Return II Space

With her mind-blowing mix of heavy metal guitar prowess and bluesy, soulful vocals, Orianthi will draw some justifiably well-earned comparisons to such giants of rock guitar as Jimi Hendrix and her own idol, Carlos Santana, on her 2009 sophomore album, Believe – re-released in 2010 as Believe (II) with four different songs than the original version, including a cover of John Waite's "Missing You." That said, her style hews closer to the more finger-frenetic pyrotechnics of such '70s and '80s icons as Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai. Throw in her ability to sell a lyric and carry a strong melodic vocal phrase while also throwing down some devastating slabs of heavy metal riffage, and she starts to look a heckuvalot like the fantasy love child of Prince and Lita Ford.

A "rescoring" of the film of the 1976 Winter Olympics – Wakeman no longer has rights to his original soundtrack – this is a solid mid-level entry in the Wakeman catalog. Kicking off with some harder-rocking guitar than usual in "Oriental Iceman," this soundtrack reaches its high point with the deft "Dancing on Snowflakes"…

Kosmodysseia is the new album by Finnish heavy progressive/psych rock band The Fërtility Cült. This Tampere-based band has progressed and grown a lot in a few years and now seem to be annual performers at Fruits de Mer Records's Crabstock Festival in Wales. In addition to the standard rock instrumentation and great vocals their sound is heavily saturated with Hammond organ, Rhodes piano and saxophones making them sound rather special at least in Finland at the moment. There's also some cello and violin on the album. The new album seems less doom metal and more progressive rock which is definitely a good thing this time but there are still some heavy, gloomy parts in there.