JUNE 2004

STUART SMITH / HEAVEN & EARTH RETURN!

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Heaven & Earth has been in the studio writing and recording tracks for their new C.D. to be released later this year which will be entitled "Screaming for Redemption" and they are proud to announce that Paul Shortino is the new
vocalist. The band has recorded an 8 song limited pressing E.P. which will be released at a show the band is playing to 35,000 people in Woodland Hills, CA on July 4th, (Check out www.valleycultural.org/citp/html). The line-up for the
show will be Paul Shortino, (Rough Cutt) on vocals, Stuart Smith on guitar, Richie Onori on drums, Dave Chamberlain, (Glenn Fry) on bass and Scott Warren, (Warrant/Berlin/Dio) on keyboards.


The E.P. and the next C.D. will be released on the bands own label "Black Star Records" which already has worldwide distribution, will announce some exciting new signings over the next couple of months, some you know and some you
don't. On the E.P. which will be entitled "A Taste of Heaven" there will be 4 tracks from the first Heaven & Earth CD no/Smith)

1. "Screaming For Redemption" (Smith/Shortino)
2. "Heaven," (Kyle/Leese/Smith)
3. "Nasty Piece of Work." (Smith)
4. "It'd Be True," (Doah, Hansen, Leese, Smith)

In a few weeks Black Star Records will also re-release "Stuart Smith's Heaven & Earth" with 2 unheard bonus tracks. Says band founder Stuart Smith, "We're really excited to have our own record company, this is going to be a revolutionary label run by musicians for musicians where the artist will get a fair deal. The idea of the limited pressing E.P. is to let the people at the show on July 4th have a taste of what the Heaven & Earth sound is about and after so many requests from people all over the world who are finding it hard to get a copy of the first C.D. as the license has run out for any other labels to press it we'll be glad to get the album that started it all out again. We also have some great artists signing with us which we'll let you know about in the next few weeks. We're also very proud to have Paul Shortino join up with us.

Paul, Richie and myself have been friends and have worked on and off together for years so it's great to be getting down to something serious together at last."

LION MUSIC NEWS

HOUSE OF SHAKIRA - FIRST CLASS
House of Shakira will release their fourth album called First Class in June. The worldwide release date is the 18th of June, while it will be released in Sweden two days earlier (16/6). The band will appear live and unplugged at "Rocklassiker 106,7" on the 9:th of June at seven o clock in the morning (swedish time). The show is hosted by Europes drummer Ian Haugland and you can listen to it at www.rockklassiker.se - Tune in and enjoy.

It's been four years since the bands last release. During these four years the band took some time off and travelled, exploring new music and made more babies. So can you expect something new from the aor band that is, according
to the critics, "always pushing the limits of this tight genre"? To be honest, you'll have never heard the band play so much straight ahead rock as on this album. Welcome to travel First Class with House of Shakira in 2004!

The songs:

1. Ain´t Your Crowd - A basic rock n roll track with a locomotive groove that will make your head nod.or bang!
2. Uncontrolled - More straight-ahead rock n roll with an intense tapping solo by Mats and Per.
3. You Are - A mix of melodic rock, Spanish guitars and retro synthesizers makes this song stand out from your ordinary AOR.
4. Hey Lord - Basic rock n roll riff with a gospel chorus with soaring background vocals.
5. Black And Blue Skies part 1 - This one was written for our third album but we didn't get the groove going then. So this is the "original version" with a new chorus and you will find it very different from the version on III.
6. Creep - A song that pretty much only consists of choruses, every part is so melodic!
7. Black Barn - This song has a chorus so big it simply crushes every resistance to sing a long.
8. State of Grace - A very simple song that pretty much wrote itself. Everything just came in one piece and it took like 5 minutes to write it down. Then we just pushed the rec button and hit it.
9. Landing - One of the first songs we wrote for this record and then we tried a lot of different arrangements before we returned to the original.
10. Celebration Bound - Featured on the melodic rock CD "revealed and revisited", but here it comes in a fully produced version.
11. Sunshine Song - The ambition was to write a long epic song and I think we really captured what House of Shakira is all bout in this very song.
12. Chicago Blue - This is the best song we´ve ever written. An acoustic song with a strong melody, groovy percussion a kind of sentimental mood.

WINTERLONG
Lion Music are proud to announce the signing of Winterlong who will record their third album for us. After the successful "Valley of the Lost" and "The Second Coming", Winterlong's guitarist and main composer Thorbjorn Englund has been recording and producing the second Star Queen album "Your True Self" which is to be released at the end of July.

