Keith Emerson passed away.

I'm guessing that all of you learned the terrible news of Keith Emerson's death already. 
(The problem is that I am on short holidays out of my country at the moment - for which I will write a couple of posts later on - and I don't have the means to write properly. So I'm trying to do the best I can with a small tablet).
 So, last night I heard the terrible news, and I was totally shocked!
Keith Emerson died at the age of 71. And what made the things even worse, was the fact that he took his own life with a single gunshot on the head.
As far as I read, because of some serious health problems he was facing, he was not allowed to play music anymore, and he was struggling with depresion.
 And on the 10th of March he decided to suicide.
2016 is proven to be a terrible year for musicians so far, and here's one more really great name that has been added to this sad list.
 R.I.P Keith Emerson, you will always be remembered through your music!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y30jjHw0ecw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3jQKts5D-k

MYRATH: Legacy (2016)

  Believe it or not, this is one of the best albums that has been released this year. Well, so far at least. A solid, powerful and well-structured album, including great Heavy Metal riffs and tunes. 

  For those who aren’t familiar with Myrath and their music, I should say that they are a Tunisian Progressive Metal band, and their discography consists of 4 studio albums so far. What makes them special and different, is that they are playing Progressive Metal enriched with many elements from Tunisia’s traditional music. Their songs are mostly in English, but there are some exceptions in which they sing in their own language.

  Although Progressive Metal was never my cup of tea, I should say that I really enjoy Myrath’s music a lot. I have all their albums, which are almost equally good, with ‘Tales of the Sand’ (2011) being my favorite one.

  The album begins with an –unnecessary in my opinion – intro, followed by the Anatolian influenced powerful riffs of ‘Believer’.

Next comes ‘Get your Freedom Back’ which is one of the album’s best tracks (always in my opinion). Killer guitar riffs, fast pace, and excellent vocal skills by Zaher Zorgatti, the band’s singer.

‘Get Your Freedom Back’ is followed by ‘Nobody Lives’ which although is a good song, the lyrics are mostly in Tunisian, so many may find it difficult and unpleasant to listen to. But it includes many nice changes and beautiful guitar.

‘The Needle’ that comes next, is another powerful guitar-driven song, with many changes, nice guitar riffs and a “catchy” refrain.

  I am not going to mention each song separately here, because there is no reason to do so. All the songs are good ones, and each one will pick his favorite songs according to his music likings. But just for the record, I will mention my favorite songs, which are: Get your Freedom Back, The Needle, Through Your Eyes, I Want to Die and Endure the Silence.

  A very important element in Myrath’s music is without a doubt the band’s excellent singer, who is raising the band at a higher level with his performance, and his very good use of English.

  The album includes 11 songs, and has a running time of almost 50 minutes in total.

Highly recommended to the fans of Progressive Metal music, and to all those who can appreciate a “different” album, musically speaking.

                 My Rating would be 3.5 out of 5.0 stars.

By clicking on the following links you will be able to listen to the songs 'Get Your Freedom Back' and 'Nobody Lives' in order to have a small idea.

Enjoy! :-)

MYRATH: Get Your Freedom Back 

MYRATH: Nobody Lives 

PROG & ROLL Radio Show 6/3/2013. The complete playlist.

Last night one more radio show was online as usual.
This time, we hasd as "guests on the chatbox" 3 members of the very good English Neo Prog band Section IV, and at some point their manager appeared on the chatbox as well.
We had a good time altogether, and we chated about many interesting things.
We had people listening from many diferent countries once more, and as it seemed everybody enjoyed the whole thing.
We also did our usual music quiz, and this time we gave a physical cd copy of Mathew Parmenter's solo album 'Horror Express' as reward to the winner. 
In my opinion it was a very nice and pleasant show, and I think most of the people enjoyed it.
Here you can check the whole playlist:

Part 1: SAGA: Don’t be Late / POLLEN: Vivre la Mort / RUSH: The Trees / TRIUMPH: Lay it on the Line / JACKAL: Sunny Side of the Day.

Part 2: SECTION IV: So Far Away / ADVENTURE: Test of Time / SUBSIGNAL: The Beacons of Somewhere Sometime Part.1 / SECTION IV: Take You Down.

