ABIII

ABIII is the third album from Alter Bridge, released in October, 2010. Quickly fans and critics came to agree: this album is one of the best rock records of 2010 and I think they’re right. The album is darker than Alter Bridge’s previous ones and it’s not as easily digested, which is very becoming. It shows Miles Kennedy as the excellent front man that he is, Mark Tremonti gets to show off his guitar wizardry and Brian Marshall (bass) and Scott Phillips (drums) make up a tight, powerful rhythm section.
ABII consists of fourteen tracks, broody, melodic, heavy and dynamic. There are plenty of great songs to choose from like Isolation, Ghosts Of Days Gone By and I Know It Hurts, but my personal favourite is the album’s opener Slip To The Void. It sets the dark mood from the start and is completed by classic Tremonti riffs and Kennedy’s outstanding vocal performance. Epic.
Among my favourite tracks you’ll also find All Hope Is Gone, which starts of slow and broody, then picks of pace. Although it is a dark track, Tremonti’s riff adds an almost 16th century folk song atmosphere to it, completed by Kennedy’s soulful vocal.
Wonderful Life is also worth mentioning, a melancholic ballad, although uplifting in its delicacy. The album’s most beautiful song, in my opinion.
Finally I’d like to mention the sinister Coeur D'Alene, heavy and melodic at the same time with a crunching riff, great vocal and catchy chorus.
To me ABIII is Alter Bridge’s darkest and most elegant album so far with its superb vocal, riffs and harmonies. No matter if you’re an Alter Bridge fan or not, this album deserves a listen to, so give it a shot if you haven’t already. Maybe you’ll end up liking it as much as I do.

Gnomeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy subjected to garden gnomes and Elton John. That’s pretty much what the CG-animated movie ”Gnomeo and Juliet” is about and that’s not bad.
    The movie tells the story of the garden gnomes in the gardens of two neighbours, Mrs. Capulet and Mr. Montague who live in respectively 2B and Not 2B in Verona Street in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Mrs. Capulet’s garden gnomes are blue, Mr. Montague’s red, and blues and reds hate each other as much as their owners do. But of course the blue Gnomeo falls in love with the red Juliet and it turns out to be a difficult task to be lovers in the middle of a feud.
    The movie has quite a few funny Shakespeare in-jokes that you’ll only get if you know your Shakespeare and that way ”Gnomeo and Juliet” appeals more to an adult audience than kids. Furthermore the story has quite racy undertones, I mean, it’s perfectly clear what the size of the gnome hats are supposed to indicate!
    ”Gnomeo and Juliet” makes use of the voice talents of James McAvoy (Gnomeo), Emily Blunt (Juliet), Michael Caine (Lord Redbrick), Maggie Smith (Lady Bluebury), Ozzy Osbourne (Fawn), Dolly Parton (Dolly Gnome) and Patrick Stewart (Bill Shakespeare) - just to mention a few – and it is released through Touchstone Pictures. It is directed by Kelly Asbury, who also directed “Shrek 2”, so don’t be surprised if sometimes you get the feel that you’re watching “Shrek”. Especially Juliet’s character reminded me of Fiona from “Shrek” and the ending…well, see for yourself. The 3D effects were okay, by the way. Three out of five stars: ***

Joe Matera – ”Face Off”

On May 2nd, former Geisha guitarist Joe Matera is releasing his new solo instrumental track named ”Face Off” which marks his return to his rock guitar roots after having released two acoustic tracks in 2010/2011.

“At the heart of my guitar playing lays a life long love affair with the electric guitar,” Joe Matera explains. ”After having delved into the world of acoustic guitar on my previous solo recordings, I felt the time was right to return to my primary first love; melodic rock guitar playing.”

”Face Off” is an energetic rocker featuring Matera’s signature melodic guitar playing. The track is written by Matera and as well as playing all the guitars, he also engineered and produced it. It is an exciting, melodic and breezy track where Matera’s guitar soloing follows in the tradition of guitarists such as Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen, Boston’s Tom Scholz and The Angel’s Rick Brewster. Rick Brewster actually makes a special guest appearance on one of the track’s guitar solos.

”Face Off” was mixed by Craig Pilkington (The Killjoys) at Audrey Studios, Melborn. Bass duties were handled by Tony ‘Demolition’ Dolan (Atomkraft, Venom), The track is released through Mercury Fire Music and will be available on iTunes from May 2nd. It is set to appear on Matera’s EP CD later this year, too.

