Month: April 2020

MARIUSZ DUDA CHECKS IN WITH AN UPDATE ON THE NEW LUNATIC SOUL ALBUM

Lunatic Soul’s, talented creator, singer and multi-instrumentalist, Mariusz Duda, has been busy during this current lockdown period and is ready to reveal exciting news on a new Lunatic Soul album and the follow up to 2018’s highly praised Under The Fragmented Sky, that will be released later this year on Kscope.

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all safe and sound, and that you are taking a good care of yourselves, both physically and mentally. These are tough times, filled with fear of what the future might bring us, of how our lives will change, because they surely will. But I also believe that together we can cope with everything.

I’m thinking that Lunatic Soul fans who have patiently waited, deserve to finally receive some news! I haven’t posted anything for quite a while and I hope you can forgive me for that. Let me start by saying ‘thank you’ for supporting my new project, which is individual songs released under “Mariusz Duda”. But don’t be deceived by “The Song of the Dying Memory”, my “subcutaneous songs” will come in different shapes and forms 🙂

A month ago, I started up a new website, www.mariuszduda.md  where I gathered and graphically organised all the musical endeavors I have taken part in, leaving free spaces for future plans. In the Lunatic Soul section, there are two empty slots. One of them is for this year’s album, which will be released in the autumn of 2020.

Many of you already know that I have been working on the seventh Lunatic Soul release. There have been occasional news from the studio, some short clips, pictures from a forest 😉 and bits of information in various interviews. I must say it wasn’t easy to find sufficient time during the intense “Wasteland tour” with Riverside, but, somehow, 75% of the new Lunatic Soul album is ready.

Currently, I’m finishing working on the lyrics. The final recordings, vocals and overdubs,will be planned in May and June, and the seventh Lunatic Soul album will be released in October.

***

Lunatic Soul has its cycle, and all the albums have their timeline (let me refer you again to www.mariuszduda.md ). The seventh album will be a musical continuation of the black and white albums, the third release “on the side of death”, and the “opposite” album to “Walking on a Flashlight Beam”, where there was a transition from life to death. Here, we will have a transition from death to life. I know it may all sound a little complicated and I promise to explain it all better one day, in a visual form 😉

What is important and what I can already share with you is that:

– it will be a dark folk, organic, Slavic-Scandinavian album. Exactly what you have always expected from Lunatic Soul 🙂 

– the colour palette of the album and its cover will be connected with… a dark forest 🙂

– there will be 6 tracks on the album, about 40 minutes in total.

– there will also be a double disc edition with additional… 40 minutes of music, mainly instrumental, including a 26-minute suite called “Transition 2”. That gives us nearly 80 minutes of new material.

***

I think before the summer arrives, I will be able to reveal more information, both audio and visual, about this new release. It will be a melodious, dense and coherent album. Very close to nature and to my heart. I come from the Masurian land of forests and lakes, that’s where I was born, that’s where I grew up, and thus “sylvan and Slavic moods” have always been and will remain a part of my life.

I don’t know yet what will happen with this year’s concerts of Riverside but I can promise you now that in the autumn of this year you can expect the new Lunatic Soul release.

I hope that it will bring you a lot of intense emotions and perhaps make going through this incredibly difficult time at least a little bit more bearable.

Be well! MD

Jakko Jakszyk signs worldwide contract with InsideOutMusic for the release of his next solo album

Jakko Jakszyk is pleased to announce he has signed a worldwide contract with InsideOutMusic for the release of his forthcoming new solo album ‘Secrets & Lies’ in late 2020. 

Jakko comments: “I’m genuinely thrilled to be signing to Inside Out.

I’ve gotten to know Thomas Waber over the last few years and he has continually encouraged me and subsequently given me the confidence to make music for myself again.” 

InsideOut label-head Thomas Waber adds: “I am really happy that Jakko has finally found the time to finish another solo album and that we are going to be working with him on it. We are always looking to work with the best talent in our genre and Jakko is most definitely someone who fits that description!” 