Part 3: TRANSATLANTIC: Sylvia (Music Quiz) / CAMEL: Breathless / BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: Rock n Roll Lady / THE MOODY BLUES: The Story in Your Eyes / GENESIS: Harrold the Barrel / PROCOL HARUM: Beyond the Pale / RENAISSANCE: The Vultures Fly High .

Part 4: PALLAS: Ghost Dancers / SECTION IV: Superhuman.

I would like to thank all those who tuned in last night, and a special thanks to Rich, Rob and Stu from Section IV.

 Thank you all.

GFreedom's Juke Box No.156

Good morning all! :-)
Today it is Saturday, therefore it is time to write down the songs that I picked as best ones for this week. I didn't have the time to listen to so much music lately, but from all the songs I was able to listen to, these are my 5 best ones:
PALLAS: Ghost Dancers (The Dreams of Men - 2005)
MAGENTA: The Gift (The Twenty Seven Clud - 20013)
BREATHING SPACE: Drowning (Below the Radar - 2009)
THE MOODY BLUES: Candle of Life (To Our Children's Children's Children - 1969)
NIGHTWISH: My Walden (Endles Forms Most Beautiful - 2015)
I will conclude this post with the YT links for the songs in my list, so you can listen to them right away if you want to. Unfortunately I found only 3 out of the 5 songs. For 'Drowning' and 'The Gift' you should maybe make a small research on the internet in order to find them.
Thank you for visiting and have a great weekend! :-)
PALLAS: Ghost Dancers
THE MOODY BLUES: Candle of Life
NIGHTWISH: My Walden

PROG & ROLL radio show welcomes Section IV.

  I'm writing this piece in order to inform you that on this Sunday Prog & Roll radio show will have as "guests" on the chatbox the members of the very good English Neo-Prog band Section IV.
  During the 2 hours of the show, we will be chating with the guys and ask them some questions about the band and their music preferences, in the usual cool and fun way we always do. Furthermore, we are going to play 3 songs from their very good debut album 'Superhuman', in order to honor and support them.
  So, if you want to become a part of Prog & Roll's fantastic atmosphere, just join our show on

this Sunday the 6th of March. 
Prog & Roll begins at 20.00 UK time, and you can listen by clicking the following link at the time I mentioned above: www.justincaseradio.com
Hope to "see" you there! :-)
Thank you.

CICCADA Presents: The Finest of Miracles Live

In case you are living in Athens or it happens to be here, today there is an event that you shouldn't miss.
The Greek Progressive Rock/Folk band Ciccada will make a live presentation to their latest album A Finest of Miracles, with their new line up.
The event will take place in the record store Underflow, near the center of Athens, and it begins at 20.30.
The address is: 39 Kallirois ave, Fix.
Tel: 211 4039926
The entrance fee is 6€.

STEVEN WILSON: 4.1/2 (2016)

  I have been a fan of Porcupine Tree since I don't remember when. When Wilson decided to leave the band aside and follow a solo career I was kind of disappointed, but I continue following his solo works. I have all his solo albums in my collection, with 'Insurgentes' being the only exception.
  In the past, I wrote reviews for his 2 previous albums, which you can find here if you are interested:
The Raven that Refused to Sing: http://gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr/2013/03/steven-wilson-raven-that-refused-to-sing.html
Hand.Cannot.Erase: http://gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr/2015/03/steven-wilson-handcannoterase-2015-from.html
   Starting this, I have to say that honesty, I can't find any reason why someone would like to buy this new album of his. (Wilson's music collectors are excluded). 
  First of all, this is not a "proper" album. It includes songs that were recorded in the previous years, (mostly during the "Raven" and "Hand" sessions) and for some reason were not included there.
 Furthermore, there is nothing new here. Nothing! The songs are similar in style to the songs on his 2 previous albums, but not so good ones. (Maybe that's the reason they were not included in the first place).
 4.1/2 works like a "bridge" let's say, between Hand.Cannot.Erase, and his next album.
There are only 6 songs included in the album, and the total length is almost 36 minutes.
 I listened to the album a couple of times so far, and the first word that comes to my mind is 'boring'.
 If I had to pick a couple of favorites, I would choose 'Sunday rain sets in' and 'don't hate me' which I think is the best song here, and it belongs in the Porcupine Tree era.
 I'm sure that many people will disagree with opinion, but from my point of view this is his least interesting album ever!
 If you are not familiar with Steven Wilson, then don't start with this album. Try any of his previous works - and even better - with Porcupine Tree's albums.
If you are a fan of him, then you are going to buy it anyway, like I did.
                   If I had to rate it, I would give 2.0 out of 5.0 stars.

