So their latest album release, Paramount, does not arrive totally unannounced, yet it surprises with an artistic complexity and stylistic diversity that is difficult to find in this genre.
The album forges an atmospheric arch to the band's beginnings back in the late eighties, documenting the topicality of their music at the same time. After all, prog rock and prog metal are more popular at the moment than they have been for a long time, and Sieges Even are among Germany's elite when it comes to these musical directions. "Compared to our previous CDs, we focus more on the song itself these days," guitarist Markus Steffen describes Sieges Even's present attitude, adding: "We don?t think so much about how many notes we can cram into a particular number. The new songs are more compact in themselves, and certainly occasionally tougher than the compositions on The Art Of Navigating By The Stars, but always supported by a strong melody. Although we love Navigating, we wanted to embark on a different path without betraying our roots. I think we?ve become more open to different stylistic influences since Arno?s arrival.?
Steffen is referring to vocalist Arno Menses, who joined Sieges Even three years ago and has been at the epicentre of this perfectly measured soundquake ever since. Together with the brothers, Oliver and Alex Holzwarth (bass and drums), Steffen and Menses have concentrated on the essence of their talent more than ever before. Paramount consists of ten fascinating songs that take the listener on an adventurous journey, setting free a diversity of emotions. Sieges Even?s lyrics consciously do without messages, or indeed indoctrination. Menses: ?We go about our lyrics the same way we go about our music: every one of them is intended to create its own movie in the listener?s mind. Interpretations by us would only have a manipulative and irritating effect.? Yet the contents of the songs are anything but mundane. The title track and "Bridge To The Divine," for example, are about the wide range of things people dream of, while "Tidal" is more personal and allows the listener the freedom of individual interpretation.
Musically, Sieges Even operate at the most accomplished level. The above mentioned "Tidal" contains pretty much all the components that make Paramount a complete work of art: toughness, melodiousness, progressive parts, melancholia, e-guitars, acoustic guitars, discreet keyboards and tasteful synthesizer sounds. The instrumental, "Mounting Castles In The Blood Red Sky," is a kind of musical version of Martin Luther King?s famous "I have a dream" speech, contrasted by the folk prog AOR ballad, "Eyes Wide Open," which is carried by Mense?s vocals and seems the kind of track that few people would have expected from this band. ?Before Arno?s arrival we wouldn?t have risked such a number, but now it seems totally conclusive and fitting,? Steffen points out.
Paramount was recorded in collaboration with sound engineer Kristian 'Kohle' Kohlmannslehner at his studio in Seeheim/Jugenheim. Kohlmannslehner also mixed the songs, his colleague Kai Stahlenberg taking care of the mastering. The result is a perfectly arranged, cleverly produced and extremely melodious album that invites its listeners to dream along to and promises to work well on stage, too. That?s why the band?s fans should seize the opportunity to check their latest release out in an audio-visual context: Sieges Even are scheduled to embark on a tour of Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland in October.
Tracklist: "When Alpha And Omega Collide," "Tidal," "Eyes Wide Open," "Iconic," "Where Our Shadows Sleep," "Duende," "Bridge To The Divine," "Leftovers," "Mounting Castles In The Blood Red Sky," "Paramount."
And concluding this roundup - Ritual. Ritual have been showered with accolades. Since the arrival of their debut album in 1995, fans and media alike agree that this act from Sweden is one of the most unusual and innovative phenomena on the international rock music scene.
The four band members, Patrik Lundstr?m (vocals, guitars), Jon Gamble (keyboards, harmonium, harmonica & vocals), Fredrik Lindqvist (bass, bouzouki, mandolin, flutes, etc.) and Johan Nordgren (drums, percussion) mix elements of rock, folk and world music, sprinkle in jazz elements and take their songs to the verge of avant-garde. Are there renowned role models in the history of rock music? Certainly acts such as Gentle Giant, King Crimson, Camel, Genesis and indeed early Jethro Tull. Yet: with their new album, The Hemulic Voluntary Band, the foursome from Scandinavia prove again that they elude all classifications and have delivered an album that's independent in every respect, with a creative range that is almost impossible to describe. Or, as vocalist Patrik Lundstr?m, who is also a member of Swedish prog legend Kaipa, puts it so aptly: "Labeling music is always risky, but I think progressive rock is probably the most suitable description of this album. Commonly, progressive rock stands for music where the compositions are more elaborate than in standard rock ? or pop song structures and arrangements that incorporate influences from other musical styles; both these characteristics apply to the new Ritual album."
At the same time, compared to its predecessors, Ritual (1995), Superb Birth (1999), and Think Like A Mountain (2003), The Hemulic Voluntary Band goes one step further in terms of its myriad of different facets. Ritual dispatch their audience to the various corners of the genre and don't ask a lot in return ? only their undivided attention! This is anything but shallow background music, Ritual in general and their latest album in particular are not for fans of musical fast food. Lundstr?m: "In a sense, this is our most progressive album ever, with its long epic track, varying moods, unusual instruments and all. The folk influence comes to us very naturally, since both Fredrik and Johan also play folk-instruments such as bouzouki, whistles, keyed fiddle, etc. From early on in our career, Fredrik has introduced us to different folk bands and ethnic music, and it is something we all enjoy and appreciate. So, the folky influence has always been a vital part of Ritual's sound, and it is one of our main characteristics."
Naturally, you can't describe the new album without explaining its unusual title. So who or what is the 'Hemulic Voluntary Band', and where does the name originate? "Hemulic Voluntary Band is taken from Tove Jansson's books about the Moomin family. An orchestra named 'The Hemulic Voluntary Brass Band' is mentioned in a few stories. Hemulens are creatures living in the Moomin world. This band of hemulens is actually a marching band ? a brass band ?, and apparently they sometimes perform on festive occasions. Otherwise, Tove Jansson doesn't say very much about this fictional band. But we liked the name very much and really felt we could identify with it. We feel like a hemulic voluntary band!"
What he means becomes clear, at the latest, once you reach the 26-minute finale, 'A Dangerous Journey.' An epic, a statement, an event! "It's quite an adventurous track, passing through several moods and instrumentations," Lundstr?m explains. "The first nine minutes are actually acoustic, with guitar, bouzouki, nyckelharpa (keyed fiddle) and harmonium (an acoustic air-driven keyboard). Then it becomes electric. The tricky thing with a long piece of music is to keep a natural flow. We didn't want to make an expansive song just for the sake of it ? it's got to have a natural purpose. 'A Dangerous Journey' is rather like a string of songs connected to each other by the evolving epic story and by some recurring musical themes." A description that more or less applies to the whole album!
[Source: InsideOut and InsideOut Musica America websites]
