heavyharmonies

BG has been fantasy/middle-earth focused on their themes since I can remember. Regardless, Nightfall is a phenomenal CD. "Time Stands Still at the Iron Hill" is pure masterpiece. -Dan

And a big thanks to Mike for his tireless work as of late! He's been doing far more of the submissions work than I have (dang real-world distractions!) -Dan

http://heavyharmonies.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=25189 I posted one of the songs in its entirety. Get the 2-CD version.

BG, ya either love 'em or hate 'em. Epic, fantasy, epic, middle earth, epic, Tolkein, epic, heavily orchestrated, and yes... epic. After a 4-year hiatus, Hansi and crew return with a vengeance. Nothing groundbreaking stylistically, which isn't a bad thing, IMO. BG's style is one that works, and is sonically immersive. It comes in 1CD, 2CD, or 4LP versions. For a taste, here's all almost 9 minutes of Wheel of Time (based on the Robert Jordan series. On the bonus CD there is a completely instrumental version of this track that is also way cool. CD1 01 – Sacred Worlds 09:19 02 – Tanelorn (Into The Void) 05:59 03 – Road Of No Release 06:31 04 – Ride Into Obsession 04:48 05 – Curse My Name 05:50 06 – Valkyries 06:34 07 – Control The Divine 05:25 08 – War Of The Thrones 04:55 09 – A Voice In The Dark 05:41 10 – Wheel Of Time 08:56 CD2 Bonus 01 – Sacred Worlds (Pre-Production Version) 06:49 02 – Wheel Of Time (Orchestral Version) 08:55 03 – You’re The Voice (Radio Edit) 03:36 04 – Tanelorn (Into The Void) – Demo 05:59 05 – Curse My Name – Demo 04:42 06 – A Voice In The Dark – Demo 05:40

After a few more listens, my verdict is: boring. Some of the songs just drag on forever, but unlike the lengthy material on the new BG album, they don't go anywhere; they just meander aimlessly. Disappointing.

The next week is going to be chock full o' headbangin'. Picked up the Iron Maiden at BB, and while there picked up the new Ozzy and Godsmack discs (wouldn't normally, but they were each on sale for $7.99, so why the heck not?), along with Skillet - Awake (sorry, but the track "Hero" is catchy as heck... no not metal, but anyway...). Then got home to find that my copy of the new Blind Guardian 2-CD LE arrived. Let the music commence! -Dan

I wonder if there's a correlation between love/hate of Crazy Nights, and whether you're more of a fan of '70s KISS or '80s KISS. Also, which era you're more familiar with or when you were first exposed to KISS. I find '70s KISS to be dull, and much prefer the more-polished '80s material.

Crazy Nights is my favorite KISS album as well, and it has the best power ballad KISS ever did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYaV097NlLs

And if that wasn't enough, there's the limited edition version, which is 3 CDs + 2 DVDs: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=MIZF-70012&ref=myp

Meh. Reminds me of 7th Heaven, but without any vocal harmonies...

Mommy make it STOP! More fucking Favre drama. His first retirement of the season. Sheesh.

A little bit of Nickelback and a little bit of Shinedown, but not as heavy as either. Toe-tappingly infectious though. Am checking out their other stuff. Pretty darned good in a radio-friendly way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivu2ktfompc&playnext=1&videos=w44dapeJ4Kw&feature=artistob

Been enjoying the heck out of this station whenever I get into a "modern rock" mood. I kept track of what they played last Thursday while I was at work (just the artists): Breaking Benjamin 3 Days Grace Godsmack Static X Shinedown Theory of a Deadman Nickelback Black Sunshine Revelation Theory Ozzy Osbourne Puddle of Mudd Mushroomhead Filter Disturbed Anew Revolution Chevelle My Darkest Days Linkin Park Bullet for My Valentine Black Label Society Halestorm Deftones Audioslave Royal Bliss Tool Powerman 5000 Korn Soil Taddy Porter Papercut Massacre Cavo Seether We Are the Fallen White Zombie Craving Lucy Day of Fire

Extremely unlikely. That many jewel cases will drive up the weight of the box set considerably, even if they are slimline or multi-CD jewel cases. If I were a betting man, I'd guess individual cardboard sleeves or multi-CD digipaks. -Dan

According to their newsletter, they have a few more songs to record, and expect the set to be out late August (I think that's optimistic). I'm up for one, but it will all depend on the pricing... -Dan

