Agusa. Photo Credit: Martina Andersson
Malmo, Sweden based psychedelic/prog outfit Agusa will be releasing their sophomore album Agusa 2 on July 21, 2015 via The Laser’s Edge and on vinyl via Kommun2. Stream a video clip from Roadburn 2015 below.
AGUSA:
Tobias Petterson – bass
Mikael Ödesjö – guitar
Tim Wallander – drums
Jonas Berge – organ
Jenny Puertas – flute
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Greek melodic metallers Jaded Star has divulged new details about their debut album Memories From The Future, out April 14th in North America and April 24th in Europe –via Sensory Records, a division of The Laser’s Edge.
Formed in 2013, Jaded Star was founded by vocalist Maxi Nil (ex-Visions of Atlantis) and drummer Raphael Saini (ex-Iced Earth), who recruited guitarist Kosta Vreto (Horizon’s End, Wardrum) and bassist Babis Nikou (Astral DNA, Opened Paradise, Dia Mageias) to complete the lineup. The quartet instantly amassed a vast array of new material and began touring across Europe.
With over forty-five minutes of Jaded Star’s energetic forward-thinking melodic heavy metal, Memories From The Future was produced by vocalist Maxi Nil (ex-Visions Of Atlantis), mixed and mastered by Fredrik Nordstrom at the legendary Fredman Studios in Sweden (Arch Enemy, At the Gates, Dimmu Borgir, In Flames, Opeth, etc.), and features ten brand new epic anthems. The album showcases Maxi’s electrifying vocals and the masterful drum work Saini is known for. Guitar hero Kosta Vreto, with his unique finger strumming style, eschews the plectrum in favor of a raw, organic sound that literally comes straight through his hands. Babis Nikou on the bass brings a solid foundation and the chemistry between he and Maxi as the songwriting team provides emotion to match the power of the sound. The cover artwork for Memories From The Future was created by Lila Belivanaki.
Memories From The Future Track Listing:
1. The Mask
2. Wake Up
3. Keep On Fighting
4. Stars
5. Into The End Of Time
6. Healing The Inner Child
7. You’ll See
8. In Memory
9. Raining In Sao Paolo
10. Innocence
JADED STAR Tour Dates:
Mar 27: Fuzz – Athens (GR) (w/ Epica)
Mar 28: Fix Factory Of Sound – Thessaloniki (GR)(w/ Epica)
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Arcane is streaming “Keeping Stone: Sound on Fire”, off their two part debut album Known/Learned, out now via Sensory Records, here.
Produced by Sam Vallen (Caligula’s Horse), ARCANE’s massive, dual-part conceptual masterpiece, Known/Learned, delivers sixteen expansive tracks resulting in two hours of music; the first movement, Known, with a more traditionally-oriented progressive rock performance, and the second, Learned, a lighter, more acoustic/folk inspired path, both coalescing a central storyline.
The recordings were mastered by Troy Glessner at Spectre Mastering in Seattle, and the album’s cover art provided by Chris Stevenson-Mangos. A generous crowd funding campaign supported by passionate fans, organizations and fellow bands helped ARCANE produce Known/Learned, yet as the album was seeing completion, the band crossed paths with New Jersey-based progressive label, The Laser’s Edge, who now officially releases the album in North America via its Sensory Records imprint, and will follow suit in Europe on February 13th, in a deluxe 2xCD digipak and through all digital outlets.
Stream “Hunter, Heart & Home” here and “Instinct” here.
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Northern Virginia based progressive hard rock/metal trio Iris Divine will be releasing their debut album Karma Sown via Sensory Records on March 31, 2015. Stream “A Suicide Aware,” here.
With a brand of emotional, progressive hard rock/metal not quite like anything else out there, IRIS DIVINE is musically rooted in the raw energy and rhythmic interplay of Rush and King’s X. Fans of dark, guitar-driven rock bands from Alice In Chains, Deftones to the contemporary metal riffing of Lamb of God and Pantera, will connect to the heavy core of the band’s modern sound. Add to that progressive complexity and moody synths inspired by Dream Theater and Porcupine Tree, and a liberal dose of memorable hooks and melodies, to understand some elements of the band’s sound. And yet, the band has a distinct identity, not quite sounding like any of the aforementioned bands, and with an emotional urgency that pulls subtly from alternative and other influences.
Hailing from just outside of the Washington, DC area, IRIS DIVINE has opened for such acts as Katatonia, Orphaned Land, Fates Warning, and Periphery, channeling its studio output into intense, passionate live performances that balance precision with in-the-moment catharsis. Often called a “musician’s band,” the band time and again earned the respect of its regional peers, and could well become new faces gaining prominence among the musician community on a wider scale.
Karma Sown Track Listing:
1. The Everlasting Sea
2. Fire of the Unknown
3. A Suicide Aware
4. Mother’s Prayer
5. Prisms
6. In Spirals
7. Apathy Rains
8. In the Wake of Martyrs
IRIS DIVINE:
Navid Rashid – vocals, guitar
Kris Combs – drums, keys/programming
Brian Dobbs – bass
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