Metal

Artist: Ritual Label: Bullet Tooth

Artist: Chromagain Label: Onde Italiane Records

Artist: Black Dahlia Muder Label: Metal Blade Records

Artist: Dragged Into Sunlight; Artist: Gnaw Their Tongues Label: Prosthetic Records

Artist: Magic Circle Label: 20 Buck Spin

Artist: Kerion Label: INNER WOUND RECORDS

Artist: Revocation Label: Metal Blade

Artist: Uncle Tupelo Label: Music On CD

Record Label: Music On CD Style: Metal

Record Label: Beggars Banquet/Beggars Group Style: New Wave

Here's 12" single #2 from Ata Kak's now-legendary 1993 solo cassette, Obaa Sima. Released to much acclaim earlier this year after an exhaustive search for the musician, the tape has reached left-field music fans worldwide via the Awesome Tapes From Africa LP and CD. With this limited edition 12" for DJ's and other nerds, the songs "Obaa Sima" and "Adagya" jump off the wax, inviting deeper examination. The two Ghana-by-way-of-Toronto dance tracks whip themselves into an unabashed frenzy, and sound like nothing else. As well, they capture some of the beautiful mystery behind the elusive auteur who'd been living quietly back in Kumasi (Ghana) the last several years since leaving Canada, where the album was recorded. In the past year since ATFA founder Brian Shimkovitz finally tracked down Ata Kak after an 8-year search, efforts have been made to learn more about what made this very particular music happen. The image we've seen revealed is of an iconoclastic bedroom producer making music his own way, with a sort of DIY spirit - Ata Kak put together his own studio using second-hand instruments and gear, teaching himself how to make a record. This 12" features the singer/producer's ode to the ideal woman, "Obaa Sima," which sets the stage for the entire one-of-a-kind cassette. The B-side, "Adagya," exemplifies Ata Kak's inimitable collision of new jack swing, rap and scatting, all held down by minimal keyboard harmony and a timeless sense of highlife soul. Ata Kak maybe have made this visionary work more than two decades ago but its joyful, unpretentious creative spirit was well ahead of its time. Record Label: Awesome Tapes From Africa Style: World Music

Suede’s second album, originally released in October 1994, often has the word “masterpiece” attached to it. A dazzling album, its creation brought about the end of the band’s original line-up, with Bernard Butler departing before the album was finished. The Edsel Classic Edition is presented in a mini replica Vinyl gatefold sleeve, featuring a unique black vinyl CD including grooves. Record Label: Demon / Edsel Style: Rock

Misunderstood in their era but the time has made them a cult. An exceptional rock-funk album. Thanks to the great work of producer Arkarazo Kaki, it still sounds fresh and current. Record Label: Iz/Distrolux Style: Metal

Deiphago - one of the most violent bands on the planet, as well as one of the most envelope-pushing - are set to release their highly anticipated fourth album, "Into the Eye of Satan". Each Deiphago album has seen the Filipino power-trio push the furthest reaches of musical extremity, marking a place in time in their demonic development whilst creating a monument for all perpetuity. "Into the Eye of Satan" is no different in this respect: founding demons Voltaire 666 (bass bulldozers and black vomits) and Sidapa (crasheraxe and leads) are once again joined by Savnok on deathhammers, picking up where they left off with the critically acclaimed/challenging Satan Alpha Omega in 2012. Record Label: Hells Headbangers Style: Metal

Record Label: Metalville Style: Metal

Record Label: Church Within Style: Doom Metal

Rotterdam's rousing Rats On Rafts have signed to Fire Records. There will be an extensive European tour later in the year including dates at Incu-bate, Club Bad Bonn, Espace B and Soy Festival. Self-produced, recorded and mastered with analogue equipment, Rats On Rafts have moved away from the pop sounds of their first rec-ord, refining and emulating the explosive outbursts heard in their recent live shows. Intense with integrity, the structured LP is "sicker and faster - they've sharpened their post-punk ra-zors for the occasion" Noisey "Rats On Rafts don't so much slow down and pull up to their terminal, but rather hammer their foot to the accelerator and drive straight off the end of a cliff." - Loud & Quiet // "They are one of those bands whose recordings to date bear no relation to how earth shatteringly brilliant they are live." The Quietus Record Label: Fire Records Style: Indie Rock

