Riffs And Runs

Everyone agrees that Deep Purple is one of founders of hard-rock and one of the bands that made a name for themselves in the most wonderful era of music, the 70's. At the time, 1990, Deep Purple already were an icon lead by the guitar genius Ritchie Blackmore. Slaves And Masters was the only album with Joe Lynn Turner, and definitely one of the most controversial and criticized albums of all time in the history of Deep Purple…

UK band Nth Ascension was formed in 2009, originally using the moniker Nth Degree, and solidified as a band unit in 2010. An initial demo was released in 2011, and in 2014 they signed to UK label Sonic Vista for the release of their official debut album "Ascension of Kings". In 2016 they left their former label to sign up for US label Melodic Revolution Records, who released their sophomore production "In Fine Initium". Nth Ascension is very much an English band, exploring landscapes and sounds that were invented and developed on the British Isles. Melodic, powerful progressive rock is the name of the game here, and then by and large explored inside a neo progressive general context. Their take on the genre is one that relies heavily on alternating, contrasting arrangements and a striking lead vocalist further enhancing the dramatic aspects of the compositions.

Veteran producer Mike Vernon, known for his work with John Mayall and other British blues stars of the 1960s on Decca Records' Deram label and his own Blue Horizon imprint, came out of retirement to handle this, the second album by 19-year-old guitarist and singer Oli Brown, and it's easy to tell why. Brown is very much in the tradition of the people Vernon used to work with, which is to say that he is steeped in that distinctly British version of the blues, a style that has a heavy complement of rock & roll in it. Enough teenagers have turned out competent blues guitar records to make Brown's authority, even at so young an age, believable. Fans always talk about the feeling necessary to play the blues, but the mechanics of it require a technical dexterity that can be commanded by players with young, supple fingers.

Exumer was an early German thrash metal band with close ties to Angel Dust (their labelmates on the Desaster imprint) and a raw, vicious, unsophisticated style derived chiefly from influences like Venom, Exodus, and Slayer…