Though best known for his work as a vocalist and guitarist in King Crimson since 2013, with whom he has played sold-out nights at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, the ancient Amphi-theatre in Pompeii and three nights at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Jakszyk has enjoyed a busy and diverse career spanning nearly five decades.

Encompassing late 1970s art-rock outfit, 64 Spoons, once memorably described as ‘Stravinsky meets the Barron Knights,’ he’s been signed to the legendary Stiff record label, toured with Canterbury Scene legends Dave Stewart and Pip Pyle as a member of Rapid Eye Movement. Along with numerous studio sessions both as player and producer, including becoming a member of The Kinks for a week, Jakko’s musical career has been nothing if not eclectic.

Named by Guitarist Magazine as one of the top guitarists in the 1980s, his playing caught attention the Mark King who brought him in to replace the legendary guitarist Allan Holdsworth, in Level 42 with whom Jakko recorded and played live with for four years in the early 1990s. 

A talented multi-instrumentalist, his ability to work within the rigours of avant-garde rock through to sleek, intelligent pop have seen him work with a wide and diverse array of artists that includes Golden Palimino’s Anton Fier, Mica Paris, Tom Robinson, Peter Blegvad, Henry Cow’s John Greaves, Japan’s Mick Karn, and Richard Barbieri, Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin, Steve Hackett and Steven Wilson.

A recipient of the ‘Chris Squire Virtuoso award’ at the 2017 Progressive Music Awards at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, Jakszyk has also earned a reputation as an in-demand remixing engineer and producer. In this role, he has been commissioned to remix several classic progressive rock albums in stereo and 5.1 surround sound including ELP’s Trilogy and Brain Salad Surgery, Chris Squire’s Fish Out Of Water, King Crimson’s THRAK, The Moody Blues’ In Search Of The Lost Chord and several in-concert performances of Jethro Tull included on the multi-disc reissues for Songs From The Wood, Heavy Horses, Minstrel In The Gallery and others. 

Look out for more information on his forthcoming new solo album in the near future. 

Review – The Bardic Depths – The Bardic Depths by John Wenlock-Smith

The Bardic Depths is an all new progressive rock project formed from the writing team of multi-instrumentalist, Dave Bandana with lyrics and concept from Bradley Birzer. The self titled debut album releases in March 2020 and features performances from Peter Jones – Saxophone/ Vocals (Camel/ Tiger Moth Tales), Tim Gehrt – Drums ( Streets/ Steve Walsh), Gareth Cole – Guitar (Tom Slatter/ Fractal Mirror) and Robin Armstrong (Cosmograf) amongst a host of other amazing musicians from the progressive rock community.

To say that this is an unusual album is nothing odd, but such is the way of modern music making in that this one stands out for being very different, especially when you consider that this collective has never actually met in full or in person, as yet. In fact, up to a few weeks ago Dave and Brad had not even spoken by phone, skype or similar, this despite them having collaborated on two of Dave’s previous albums.

This group or project came to be because all involved are “Passengers”, the collective noun used by fans of the group Big Big Train for their Facebook group forum. When Lanzarote / Canary Island based musician Dave Bandanna put out a message looking for some musicians to help him with a new project, The Bardic Depths came into being, albeit it through the virtual world of file swapping and editing..

Dave, whose normally work entails entertaining holidaymakers by providing music in the evening at various holiday resort and hotels (he also feeds the islands large stock of feral cats) was inundated with great responses. These came from the likes of Gareth Cole, Peter Jones and Professor Bradley Birzer of Hillsdale College, Michigan among others, with Robin Armstrong (Cosmograf) acting as a producer. This album is certainly different because of all these factors.

The album itself is a celebration of the friendship between C.S Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien, both of whom were members of the Oxford University literary group The Inklings, where they would meet to talk about their writing projects and read to each other.

