Child Is Father To The Man

2023 Ed Wynne remastered edition.To be honest I haven't heard an Ozrics album sound any different in years. I suspect their fan base prefers it that way. At this point the band consists of Ed and Brandi Wynne, their son Silas, and drummer Ollie Seagle. If you haven't heard the band before this isn't the place to start. If you are known to smoke from Ed's secret stash this will satisfy you just fine until the next one. Blissed out psychedelic space rock.

"This is a really impressive release. It blew up my mind from the first time I listened to it, and still gets priority in my music listening sessions. What we've got here is Rage at their best, playing it loud & proud in the 90s, which was possibly the worst decade for metal, even though some bands like Running wild, Blind Guardian or Metal Church were still hanging on... in the balance!The album starts kicking ass from the first moment, with heavy and powerful guitars, and goes like that until the end of the release. POWER!!! That’s what this album transmits. Generally mid-paced songs predominate this album, this is not as fast as their 80s work. It keeps the musical line that started with "Trapped" but, it's generally darker, slower and begins the musical style developed during the next albums (we could say it’s the borderline). It also has some atmospheric details, just some hints here and there, that would be more frequent of their "XIII" or "Ghosts" works. Nevertheless, there are also fast songs (hey, it's Rage) that scream "Speed Metal rules, and if you don't like it dieeeeeeeeeeeeeee", like "Under Control", which starts fast and raw as hell and never slows down. "Higher than the Sky" is also a fast one (by the standards of this album), but more melodic than the previous one, and possibly with a chorus as catchy as “Don’t Fear the Winter”. The title track is also a fast and powerful one, (did I mention power before?) catchy and with an amazing solo.Rage has changed a lot during its history. One of the most remarkable improvements is Peavy’s performance, which is much better than his 80's efforts when he used to shriek. And the shrieking was fine for raw Speed Metal, but now that the band plays more Power/Heavy Metal, the deeper and more melodic vocals fit better. In this album he transmits perfectly the song moods to the listener, and good examples of this are the dark-depressive style ballad "Fading Hours" (that's one of the best songs to be found in here) and the mid-paced "Deep in the Blackest Hole". The first starts with an orchestrated atmosphere (reminds to “Overture” in “XIII”), a piano and Peavy's voice, and is maintained this way for 2 minutes and a half. Then the rest of the band comes in for a minute revealing what’s going to come after. Piano & violin alone again for a while and then the band comes back. And just then, when you think that the song is not going to change in any way, comes the solo part of 4:53 with the backing vocals and the piano: THAT MOMENT FUCKING OWNS YOU. After saying that, I still have to remark that the song is mainly driven by Peavy's vocals, and wouldn’t be half good if he didn’t perform so brilliantly. The latter song has also a depressive mood and the whole band does a very good job making you think they are "Deep in the Blackest Hole".Another excellent point of this album is that you never have the “I heard this before” feeling. Even though, it manages to sound as a whole in the “conceptual album” sense. That’s just fucking brilliant. Every song is memorable, with brilliant solos and catchy melodies, which none of them can be classified as filler material (I know this sounds a bit/lot like a “fanboy”, but this album really deserves being praised). If you liked "The Missing Link", "Trapped" or (especially) "Black in Mind", you will certainly like this one, which is slower but still an absolute winner.The only flaw in this release is that sometimes you've got the impression that Peavy is singing 5 miles away from the microphone, creating a strange echo effect. There's also the fact that the drums are a little bit loud and just average, nothing outstanding, and the bass is barely audible (I don't miss it much, but I know there are many bass-maniacs out there)." - Metal Archives

Blazing second solo album, from 1977. This has some of the fastest guitarwork you will ever hear in your lifetime. DiMeola shows many facets to his playing touching upon pure electric fusion as well as gorgeous acoustic work. The acoustic duet with Paco De Lucia on "Mediterranean Sundance" is breathtaking. Jan Hammer and all the other stars play their nuts off here. Great.

