New Music Friday Rock and Metal New Album Releases 7-14-23


 

Check out our preview of the new metal and rock releases coming out this week for New Music Friday 7-14-23!

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PREVIEW: New Music Friday Rock and Metal New Album Releases Preview 7-14-23


 

Check out our preview of the new metal and rock releases coming out this week for New Music Friday 7-14-23!

Continue reading


PREVIEW: 70000 Tons Of Metal 2023 Announces Running Order, Sets Sail Today


The 2023 edition of 70000 Tons of Metal Cruise is here! Setting sail today with 61 other world-class metal bands and 3000 fans on board the Freedom of the Seas, sailing from January 30 – February 3, 2023, from Miami, Florida to Bimini, Bahamas, and back. Ghost Cult will be there! For a last-minute addition to the cruise, Hypocrisy has joined up. The cruise has announced its running order, singing schedule, and more. If you missed the boat (sorry ?) this year, stay tuned to Ghost Cult for our review of the cruise, and how you can go next year!

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The Unity – The Unity


 

The list of acts who can be linked to Metal legends Helloween through their band members is really quite an impressive one. Masterplan, Running Wild, U.D.O., Krokus, Accept, Iron Savior, Savage Circus, and Freedom Call have all featured one or more of the German pumpkin botherers at one time or another, not to mention obscure side projects like Shockmachine and Palast, and a frankly ridiculous amount of collaborations and guest appearances.Continue reading


Freedom Call Releasing Eternity-666 Weeks Beyond Eternity In April


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Freedom Call will be releasing Eternity-666 Weeks Beyond Eternity in Scandanavia on April 22, 2015, in Germany on April 24, 2015, in Europe on April 27, 2015, and in the USA on April 28, 2015 as a two CD digipak version and download via SPV/Steamhammer.

To show their nearly ceaseless motivation and their outstanding strong team spirit, Freedom Call declare a very unusual, but very “hellish” anniversary: “666 weeks since the genesis of Eternity”. This occasion will see the re-release of their 2002 landmark Album Eternity, in a very special 2 CD digipak edition with tons of bonus material, including the brand new hymn 666 Weeks Beyond Eternity!

Track Listing:

CD 1 (Re-mastered, new sequence)
1. The Spell
2. The Eyes Of The World
3. Flying High
4. Island Of Dreams
5. Bleeding Heart
6. Flame In The Night
7. Metal Invasion
8. Ages Of Power
9. Turn Back Time
10. Warriors
11. Land Of Light

CD 2
1. 666 Weeks Beyond Eternity (brand new song)
2. Metal Invasion (live 2011)
3. Warriors (live 2011)
4. Land Of Light (live 2011)
5. The Eyes Of The World (live 2004)
6. Metal Invasion (special version 2013)
7. Warriors (unplugged 2014)
8. Flame In The Night (performed by Powerworld)
9. Land Of Light (performed by Neonfly)
10. Warriors (performed by Hannes Braun)

FREEDOM CALL live 2015

CD 2
1. 666 Weeks Beyond Eternity (brand new song)
2. Metal Invasion (live 2011)
3. Warriors (live 2011)
4. Land Of Light (live 2011)
5. The Eyes Of The World (live 2004)
6. Metal Invasion (special version 2013)
7. Warriors (unplugged 2014)
8. Flame In The Night (performed by Powerworld)
9. Land Of Light (performed by Neonfly)
10. Warriors (performed by Hannes Braun)

FREEDOM CALL live 2015

Headliner Shows
Feb 27: Aera – Vienna (AT)
Feb 28: Explosiv – Graz (AT)
Mar 02: Arena Sports Hall – Lucenec (SK)
Mar 12: Nachtleben – Frankfurt (DE)
Mar 13: Kaminwerk – Memmingen (DE)
Mar 14: Kubana – Siegburg (DE)
Mar 15: De Pul – Uden (NL)
Mar 28: Stadtsaal Wald – Solingen (DE)

On tour with Sonata Arctica
Apr 30: Le Splendid – Lille (FR)
May 01: o2 Academy Islington – London (UK)
May 02: Effenaar – Eindhoven (NL)
May 03: Tivoli Pandora – Utrecht (NL)
May 05: Markthalle – Hamburg (DE)
May 06: Colossaal – Aschaffenburg (DE)
May 07: Postbahnhof – Berlin (DE)
May 08: Matrix – Bochum (DE)
May 09: Z7 – Pratteln (CH)
May 11: Estragon – Bologna (IT)
May 12: Backstage – Munich (DE)
May 13: Club 202 – Budapest (HU)
May 14: Fabryka – Crakov (PL)
May 15: Progresja – Warsaw (PL)

Festivals
Jun 06: City Of Power Festival – Zgierz (PL)
Aug 01: Ostrava V Plamenech – Ostrava (CZ)
Aug 07: Leyends del Rock Festival – Villena (Alicante) (ES)

Freedom Call on Facebook


Orden Ogan – Ravenhead


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Perhaps it says all you need to know about German Power Metallers Orden Ogan‘s fifth outing, Ravenhead (AFM/Nuclear Blast), that not only did I assume on first listen it was a debut release, but that I hadn’t realised I’d actually seen the band live a couple of years back when they were completely overshadowed by both Freedom Call and especially Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody until reminded by our fellow scribe Richie HR (who had to endure me drunkenly bellowing the wrong words in his ear all through the headline set).

See, if by your fifth album the endearing features are “promising for the future”, “naïve energy and charm” and if you don’t have a distinctive sound of your own so as to be so unremarkable as to not be remembered, then NINETEEN YEARS into your bands’ existence maybe it’s time to sit down and take stock.

But does knowing that this is a fifth album (I tend to do my research after a first listen, if research is required, so that initial impressions are as untainted as possible) make the difference in how Ravenhead should be judged? Damn skippy it does. Because you know that “promise for the future” then becomes “Oh, this is probably as good as it’s going to get” and, if we’re being honest, “naivety” really means not quite doing it right or not yet realising what needs to be done to live up to the masters (or indeed apeing the masters a touch too much to be a successful band in your own right). Having lived with Ravenhead for a while it becomes obvious that, like so much else in today’s consumer society, while superficially it’s all shiny and nice, as an album it lacks any real depth, substance or character.

Borrowing heavily from Blind Guardian and their school of fantasy-tinged Power Metal, this is exemplarily well played, but as a million death/metalcore bands show, technical expertise certainly doesn’t equate to innovative songwriting ability and Orden Ogan will always be so far in the shadows of their countrymen that they may as well be invisible.

There are decent tracks on here, but after two decades and five albums I want more than a band that sounds a lot like one of their contemporaries with a touch of Sonata Arctica (on ‘A Reason To Give’) or an added folky, shanty feel to a ‘At The End Of The World’. Meanwhile ‘Deaf Among The Blind’ may as well add the word Guardian to the title and serve to sum up Orden Ogan’s status in life. Some of this may seem harsh because this is a perfectly pleasant proficient and professional Power Metal product, but where there is wheat, all else must be termed chaff.

 

6.0 / 10

Orden Ogan on Facebook

STEVE TOVEY