Drummer From June 2016

Super limited 3xCD version available exclusively from Relapse.com, featuring all the contents of the 2xCD version along with an exclusive 3rd CD, which includes over 40 minutes of never-before-heard DEATH demo / rehearsal material from May 1986. Housed in deluxe embossed and foil-stamped 8-panel digipak, limited and numbered to 2000 copies.

The more personal Sanctuary II continues where the brilliantly executed and heartfelt Mike Oldfield influenced Sanctuary left off. Produced, mixed and engineered by Reed, who plays most of the instruments himself, Sanctuary II features legendary drummer Simon Phillips, and also contains contributions from the Tubular Bells production team of Tom Newman and Simon Heyworth.

Once you’ve heard Pat Metheny you will always recognise him, no matter what company he’s in or what instrument he’s playing, be it a simple acoustic guitar or some unlikely invention of his own. Beneath it all there’s a frank, open-hearted tunefulness that keeps the music airborne. This double album, recorded at the end of a year-long tour by his Unity Band, is as polished and sophisticated as any, but moments such as the opening melody of This Belongs to You or the gradual unfolding of Born are just plain elegant. There’s a similar quality about saxophonist Chris Potter’s playing, and all four are so relaxed in each other’s company that everything flows beautifully.

Few bands could have conceived of, let alone pulled off, the exercise in excess that Dream Theater have with The Astonishing. In a vast catalog that includes several album-length conceptual statements - Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - this is so extreme that it pushes at what their fans (a fanatical lot) may accept. Guitarist John Petrucci has written a double-disc sci-fi rock opera, set in a dystopian future in an invented country (the package contains maps). In it, music created and/or performed by humans has been outlawed by the state. Only government-sanctioned and programmed machines are entrusted with those functions. A small band of rebels cling to and fight for the vision (and redemption) of human music…

Steve Vai - Modern Primitive & Passion And Warfare 25th Anniversary Edition (2016) {2CD Digipak}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 0.98 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 332 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 93 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1990, 2016 Epic Records / Legacy / Sony Music | 88985309092
Rock / Instrumental Rock / Guitar Virtuoso / Hard Rock

Commemorating the 25th anniversary of Passion and Warfare comes a special 2CD edition of the album which includes the first-ever release of Vai's Modern Primitive songs and recordings. Based on song sketches and works-in-progress penned, and recorded, by Vai following the release of Flex-Able, the artist's debut album, in January 1984, the music on Modern Primitive has been completed by Steve for release as a full album bonus disc in the Passion and Warfare 25th Anniversary Edition. Passion and Warfare 25th Anniversary Edition was remastered from the original ½" Ampex 456 30ips analog master tapes.

Grand Slam was founded in 2007 in Malmц, Sweden, by drummer Andy Swaniz (ex-Quadruple), with the aim to appeal to a wide audience with their melodic rock style. Bassist Henrik Hansson (ex-Hollywood) got on board the same year and songwriter Peter Alpenborg was brought in to get the ball rolling. There have been several lineup changes over the years, as well as a number of musicians hired only for specific recordings or gigs…

Multinational ensemble THE SAMURAI OF PROG was formed as a project lead by Finland-based Italian composer and bassist Marco Bernard. He's been active in the Finnish Association for Progressive Music since 1995, and have been involved in their Colossus Magazine since 1996 - and instrumental in the Colossus series of theme albums they have created in cooperation with French label Musea Records. It was for a contribution to one of those projects that The Samurai of Prog was born, and joining Bernard as permanent members we find US artist Steve UNRUH and Finnish drummer Kimmo Pörsti. Besides this core trio, the philosophy of this band appears to be to involve additional musicians as needed and wanted, and their debut effort Undercover from 2011 bears testimony to that line of thinking, with a list of guest appearances impressive in length, scope as well as quality.

Phronesis - Parallax (2016) {Edition Records EDN1070}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 346 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 132 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 256 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2016 Edition Records | EDN1070
Jazz / Modern Jazz / Progressive Jazz / Trio

A decade of performing, touring and recording has given the three players in Phronesis a matchless rapport. That inspires an ever-flowing fountain of new music, captured to perfection on this, the Anglo-Scandinavian trio’s sixth CD and their fourth for Edition Records. The chemistry joining pianist Ivo Neame – with his Django Batesian rhythm-swaps hitched to classic jazz roots in Bill Evans and Chick Corea – to Jasper Hoiby’s double-bass muscle and the maniacally personal sound of drummer Anton Eger make Phronesis a wonderful live band. But though live recordings have represented them best, this single-day Abbey Road session gets very close.