This album explores that friendship across its seven lengthy tracks.  The music wears its influences openly with a touch of Pink Floyd and snatches of latter-day Talk Talk’s prog sensibilities, to name just a couple. All are very lovingly collated together to create a highly impressive, moody and emotionally moving musical collage of ideas, influences and performances that, when taken together, merge to create a series of epic pieces reflecting on friendship through the storms of one’s life.

I know I say this about many of the albums I review, but I feel this really is a remarkable project and one that will be viewed very positively come the end of year listings. Well I certainly think that will be the case here, I know it will be for me. Once again this album will need some time for its treasures to become fully apparent for it is only with increasing familiarity that this will become clear. There is so much great music here for your ears to embrace and enjoy that this journey you take will be a most worthwhile and revealing one for you to both start and to appreciate.

Opener piece, The Trenches, refers to the first world war experiences that both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien endured and it is very evocative. Greek literary characters are used to ask the questions about the decisions made, and what the impact of those choices had, on the average man in the trenches. Biting Coals, speaks of the writing group and how, as war survivors, they meet and discuss and talk things over. This song has a lot of atmosphere that is utilised to great effect creating both a safe and cosy environment for the conversation.     

Depths of Time is the first real epic, clocking in at 12:33 which gives this three-part piece lots of room for some very extensive instrumental sections. These include some fine, airy sax from Peter Jones amidst some fabulous rhythmic guitar playing from Gareth Cole. The music here is rather ethereal sounding in tone with lots of space surrounding it to give an open effect and a chilled and relaxed tone, all very impressive really. The next piece is Depths of Imagination which opens with spoken word from Brad Birzer and a strong pulsating bass line from Dave Bandanna along with some great keyboards from Paulo Limoli that offset Dave’s vocal delivery.

Depths of Soul follows, opening with some fiery lead guitar from Gareth and more spoken word from Brad. It’s all very evocative sounding and moves onwards fiercely, fuelled by the drums of Tim Gehrt drums and Dave’s fine bass playing once again. The End is another atmospheric piece that contains some great cello from Mike Warren, a fine piano melody from Paulo Limoli and some lovely flute from Dave. This song has a great melody which suits its gentle tone, the music has passion and depth and sounds exceptionally fine indeed. It is all very musical and tuneful with great melodies that really suit the tone of the songs.

The final song, Legacies, opens with bells and a powerful drumbeat. This piece is about what this friendship leaves in its wake and why it made a difference then and still does for us today. How these men lived, what they believed in and lived for still matters for us today and that is the legacy they left us.

What we live for is important, the final spoken words draw the circle to a close with the words and a truly epic guitar solo opened Gareth and finished by Robin. It is simply sensational and a stunning close to what has been an enjoyable album. One of the best of the year so far and one that you really need to hear for yourself.        

Released 20/3/2020

Order from bandcamp here:

https://thebardicdepths.bandcamp.com/releases

Steve Howe, YES guitarist, releases his solo album LOVE IS on 31st July.

Legendary Yes guitarist Steve Howe has announced he is to release Love Is on 31st July through BMG Records. Love Is is Howe’s first solo album since the all-instrumental Time in 2011 and has a balance of five instrumental tracks and five songs. 

The album will be available as CD – gatefold digi-sleeve with 12 page booklet and LP – Black vinyl 180gm with gatefold sleeve, liner notes and lyrics. 

Link to Steve Howe Official store pre-orders: https://SteveHowe.lnk.to/D2CPR

Link to Amazon pre-orders:https://SteveHowe.lnk.to/LoveIsPR

Steve Howe sings lead vocals and plays electric, acoustic and steel guitars, keyboards, percussion and bass guitar on the instrumentals while Yes vocalist Jon Davison provides vocal harmonies and plays bass guitar on the vocal tracks. The album also features Dylan Howe on drums.

