Ride or Die

Desperate times call for dazzling records. Released on Ruf in September 2016, Devon Allman’s Ride Or Die acknowledges that life on Planet Earth is no picnic. On the flipside, this third solo album from one of America’s best modern writers reminds us there’s always hope. “The world is getting crazier by the minute,” says Allman. “These songs are about pain, addiction, storms, lust, death, and feeling sometimes that you’re utterly lost. But conversely, it’s about finding your place in the universe, rebirth, strength, redemption, vindication…”

The 9th studio album. Since their debut "Of the Son and the Father" in 2003, the band from Swedish Borlänge has successfully cultivated their very own form of "Retro", based on the musical success of legends such as Rainbow, Dio or Black Sabbath, combined with elements of modern heavy metal. A concept that has brought the band repeated chart successes in Europe and Japan to this day. "Worship or Die" is the band's most melodic album since "New Revelation" (2007), yet one of the hardest in the Astral Doors catalogue. The riffs were and are the foundation of the six Swedes, but this time more space was given to the melodic elements. In their songs the Astral Doors deal with controversial topics of our time like religion, terrorism and the future of all of us. The band proves once more that intelligent lyrics and heavy metal don't have to be contradictory.

A mainstay of the Chicago jazz scene and an active recent addition to the New York scene, Jaimie Branch is an avant-garde trumpeter known for her “ghostly sounds," says The New York Times, and for "sucker punching" crowds straight from the jump off, says Time Out. Her classical training and “unique voice capable of transforming every ensemble of which she is a part” (Jazz Right Now) has contributed to a wide range of projects not only in jazz but also punk, noise, indie rock, electronic and hip-hop. Branch’s work as a composer and a producer, as well as a sideman for the likes of William Parker, Matana Roberts, TV on the Radio and Spoon, is all on display in her debut record Fly or Die – a dynamic 35-minute ride that dares listeners to open their minds to music that knows no genre, no gender, no limits.