I have redone the radio feed so that instead of 32kbps it is now 96kbps, which is actually a listenable bitrate. The downside is that there isn't enough diskspace in my package to hold the same number of songs (unfortunately, moving up to a package that would actually increase the available diskspace in any meaningful way would triple my costs). So for now at least, the station is only 2010 releases; all new stuff. Roughly 6.5 hours worth. Of special note are 3 artists whose promos only came out today: Two Fires, Kiske-Somerville, Issa. The artists included on the radio station are: Airbourne (2 songs) Asia (3) Auras (3) Brian Howe (3) Crashdiet (3) Crazy Lixx (4) First Signal featuring Harry Hess (4) Giant (3) H.E.A.T. (3) ISSA (3) Jet Red (3) Jorn (3) Keel (3) Kiske-Somerville (4) Kissin Dynamite (4) Pretty Maids (4) Ratt (3) Royal Hunt (3) Scorpions (4) Taking Dawn (5) Terra Nova (3) Terry Brock (3) Tony Harnell & the Mercury Train (2) Treat (4) Two Fires (4) Wig Wam (3) Y&T (3) Link: http://www.live365.com/stations/151867?play

Frontiers Records to release the anticipated KISKE-SOMERVILLE collaboration album Produced by Mat Sinner – a highlight of the season is coming ! Napoli, July, 2010 – Eighteen months in the making, some of the most beautiful voices in the scene, a massive production, one hell of an album, two videoclips and one documentary… The Kiske-Somerville collaboration album has all the trademarks of a real event for the Rock fans in 2010, and the release on September 24th in Europe and October 12th in the USA mark some dates that should be noted in every fan agendas. The collaboration between vocalist Michael Kiske (Helloween, Place Vendome) and American singer Amanda Somerville was born as a concept put together thanks to the input of Frontiers Records President Serafino Perugino. “I did a duet with a female singer on 'Breathing Water' by Indigo Dying”, explains Michael Kiske. “It was so nice that he offered me a chance to make an album of all duet songs with a famous female singer." This exciting album sees Mat Sinner (Primal Fear, Sinner) and Magnus Karlsson (Starbreaker, Primal Fear) handling most of the songwriting (with more contributions from Sander Gommans formerly of After Forever and Amanda Sormeville herself), with Sinner overseeing the production & mix at various recording studios in Europe. Amanda Somerville is the American singer-songwriter and vocal coach who was tapped to replace Epica vocalist Simone Simons on the band's North American tour with Symphony X due to Simons' health issues. Amanda was also featured on Kamelot's latest release, "Ghost Opera", the Rock Opera “Aina” and recently toured with Avantasia. “When Mat Sinner asked me if I wanted to be the "other half" of the face of the album, I was very honored and quite looking forward to working more closely with Michael Kiske” tells Amanda. “We'd both been involved in various projects over the years together, such as Aina and Avantasia, but it was always through third parties and we didn't sing together like we do here. It's not for nothing that Michael's a legend in the scene. He's got a very unique voice, a special delivery of his performance and is a wonderful person on top of it all. This has been a great experience all across the board!”. Kiske adds “To sing together with the gifted and beautiful Amanda was another genius idea of Serafino! And it was a most pleasant experience to meet her. Amanda has by far the best female voice I have heard for ages. And the album is a killer.” Two videoclips were filmed for the songs "Silence" and "If I Had A Wish" in Nurnberg, Germany. Joining Kiske and Somerville for the shoot were bassist and main composer Mat Sinner, guitarist Sander Gommans (After Forever), drummer Rami Ali and keyboardist Jimmy Kresic (Voodoo Circle). The clips were directed by Martin Mueller of RCN TV, who previously helmed the videoclip production for Unheilig, Subway To Sally, Helloween, U.D.O. and Gotthard. The digital only release of the single, "Silence" on August 20th, will precede the release of the full-length CD. The “Kiske-Somerville” album final tracklisting includes: Nothing Left To Say; Silence; If I Had A Wish; One Night Burning; Arise; End Of The Road; Don't Walk Away; A Thousand Suns; Rain; Devil In Her Heart; Second Chance; Set A Fire (bonus track). The Bonus DVD will include videoclips of “Silence” and “If I Had A Wish” plus a “Making of” documentary. The songs “Silence” and “If I Had A Wish” can exclusively be listened to in full by streaming on the Frontiers Web Radio from July 20th. Tune in at: www.frontiers.it/webradio Enjoy the YouTube trailer presentation: Musicians: Michael Kiske - Vocals Amanda Somerville - Vocals Mat Sinner - Bass & Backing Vocals Magnus Karlsson - Lead Guitar, Guitar, Keyboards Sander Gommans - Additional Lead Guitar Martin Schmidt / Ramy Ali - Drums Jimmy Kresic - Keyboards. Weblinks: http://www.michaelkiske.net / http://www.amandasomerville.com / http://www.frontiers.it / http://www.myspace.com/frontiersrecords