Many years in the making, Love Is brings together a consistently strong and polished listening experience, forging the very best from the writing and playing throughout the album. This may well be considered the real ‘stand out’ album of Howe’s solo career. The instrumentals keep a highly progressive rock guitar style to the fore, with songs that explore stories of lives lived and lives only just begun. Love Is A River is the central longer song with several textural shifts, featuring a theme played on 12 string and steel guitars.

Portrait of English progressive rock musician Steve Howe, taken on February 3, 2020. (Photo by Will Ireland/Prog Magazine)

“I called the album Love Is because it hints at the central idea that that love is important but also love of the universe and the ecology of the world is very important,” says Steve Howe. “Alexander Humboldt went around the world and recognised we are destroying the planet but that was 200 years ago! We are still destroying the planet and, I suppose, my songs show the yearning I have for the love of nature and how beauty, art and music all stem from nature. There is a theme about those things, love, beauty, ecology, nature and wonderful people.

“Love Is A River just seemed a very important track to me, a sort of quintessential track with lots of moods, lots of interesting things going on with steel guitars and acoustic guitars. Further tracks grew from time spent writing in my studio.

“See Me Through looks at the idea that we get through life by not driving ourselves that hard but attempting to achieve things with people who help you along the way and Imagination is dedicated to my granddaughter Zuni. It’s about how I see some of the things she’s experienced in her short seven years.”

“I invited Jon Davison to sing harmonies with me and add bass on the songs. If he was singing on the songs I thought why doesn’t he play bass as well and it turned out nice. He’s been with Yes for seven or eight years and he’s a great guy, great performer and a great interpreter of Yes songs.“I’ve been singing for years, mainly in harmony but I’ve sung lead on lots of my own albums before and I feel that, as I’ve got older, I’ve got a grip on that and, hopefully, it’s improved over the years.”

The album includes many distinctive Steve Howe signatures among the instrumental tracks from the delicate beauty of Fulcrum, Beyond The Call and Pause For Thought to upbeat rock, The Headlands, and the jazz-tinged Sound Picture.

“The instrumentals are like a mood, a place I went to one day, thought this is nice and then I develop that to a point where it’s a finished track. There might be key ingredients that I thought about using musically that I like, that I’m drawn to, and then developing them into something.”

Love Is was written, engineered and produced by Steve Howe with further engineering and mixing by Curtis Schwartz. “I write in my own studio and then go to see Curtis in his studio,” Howe explains. “We expand the tracks and put them on Pro Tools and everything starts to be possible. At some point, probably around 2 years ago, Dylan came down to Curtis’s studio and we recorded the drums on some of the tracks. I could see a balance of five instrumental tracks and five songs and there was a feeling that it was an album, sitting there, looking at me.”

The track listing for Steve Howe’s Love Is album is:

1 Fulcrum (instrumental)

2 See Me Through

3 Beyond The Call (instrumental)

4 Love Is A River

5 Sound Picture (instrumental)

6 It Ain’t Easy

7 Pause For Thought (instrumental)

8 Imagination

9 The Headlands (instrumental)

10 On The Balcony

Formats:

CD Catalogue No. 538608592 Gatefold digi leeve with 12 page booklet with liner notes by Steve Howe & lyrics

LP – Catalogue Number – 538608601180gm Black vinyl in Gatefold sleeve with liner notes by Steve Howe & lyrics

Release date: 31st July 2020


Link to Steve Howe Official store pre-orders: https://SteveHowe.lnk.to/D2CPLink to Amazon pre-orders: https://SteveHowe.lnk.to/LoveIsPR

Marillion guitarist, Steve Rothery releases the video of La Silla

Steve Rothery

Marillion guitarist, Steve Rothery releases the video of La Silla, the first track taken to be taken from his forthcoming album Revontulet which will be released later in the year.

Steve Rothery Says: “The Crowdfunding campaign won’t launch until September, but i thought it would be nice to release something in the current situation….”

La Silla is now available to purchase from Rothery’s bandcamp page:

https://steverothery.bandcamp.com/

Rothery will launch a crowdfunding campaign for Revontulet on September 28 from his website.

