RockReviews Music Blog

Anneke van Giersbergen, vocalist for rock group the Gathering, has decided to leave the band. She published her statement on her myspace account:

Dear people,

I wanted to send out this message to all of you to inform you that I have decided to leave The Gathering. After much consideration and some serious soul searching, I feel that it is time for me to change my direction in life and develop and search out new goals.

In all the wonderful years that I have been a part of The Gathering, we, as a band, have always strongly believed in sincerity: both personally and within our music. I have always been able to give one hundred percent of myself to the band and its music. Over the last year I developed an urge to initiate my activities from a different place in my heart, focusing on myself and my family.

In order to stay true to myself, the band, crew and the fans, I see no other option than to leave the band and pursue my new goals in life and music.

I loved my 13 years with The Gathering and I take pride in all the beautiful music we have made together and will always cherish the good times we shared on the road and in the studio. The decision to leave all of this behind has been incredibly difficult, but since it's made from the heart, I strongly believe that I have to go with it. Although it saddens me to say goodbye, I have made a lot of exciting plans for the future both personally and professionally.

Thank you for all the love and support and I hope we will meet again in life and music.

Anneke

The Sorrow is getting rave reviews around the globe. In the beginning of the year The Sorrow have been the newcomer of the month in Metal Hammer. About half a year later, the unique band leave behind bands like ENTOMBED, GOREFEST, CLAWFINGER or VELVET REVOLVER in the soundcheck of the August issue.

Nightwish leader/keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen and new vocalist Anette Olzon were recently interviewed by Patrizia Mazzuoccolo of Norway's NRK P3TV about the band's singer search, problems with previous front-woman Tarja Turunen and strip clubs, among other topics. Watch the five-minute clip at this location.

After choosing classically trained American coloratura soprano Jennifer Sowle to sing the leading character in his Classic Rock Opera, Timo Tolkki chose the second singer for his 3rd solo album. He is Heikki Pöyhiä from the Finnish band Twilightning.

Age doesn’t necessarily denote musical prowess, but for My American Heart, a band who wrote their debut when most of the members were merely 16, making great music has only been augmented by three years of touring, practice and acquired knowledge. The San Diego fivesome’s dynamic, innovative second record reverberates with a sense of newfound wisdom and the sort of skill that comes only from that hard-earned experience, a reminder of how shockingly young the makers of the record actually are. The strikingly varied disc, metaphorically entitled Hiding Inside the Horrible Weather to denote the beauty that inherently lies in all things, soars from hooky, driving rock (“The Shake (Awful Feeling)” and “Boys! Grab Your Guns”) to introspective acoustic ballad (“Tired and Uninspired”) to expansive searches that reveal a whole new side of My American Heart (“Dangerous” and “Fantasy”). Soliman’s lyrics are noticeably more refined, spinning with clever turns of phrase and poetically-inclined verses- yet another gleaming facet of evident growth on the record.

(One) musician, upon seeing the innumerable loops and samples strewn about the studio, inadvertently inspired the band’s name when he said, ‘This looks like garbage.’ Replied Vig, ‘Exactly. And we’re going to turn this garbage into a song.’
--Garbage Bio, 1995

Four albums and seven Grammy® nominations later, Garbage has its first “best of” collection--the CD and DVD collections, Absolute Garbage (Almo Sounds/Geffen/UMe), released July 24, 2007. Along with the new track “Tell Me Where It Hurts,” Absolute Garbage features 17 songs of extreme and intense emotion, from “Stupid Girl,” “Queer” and “#1 Crush” to “Special,” “Bleed Like Me” and “Why Do You Love Me.”

South Carolina Band Mixes’n’Matches Sub-Genres On Across-The-Board Debut

New York, NY—On July 24th, In De Goot Recordings will release Archetypes And Repetition, the debut recording of South Carolina’s Deepfield. The band is comprised of singer/guitarist Baxter Teal III, lead guitarist J. King, bassist Dawson Huss and drummer Russell Lee. Influenced as much by Silverchair as they are by Porcupine Tree, the debut contains 12 cuts that range from crystalline pop to Hard Rock and even ends with a cover of En Vogue’s “Don’t Let Go” that turns this radio hit totally inside-out, mining its inner rock’n’roll soul. The first single, “Get It,” was released on June 12th.

Screw all that wistful emo crap. The New Rivals are slinging pure aggressive, hard-rocking punk, and hurling beers at the tears of anyone who’s not along for the fast-paced ride.

Whether waking up in a strange hotel room flanked by two ladies or getting lost in a strange town and nearly missing a festival appearance, this Long Island-bred quintet is having more fun than, well, just about any other band out there, and it shows in the hyper-energetic rhythms, raw and ragged riffs, and impassioned vocals on their brand new EP, Fire for Effect, and their forthcoming eponymous debut.

Chris Cornell has made quite a noteworthy career in rock with groups such as Soundgarden, Audioslave and Temple of the Dog, yet he still manages to surprise the listeners on his latest solo effort "Carry On". While I was expecting to hear a lot of tracks in the vein of Audioslave, it turned out this album relies on mellow material for the most part. Carry On is rather mature release in terms of music, which ranges from soulful blues to pop, rock and even country.

The debut record of Finnish melodic rockers Morian is quite a positive surprise with its solid song material and the distinctive vocals of Janne Siekkinen that make it an enjoyable album to listen to. However, partially due to the production, none of the tracks really stand out in the longer run. Instead they sound rather similar. Regardless, for a debut "Sentinels of the Sun" is definitely a laudable effort.

A thought that strikes one's mind immediately while listening to the new pop/rock act Night Kills the Day for the first time, is the unique yet somewhat cold sounding voice of the vocalist Luke Brian. The music itself is somewhere between The Cure, Joy Division, Bauhaus and U2. Notably this New York based four-piece recorded this debut theirs under Joe Blaney's (Ramones, Keith Richards, Clash among others) guidance.