And the beat goes on... http://pmx2.krose.org/forum?action=view&forum_id=1&message_id=378842

Looks and sounds promising!! -Dan

Before I talk about the CD itself, I want to say how surprised I am on how little discussion it has garnered here on the board. I found the CD, not through normal AOR/hard rock channels, but I happened to be shopping at Best Buy of all places (anymore I only go there 2-3 times a year) and this CD was one of the weekly bargain discs in their ad. I check those out, and if the artwork looks like something I might appreciate, I'll take a gamble for $7.99 or whatever. I saw this one and said "Ok, this looks right!" Being on Roadrunner Records, it had promise. Well, the rest, as they say, is history. Certain tracks struck me immediately, while others took time to grow. The more I listened to it, the more I liked the overall lineup from beginning to end. It's great driving music at high volume. What is the CD? Taking Dawn - Time to Burn. It's modern rock in some places, and true '80s hard rock in others. The production is top notch, and the songs are just damned catchy. What also impressed me is the guitar work on the CD. The solos are screaming. Here are 3 of my favorite cuts from the CD at 320kbps. Play them LOUD! 1. Endlessly. This song rapidly became my favorite cut on the CD, even though it's at the end of the disc. I can't quite put a finger on why, other than the hook of the chorus just grabs me. 2. Fight Em With Your Rock. Incredibly cheesy lyrically, but a great kick-your-dick-in-the-dirt rocker. 3. Take Me Away. GREAT epic anthem! I thought that Geoff would get it, as he's come the closest in terms of the discussion of the disc. Geoff hated the inclusion of the cover song at the end of the CD, whereas I think it kicks total ass. Then again, I like covers. The original version of the song "The Chain" was performed by Fleetwood Mac, and while I always liked the uniqueness of the track, Stevie Nicks' vocals just gave the song an overall "wimpy" feel. This cover version gives the song some serious balls while retaining the flavor of the original. It's one of my favorite tracks on the CD.

And a bit of a wrapup. Thanks to everyone who donated in the 2010 drive! The total ended up about $150 behind the 2009 total, but is enough to cover about 5 months of site costs. I'm in the process of uploading a few mp3s for the mystery CD and will post a new thread for it shortly. There was only 1 person who correctly guessed the CD: Jeffrey J Peil, you are the winner of a box of krappy CDs, which will be headed your direction in a couple of days! Thanks again to everyone who participated! -Dan

Here's the link again, in case anyone wants it: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now This allows you to use PayPal's USPS shipping and get the $0.19 Delivery Confirmation even when the item was not paid for through PayPal to begin with. I frequently use this when returning merchandise, sending Christmas gifts, etc. Even for things not being sold, it's handy to have the permanent shipping record in the PayPal account, and a permanent shipping email in my email account (by filling in a note as to the contents and using my own email address when creating the label). Once you get used to using it, you'll never want to go back to USPS counter services. -Dan

