CROSSFIRE

Crossfire, Turkish semi prog thrash metal band, was formed by guitarist Kaya Sevinc in 1999. It took them 3 years to finally form their original line up and unique sound. Ever since they have been one of the most popular bands in the Turkish Heavy Metal scene. Crossfire honed their sound by combining power and thrash metal with the classical metal approach. Their "Decisions of Hate" (2002) demo was an underground favorite that lead them to hit the road for a massive tour including 2003 Metal Bash Festival in Hamburg, Germany... more

BRYAN BELLER (Steve Vai, Mike Keneally, Dethklok)

Bryan Beller has maintained a frenetic, multi-faceted career as a bassist, composer, writer and clinician for over fourteen years. On his own, Beller released his debut solo album, the jazz/rock-flavored VIEW, in late 2003. His second album "Thanks In Advance", a deeply personal narrative set to advanced jazz/rock compositional confidence, came out a few weeks ago. more

New Grass Revival / On The Boulevard

New Grass Revival are one of the pioneers of progressive bluegrass. Formed in 1971 by Sam Bush (mandolin/vocals), Curtis Burch (guitar), Ebo Walker (bass) and Courtney Johnson (banjo), they immediately got the attention from the industry both in a good and bad way. First of all, they were often told that their music was not bluegrass, and they knew it wasn’t “bluegrass” in its traditional sense, and it wasn’t what they were trying to achieve anyways. They were blending rock, soul and blues rhythms with the traditional bluegrass music. They were not wearing suites, but instead they had a more casual style along with long hair... more

DAVID PALMER / THE QUALITIES OF SILENCES

This album was recorded in 2007 at, for the most part, the Pfeiffer University in NC. David Palmer wrote all the songs and the lyrics. It sounds like a live recording, not a lot of production went into it. I would not call this album “progressive”, what Palmer was trying to achieve in my opinion was experimenting with different genres like folk, rock, jazz, classical and ambient. Each song has a different atmosphere in this sense.

The first song “Resolve” is a bit ambient. The only problem with this song was that the bass and percussions in some parts sounded a little cluttered. The song itself is well written and has a nice intense atmosphere.

My favorite songs on the CD were “The Moon in July” and “Somnolent Exaltation“, on which Palmer tried a bit of jazz. These are most definitely the better performances on the CD. One song however was quite different then the others, and that was “Der Doppelganger“. It was influenced by classical music. The vocals (Steve Harrill) were especially good.

“Too Metallic To Smile” and “Wal-Mart Chronicles” were on the hard rock side. The problem with those tracks is the vocals. They sound too dry and they were overly dominant in the recording. Although this was a live recording I would like to see some production work, especially a better studio mix, this would really make a big difference.

Hande BURDG