Third collaboration from Steven Wilson and Aviv Geffen. Mr. Geffen wrote all of the material except for one track. Musically speaking its a very different animal than Porcupine Tree. Its much more laid back with a heavy emphasis on orchestration. I'm reminded a bit of later Pink Floyd and also Roger Water's solo works. Not a lot of pyrotechnics and really not much in the way of heaviness. Its almost as if Mr. Wilson has taken a supporting role as opposed to equal stature to Mr. Geffen. If you are looking for Porcupine Tree's quasi psychedelic metal look elsewhere. Blackfield presents you with (well recorded) art rock that targets your emotions rather than your thought process.

Virtuoso keyboardist Vivien Lalu has created a new progressive metal epic featuring an all star cast:Band [A-Z]---Martin LeMar (Mekong Delta) - VocalsMike LePond (SymphonyX) - BassSimone Mularoni (DGM) - GuitarsVirgil Donati (PlanetX)- DrumsVivien Lalu (Shadrane) - KeyboardsGuests [A-Z]---Jens Johansson (Stratovarius)Joop Wolters (Shadrane)Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater)Marco Sfogli (James LaBrie)Mike Andersson (Cloudscape, Fullforce)Peter Wildoer (Darkane, James LaBrie)Born of Noelle and Michel Lalu, musicians from the ‘70s French progressive act Polene, Vivien Lalu has released a surplus of recordings through an array of different bands and projects since 1997, as the keyboard player for underground black/doom band Time For A Change. At the turn of the millennium Lalu played keys for two underground progressive metal bands from Paris, Sad Warden and then Mind’s Orchard, and in 2002 was hired by Hubi Meisel (ex-Dreamscape vocalist) to compose and record the keys for his solo album EmOcean, the following year doing the same for Meisel’s sophomore album Kailash, both of which were released by Lion Music.It was at this time Vivien Lalu begins recruiting his own associates from major prog and metal bands — some of which he shares time composing music alongside in progressive metal act Shadrane — and forms his own solo project, LALU. The first full-length Oniric Metal was released on Lion Music in 2005 and began an entirely new chapter for this composer and his insatiable need to create mind-expanding, cinematic music.These accomplishments helped Lalu to begin securing score and soundtrack work for film and television; over the last few years he’s written many cues for the orchestral soundtrack for the Warner Bros movie Seuls Two, for the show Science X made in association with Lucasfilm Ltd. Additionally he joined the production team behind Laszlo Jones in order to assist the recordings and production of Banana Nation (Universal Music Group). He’s composed many soundtracks for French television, music and sound effects for Neko Entertainment, worked as a sound designer for Ubisoft Entertainment and much more.After collaborating with Shadow Gallery for a song on their Digital Ghosts album, and working with Canadian drummer Chris Nalbandian for his Paralysis of Analysis solo album — recording all keys and sharing solos with Derek Sherinian and Alex Argento — Vivien finally settled in and began work on the second LALU opus. Handling all composition and songwriting duties, as well as all keyboards on the massive production, Vivien weaved the cloth of the new album with vocalist Martin LeMar (Mekong Delta), bassist Mike LePond (SymphonyX), guitarist Simone Mularoni (DGM), drummer Virgil Donati (PlanetX), the album’s parts recorded in several countries including the United States (Los Angeles and New York), Germany and Italy, produced by Lalu in his own studio, and mixed at Boumbox Studio in Paris by Yan Memmi (Dio’s Lock Up The Wolves, Marcus Miller’s The Sun Don’t Lie, etc.). Additional contributions from Jens Johansson (Stratovarius), Joop Wolters (Shadrane), Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater), Marco Sfogli (James LaBrie), Mike Andersson (Cloudscape) and Peter Wildoer (James LaBrie) were also carefully built into the album, the final product boasting over fifty minutes of exceptional, massive  cinematic, atmospheric metal Lalu has dubbed, Atomic Ark. 

"This 1970 release "climbed" to #17 with the classics Mississippi Queen and Theme from an Imaginary Western . Also includes an unreleased live version of the Woodstock ode For Yasgur's Farm !"