Match! February 11, 2020

“The Last Viking” is the 2020-monumental-piece of LEAVES’ EYES. The setting of the symphonic metal masterpiece couldn’t be more tremendous. With their cult-albums “Vinland Saga” (2005) and “King of Kings” (2015) they already turned Leif Erikssons discovery of America and the life of Norway’s first king into music. Now, LEAVES’ EYES bring the Viking Sagas to their bombastic finale.

New Wave of British Heavy Metal band Demon were known for their shocking and elaborate performances (quite unique, considering the no-fuss, stripped-down philosophy characteristic of the movement), but never sounded as extreme as their name might suggest. Instead, they forged a mainstream hard rock/metal style, which, though it didn't stand out from the pack, has managed to keep them in business for several decades. Singer Dave Hill and guitarist Mal Spooner had already cut their teeth with various amateur acts in their native Staffordshire, England, by the time they decided to join forces and found Demon midway through 1980.

The Plague saw Demon moving away from the Devilish themes of their previous two LPs into more socially and politically contentious areas. The introduction of keyboards resulted in a sophisticated and polished sound, and the band's finest songwriting to date. A glorious concept album of intelligent and highly innovative rock music.

For pop artists of a certain generation, taking on the Great American Songbook has become somewhat of a rite of passage, occasionally bordering on cliché. Some, like Linda Ronstadt and Carly Simon, got to it early in their careers, while legacy boomers like Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney offered up their reinterpretations of jazz standards as late-career curiosities, or in the case of Rod Stewart - five volumes and counting - reinvented themselves with them. James Taylor is no stranger to cover songs; everything from early rock to Motown and cowboy songs have popped up in his catalog, not to mention a pair Christmas albums and an entire 2008 set called Covers. As one of the most revered American singer/songwriters of the mid- to late 20th century, it seems almost inevitable that he would eventually take his turn to honor the generation of pop tunesmiths that preceded him…

Demon are often the subject of hot debate whenever the New Wave of British Heavy Metal is discussed: are they or aren't they supposed to be cited alongside the likes of Iron Maiden, Saxon and Def Leppard, as a rejuvenating force in the evolution of heavy metal? After all, their debut album, Night of the Demon, had shown that the Staffordshire quintet were far more indebted to Britain's heavyweights of melodic hard rock, like UFO and Thin Lizzy, than full-fledged heavy metal titans Black Sabbath or Judas Priest.

`The Early Years 79-81' box set represents the band's first two albums, `On Through The Night' (1980) and `High `N' Dry' (1981), and has been prepared in conjunction with singer Joe Elliott who has acted as executive producer on the set. This set comes with 5-CDs consisting of the original albums remastered, B-sides, rarities and re-mix versions, Radio One sessions, Live from Reading and the first ever appearance of an unreleased and newly mixed show from Oxford in 1980.

Obsidian… dark, reflective and black: it’s a pretty decent description of the music that Paradise Lost have been making over the last 32 years, even though this most resilient of British metal bands have stoically refused to be pinned down to one easily defined formula. Powered by a lust for creativity and a stout devotion to haunting heaviness, Paradise Lost have defied the odds by coming back stronger than ever over the past decade.
From the deceptive elegance and dual atmospheres of opener "Darker Thoughts" through to the crushing, baroque doom of war-torn closer "Ravenghast", Obsidian reveals a band in masterful control of a broad array of vital ideas.

Urgency has been Pearl Jam's calling card since their inception, which is why it was a jolt to hear the band sound so settled on 2013's Lightning Bolt. Maybe it's the times, maybe it's the choice to switch producers – the group swapped their longtime collaborator Brendan O'Brien for Josh Evans, who co-produced the album with the band – but Gigaton hits with the strength of a full-force gale. Weather is a galvanizing concern on Gigaton, with Pearl Jam structuring their 11th album around the looming climate change crisis.