The Black Halos 50 Bourbon St.

The best music reflects a wide-screen view of the world back at us, helping distill the universal into something far more personal. Since forming in Austin in 2004, The Black Angels have become standard-bearers for modern psych-rock that does exactly that, which is one of many reasons why the group’s new album, Wilderness of Mirrors, feels so aptly named.

The Black Tornado is the supporting band of Thorbjørn Risager, a Danish blues musician who first came onto the scene early in the 2000s. A fan of Southern soul and Chicago blues, he fused the two sounds, something that was evident his 2004 debut, Live 2004. This record also showcased the skills of Black Tornado, a group he assembled in 2003 to articulate his artistic vision. Risager and Black Tornado signed to Cope Records, an imprint run by the band's trumpet player, in the mid-2000s and from that point on, he's worked regularly – albums have appeared every other year, and he's toured often – and he started to get international attention in 2014 after the release of Too Many Roads. This was their first record to appear on Ruf Records but it wasn't the last – Songs from the Road followed in 2016 and Change My Game appeared in early 2017.

The Black Noodle Project is the name of a present French Progressive rock band, located in the Paris suburbs. Deeply influenced by the works of Pink Floyd, the music of the first album "And Life Goes On…" (2004) appears to be both atmospheric and dynamic, reminding a seducing modern form of Progressive rock. Filled with piano notes and luminous guitar flights, the melodies are to be sipped with obvious pleasure. After the critical acclaim received by "And Life Goes On…", the second album "Play Again" (2006) goes one step beyond. Both more original and personal, this masterpiece is full of intense atmospheres and surprising melodies. The Floydian influences are still present, but more discrete, through a sense of slowness, a sort of "quiet despair" and melancholy…

Intense Akron, Ohio blues-soaked duo that began by overwhelming indie rock critics and quickly moved to arena audiences.
It's too facile to call the Black Keys counterparts of the White Stripes: they share several surface similarities - their names are color-coded, they hail from the Midwest, they're guitar-and-drum blues-rock duos - but the Black Keys are their own distinct thing, a tougher, rougher rock band with a purist streak that never surfaced in the Stripes. But that's not to say that the Black Keys are blues traditionalists: even on their 2002 debut, The Big Come Up, they covered the Beatles' psychedelic classic "She Said She Said"…

On a music adapted from a fairytale, "Eleonore Et Le Livre Interdit", written by the guitarist-vocalist Jérémie Grima, this opus takes you to a world of insistent melodies, splendid guitar surges and striking rhythms. Pushing to extremes what has become its distinctive mark, the band alternates, better than ever, heavy parts and very atmospheric passages. All that's left to do for the listener then is to get immersed in the marvellous world of Eleonore, the orphan girl seeking for the land were dreams come true. The reason why the Floydian influence has become more discreet than in "Play Again" is that the group has been able to free itself from their masters in order to create an album with great maturity.

“Before the tragedy, no one ever thought this band was going to exist without Trevor.”
That’s The Black Dahlia Murder‘s co-founder Brian Eschbach telling it like it is. With the tragic passing of the band’s frontman and co-founder Trevor Strnad in 2022, Eschbach, bassist Max Lavelle, drummer Alan Cassidy, and producer/guitarist Brandon Ellis were faced with a decision: Close the door on one of the most beloved death metal bands of the last twenty years, or carry on in their fallen brother’s charismatic spirit?
“Everyone that’s in the band now is someone that Trevor and I searched for,” Eschbach says. “We spent so much time on the road together that everyone understands the mission statement. We don’t really need to talk about it. We just need to make great music and try to make people happy playing it”…