Sonic Perspectives

Gus G. made a name for himself with Firewind, the band he initially launched as a solo project in 1998 that made its official debut in 2002. In that time the band has released nine albums, while Gus has also recorded and toured with Mystic Prophecy, Nightrage, Arch Enemy, Dream Evil and Ozzy Osbourne. He [...]

For the past two decades the band Magenta has built a solid reputation through their top-notch live shows and catalog of studio works. At times celebrating classic prog terrain and at other times pushing new horizons, Magenta have established founder Rob Reed’s passion for prog even as he has explored other musical projects such as [...]

Rage is back from isolation with their always dependable blend of thrash and melodic metal. Their new album “Resurrection Day” was released last Friday, September 17th, and features a revamped lineup, with two guitar players. After last year’s departure of guitarrist Marcos Rodriguez, Stefan Weber (ex-Axxis) was enlisted, followed just a few weeks later by [...]

At 74 years of age and a career spanning seven decades, one would think it’s time to slow down…unless your name is Carmine Appice! He is currently a member of Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, and ours with his brother Vinnie doing percussion shows. In addition to that, he’s doing a podcast series with his brother, entitled [...]

After releasing the highly acclaimed double concept albums “The Similitude of a Dream” and “The Great Adventure”, The Neal Morse Band are back with their eagerly anticipated fourth studio album “Innocence & Danger”. The new release sees them changing their name to NMB and returning to writing an unrelated collection of individual tracks that span through two discs containing 100 minutes of music.   [...]

If the light at the end of the tunnel could be converted into sound, you can bet it would sound exactly like Leprous. Over the last two decades, the Norwegian mavericks have produced some of the deepest and most rewarding music imaginable, steadily evolving from their beginnings as exuberant prog metal explorers, to their current [...]

For the past decade-plus, Big Big Train have increasingly grown their fanbase and the size of their band. Almost on the verge of becoming a supergroup, the membership was so chock full of talent that it was continuously on the verge of tripping over itself. The pandemic and other factors brought some changes to the [...]

Contrary to popular belief, metal bands and fans do not walk around with frowny faces all the time, looking like they want to murder someone. In fact, humor and metal have walked hand in hand since forever. From Ozzy‘s stage antics and weird facial expressions with Black Sabbath, to Spinal Tap, S.O.D. and Steel Panther, [...]

The name of Yngwie Malmsteen has always stood for uncompromising excellence. In a career that now spans more than 40 years he has proven himself to be a unique artist. You can try to categorize him in any way you wish. But the manner in which this supreme Swedish craftsman has continually developed his music makes Malmsteen sublimely [...]

Ben Mink has surely cast a wide musical net throughout his career. From the early performances with the rock/country group Mary-Lou Horner, he went on to be the violin player of Canadian prog rockers FM, and collaborated with artists such as k.d. Lang, Rush, Barenaked Ladies and many more. As a producer, his credits are [...]

K.K. Downing is a legendary name and figure in the history of metal.  He helped found Judas Priest some 50 years ago and scaled the heights of rock ‘n’ roll as that band developed through the ‘70s and finally achieved its signature sound in 1980 with the groundbreaking album “British Steel.”  Downing’s rough and tough [...]

On June 11, Dennis DeYoung released his most recent—and supposedly final—album, “26 East, Vol. 2.” It’s the culmination of more than 50 years in the music business, one that has seen some incredible successes, especially with his former band Styx. At age 74, DeYoung has nothing left to prove. But he had some more arrows [...]

Frost* came onto the scene in 2006 with their acclaimed debut album “Milliontown”. Comprised of a formidable group of musicians, it was primarily led by Jem Godfrey with John Mitchell (Lonely Robot, Kino, It Bites) closely in tow. These two have weathered several changes in the band during the intervening years and, accompanied by longtime [...]

The development of progressive pioneers INTERLOPER has not been an instant nor mundane process to say the least. On the contrary, it has procured particular expertise in creating endless layers of transcendent sound. Initially set as the title of one of the album’s most vibrant tracks, it quickly became obvious that the feel of “Search [...]

“Shai is a lobster.” This is the regard in which new-ish Subterranean Masquerade front-man Davidavi Dolev holds his bandmate, keyboardist Shai Yallin. Lobsters, you see, have evolved an impressive pair of eyeballs that not only enable them to see just fine several hundred feet below salty sea surfaces, they also have a 180° field of vision. But that’s not what “Vidi” is talking about. [...]

Tommy Clufetos has already carved his name in the history of rock and metal by working with reputable acts such as Rob Zombie, Ted Nugent and Alice Cooper. The cherry on the cake of such an illustrious touring career was being handpicked by Ozzy to join his band and to replace Bill Ward in Black [...]

The staying power of 80’s hard rock is undeniable. After its rise to fame and being almost completely erased from the airwaves by grunge, there seems to be a resurgence of the genre, and many of the same bands who were part of the “first wave” are still around. Granted, the days of filling stadiums and [...]

Rock, metal, jazz, songwriter material, progressive rock, finger style guitar – Jane Getter does it all, including vocals. On her new album “Anomalia” with her musical project Jane Getter Premonition, she employs all of these styles with her all-star band and a few choice special guests. The result is a devastatingly hip recording which will [...]

Guitarist Esa Holopainen has been making music with Finnish melodic death metal act Amorphis for over 30 years. Thanks to the metallic and melodic beauty of such classic albums as “Tales from the Thousand Lakes”, “Elegy” and “Skyforger”, Holopainen‘s magnificent abilities to create enchanting atmospheres and innovative riffs have become widely known within the worldwide [...]

Over the years, the Australian progressive metal scene has brought much joy to fans of the genre throughout the world. In recent years, the frequency of appearance of exciting and innovative bands has accelerated, and the quality has remained at a very high level.  On April 9, the Brisbane-based progressive metal band The Stranger released their [...]