Frontiers Records to release TWO FIRES third album “Burning Bright” Napoli, July 2010 – Former THE STORM singer Kevin Chalfant returns at the helm of TWO FIRES with the band’s third studio album entitled “Burning Bright” to be released in Europe and Asia on Frontiers Records on September 24th. TWO FIRES debut album in 2000 was hailed as one of the Melodic Rock highlights of that year, showcasing the return of 2 very well known faces in the Melodic Rock world: singer Kevin Chalfant and guitarist Josh Ramos, both from THE STORM, a band which also featured former Journey members Ross Valory, keyboardist Gregg Rolie and drummer Steve Smith. THE STORM are considered one of the best expressions of Melodic Rock in the 90’s, thanks to 2 outstanding releases, the Self-titled debut album (which sported the US Top 20 hit “I’ve Got a Lot to Learn About Love”) on Interscope and the follow-up “Eye of the Storm” on MFN. The Two Fires concept came about when Frontiers Records President, Serafino Perugino asked Chalfant if he wanted to put up a new band which could fill the hole left in the fans' hearts by Steve Perry's demise from Journey, and he willingly accepted this new challenge in his career. That is why he teamed up with former bandmate in The Storm, Josh Ramos, on guitar and with the cooperation of worldwide known players such as Kenny Aronoff (Jon Bon Jovi, John Cougar) on drums, Willie Weeks on bass, Jim Peterik (Survivor, Pride of Lions) on keyboards created the Two Fires debut album. Produced by Kevin himself together with his old mate George Tutko (XYZ, Alias), “Two Fires” was pure, unadulterated, AOR bliss: a massive masterpiece that re-launched this musical style in the new millennium. Two Fires also appeared on the cover of the ROCK IT Magazine in Germany and ROCK TIME in France, plus made two live appearances at THE GODS festival in 1999 and 2000, both written in stone as some of the most exciting moments in the history of the festival ever! Two Fires released later another album “Ignition”: another great example of pure melodic rock in the vein of Journey, Boston, Foreigner and classic Bryan Adams, before Ramos and Chalfant got busy pursuing other projects. Still thanks to Perugino’s request to Kevin Chalfant, TWO FIRES are now back with a superb new release which is set to bring back the concept to the monster debut, with songs that are set to light the hearts and minds of Melodic Rock fans. “Burning Bright” sees a new set of musicians surrounding Chalfant. “I decided to use my live band as much as possible. But I did have several special guests, one being Rex Carroll of Whitecross a wonderful guitarist, another Denny Rockey, an independent Christian music artist” says the singer. “I wrote more than 20 tracks for this album and I believe the result is a great collection of songs that fit together well” adds Kevin Chalfant. Included on the album is also the superb “Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid”, written by the singer together with Neal Schon (Journey) and Gregg Rolie (ex Journey, Santana and of course The Storm). “That’s a song I wrote with Neal and Gregg in 1993 after I performed live with Journey” tells Kevin “I believe the original design for this song was to be for Journey. I would have to say it is probably one of the stand outs on this cd. When I lived in Northern California then, it was easy to put writing sessions together at Gregg’s cabin. I still have a few more of them up my sleeve. I don't have "favorite" song to speak of. All of the new songs have moments and a special meaning to me. I really love "Answer To My Prayer", "Hold On To Your Dream" and "All For One"... I guess I love the whole album, really.” A videoclip for “Is It Any Wonder” is in the works and will be previewed during August. “Burning Bright” final tracklisting includes: Is It Any Wonder; Lost In The Song; Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid; Epic In The Night; Shattered Without You; Burning Bright; Hold On To Your Dream; Still In Love; Answer To My Prayer; Relentless; All For One. The songs “Is It Any Wonder” and “Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid” can exclusively be listened in full in streaming on the Frontiers Web radio. Tune in at: www.frontiers.it/webradio Musicians: Lead vocals: Kevin Chalfant Lead, rhythm guitars and acoustic guitars: Michael “Ralph” Gardner Drums & percussions: Timmy Higgins, Jim Widlowski, and Shawn Fichter. Rhythm and acoustic guitars: Alby Odum Solo on “Is It Any Wonder” Super Rex Carroll Keyboards: Chuck Giacinto, 5 String Bass: Randy Hatzer Backing Vocals: Mike Higgins, Michael “Ralph” Gardner, Denny Rockey, Kurt Benckendorf & Kevin Chalfant Strings on “All For One” Tyrone Lancaster Weblinks: http://www.myspace.com/kevinchalfant / http://www.cliquerecords.com / http://www.frontiers.it / http://www.myspace.com/frontiersrecords SAMPLES: http://www.frontiers.it/m/uploads/audios/two_fires_-_01_-_is_it_any_wonder.mp3 http://www.frontiers.it/m/uploads/audios/two_fires_-_02_-_lost_in_the_song.mp3 http://www.frontiers.it/m/uploads/audios/two_fires_-_03_-_some_things_are_better_left_unsaid.mp3 http://www.frontiers.it/m/uploads/audios/two_fires_-_06_-_burning_bright.mp3

Last day. Let's make it a doozy!

Meh.