Eye of The Devil

“Eye of the Storm” is the second album from the studio project masterminded by the multi-talented Bulgarian guitarist and producer Nikolo Kotzev, together with three members from the original EUROPE line-up and a set of singers second to none. Released originally in 1996 on the german label USG Records, “Eye of the Storm” sees the addition of the awesome singer Joe Lynn Turner to the line-up. His influence is particularly evident on songs like "Twist of Fate", "Line of Fire", and "Road to Hell", while the Europe influence can be found in “Wake Up Everybody”, with a great vocal performance from Thomas Vikström. Former Malmsteen singer Göran Edman also appears on lead vocals stamping his mark especially on the power-ballad “Everything's Gonna Be Allright”.

Artension was the brainchild of Shrapnel Records head Mike Varney. He received a demo from wunderkind keyboardist Vitalij Kuprij and progressive axeman Roger Staffelbach of a project they called "Atlantis Rising". Varney began to look for other musicians to round out the lineup. After a lot of consideration, Varney presented Vitalij and Roger with vocalist John West, Bassist Kevin Chown, and drummer Mike Terrana. The result was a band called Artension (named by the band for a combination of the words "art" and "tension") and a CD called "Into the Eye of the Storm".

The three-singers-concept had turned out to be a successful experiment, so Nik decided to record the follow-up with three singers as well. Edman and Vikström returned for the recordings, and new Brazen Abbot member Joe Lynn Turner (ex-Rainbow, ex-Yngwie Malmsteen, solo) filled the third vocalist spot. Former Europe member John Levén took over the bass duties as Svante Henryson was unable to record the album due to schedulig conflicts. Haugland and Michaeli completed the backing band for "Eye of the Storm", which was released in 1996.

Outwitting the Devil

The Stone Eye was founded in 2014 by drummer Jeremiah Bertin and Guitarist/Vocalist Stephen Burdick. Following a few years and a couple of lineup changes, with former-Bassist Wolfgang Noll contributing to this upcoming release before his departure, we have now arrived at The Stone Eye's current incarnation featuring the original two members along with Guitarist/Vocalist Christian Mechem and now Bassist, Mike Pacca.