Age of Agony

Truth be told, the vast majority of black metal artists are no more harmful than Vincent Price and Edgar Allan Poe were; they might be fascinated with the dark side and talk about it convincingly, but they aren't really living the evil they focus on. Mayhem, however, are another matter; the bandmembers took their obsession with evil and darkness to the extreme in the 1990s, when a murder, a suicide, an act of cannibalism, and a variety of satanic, anti-Christian activity all became part of the Norwegian headbangers' disturbing history…

A riddle wrapped in an enigma dressed up in leather and studs, Germany's Mekong Delta perplexed the heavy metal world both by playing an unconventional brand of progressive thrash and by keeping the identities of the bandmembers secret for the first five years of a career starting in 1987…

A riddle wrapped in an enigma dressed up in leather and studs, Germany's Mekong Delta perplexed the heavy metal world both by playing an unconventional brand of progressive thrash and by keeping the identities of the bandmembers secret for the first five years of a career starting in 1987…

The Curse of the Antichrist: Live in Agony is the third live album released by German thrash metal band Destruction. The album was released on September 25, 2009, by AFM Records…

Digipak CD and Blu-Ray plus 8 inch Doro and Warlock Figure. Here's something big coming up! In celebration of 35 years of her classic album "Triumph And Agony" Doro Pesch Of Warlock will release "Triumph And Agony Live" in various formats including CD, vinyl, cassette, Blu-ray…

Reincarnation on stage - a real good title for a live-album of a band returning to stage nearly 15 years after their last live appearance in 1998…

Destruction is the ultimate metal band. This band from Germany were responsible for a brand new sound that has influenced everyone in the death metal scene. The vocals are eerie and frightening and the whirlwind music very heavy and mesmerizing…

68 track 3CD box set celebrating the Leeds’ independent scene of the 1980s. Featuring Soft Cell, Sisters Of Mercy, Gang Of Four, The Wedding Present, Scritti Politti, The Mission, and many more. Including The Mekons, CUD, Delta 5, The Pale Saints, Girls At Our Best, Age Of Chance, The Bridewell Taxis who all stamped their mark on the indie charts and were regulars/favourites on John Peel’s radio show. Like many Northern cities, Leeds enjoyed an explosion of music triggered by the big bang of punk rock in 1977. Indie labels sprung up to cater for a new wave of bands, who carved their own identity as the 80s dawned. ‘Where Were You’ is the first comprehensive anthology of Leeds’ independent music from that period, through to the end of the 1980s. From punk to goth, indie pop to industrial dancefloor, out-and-out pop to underground psychedelia, the four hours’ worth of recordings here are a celebration of the musical diversity emanating from the city’s studios and clubs.

Passaggio, Lavinia Meijer's first release on Sony, is an album of the crossover music of Ludovico Einaudi, an Italian composer and pianist who encouraged the Dutch harpist to record some of his most popular pieces. The playing on this 2013 album is highly polished and appealing, and Meijer demonstrates considerable powers of concentration and precision in performances of her harp transcriptions of Einaudi's keyboard music. Some will find Meijer's renditions emotionally communicative and mood enhancing, and most of the credit for their effectiveness belongs to her, because Einaudi's modal harmonies and conventional patterns tend toward a bland prettiness, or pretty blandness, that's all of a piece. Simple melodies and repeated arpeggiated chords have the instant attraction of minimalist music, and simplicity is often a virtue in the proper context. Sony's recording is clear and close-up, and Meijer has presence in a fairly resonant studio space.