CD

Without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most interesting Swiss bands in the symphonic rock genre is Flame Dream. Led by keyboardist Roland Ruckstuhl, this band made several solid albums in the late seventies and the early eighties. Calatea was their first release in 1978. Ruckstuhl recorded this six-track album together with Peter Furrer (drums), Urs Hochuli (bass, bass pedals), Urs Waddispühl (guitars) and Peter Wolf (woodwinds, saxophones).

From the ashes of the popular Italian hard rock band Vanadium arose a new band called Fire Trails named after a track from the Vanadium album Race With The Devil (1983). Both ex-Vanadium members Pino Scotto (vocals) and Lio Mascheroni (drums) wanted to bring back the rock ‘n’ roll from the eighties by Vanadium and they have re-arranged nine original Vanadium-songs. They added three new ones.

Off The Shelf is een opgepoetste versie van een eerder in 2006 uitgebracht album met een bonte verzameling werkjes van Keith Emerson (1944-2016), een van de grootste toetsenisten uit de rockmuziek. De grote stijlverschillen tussen de nummers worden in het cd-boekje stuk voor stuk toegelicht door de maestro.

Multi-instrumentalist Engel, real name Miguel Angel, hails from Spain. He turns out to be very talented multi-instrumentalist. The main instruments he uses are electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, bagpipes, flute and bass but also accordion, harmonica, violin, percussion and more! There's no doubt in my mind that Mike Oldfield must have been one of his main influences, but you can also recognize some influences of ambient, ethnic and most of all Celtic spirits, which is quite amazing for someone living in Spain.

After Enchant released the superb album Blink Of An Eye (2002), this San Francisco based group around Doug Ott (guitars) and Ted Leonard (vocals), release the new album Tug Of War. They recorded the album with long time and well-respected band member Ed Platt (bass), Sean Flanegan (drums) - as the successor of the incredible Paul Craddick - and BIll Jenkins (keyboards).

It seems to be that lots of Scandinavian bands conquer Europe with tasteful heavy metal. While their fellow-countrymen from Nightwish and Sinergy are more gothic and Stratovarius more progressive, the Finnish band Embraze plays progressive and melodic heavy metal, but their sound is particularly defined by the grunt-like vocals from guitar-player Lauri Tuohimaa, who's also the band's main composer.

After a five-years break since the album The Best Of  (1998), Al Fritsch (vocals, guitars, bass) and Mark Mangold (keyboards, background vocals) teamed up again for Drive She Said to record their fourth studio album Real Life. Assisted by Jonathan Mover (Marillion, GTR, Joe Satriani) they produced a total of thirteen new songs, all in the melodic AOR genre. Although the close harmony choruses sound great Fritsch’s voice doesn't quite convince in every way.

Divinefire are a collaboration of the Finnish multi-instrumentalist Jani Stefanovic - who, by the way, resembles Tom Englund (Evergrey) - and singer Christian Rivel (Narnia, Audiovision). Somewhat later bass player Andreas Olsson joined the band. Glory Thy Name is their debut album. Rivel’s vocals are powerful and impressive and they remind me of singer Thomas Rettke (Heaven’s Gate).

Delain are a Dutch female fronted prog metal outfit with a gothic touch. April Rain is their second album. The band is led by keyboardist Martijn Westerholt (ex-Within Temptation). Because of his illness a few years ago - he suffered from Pfeiffer’s disease - he had to be replaced in Within Temptation, but after a full recovery he formed his own band that originally started as a project. Singer Charlotte Wessels evidently learned a lot and is really making her way to the top of the genre.

Dead Soul Tribe releases their follow-up to their eponymous debut (2002). Featuring mastermind Devon Graves​, who was formerly Buddy Lacky and singer with Psychotic Waltz. The band plays a mixture of prog metal and atmospheric pop with tasteful arrangements of flute, occasional keyboards and acoustic guitars.