Cure 1997

The Best of Rainbow compiles 16 of the best tracks from Rainbow's first seven studio albums, wisely avoiding 1977's live On Stage release. The first two tracks from their debut album, 1975's Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, showcases the instant bond that was formed between Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio, especially on "Man on the Silver Mountain." Blackmore changed the band for the following year's Rainbow Rising, with Jimmy Bain replacing bass player Craig Gruber, and Cozy Powell taking percussion duties away from Gary Driscoll. Adding keyboard player Tony Carey helped tracks like "Starstruck" and the lengthy "Stargazer" to sound a little more dimensional and fluent than the group's first effort.

A surprising fact from the musicological realm is that Haydn wrote about the same number of operas as Mozart–though it's true that some of them were written for the marionette theater at Esterhaza, rather than the opera house. In other words, old "Gius[eppe] Haydn"–as the title page of this opera refers to him–was a master. Better known to some by its alternate title, L'anima del filosofo, Haydn's Orfeo ed Euridice was written in 1791 for the King's Theater, Haymarket, during the composer's first English sojourn, but went unperformed there or anywhere else until 1950. The libretto, by Carlo Francesco Badini, is based on Ovid's Metamorphoses, with its decidedly unhappy ending to the story (Euridice dies a second time, Orpheus is poisoned, and the Bacchantes perish in a storm).

Marc Almond & The Willing Sinners - Vermin In Ermine (1984) {Some Bizarre SBZ029CD rel 1997}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 312 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 112 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 14 Mb | Data -> 142 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1984, 1997 Some Bizarre | SBZ029CD
Art-Pop / New Romantic / Synth Pop / Dance-Pop

With the wracked final days of Soft Cell behind him, Marc Almond gleefully threw himself into a full-time solo career with a splash; while a chunk of bile still clearly remains – the portentous "Ugly Head" sounds as much personal therapy as it does grinding semi-big-band blues – a much more musically upbeat angle dominates, especially on the lush, winning single "The Boy Who Came Back."

Strapping Young Lad's guitarist leader embarked on a solo career with the enigmatic "Ocean Machine", an album of encompassing, thrilling atmospheres in which pop, metal, progressive metal, trash and nuances of electronic blended together in a very balanced way. This atmosphere somewhat recreated the best from the 80's decade: from the mainstream heavy metal scene to the dark atmospheres of The Cure or the frantic energy of Queen. To his virtuous and somewhat prolific guitar work in the vein of Steve Vai or Joe Satriani, Devin Towsend added his inspired gift for creating remarkable melodies and outstanding choruses, while his dynamic voice and obtuse lyrics gave the album the necessary melodic profoundness…