Record Label: Sound Pollution / Nordvis Style: Metal

Whereas the Canadian duo's 2012 Sargent House debut Civil Disobedience for Losers was full of 70s style heavy groove within its drop-tuned riff-rollicking, Creeps has more sheen and steel. Throughout, Creeps pits elements of early Metallica's dingy denim thrash, Judas Priest's shiny leather turbo metal, Queens of the Stone Age's flannel-flying rock and even Creatures Of The Night-era KISS' glossy hard pop alongside the band's signature amalgam of futuristic alt-rock and a cross section of blistering punk-sludge hallucinations. The drum sounds are huge, the ridiculously incredible guitar tones will have guitar geeks geeking out for years to come. And, the dual vocals often compellingly sound as though they were simultaneously softly sung and violently screamed. Record Label: Sargent House Style: Metal

Germany's most popular PINK FLOYD tribute band ECHOES will release their unplugged CD and DVD "Barefoot To The Moon" on Pride & Joy Music/ Sonic11. The band is fronted by Oliver Hartmann, who is well-known for his work with the bands Hartmann, Avantasia & Rock Meets Classic. After performing hundreds of concerts throughout Europe, enchanting thousands of people and playing festivals alongside all time greats like Jethro Tull, Joe Cocker, Manfred Mann and Asia, Echoes are now one of the premier Pink Floyd Tribute Bands. To echo the music has never been enough for this band and so the elaborate live shows convey the grandeur in all its facets. The "Süddeutsche Zeitung" simply calls it a spectacle. In 2014 "Pink Floyd’s star pupils" (Vogtland-Anzeiger) ventured a new course and on top of their typically atypical renditions of Pink Floyd’s music they dared an experiment: the Pink Floyd acoustic concert - no amps, no safety net and no smoke and mirrors. Is that even possible? Can music that lives and breathes sprawling soundscapes, intricate cascades of electronic noise and intense atmospheric density be reduced to such austerity that the spirit isn’t lost? Or simply put, can you walk barefoot to the dark side of the moon? With the acoustic show "Barefoot To The Moon" Echoes present their answer. The band centered around extraordinary guitarist and singer Oliver Hartmann (Rock Meets Classic, Avantasia) carefully dismantles the complex arrangements of the British art rock giants and uses only elementary and partly very unique Instruments to reduce the songs to their fundamental composition. All the while making sure that none of the magic is lost, but rather focused and so familiar sounds slightly change color and thus far unknown shades emerge. This stripped state shows a fascinatingly fragile beauty, that could not have been perceived before. Echoes reveals the essence of Pink Floyd. The exceptional atmosphere of this acoustic concert reflects not only in the music but also the familiar setting; candles instead of a laser show, a string section instead of keyboard sounds, reduction instead of inflation. Floydian grandeur turns into intimate music experience, borne by creativity, wit, charm and respect for the makers who are Pink Floyd. This DVD, recorded at the sold out Stadttheater Aschaffenburg, impressively documents the memorable evening and manifests the music of Pink Floyd in a way that it has not been heard before. Line-up: Oliver Hartmann (Acoustic Guitar, Vocals); Martin Hofmann (Vocals, Acoustic Bass, Gitarre); Paul Kunkel (Piano, Vocals); Steffen Maier (Drums & Percussion); Michael Unger (Woodwinds & Vocals); Carolin Riehemann (Vocals); Irena Morisáková (Cello); Terezie Fadrná (Cello); Milena Kolárovà (Violin); Alice Vasilová (Violin) Record Label: Pride & Joy Music Style: Rock