PROJECTION’S ON
A new year has come and brought forth some more non-big-budget yet big names’ projects that will surely appeal to classic hard rock aficionados.
The first is called RAZORBACK, and is a band comprised of Rolf Munkes of MAJESTY and ex-SHYLOCK Chris Heun on guitars, singer Stefan Berggren who worked until recently with THE COMPANY OF SNAKES), and former VANIZE rhythm section Marcus Bielenberg and Pierre Fienhold. The quintet, laying the last bricks into their debut record, have just signed a deal with Massacre Records. Hopefully, unlike Munkes’ EMPIRE, this beast will hit the road one day.
Next comes MOONSTONE, a brainchild of the Italian guitarist Matteo Filippini, a venture that invloves real heavyweights. Among them are no other than DEEP PURPLE’s skin-kicker Ian Paice, his erstwhile cohort Glenn Hughes and former URIAH HEEP warbler John Lawton. There’s no deal yet for the bluesy-directed engine, although the recording has started some time ago and will continue until spring. Lately, Italians keep themselves busy with star-ridden combos: Dario Mollo, Chris Catena and now Filippini… Why not, really?
The last for the moment – surely, not for 2004 – emerges AUDIOVISION, a showcase for NARNIA’s vocalist Christian Rivel who called to arms his friends Jeff Scott Soto, Tony Franklin and two fellow Swedes Mats Leven of KRUX and EUROPE’s Mic Michaeli. Their first fruit is ripe for taking in the form of “Love Is Like Oxygen” recorded for THE SWEET tribute, “The Sweet According To Sweden”, out on February 9th.
The in-crowd thing is good, ain’t it?
MOURNER’S RHAPSODY
Czeslaw Niemen could be called a father of Polish rock. Among the first Eastern European musicians to embrace the sounds coming from the West, Niemen’s works – no matter, blues, progressive, psychedelic or latter-day jazz – are ranked, by those in the know, equal to the Brit and Kraut masterpieces. Light a candle for the soul brother, then, for on January 17th he died of cancer, age 64. Czesc, Czeslaw!
THE CALL OF THE EIGHTH STAR
It’s been five years in circulation and proved so popular its author decided to turn the bootleg into a commercial release. The author in question is the BLACK SABBATH mastermind Tony Iommi who, back in 1996, had a second go at the solo album, as the first , 1986’s “Seventh Star”, ended up as a SABBATH record. Tony’s choice of a singer for another attempt was the same: Glenn Hughes – with a line-up rounded off with Don Airey on keyboards and Hughes’ colleague in TRAPEZE, Dave Holland on drums. They did an amazing work – but for some reason didn’t put the results out, though “I’m Gone” resurfaced on Glenn’s 2000’s "Return Of Crystal Karma" as “Gone”, and “Don’t You Tell Me” on Tony’s real debut, 2001’s “Iommi”, as “Black Oblivion”. Now, the guitarist is going to remix the tapes and release the album that won’t be called “Eighth Star”, which was the bootleg title, and won’t feature “No Stranger To Love” and “Shaking My Wings”, which didn’t belong to the project being “To Cry You A Song” from JETRO TULL tribute album featuring Hughes. No need to get rid of the bootleg though…
STEALIN’ WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUYING
Here comes two more titles in the URIAH HEEP re-remastered series, 1973’s “Sweet Freedom” and “Wonderworld”, released a year later. Both are sprinkled with bonus cuts, yet there’s no anything special:
“Sweet Freedom”
– Sunshine
– Seven Stars (extended)
– Pilgrim (extended)
– If I Had The Time (demo)
– Sweet Freedom (alt. live)
– Stealin’ (alt. live)
“Wonderworld”
– What Can I Do
– Love, Hate And Fear (unreleased version)
– Stone’s Throw
– Dreams (extended)
– I Wont Mind (live)
– So Tired (live)