STAR QUEEN - YOUR TRUE SELF
Your True Self is the second album of the unique project StarQueen, and the second part of the concept which started 2002 with Faithbringer. There is only a light motive connecting the two albums. The sound is much more powerful and definately more gothic and melancholic. The long solos and power metal elements are replaced with darker lyrics, more melodies and harmonies. The progressive structure of the songs and the classical heavy metal background are the trademarks of Winterlongs guitarplayer Thorbjorn Englund and his style of arranging and producing. The singer and composer Stella Tormanoff has done the artwork this time and developed the fairy-tale of the Faithbringer into the philosophical and existencial quest of being Your True Self. The vocals are so syncrethic, so there is not so much to compare them with. The album features two new members of the band - Peter Uvén (bass) and Mats Holma (drums). They are both from Sweden. Peter Uvén is showing very original bass playing moretypical for the 70´s and quite unusual for todays heavy metal.

VALENSIA - QUEEN TRIBUTE (Limited Edition Digipak with bonus track)
Valensia's debut-album arrived in January 1994 and was awarded with both a Silver Harp and an Edison (Holland's most prestigious music award). With the Gaia-video - the most expensive videoclip ever made for a Dutch artist - Valensia became a pioneer in computer-animated clips in Holland. Internationally, attention was gained when the video was broadcasted on MTV Europe. Worldwide, 'Gaia' sold over one million copies. Valensia’s Queen tribute has been awarded as the best tribute album ever made. We are proud to announce our release of this album in an exclusively limited edition digipak with a rare bonus track in selected territories

BOOK OF REFLECTIONS - BOOK OF REFLECTIONS
Andy Engberg, Hubi Meisel and Mikael Holm - vocals
Vitalij Kuprij - keyboards
Rusty Cooley - guitars
Lars Eric Mattsson - guitars and bass
Eddie Sledgehammer - drums

All star fast and furious power metal with neoclassical and progressive influences
For a limited time only we are offering a free download from this album at www.lionmusic.com .

Lion Music might possibly be known for it's good guitarist releases and we haven't totally forgotten about this genre - actually in July we will release a bunch of these:

First out is Patrik Carlsson who is about to release his debut album "Phraseology" on July 23. Partik is perhaps the best guitarist we have heard from of Sweden since Yngwie...We are sure that Patrik will turn a lot of heads around. This is definitely one of the best guitar albums ever! Patrik is influenced by Steve Vai and just like Steve he really has got some killer chops, a great sense of humour and knows how to write a good song!

Faraz Anwar is another killer guitarist more in the fusion school, influenced by Allan Holdsworth and Frank Gambale. Faraz comes from Pakistan, perhaps not exactly a country known for it's guitarists...where he already is a very well respected musician. This guy has a lot of chops and he is also a very good composer.

The recently released albums SHAWN LANE REMEMBERED and THE SPIRIT LIVES ON - THE MUSIC OF JIMI HENDRIX will both be followed up by their second volumes.

 

May 2004
VIRTUOSITY ONE UPDATES:
1st May 2004:
Indepth reviews of

  • W.A.S.P - THE NEON GOD PT.1 (THE RISE)
  • J.A.M. (Joel Rivard, Alessandro Benvenuti and Milan Polak)
  • INFLUENCES & CONNECTIONS - PT.1 MR BIG TRIBUTE

Short reviews of :

  • TAKARA - ETERNITY
  • OVER THE EDGE (FEATURING MICKEY THOMAS)
  • GENIUS 2 - IN SEARCH OF THE LITTLE PRINCE
  • WHITE SKULL - THE XIII SKULL
  • SMEER - LOUD & CLEAR
  • UNDER RADIO - BAD HEIR WAYS
April 2004

L E V I A T H A N R E C O R D S N E W S

  • Corbin King "Destination"
    Corbin's "DESTINATION" is part of the Guitar Masters series that also included the 2003 released Cds MICHAEL HARRIS "Hurricane X" and JOE STUMP "Armed and Ready." CORBIN KING came to worldwide notice with his blistering guitar work on the critically acclaimed VAINGLORY "2050" release. He was proclaimed "One of the most exciting new young guitarists in years." Blending influences from diverse styles such as traditional metal to shred metal to heavy blues rock, Corbin's dominant guitar is truly astounding. For additional info go to: http://www.leviathanrecords.com/corbinkingd.htm
  • Metal legends, CHASTAIN, return with a vengeance on their new recording "In An Outrage." Joining guitarist David T. and vocalist Kate French are new additions, drummer Larry Howe and bassist Dave Starr. You may recognize their names as they were the rhythm section during the "classic" Vicious Rumors' years. "In An Outrage" is the band's first release since 1997's
    "In Dementia." That Cd rocked the metal world with its intense sophistication and Kate's dominate voice. David states, "In Dementia" was the stepping stone from pre-Kate CHASTAIN to the current model. We are now touching on influences that
    run the gamut of old school and new school metal. Overall the sound of the Cd is very strong. Probably the best mixed Cd of the CHASTAIN discography." For more info go to: http://www.leviathanrecords.com/chaslist1.htm The new CHASTAIN Cd "In An Outrage" will be released in early June on Leviathan Records in the US and Toshiba-EMI in Japan.

