The documentary film, "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage", about the Canadian progressive rock trio Rush, was chosen for the Tribeca Film Festival's 2010 Heineken Audience Award. Directed by Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn, who share the $25,000 prize, the film chronicles the 42-year history of the band, and profiles bandmates Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart. [Source: The Independent]

Jethro Tull and Rick Wakeman will be among the performers at the Royal Albert Hall in London this coming Monday (May 10th) at the World War II Commemoration Gala. The gala concert, which commemorates the 65th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe, features a spectacular line-up of international stars and Russia's top musical talent. The concert will raise money for British Red Cross – the humanitarian organisation which helps people in need all over the world. A programme of popular classics and war time favourites will transport the audience back to that long-awaited spring of 1945 when peace returned at last, set against an atmospheric backdrop of specially-created pictures and images. Alongside all the nostalgia, there will be plenty of contemporary entertainment to enjoy too, paying tribute to the Allies' great victory in a fusion of music and culture.

"Roger Waters has revealed that David Gilmour was the reason that Pink Floyd didn’t do anything else together following Live 8.

Waters revealed that he would have been willing to do more “Pink Floyd” in 2005 when he reunited with Gilmour, Mason and Wright for a short but triumphant reunion show at Live 8 in London. However, the reunion would only last for that night."

The new album from Ukrainian progressive artist Antony Kalugin under the moniker of Karfagen is to be available on general release on May 17th. The album consists of a mixture of instrumental and vocal tracks with Marina Zacharova being added to the band and contributing the vocal on three of the nine tracks. Kalugin himself plays keyboards and percussion and adds backing vocals and is joined by a host of Ukrainian artists contributing instruments more commonly associated with the symphony orchestra, such as violin, viola, bassoon, oboe and cello. The album which clocks in at 75 minutes is available from Caerllysi Music which also has some mp3 samples. The full track listing is as follows:

1. Spirit Of Revelation (7:18) 2. Magic Moment (4:22) 3. Silent Anger (Part 2) (6:15) 4. Solitary Sandpiper King (5:03) 5. Searching For Love (8:32) 6. Carpathians (13:49) 7. Ode To A New Life (5:27) 8. Kingfisher And Dragonflies (part 2) (2:15) 9. Mystery (22:00) a) Solid Ground b) Rising Sun c) Destruction d) Redemption e) Spirit Of Revelation (Reprise)

California based ProgRock Records have announced that that they have formed a sister label known as "The Record Label" to accomodate the much good non-progressive music submitted to them. ProgRock Records President Shawn Gordon says: "Here at ProgRock Records we’ve gotten a lot of good submissions from bands that aren’t progressive, including projects from progressive rock artists. Our solution was to form “The Record Label” as a new sister label that would have a variety of genre sub labels to cover Pop/Rock, Country and Adult Contemporary to start." The new label will be releasing albums by Matt Cash, Edward Heppenstall, Lizette von Panajot and Angelfire in the upcoming months.

Guitarist Fred van Leeuwen has announced to quit, due to busy private and musical matters. But this time, we are extremely lucky to find an excellent new guitarist in our own new lead singer: Roland van der Horst! Indeed, originally he is a guitarist and over the past weeks he managed to do an extra-ordinary difficult job in studying both the singing parts and the guitar parts of all the progrock songs and epics we are going to play during our next concert! We are very impressed and proud to proclame that he succeeded wonderfully! Come see him and us at the Blues Cafe, Apeldoorn on May 29th.

This week, rock ringmasters Bigelf unveiled their ode to the carnal carnival of rock & roll with their new video, “Superstar.” The strains of a calliope playing backwards, a cross-dressed clown, a goggled midget, and a wheelchair-bound Damon Fox usher in this four-minute, three-ring circus of bearded rockers, fire eaters, groupies, go-go girls, geeks, freaks and more. It’s a fitting setting for this quartet that have come to be known as the “evil Beatles.”

Indeed, Bigelf- Damon Fox (lead vocals, keys), Ace Mark (Guitar), Duffy Snowhilll (Bass) and Froth (Drums)- are rock revivalists of the first order, bringing back the massive wall-of-sound orchestrations, epic ambition, and theatrical grandeur of rock shows of old. Taking their cues from masters like Queen and ELO, Bigelf combine “fat & juicy guitar riffs, booming bass, soaring melodies and bold compositions” to create music that is “both genuine and refreshing” (Skope Magazine).

“Superstar” is up now on all major digital video services and the single will reach specialty radio this week. The band is just finishing up a tour with UK art-rockers Porcupine Tree, for which they’ve won much-deserved praise. The Tampa Tribune raved that Bigelf were “smart, funny and so far over the top as to render the concept of a top pointless.”

Up next for the band is a May 18 headlining performance at The Roxy in their hometown of LA, followed by major festival performances in Sweden, Germany, UK, and Japan.

At first it might seem devastating and frightening as it did to us when making this decision. People change, evolve and grow, sometimes in different ways and in different directions. This happens to everyone and it has certainly happened to Evergrey as a band throughout the years.

Me and Rikard have together with Henrik and Jonas made the mutual decision that it was best for us all that they leave Evergrey. They wanted to and we wanted them to.

The last tours, recordings and just hanging with each other has not been as fun and giving as earlier AND before it would go too far, resulting in a collision in between friends, which could ruin everything we have built up during the years, we decided to call it quits.

It’s sometimes both smart and foreseeing to end situations before they get out of hand and create something that is totally unnecessary and irreparable. To be in a band must be experienced as fun, giving and fulfilling. There is SO much time during a life as a touring musician that is boring that if you don’t even enjoy yourself while playing then it’s better to do something else.