PATTERN-SEEKING ANIMALS release second track “Raining Hard in Heaven” off forthcoming studio album “Prehensile Tales”

PATTERN-SEEKING ANIMALS, the California-based band featuring Ted Leonard (lead vocals & guitars), Jimmy Keegan (drums & vocals), Dave Meros (bass) and John Boegehold (keyboards), 

is set to release its second opus, “Prehensile Tales”, to be released through InsideOutMusic on May 15th, 2020.

Now the second single and album opener “Raining Hard In Heaven” has been released.

Listen to the track here:

For the six songs on the album (the longest clocking in at over 17 minutes), the band introduced violin, flute, trumpet, cello, sax and pedal steel to the sound palette that was once again recorded & mixed by Rich Mouser at The Mouse House.

The track-listing reads as follows:

1. Raining Hard In Heaven

2. Here In My Autumn

3. Elegant Vampires

4. Why Don’t We Run

5. Lifeboat

6. Soon But Not Today

Watch the clip for the first single ‘Here In My Autumn’ here: https://youtu.be/m5mgpcOgFws

The album, featuring cover art by Polish artist Mirek (https://www.facebook.com/mirekis7/), will be released as Gatefold 2LP plus CD, Limited Edition CD, and on all digital platforms. Presales are now available! 

To pre-order, stream, download “Prehensile Tales”, just click https://patternseekinganimals.lnk.to/PrehensileTalesID

PATTERN-SEEKING ANIMALS online:

http://PSAnimals1.com

http://Facebook.com/psanimals1

https://www.instagram.com/psanimals1/

Abel Ganz Announce First Track From New Album – ‘The Life Of The Honey Bee and Other Moments Of Clarity’.

Scottish progressive rock legends Abel Ganz have released a video of the first track to be taken from their forthcoming new album ‘The Life Of The Honey Bee and Other Moments Of Clarity’.

Arran Shores is an instrumental written by the band’s guitarist David King, the band tell us more…

“We just wanted to say another huge thank you to everyone that has so far taken part in the pre-sale for our new album ‘The Life Of The Honey Bee and Other Moments Of Clarity’. We have been nothing less than awe-struck at the response and it’s really incredibly humbling.

We would like to share a little video with you of one of the tracks from the album : Arran Shores.

This is a tune written and performed by our guitar player David King – inspired by the beautiful Isle of Arran. Please feel free to share – and please also be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.”

You can still pre-order the new album, due for release on 15th June, from the link here:

Home

Progressive Music About Gambling

Gambling is such a widespread activity that you would think that there would be an endless chasm filled with songs that have it as a central theme. Well, to my surprise, it’s not so. It seems that gambling served more as an inspiration to country singers and bluesmen of yesteryear. In the post-1970s era, the influx of gambling-associated songs seems to have slowly dried up.

Which is weird, given that if you check google for annual gambling revenues, they seem to go up each year, for both land-based and digital establishments. If people, musicians included, are doing more and more gambling, why aren’t they exploiting this activity that is a roller coaster of emotion in their music, which is also all about feelings?

Maybe, it’s because online casinos like www.novibet.co.uk are slowly taking over the industry. And the ease of use they provide doesn’t seem as fascinating as gambling in a shed in Mississippi did to folk artists back in the day. Though, the experience is unmatched. They couldn’t choose from thousands of slot games, win progressive jackpots in free spin rounds, and play skill-based mini-games. Or get dealt a hand of blackjack from a dealer on the other side of the globe and win life-altering sums.

So, it wasn’t easy to take a deep dive and try to locate gambling music that’s in some way associated with the progressive rock genre, but I managed to squeeze out a few examples.

The Turn of a Friendly Card

Here’s part of an album instead of just a song. It’s the fifth one from The Alan Parsons Project, released in 1980. This second side of this two-sided LP tells the tale of a middle-aged man who visits a casino where he proceeds to bet it all and lose it all. It’s broken down into five sub-tracks and spawned the hits “Time” and “Games People Play”.

