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Who says classic metal is dead in America? This year we've had more than a few albums from American bands offering traditional metal. Here's Invasion from New Jersey's Fiakra, signed to Pure Underground Records, an imprint of Germany's Pure Steel Records.

By way of clarity, Invasion is the first album under this moniker. The band was formerly known as Hexen, releasing one album, Dark Crucible, an EP, and a demo. They changed their name since there was a Hexen already established in California. 'Fiakra,' they say, is a variation for 'raven' in ancient Gaelic.

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On the heels of last years long-player, The Second Time Around, singer songwriter Tony Desimone offers an EP of five songs, As We Go 'Round the Sun. I almost took a pass on the EP until I noticed he was covering one of my favorite Elvi songs, Suspicious Minds. More on this in a moment.

The other four songs are original to Desimone. The offer his traditional excellent lyricism and easy light melodic rock sound. The title track is lighter fare. The Rapture and The Line on My Horizon more electric, with great female vocal accompaniment. Of the originals here, the former is likely my favorite track. U & I has some odd vocal intonation from Desimone.

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German heavy metallers WIZARD will release their 14-track digital compilation, Taste Of Wizard, on August 3rd via Massacre Records. The compilation will be available for a special price on iTunes, Amazon, Musicload and other digital music stores.

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Progressive Metal aggressive, decisive and sharp sounds and melodies well delineated. And 'the sound of Metaphysics, influenced by '90s prog metal and prog rock of the '70s and '80s.The album sees Andrea De Paoli of the Labyrinth as a special guest on keyboards.

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Gorgeous guitar with new material, exclusive as usual

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Power metal would not exist if it wasn’t for the beautiful touch of the keyboard and a band who definitely embraces this instrument into their line-up are the amazing Leeds based symphonic power metal band Dreamcatcher. Concentrating their sound around computer generated noises, these power metal prodigies have released one of the finest debut power metal albums, and the best bit is that they are British. Dreamcatcher are flying the flag nice and high for British heavy metal, and their astounding debut album Soul Design is a must have in any power metal fanatics collection. Let loose the high pitched vocals, release the shredding guitar lines and last but no means least…… CRANK UP THE KEYBOARDS!

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For me, there are two types of great guitarists. Those I would classify in the category of technicians. Real pros of the six strings (or 12 ...) that have a technical unstoppable. And then there are very large, you know, those who flirt with genius. And Cyril is LEPIZZERA thereof. The difference? The first play masterfully, but the compositions are often displays of pure technique. Do you remember "the man who plays faster than his shadow"? The latter have the same qualities guitaristic but they put their technology for a brilliant inspiration.
The sound is powerful, clear and always emotionally charged. Like what the guitar heroes are not just demonstrations which, apart from their pedagogical virtues quite razors, if I may ... Cyril LEPIZZERA offers us an enchanting journey through the maze of his inspiration, always bright, despite a title of album that would not disgrace a CD of Death Metal ... No, the metal of the Marseille artist is pure, bright and straight as a blade.

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Hailing from the North of Ireland Filthy Angels sound like they've been brought up on a heavy diet of heads down rock 'n' roll, drawing their influences from a plethora of '80s rockers.  There is definitely a hint of The Wildhearts ('Destroy' era), some no nonsense hard rocking Almighty style here and there, as well as a smidgen of The Dogs D'amour to name but three influences heard on this here pledged album.

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Synful Ira was born in April 2007 and features Fabio Balducci (Ancient Bards) on guitar and Marco Renzi (Absynth Aura) on drums. It all began as an Evanescence's and Nightwish's tribute band.

"Between Hope and Fear" was inspired by a true story. It is a mix of very different sounds: melodic parts with an extensive use of piano and acoustic guitar, symphonic parts with orchestral arrangements and heavy parts with strong guitar arrangements intertwined with very modern and attractive electronic keyboard riffs, in order to follow as a great soundtrack the unfolding of history.

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BROTHERS in ARMS BAND 'Whats Life For" is the third release from band . The album is Heavy hitting rock in roll with southern roots. It's what BROTHERS in ARMS BAND fans come to love about the music. Staying true to Rock in Roll...

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If high scores were given for album art alone, New Jersey's Thank You Scientist would score big for their first full-length album, Maps of Non-Existent Places. I love sci-fi art from the classic period, especially when it's packaged in a format of early stereo records. Yet, what lies within? Something I couldn't have expected.

Here's a band of seven fellows, adept in many genres and very talented, playing about twenty different instruments, including cello, saxophone, and trumpet, to create ambitious progressive rock. I say ambitious when other words are also required. The arrangements are thick with complexity, significant mood and time changes, and individual showcase performances. There so much going on in every song, it takes several spins to wrap the arrangements around your head.

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This quintet from Lillestrøm makes a clear and good debut album, "Muriel's Dance" on Ovis Records. It is quite clear where the band puts the list, and should probably be something for everyone who likes a little sludge, metal and rock. The music itself is probably not as exciting for the seasoned, perhaps, but there are some things that pull up on the execution. Among others it has scope to Daniel (vocals), which makes up well for the album. The jump from a little more Phil Anselmo on the rock-sections, and second, maybe Dan Svanøe the softer, shows that it does well to have some experience in the field vocalist. I assume that this is something the singer (s) will continue to stay focused on, since it did well at several places during this album.

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On the ground italicize flag of U.S. school progressive metal (Dream Theater, Symphony X) seems to have taken root in a marked ... only in the last period on our virtual desk will be landed at least ten discs falling within this genre! Futile statistics aside, also present here Replosion, quintet led by brothers Galletto (guitar and drums respectively), and orbital areas of Mantua in Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia, may well be classified in the chaos of the kind mentioned above. What we believe can (and will increasingly) to this interesting group to emerge from the standard of the genre is a seemingly innate propensity to compose melodies well-aimed, that softened the difficulty and the high technical content of the songs and bring the proposal at levels more user friendly, allowing the band to avoid the trap of proposing mere exercises in style and technique. The latter is certainly present in all the work (the borrower guitarwork strongly the lesson of Romeo of Symphony X, blended with a drumming school Portnoy, amply demonstrate), but fortunately is not the only goal of the band, which seeks to move away from merely trying to put quotations in the overall sound a bit 'of sound speed and strength drawn from the power metal ("Push Me Down"), and also some shots of elegant rock settantiano, which help to soften the

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