Henrik and Jonas also got “DeathDestruction” that ALSO has evolved and became more and more serious during the years and now they even recorded a debut album and naturally it felt fresh and reviving for them to enter something new and unexplored as opposed to Evergrey where they more or less experienced the same things over and over.

It is VERY important for us to tell you that we are still great friends and most likely always will be since we have shared 10 years of our lives and dedicated it to the progress and evolvement of Evergrey. The friendship is what we value the most and nothing could be more important than that, at least for the four of us.

So please take some time to digest and understand. That is what we have done and I am glad to say that all of us are happier than in a long time. This is something I think you can feel when watching the video version of the statement.


Evergrey statement: Time for some changes

Evergrey | MySpace Music Videos

Achim Kohler (Primal Fear, Sinner, Silent Force) has recently finished the mix of the third ALLEN / LANDE album which will be entitled “The Showdown”.

With songs once again written by guitar sensation Magnus Karlsson (now with Primal Fear), the two monster vocalists Jorn Lande (Masterplan) and Russell Allen (Symphony X) unite once again their talents in a fabulous new album that seems to be forged in the fires of Mayhem. “The Showdown” shows again that the musical direction will be Epic, grandiose and very melodic Hard Rocking music. The cover art was designed specifically for the project once again by the amazing Rodney Matthews. Frontiers looks set to release this new masterpiece in September.

A videoclip for the song “Judgement Day” was shot in Scandinavia during April under the direction of Thomas Tjader (Saint Deamon, Issa).

We have to announce that all forthcoming Heaven & Hell European shows have been cancelled as sadly Ronnie (James Dio) isn't well enough to tour this summer. We hope that everyone understands and want to thank fans and industry colleagues for their continuing support at this time."

After having had such an amazing experience recording my drum tracks for the new Avenged Sevenfold album, we all knew it would be awesome if I'd be able to do some touring with the band after its release... I am happy to say that the timing worked out perfectly that my touring cycle with Dream Theater (and Transatlantic) was coming to an end just as A7X's was scheduled begin! (well, perfect for everyone except my poor family!) : )

Although I wish I could stay on board with A7X in a more permanent capacity, the reality is that I am commited to Dream Theater as my main priority (that is my baby afterall!), and I will need to resume work with DT to start a new album at some point in 2011.... However, I will be able to join my brothers in Avenged Sevenfold for at least the duration of their touring throughout 2010...and hopefully this will give them the time to continue to heal and get comfortable back on the road.... You can look at me like the band's "rebound drummer" to buy them some time until they are comfortable and ready to make a commitment to somebody new for full-time relationship in their future! In the meantime, I am real excited to hit the road with the boys...to bring my drumming from their new album to life on stage and to honor The Rev with all of their older material....

Lately Cloudscape have been focusing on auditions to find a replacement to Björn Eliasson. They have now agreed and are happy to invite Mr Daniel Paulson as the new guitar player and member in Cloudscape. Daniel impressed the band a lot both musically and personally during auditions. Daniel is officially totally unknown and have only played in local bands and Cloudscape will be his first step into the world of melodic metal. Cloudscape is finally complete again and despite member changes Cloudscape´s more inspired than ever!! The work of "New Era" continues...

Seattle, WA (March 2010) - It all began when international drumming icon, and rhythmic illusionist Marco Minnemann approached former King Crimson touch guitar explorer Trey Gunn about writing music to Minnemann's fifty-one minute drum solo. Gunn had no idea that accepting this monumental task would lead him into such challenging, uncharted compositional territory and ultimately the creation of Gunn's laborious and masterful Modulator. Gunn comments on the birth of Modulator: "My initial response was: No way! That sounds ridiculously hard. Not being a huge fan of drum solos in the first place, made me wary, but the idea of tackling 51 minutes of improvisation sounded insane. Then you add in the fact that Marco has rhythmic complexities that leave most of the human race scratching their heads and, well, I wouldn't even know where to begin."

But, Minnemann was persistent. He gave the 8-channel multi-tracks of his live drum performance to Gunn, which were put into Logic Audio and stared at for many moons. Gunn recalls, "I would open the files and just look at this huge, daunting piece of audio; 51-minutes of nearly non-stop drumming. Wondering, what do I do now?"

In the end, Gunn meticulously dissected Minnemann's monstrosity of rhythmic insanity and cleverly converted this once massive, endless improvisation into a cohesive journey of sonic soundscapes that stretches the imagination across a dynamic spectrum of edgy to ethereal compositions. Gunn's convincing arrangements deter the listener from the fact that it was a "drums first" structure by grabbing bits of Minnemann's multi-layered, rhythmic ideas and composing ingenious melodies and textures that would lead one to believe Minnemann was in-fact following Gunn's lead.

Gunn concludes, "This project has been one of the most challenging I have ever taken on. But, overcoming the daunting hurdles of Modulator proves the old adage that with great restrictions come great creative leaps."

The debut, all-star instrumental release from Adrian Belew Power Trio bassist and composer Julie Slick is sure to please DGM listeners. It's a seamless and adventurous blend of progressive rock, jazz-fusion, funk, electronica, avant-garde, and world music influences. The album features an incredible ensemble comprised of Slick's friends, including King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Pat Mastelotto, drummer Marco Minnemann (Paul Gilbert, Kreator, Eddie Jobson), drummer and brother Eric Slick (Dr. Dog), Chapman Stick player Michael Bernier (Stick Men), and guitarist Andre Cholmendeley (Project Object)."