Death Is a Great Gambler

Okay, now here’s a full album from German band Coupla Prog. The band only existed for roughly seven years and they reached their peak in the early 1970s. After the death of member Rolf Peter, due to a drug overdose, they decided to commemorate the loss by writing and recording – “Death Is A Great Gambler but If I Win, Finally I Can Die”.

Diamond Jack

Youngsters might not know who Wishbone Ash is, but this British band had its run in the mid-1970s. In 1977 they released their eighth album – Front Page News, which was a departure from their previous releases, featuring mostly soft ballads. It peaked at No. 31 in the UK Albums Charts, and featured the song – “Diamond Jack”. The last one on side two.

Upper Sixth Loan Shark

Many still wonder why isn’t Jethro Tull in the rock & roll hall of fame? It’s known that progressive rock bands don’t have a great track record with it comes to joining the illustrious society, even though they’ve been eligible since 1993. However, Ian Anderson is good-enough to grace my list, as he makes it with this solo effort.

LONG DISTANCE CALLING – ask ‘How Do We Want To Live?’

Launch new single ‘Hazard’

LONG DISTANCE CALLING, Germany’s most internationally successful instrumental rock act, have announced the release of their seventh studio album ‘How Do We Want To Live?’ for the 26th June 2020. 

Today also sees the launch of the album’s first single ‘Hazard’. Watch the video now here:

The band comments on the new album:  

“We are all going through crazy times right now and we were thinking about postponing this news for a couple of months. But we have the feeling that our new album, “How Do We Want To Live?”, is a great companion for the current situation and our lives. We started recordings back in February and finished it during the lockdown. This alone makes it a special chapter for us, but we also expanded our musical cosmos without neglecting our well known trademarks.  The album deals with the coexistence of man and machine, shining light on some currently (frightening) relevant aspects. We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved and we say thank you to everyone involved on this journey. Many of you have already asked how you can support us. We have a pretty simple answer: get the new album! We put a lot of love and effort into this baby and can´t wait to finally share it with you. Stay healthy! Peace LDC”

‘How Do We Want To Live?’ sees the band forging a sharply defined & artistically tight exploration of the relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence, and the state of digital progress. Comprised of 10 tracks which contain all the classic LDC-trademarks whilst also bringing something completely fresh and unexpected to the table with their ambitious use of electronic sounds, a perfect symbiosis between man and machine. 

‘How Do We Want To Live?’ will be available as a Limited Edition CD, Gatefold Black 2LP + CD & as Digital Album. A limited deluxe box-set will also be released, containing a special coloured edition of the album, an exclusive 7inch featuring two remixes, a beautiful poster featuring the albums stunning artwork by Max Löffler, and 4 individually signed art-cards all contained in a lift-off box. Pre-order now here https://longdistancecalling.lnk.to/HowDoWeWantToLive

The full track-listing is as follows:

1.     Curiosity (Part 1)

2.     Curiosity (Part 2)

3.     Hazard

4.     Voices

5.    Fail/Opportunity

6.    Immunity

7.     Sharing Thoughts

8.     Beyond Your Limits

9.     True/Negative

10.  Ashes

The track ‘Beyond Your Limits’ continues the band´s tradition of having one track with a vocalist, and features the talents of Eric A. Pulverich of the band Kyles Tolone. As the band comments: “We got to know him over our producer Arne Neurand. We were instantly fascinated by his voice and we wanted to show the quality of his voice and melodies.”

It was recently announced that the band have been nominated for the GEMA Musikautorenpreis 2020. This is an integral part of the German music landscape and unique in its focus on music writers. GEMA has been honoring composers and lyricists for their musical work in this way for 12 years, and is representative of the great diversity and the enormous range of fascinating works across genres.

LONG DISTANCE CALLING will return to the ‘Seats & Sounds’ format for a German tour in September 2020. 