For more information go to: http://www.joematera.com

Don Powell biography blog

I now have a blog where you can follow the progress of my work with Slade drummer Don Powell’s official biography. You’ll find it at: http://www.donpowellbio.blogspot.com .
    In 2006 Don Powell asked me to write his biography and back then I thought it would be a 2 year project like any other of my books. Today I’m wiser.
    I decided on a format for the bio pretty quickly and the sources were to be Don’s diaries, interviews with Don and with his family, friends and colleagues. I started out making the interviews with Don and over the course of 3 years I made 14 interviews with him, amounting to a whopping 36 hours. The diaries I didn’t get until 2008 and as they go all the way back to the 1970s it took me several months to read through them and pick out what should be included in the biography and what not. By then a 2 year timeframe for the bio was out of the question and we postponed a possible release date until 2010.
    The work with interviewing Don’s family, friends and colleagues kicked off in December 2006. What first seemed to be a fairly easy part of the process, turned out more complicated than expected and I had to wait up to 4 years for some of the interviews that I needed. By February 2010 I thought I had made my last interview, but new contributors to the bio kept being added to the list and at the moment I’m still awaiting the comments from another 2 or 3 of Don’s colleagues.
    Then in November 2010 Don found a number of diaries which he thought he had lost. I’m still waiting to get those and yes, you have guessed it. We’ve had to postpone a possible release date yet another time. With a little luck I’ll finish the biography by December 2011, but I won’t guarantee it, as something new seems to pop up all the time. Anyway, on the new blog you’ll be able to follow the progress of the bio. Keep your fingers crossed that it won’t be a never-ending story!

Books I read in 2010

So far we’ve had a cold and snowy January here in Denmark. The pavements are icy and the snow at times so deep that you can’t get out of the house, anyway. Indoor activities are called for and one of my favourites is reading.

 If you need a little inspiration as to what to read, here’s a list of (some) of the books, including manga, that I read (or re-read) in 2010:

Abraham. Yamila: “Yaoi Hentai 1”
Burgess, Anthony: “A Clockwork Orange”
Boedker, Cecil: “Hungerbarnet”
Carroll, Lewis: “The Complete Illustrated Works of Lewis Carroll”
Faulkner, William; “The Sound and The Fury”
Geneser, Kenneth: “Europadroem”
Hatori, Bisco: “Ouran High School Host Club, vol. 12”
Hatori, Bisco: “Ouran High School Host Club, vol. 13”
James, Henry: “The Turn of the Screw”
Jarry, Alfred: “Supermale”
Jarry, Alfred: “UBU”
Levin, Ira: “Rosemary’s Baby”
Lindsay, Joan: “Picnic at Hanging Rock”
Llewellyn, A.J.:”Rent Boy”
Mankell, Henning: “Hugget”
Murakami, Maki: “Gravitation vol. 3”
Murakami, Maki: “Gravitation vol. 7”
Murakami, Maki: “Gravitation vol. 8”
Murakami, Maki: “Gravitation vol. 9”
Murakami, Maki: “Gravitation vol. 10”
Nakamura, Shungiku: “Junjo Romantica vol. 12”
Poe, Edgar Allan: “Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe”
Rowling, J. K.: “The Tales of Beedle the Bard”
Sandemo, Margit: “Trollbunnen”
Thimm, Jack: “Swinger det ik’”
Thimm, Jack: “Undervejs”
Townsend, Sue: “Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years”
Woodward; E. L.: “A History of England”
Zwigtman, Floortje: ”Ich, Adrian Mayfield”
Zwigtman, Floortje: ”Versuch einer Liebe”

Some of the books I read in English, some in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, German and French. That’s the great thing about knowing languages: you’re able to read a lot more books! I wish I did read Dutch a little better than I do, though, as the best book I read in 2010 was Floortje Zwigtman’s “Ich, Adrian Mayfield.” I had to read it in the German translation, as my Dutch isn’t good enough to read it in the original language. I hope it’ll be translated into English one day as it’s the most exciting, well-written thing I have read in decades!

I hope to be doing a lot of reading in 2011 as well, and thanks to my iPhone I now have Kindle, so it shouldn’t be a problem to always carry good literature with me. Happy reading, everyone!