As you can see from the title of this post, I’ve gone through a bit of a re-branding with these regular news reports. They will still focus on news about albums in the pipeline, so keep expecting updates on new releases, big album announcements, new tracks, studio reports etc.

However, I wanted something a bit more snappy as a title and also something that wasn’t so restrictive as there may be times when I need to write about something that doesn’t involve a new album.

If you’ve not checked out any of the previous posts in this series, entitled ‘Anticipated music in 2017 – an update…’, they can be found via the links at the bottom of this page.

Lonely Robot – The Big Dream
Release date: 28 April 2017

16729381_10155037235405439_4788700761726639376_nI brought you news a week or two back about a new album from Lonely Robot, the brainchild of John Mitchell of It Bites, Arena and Frost* fame. Well, I can now bring you a new track from the forthcoming sophomore release ‘The Big Dream’.

As you might expect, Mitchell’s recognisable guitar playing and vocals are all over this energetic and dynamic progressive rock track that features plenty of melodic hooks to get you coming back for repeated listens. From what can be gleaned from ‘Everglow’, there is unlikely to be a massive sea-change from the debut but that’s a good thing in my opinion. This sounds big, bold and continues with those grand cinematic overtones.

This is just the kind of song to get me extremely excited for the upcoming album.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ8sVvQvQdk?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

Lost In Thought – TBC
Release date: TBC

This has got to be one of my most highly anticipated albums of 2017 right here, the sophomore release from the re-formed and rejuvenated UK progressive metal band, Lost In thought. Their debut, ‘Opus Arise’ was a cracking body of progressive metal and is a more than solid foundation upon which to build.

Over the past few weeks and months, the band have been releasing snippets of the recording process and everything I have heard from these suggests that the anticipation for a long-overdue follow-up has not been misplaced. It remains to be seen exactly how the all-new line-up will fare and how new vocalist Deane Lazenby fits in having recently replaced Nate Loosemore behind the mic but that’s all part of the excitement for me.

And whilst we wait for more, here is a selection of recent updates to get you salivating at the prospect of what threatens to be another quality progressive metal album during 2017.

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CyHra – TBC
Release date: TBC

Now this is some news that came out of nowhere and was broken to the world by my old mate and died-in-the-wool metalhead Carl Begai of BWBK. I have been a fan of Amaranthe since the very beginning and I’ve enjoyed each album they have released, even when the music has veered dangerously close to cheesy pop territory. Vocalist Jake E. is one of the reasons for my enjoyment as he has a great voice. So when he left the band, I was very disappointed.

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Similarly, I have also been a fan of In Flames for nearly 20 years. Admitedly, I much prefer their earlier output to the more latter-day incarnation, with guitarist Jesper Stromblad playing an integral part in that with his distinctive playing and input into the song writing.

Therefore, news of these two artists coming together in a brand new project get me very intrigued and a little bit excited. The new band, CyHra, which also features Peter Iwers (ex-In Flames) and Alex Landerburg (Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody), will have fans of old In Flames salivating for obvious reasons, although the band have distanced themselves from being an old In Flames clone right at the outset. Regardless though of what they actually sound like, the debut album will attract a great deal of attention and I’m very excited to hear the finished article.

Ghost Bath – Starmourner
Release date: 21 April 2017

1000x1000Ghost Bath were a new find for me last year. Until that point, I’d never checked out the American quintet. To be honest, I’d barely even heard their name before. But then the band suddenly found themselves on the books of Nuclear Blast and the whole world seemingly took more notice, including me.

In my review of ‘Moonlover’, I described Ghost Bath as appealing to those ‘with a penchant for music that juxtaposes dark and depressing black metal with elegant and soaring shoegaze-like melodies. Call it ‘blackgaze’ if you will’, later concluding that the album delivered ‘a sophisticated blend of aggression, beauty and raw emotion.’

And now, here we have a brand new track from the forthcoming studio album, ‘Ambrosial’ to tide us over until the record is released. Early impressions from me are mixed, but I’ll give it time and judge the material in the context of the entire album. Here’s the track – see what you think…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqnmSMNxlTE?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

Novembers Doom – Hamartia
Release date: 14 April 2017

16194898_10154785044620926_4893612019868184461_nNovembers Doom are one of those bands that I think I should really like but end up passing by. I always try to like the American dark/doomsters and I have a couple of their albums in my collection. But I’ve never been much of a fan.

Album number ten is on the horizon and once again, I’m dutifully checking out their new material in the hope that it will finally click with me. And you know what? I really like this track entitled ‘Zephyr’; it is dark and depressive, but it has a really rich tone and an understated melodic chorus that gets under the skin quite quickly. If the new album offers this standard throughout, it might finally be the album that I’ve been waiting for from Novembers Doom.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltP96NXpupA?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

Previous updates:

11 March 2017
5th March 2017
26th February 2017
13th February 2017
3rd February 2017
30th January 2017
21st January 2017

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