08.09.20 Hamburg kleine Elbphilharmonie – SOLD OUT

09.09.20 Hannover Pavillon

10.09.20 Bochum Christuskirche

11.09.20 Dresden Alter Schlachthof

12.09.20 Leipzig Parkbühne

13.09.20 Berlin Passionskirche

15.09.20 Köln E-Werk

16.09.20 Frankfurt Jahrhunderthalle Club

17.09.20 Mannheim Capitol

18.09.20 München St. Matthäus

19.09.20 Stuttgart Mozartsaal

The band recently released their first ever live album ‘STUMMFILM – Live from Hamburg (A Seats & Sounds Show)’. Filmed during a special run of dates in early 2019, it saw the band performing seated shows in some very special locations for a stunning audio-visual experience.

GODSTICKS – PREMIERE NEW VIDEO FOR “VICTIM”

TAKEN FROM THEIR NEW STUDIO ALBUM INESCAPABLE 

Having released their latest and most accomplished album to date Inescapable, to media and fan acclaim in February, Godsticks proudly present their new single and video “Victim”. 

Darran Charles explains the meaning behind the song “All of us seem to agree that this is our favourite song on the album. There is a definite progression from a light mood to a very dark and angsty vibe, which from a compositional standpoint was extremely challenging to achieve, but eventually very rewarding. To me the song is essentially about arguing with myself – looking inside and not liking some of the things I find. You can visualise the person you want to be but trying to change can also be a process just as hurtful as coming to terms with our flaws.” 

Godsticks’ drummer Tom Price expands on the creative process for the video  “For Victim’s music video, we decided to focus on another big visually impactful performance, so we simply had to work with George Laycock from Black Tide Audio Visual again because he did such a great job with our ‘Denigrate’ video. With the help of lighting engineer Laure, we dreamt up a light show to emphasize those two different moods in the song that Darran was talking about – shifting from low-key in the first half into high impact arena-show lighting in the second. Everything came together once again and we could not be more happy with the finished product!” he continues “We hope the new video will at least provide a little distraction to anyone gracious enough to view it during these crazy times; all 4 of us are certainly very proud of it. We hope everyone out there is staying safe and well and trust me when I say that the band is itching to get back out on the road as soon as possible!”

With Inescapable the band have channelled their energy and technical ability into the melody, phrasing and vocal performance, allowing emotion to take centre stage. Their mix of heavy rock, progressive and alternative metal with a dynamic range of angular riffs and emotional depth is leaving listeners reeling. On this release Godsticks found a definitive theme running through the songs, one of being more open and more personal; ultimately one that shines an inquisitive light on Charles’s struggle with inner demons which give the songs a new level of intimacy. Inescapable was produced by James Loughrey (Skindred) and recorded at the famed heritage Monnow Valley studio. 

A selection of some of the great reviews from the media on Inescapable:

‘A thrilling, agitated, uptight record’ Prog Magazine

‘Godsticks’ best album yet’ Classic Rock

– ‘A mighty powerful piece of work that could be as perfect as Godsticks are going to get. Savour the moment’ 9/10 – Powerplay Magazine

“an exquisite album that is without a doubt their strongest” Betreutesproggen.de

“The songs excited me, because there is so much to discover while listening to them.” Twilight-magazin.de

‘ a superb entry point and the band’s most grimly exhilarating emotional splurge yet’ Blabbermouth

“Inescapable” is thoroughly a solid work of great ingeniousness” 5/5 DrumHeads!!

“Class A songs…a must-hear album…’ RockMuzine.nl

“inspired, rich and polished” Metal Obs (FR)

“a real success and their best album so far!” 4/4 Highlands Magazine (FR)

Godsticks are:

Darran Charles: Vocals, guitars, keys, synths

Dan Nelson: Bass

Gavin Bushell: Guitars

Tom Price: Drums

Backing vocals on ‘Denigrate’ – Daniel Tompkins