Prog & Roll Radio Show (28/2/2016). The Complete Playlist...

Hello all!
  Last night one more Prog & Roll was online, and now I'm going to write a few things about it, together with the complete playlist. As I mentioned in the post below, last night's show was also including the 'Listener's Happy Hour', during which we play the songs that our listener's asked for.
  I think it was a really good and fun show, and we had people listening from many countries once more.
 Here you can take a look at the complete playlist:

VON HERTZEN BROTHERS: Faded Photographs / GENTLE STORM: Heart of Amsterdam / NIGHTWISH: My Walden / VANDEN PLAS: Cold Wind / ANATHEMA: Fragile Dreams / EMPTY YARD EXPERIMENT: Panaromia II / SIMPLEXITY: Luminosity / MYRATH: Get Your Freedom Back / SUBTERRANEAN MASQUERADE: Early Morning Mantra.

Listener's Happy Hour: PETER GABRIEL: Moribund the Burgermeister / QUEEN: Don’t Stop Me Now / ROXY MUSIC: Virginia Plain / RITCHIE KOTZEN: Cannibals / AVANTASIA: Mystery of a Blood Red Rose / DREAM THEATER: I Walk Beside you / LABYRINTH: Moonlight / DIO-MALMSTEEN: Dream On / TOOL: Vicarious / IRON MAIDEN: The Evil that Men Do / ALCEST: La ou Nais les Couleurs Nouvelles.

  I would like to thank all those who listened to last night's show, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! 

 Our next appointment is for Sunday the 6th of March, for the first show of Spring, on which we are going to have some special guests on the chatbox once more. But more details on that later on... ;-)

Thank you all!

 

GFreedom's Juke Box No.155

Hello all! :-)
Another fine Saturday morning came, therefore it is time for me to write down my usual weekly Top-5 songlist for you.
The truth is that I listened to lots of music during the week, so it wasn't easy to pick only 5 songs for my list. Even now I'm not sure if those 5 are the best ones, but ok...
So, the song I'm recommending for this week are the following:
SIMPLEXITY: Luminosity (Click to Start - 2011)
MYRATH: Get Your Freedom Back (Legacy - 2016)
DISCIPLINE: When the Walls are Down (To Shatter all Accord - 2011)
MUSE: Stockholm Syndrome (Absolution - 2003)
JANE: Circle of Hands (Eternity - 2011)
I will conclude this post as usual, by adding the YT links for the songs in my list, so you can listen to them right away if you want to. Because I counldn't find the studio version of 'Circle of Hands' I added the link for a video taken from a live performance.
SIMPLEXITY: Luminosity
MYRATH: Get Your Freedom Back
DISCIPLINE: When the Walls are Down
MUSE: Stockholm Syndrome
JANE: Circle of Hands - Live
Enjoy the music, and have a nice and relaxing weekend!
Thank you for visiting. ;-)

PROG & ROLL presents: The Listener's Happy Hour

  I would like to inform you that on Sunday the 28th of February Prog & Roll radio show will be including the Listener's Happy Hour, during which we are going to play the songs that our listener's asked for. 
   During the last 2 weeks we are receiving e-mails from our listeners, asking for the songs that they want us to play for them, and now it's the time to do so! :-)
 Tomorrow's playlist is a jolly and upbeat one, and I believe that everybody who will tune in will have some great time with the music and the usual fun on the chatbox.
Don't forget that Prog & Roll is a live broadcast, and it starts at 20.00 (UK time).
So, if on Sunday you are in the mood for a different radio show, just click on the following link - at the time I mentioned above - in order to tune in: www.justincaseradio.com
We will be glad to "see" you at the chatbox and welcome you to our show! :-)
Thank you!