Widow's Wreath

Mourning Widows was a musical project led by former Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt. The band was formed in 1997, and they released two albums during their career. Despite not being widely released in the United States, both albums were successful in Japan. Bettencourt formed the band after the moderate success of his 1996 solo album, Schizophonic. The band's sound went back to a funkier guitar-driven rock reminiscent of Extreme, while still having post-grunge and alternative influences. After the end of the Furnished Souls For Rent tour, in 2001, Nuno decided to dismiss the band and released a record as Population 1, mostly recorded by himself. That became the name of his new band too, which would later become DramaGods.

DECAYED: Ten Years of Cities, Wounds, Lightness, and Pain perfectly charts Young Widows' evolution from inspired post-hardcore trio to peerless entity crafting profound combinations of post-punk, noise rock, heavy psych, and gothic folk. The fifteen tracks in this collection originally appeared on stand-alone singles, b-side, splits with like-minded artists (including Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Pelican, Melt-Banana, and MY DISCO), and rare compilations. Four of them have never been released until now. Of the many impressive aspects of Young Widows' decade-plus run as a band, perhaps most remarkable is the quality and breadth of music they made that didn't appear on their albums. Every song here is a standout track from the evolving eras of the band, and as with all things Young Widows, DECAYED pays respect to the past while planting roots for the future.

BELIEVE is the project of former COLLAGE guitarist Mirek Gil, who together with Tomek Rozcki (vocals, guitars), Adam Milosz (keyboards, hidden harmonies), Przemas Zawadzki (bass), Vlodi Tafel (drums), Satomi (violin), and Robert Sieradzki (lyrics, vocals) create a rather unique form of Neo Progressive Rock. Mixing the often melancholic Neo-Prog shown on COLLAGE's "Moonshine" with a bit more of a harder, metal edge, BELIEVE form an intriguing style of experimental and unconventional progressive rock.