Powerless Rise release redemptive clip of feelings

Sometimes it's hard to let go of bad feelings. Music has often helped me in a redemptive way here. Somehow it free's up the soul of it's bad condition holding us down and preventing us of feeling better.

This clip here of the US female fronted Hard Rock group Powerless Rise helped me to get over such a gap so I thought it would be great to share this moment with all of you out there.

If you like what you hear and would like to have a copy of the song to carry on with you it's surely fine news to know that Powerless Rise has set up a free digital download of the single available from Soundcloud.

The video delivers a very expressive performance. I like the blue tone of the video. It expresses the state of mind with the visuals perfectly. It's all about depicting the tormented spirit and emotional roller coaster associated with heart break and tragedy.

A bandshot of Powerless Rise while doing the video for "Battered Soul", (c) by Powerless Rise, used with kind permission

The track is featured on the band's debut record “Set Sail” which is available on iTunes, Amazon, iHeart Radio, and Google Play among many other online retailers.  The album is also available for purchase as a download or physical CD at the band’s official website www.powerlessrise.com.

The band is already working on a new EP so make sure to connect with the band via Facebook.so you won't miss out on the further band activities.

Neal Schon reveals new track and free download from upcoming album Vortex

Instrumental band give the listener a lot in my eyes. Compared to other bands they cannot work with the classic structures of a song like intro, 1st verse, bridge refrain and so on but have to find other ways of giving the listener a thrill to keep them on the speakers. That's a heavy task in my eyes. Just take a look at how long a minute of instrumental music is and how hard it is to put something inside that's worth listening without making the song sounding monotone.

Recently a brand new track from Neal Schon (guitarist of the famous band Journey) came across my desk and it gave me a lot of positive freezin' chills as well as it shows the superb musical abilities of Schon with it's blistering guitar work and variations. The solo section is held very extensive while the basics of the music constantly keep the song going. Besides playing the guitars Neal Schon also laid down the bass guitar tracks as well as he produced the whole songs on this and all other songs of the album that is yet to come.

(c) by Kaley Nelson, used with kind permission

The track "Tortured Souls" is a first glimpse into the new double album "Vortex" that is set for release on June 22 in Europe and one day later in UK and North America through the Mascot Label Group.

Stream the song in the widget below. And in case you like what you hear why not pick up a free download of the track? Just push the button underneath the picture and enter your email in the box to receive a download link to a full quality wave (!) file of the song.



If you'd like to keep updated on the further release activities make sure to see Neal Schon's Homepage or connect with him through Facebook.

Free download of songs at AFM V.I.P. Area

Wow, a new month has already begun! So that means checking out what should be up next. It also means looking for what to spend on the money. The costs for life have increased in my eyes over the last years. But surely no one wants to live without music, right? ;-) So what to do if you want to listen to some new stuff?

One solution I ran across is the V.I.P area on the AFM-Records website. The label is well known for having a lot of bands under their banner that are smaller or are on the way to get bigger including acts like Brainstorm, Fear Factory, Mob Rules, Sinner and the like. So clicking on the link will take you to the mentioned V.I.P. area. All you need to do there is to register shortly with a valid Email adress and the activation code that is displayed at the welcome page. Once registered by verifying the registration by clicking the activation link in the email you'll receive you're in!

After that you only need to login with your registered E-Mail adress and will have access to the possibility to download complete songs from the AFM rooster for free. There's one more good message: the label refreshes the song selection after some weeks. So as the time passes by all you need to do is to come back to the V.I.P. area, login again and you'll see a new track selection for download. Nice, right? :-) At the moment I'm typing these lines the label offers the following tracks for download:

1. Iron Savior - Burning Heart04:39
   
2. Words Of Farewell - Beauty In Passing04:53
3. Silent Force - Caught In Their Wicked Game04:40
4. Crystal Viper - Prophet Of The End05:36
5. Ektomorf - Numb and Sick04:42 
6. Lake Of Tears - Taste Of Hell (live)03:53 
7. Rhapsody Of Fire - Rising From Tragic Flames06:16
8. Truth Corroded - They Are Horror03:22 
9. Black Messiah - Jötunheim06:57 
10. Iron Mask - Rock Religion04:38 
11. Epysode - The Arch05:15 
12. Human Fortress - The Chosen One04:55 
13. Eden's Curse - Break The Silence04:38 
14. Onslaught - Chaos Is King04:06 
15. Vanishing Point - Distant Is The Sun04:47

Great! My choice feel on the tracks from Iron Saviour, Silent Force, Crystal Viper, Ektomorf, Rhapsody of Fire and Vanishing Point. Have to say all of the songs rocked so far, but especially the one's from Crystal Viper and Rhapsody of Fire found my sympathy. 

Like the old-school sound on the Crystal Viper track while the Rhapsody of Fire track turned out surprisingply variable. Very different and more direct compared to the stuff they did put out the last time. So which tracks did you choice for download and did you enjoy listening to them? 

And do you know more labels that do offer such a service? If you do, please drop me a line here in the comments section or let me know through Email. Please check out my profile to see my Email adress. Thanks!

Metal Hammer unfolds upcoming Mob Rules album

The german section of Metal Hammer megazine presents each day one song from upcoming Mob Rules album, that is set for release on 2012/10/19. You can find the main-site here. Just click on one of the headlines under the main article and it will lead you to one of the new songs. The title of each track is included in the headline.

But there is already more stuff up there for you to check out, so I decided to seize the possibility and give you a round-up here on what has been released so far. First of the record company gives away the title-track of the album "Cannibal Nation" as free download!  Just follow this link ,register and enter the code "MG52K2V". It's well worth it - a typicall Mob Rules awaits you.

Following the fine tradition of putting out a single the band has picked the song "Ice & Fire" this time and also filmed a video to promote the song. Watch it below.



The song has been cut for the video, but the band was so kind to put up the full song on soundcloud for streaming, so here you go.

The digital single does contain the following stuff and can be ordered here. 
1. Ice & Fire (Radio Edit) 2. Ice & Fire 

Update 2012/10/20: This weekend Amazon is giving away the full album as mp3 download for only 5 Euro. Here's the direct link for purchasing "Canninbal Nation" as digital download.

Anathema

So if you're looking for a bit slower and more sadden styled band in metal then Anathema might be a good choice for you. If've been introduced to them through a cover CD that was released with the german Rock Hard Magazine back in 1998.
The song was called "Fragile Dreams" and it fastly got me by it's catchy refrain and it's powerfull drumming. At this time the sound of the band was ofter compared to Paradise Lost and the similarities to the album "Draconian Times" from Paradise Lost were hard to deny.

A lot of time has passed ever since and the band seems to have changed a lot more to a softer style with progressive and dream-like melodies. Recently I focussed back on the band after years after not having heard anything from the band. It was a new message on the Rock Hard magazine's website  that brought back my attention.Currently the band has released a new album called "Weather systems" and has given out one track of that particular album for free listening and even more for downloading. Just check it out and let's see if you like it.



New song  "The Beginning and the End" download Link (joining the Kscope mailing list is required)

The Beginning and the End-Stream and download

For more info also see the band's website