1st Japan

Anthrax's first album with vocalist Joey Belladonna is a huge leap forward, featuring strongly rhythmic, pounding riffs and vocals that alternate between hardcore-type shouting and surprising amounts of melody…

Coming of Age is a live album by progressive rock band Camel released 1998. Two hours of live recordings at Billboard Live in Hollywoodduring their 1997 West Coast tour. 28 tracks total, including 'Lunar Sea', 'Sasquatch', 'Milk 'N Honey' and 'TheHour Candle'.

Neo-prog band Pendragon formed in London during the heady days of punk, but didn't coalesce until 1983, when the band began playing around London and earned a small spot at that year's Reading Festival. The lineup stabilized, after the 1985 album Jewel, around vocalist/guitarist Nick Barrett, bassist Peter Gee, drummer Fudge Smith and keyboard player Clive Nolan. Pendragon recorded the live album 9:15 in 1986 and began to establish a continental fan base the following year. European audiences proved enthusiastic, spawning a contract with the French M.S.I. label; nevertheless, the group was forced to form its own Toff label just to release material in England.

Shadowland´s second CD. A middle 90's point of departure album. Sometimes compared to Steve HOGARTH's MARILLION and clearly influenced by some other neo progressive bands such as ARENA and IQ, "Through The Looking Glass" broke through the progressive scene beautyfully with its awesome mixture of the old prog school and the ravenous and unpredictable mood swings. Breathtaking! SHADOWLAND also speaks up for the unrecognized Dutch bands, proving they can rock alright in spite of the incessant attacks "neo prog" has received. The album itself is pure and modest, much of the instrumentation displayed in here follows a plain line that doesn't lack of distinction. Clive NOLAN plays his trademark keyboards superbly all along the "Through the Looking Glass" experience. "When the World Turns to White" and the self-titled song deserve special attention, the most remarkable suites out of the nine tracked production.

Toni Braxton went through a lot in the years separating her star-making Toni Braxton and her 2000 comeback The Heat. Yes, she became a star, but she also went through a painful bankruptcy that delayed her sequel for years. Fortunately, you wouldn't be able to tell that there was so much behind-the-scenes drama from The Heat – it's a confident, assured, sexy effort that reaffirms Braxton's status as one of the finest contemporary mainstream soul singers. She may not be as street-smart as Mary J. Blige, nor does she push the boundaries of the genre the way TLC does, but she has a full, rich voice that instantly lends her songs a sense of maturity and sensuality, especially since she never, ever oversings or misjudges her material.

In 1997, Joe Lynn Turner released Under Cover, a collection of his favorite hard-rock classics. It was such a success that he followed it two years later with the appropriately-titled Under Cover 2. Turner has surrounded himself with first-rate musicians – Vernon Reid, Al Pitrelli, Jeff Golub, Greg Smith – and has expanded his musical outreach, taking on such numbers as "Wishing Well" and "The Race is On," along with such album-rock favorites as "Helter Skelter," "Waiting for a Girl Like You," "The Boys Are Back in Town," "Born to Be Wild," "Fool for Your Lovin" and "Mississippi Queen."

With no musical background and without ever having performed in public, Zelmani rose to the top of the charts with her debut album. In spite of being known as very shy, she soon reached an audience all over Europe and Asia with her tender singer/songwriter country. Zelmani got her first guitar at the age of 14 and was taught some chords by her father. She learned to write songs, and almost ten years later, sent a few tapes to various record companies. Sony replied first and brought her together with producer and guitarist Lars Halapi, known for having worked with Ulf Lundell and Bo Kaspers Orkester.

Hearts on Fire is Baker Gurvitz Army's third and last studio album, released in 1976. Baker Gurvitz Army were an English rock group. Their self-titled debut album featured a blend of hard rock laced with Ginger Baker's jazz- and Afrobeat-influenced drumming. The lengthy "Mad Jack" was that album's outstanding track, and the album hit the US Billboard 200 chart, and peaked at number 22 in the UK Albums Chart. The two following albums contained similar material, although neither charted in the UK nor the US.

It's quite difficult to find a young person who knows about the Scorpions. Even when their careers were peaking in the '80s, they were never widely recognized, existing always as more of an underground band. The lack of hit singles produced by the group is by no means a judgment of its talent, however, as Deadly Sting: The Mercury Years proves. Some may find the fact that Mercury made the compilation a double-disc set surprising – again due to the band's small following – but the album is far better than the single-disc collection Best of Rockers 'n' Ballads. Following chronologically from 1979 to 1993 (thus covering the years in which the band enjoyed its most success)…

When Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple in early 1975, many fans figured that the band was over. But with the arrival of worthy replacement Tommy Bolin, the band was suddenly back in business with the oft-overlooked Come Taste the Band release. What the prior members of Deep Purple didn't know, however, is that their new guitarist had a serious drug problem, which hampered his playing by the time the group landed in Japan for a series of shows in December of 1975. With Bolin allegedly having no feeling in one of his arms on the night of a Purple gig at the Budokan, the show was to be taped for a future release.