    Also at about the same time Leviathan Records will be releasing CHASTAIN "The 7th & The Voice." This release is a remastered, repackaged, reissue of the classic CHASTAIN albums "The 7th of Never" and "The Voice of the Cult" on one Cd. Both albums featured the studio lineup of David T. Chastain on guitar, Leather on vocals, Mike Skimmerhorn on bass and Ken Mary on
    drums. Both true metal classics.
  • FIREWIND "Burning Earth" is still receiving rave reviews. The band's video for the track "I Am The Anger" is also very impressive. Check it out if you haven't seen it yet at: http://firewind.gr/downloads.php The band also recently completed a headlining tour of Japan. In other Firewind news: Firewind guitarist Gus G was recently voted #3 most popular guitarist in the prestigious BURRN Magazine in Japan! Gus finished ahead of such Japanese fan favorites as Yngwie, John Petrucci, Blackmore, Zakk Wylde, and many others. Chity Somapala, formerly of Avalon/Faro, has been chosen the new lead singer for FIREWIND for upcoming tours and the next Cd. Chity brings to the band the perfect combination of melody, passion and power. Chity's close proximity and his ability to give FIREWIND his full time attention should take FIREWIND to the next level.
  • In regards to former Firewind/Kenziner vocalist Stephen Fredrick, he has just completed a devastating new Cd with guitarist Corbin King (Vainglory/Corbin King), drummer Stian Kristoffersen (Pagan's Mind/Firewind) and bassist James Martin (Zanister). Producer David T. Chastain comments: "Corbin and Stephen basically live in the same part of Atlanta and I had to get them into a band together for both logistical and talent reasons. I knew if we combined Corbin's heavy riffs with Stephen's unique melodic power vocals that the end results would be amazing. I was not disappointed. More info to follow soon!!
  • JOE STUMP's Reign of Terror will return in April for another European tour. Then he will do an instrumental tour of the United States. Joe has also just finished his first new studio instrumental Cd since 1998's "Rapid Fire Rondo." Joe is leaning towards titling the Cd "Speed Metal Messiah!"
  • SOUTHERN GENTLEMEN are also finishing up their third Cd. The band's second Cd "Double Your Pleasure" is still outselling all other Leviathan Records titles.

March 2004

  • VIRTUOSITYONE.COM - We have a new reviewer on board. His name is Stephen Leon and he is an excellent writer hailing from Denmark. Stephen contributed a review of Yngwie Malmsteen - Attack! when the site opened and now has come on board fully. Check out his review of UFO - You Are Here. Look out for Stephen's review of current and classic release.
  • MADMEN & SINNERS- the new project between fretless guitar virtuoso Tim Donahue and Dream Theater vocalist James LaBrie is set for release this month in Japan (24th on EMI - Toshiba) and in Europe on 5th April 2004 (Frontiers Records). Be sure to check out the Official Tim Donahue Website.
  • STRATOVARIUS - What is going on here? Seems band leader Timo Tolkki has lost the plot, the band have played a few festivals which have by all accounts been less than impressive, lets just hope this situation gets sorted soon.
  • YNGWIE MALMSTEEN - Yngwie is currently on a solo trek around the US with Lynch Mob in support on several dates. Yngwie also has several tracks on the new G3 cd and dvd. For more information check out Yngwie J Malmsteen's Guitar Alchemy.
  • CHASTAIN - have secured a major-label deal in Japan with EMI/Toshiba for the release of their eighth studio album, entitled "In An Outrage". A June release is expected. The group's first CD since 1997's "In Dementia" will receive a U.S. release through Leviathan Records. The album features vocalist Kate French, guitarist David T. Chastain, and original VICIOUS RUMORS members Larry Howe (drums) and Dave Starr (bass).
  • LION MUSIC - are happy to announce the signing of Valensia's METAL MAJESTY which will be release at the end of May 2004. The music of this album features some of the best harmonly vocals since "Queen's A Night At the Opera", actually the whole album is a tribute to that kind of sound. Our version will contain 3 more songs than the Japanese release and is also fully remastered.