Tag Archives: Cher

Ozzy Osbourne, Jane’s Addiction, Lenny Kravitz are Nominated For The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Class 2024

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The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame has seemingly favored fewer and fewer Rock bands and very few Metal bands. They have announced their nominees for the class of 2024 and it does include Ozzy Osbourne as a solo artist, (he was inducted in 2006 with Black Sabbath) Jane’s Addiction, Lenny Kravitz, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Oasis, on the Metal and Rock side along with Mariah Carey, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Eric B. & Rakim, Kool & the Gang, A Tribe Called Quest, Sade, and Mary J. Blige are all potential inductees. The fan voting which only counts for 1% towards induction, is open now. Continue reading →


Composer and Producer Jim Steinman Has Died, Age 73

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According to a report from TMZ, Classic Rock and Pop Composer and Producing legend Jim Steinman have died. He was 73. Jim had been transported to a Connecticut hospital for an undisclosed medical event and pronounced dead there. The cause of death is as of yet, unraveled. Steinman was world-0reknowned for his collaborations with Meat Loaf on his album Bat Out of Hell and its two chart-topping sequels. He also produced smash hit albums for Bonnie Tyler, Def Leppard, Billy Squire, Sisters of Mercy, Barry Manilow, Air Supply, Celine Dion, Cher, and many others. There was a recent campaign to have Jim and Meat Loaf inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame via Change.org. The music world is reacting on social media to this news and we’ll bring you more details as we learn them. We send our condolences out to Jim’s family, friends, and fans at this time.

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Mike Portnoy, Dee Snider, Chris Jericho, Ray Luzier, John Moyer, and More to Raise Money for The David Z Foundation Livestream Tonight

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Stars from across Rock and Metal will join together on a livestream to raise money tonight on the David Z Foundation Livestream. David Z (David Zablidowsky) was the brilliant metal and progressive rock musician best known for his work in bands such as Adrenaline Mob, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and ZO2, died three years ago on July 17th, 2017 when a tractor-trailer collided with Adrenaline Mob’s tour bus. Check out the updated poster from Mike Portnoy’s tweet below. You can donate at the GoFundM link below and watch the live stream including artists ranging from Mike Portnoy, Dee Snider, Chris Jericho, Ray Luzier (Korn), John Moyer (Disturbed) Rikki Rockett, Don Dokken, Richie Kotzen, Billy Sheehan, Jeff Scott Soto, Carmine Appice, Eddie Trunk, Marco Mendoza, Joel Hoekstra, Tiffany, John Pooper, Alex Skolnik, Charlie Benante, Dug Pinnick, Ra Diaz and more! Continue reading →


Avatarium – The Girl With The Raven Mask

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Leif Edling is an unsung, underrated, talented bastard, and a legend. Part-responsible for some of the finest, melodramatic slow and mystical metal known to man across the first four Candlemass releases, his seat and decanter of wine at the table of legacy and honour is assured. Founding member of one of the founding fathers, as his main gig has become more of a part-time, festival turn, two years ago he celebrated the year of his 50th anniversary on earth by putting together Avatarium.

Leaving behind the doom bent of the ‘mass to feed the muse of progressive, heavy retro-tinged rock, and allowing the 60’s and 70’s bands of his youth to influence his writing, at their very best Avatarium are transfixing. The Girl With The Raven Mask (Nuclear Blast), the second band’s full length, is retro without being Sabbathian, fuzzy without being stoner, more Hammer than Occult (any bandying around of the term “occult rock” in this direction is being incorrectly applied for no limp or quaint quasi-folkisms abound here) and progressive without losing focus or atmosphere.

‘The Master Thief’ is Opeth-style progressive luxury and ‘Pearls and Coffins’ is a simply magnificent track, seguing from bare, Western-tinged Tarantino soundtrack led eloquently by stunning vocals into a swirling Deep Purple vortex of an org(an)asmic post-chorus coda; its’ seven minutes an epic sway. And speaking of the Purple ones, in ‘Hypnotized’, Marcus Jidell channels the spirit of pure Blackmore with a majestic mellifluent magic carpet ride of a solo.

The Girl With The Raven Mask does not crush you with weighty riffs, but instead mesmerizes, with singer Jennie-Ann Smith a rare, enigmatic and captivating talent who sparks when the songs are sparse; reminiscent of Nancy Sinatra’s version of ‘Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)’ (sorry Cher). Given more room than on either their self-titled début, or last years’ All I Want EP, Smith is magnificent. If she had been a solo artist in the late 60’s she would be revered amongst the Joplin’s of history.

A diverse and intriguing marriage of stripped back and the grandiose, of top-level psychedelia and rock, all carried out to sea on the beguiling voice of Smith, for a while I feared The Girl WithThe Raven Mask was doomed (sic) to be one of those releases where the idea was better than the reality, but, while not every track hits the heights of the true moments of genius, the swirling, epic qualities draw you in.

 

8.0/10

STEVE TOVEY