Founded in 2007 in San Francisco, Orchid owe their sound to the grand masters of rock – Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and even Pink Floyd.
Orchid established their reputation early with the 2009 release of their first EP Through The Devil’s Doorway. Shortly after the band began work on a full-length album, Capricorn, which was released in 2011 by the small indie label The Church Within Records.
As a tasty appetizer for their upcoming second full-length The Mouths Of Madness Orchid released the Wizard Of War EP in February. The album itself is out via Nuclear Blast on April 26.
Dunno about you, but we reckon Orchid might just be too damn Sabbathy for their own good. Singer Theo Mindell has copped so many early Ozzy Osbourne moves, it wouldn’t surprise us if he receives a writ from Sharon any day now…
The Sword have released a video for Cloak Of Feathers, taken from fourth album Apocryphon. View it below.
Last year guitarist Kyle Shutt explained: “The album is a reflection of everything we’ve been through and the lessons we learned. We deal with the situations metaphorically in our lyrics.”
But he added: “The record is just ten banging hard-rockers. There’s no stick-out thrash song, or, like, ‘This one is the ballad.’ It’s just kick-ass rock songs.”
In keeping with their retro approach, The Sword released Apocryphon as a limited-edition cassette tape.
Tracklist
01. The Veil Of Isis
02. Cloak Of Feathers
03. Arcane Montane
04. The Hidden Masters
05. Dying Earth
06. Execrator
07. Seven Sisters
08. Hawks And Serpents
09. Eyes Of The Stormwitch
10. Apocryphon
Bonus tracks
01. Arrows In The Dark (live at Emo’s)
02. Barael’s Blade (live at Emo’s)
03. Chronomancer II: Nemesis (live at Stubb’s)
04. Ebethron (live at Stubb’s)
05. Cheap Sunglasses
Dan Reed has released a video for Signal Fire, the title track of his second solo album. View it below.
After a one-off Dan Reed Network reunion show last New Year, he’s announced a DRN headline appearance at the Enchanted Festival near London in October.
But he’s still focusing on Signal Fire, which was released earlier this year after a successful Pledge campaign.
Reed tells Classic Rock: “On the album cover where I’m holding the ball of light, that light is the signal fire. I don’t know if you want to call it a vision or a dream, or imagination – but it was of getting a message from a species from another part of the galaxy, saying we can get our act together. They suffered the perils of being divided. ‘Hey, we suffered through this and we made it. You can too.’”
If it’s your first time listening to Reed’s work, he’d like you to draw a sense of hope from what you hear. “I get a lot of comments from the younger generation who read the news that they get some hope out of the music,” he says.
“When we’re younger we tend to listen to music that’s about hooking up with somebody. For me it was the Monkees and the Partridge Family. That’s natural. But kids are a lot smarter than I was at their age; with all the information that’s available to them, it’s easy to become desensitised and disenfranchised. What I’d want from people who are listening for the first time is to see that the world isn’t as dark as it seems to be sometimes.”
But for those who worry the album might be too “preachy,” he adds: “It’s fun to play live.”
Racking up 1.2 million views in just 2 days, there’s a new rapper on the scene, with Lil Dicky. Original Source founder, Jon Shecter, put us up this one, and we gotta admit, it’s pretty good. Taken from his new mixtape, So Hard, which can be downloaded at http://lildicky.com/.
One year on from debut album Colossus, Pearl Handled Revolver this week released the follow-up entitled This Mountain Waits.
Starting life as a hard-hitting blues-rock band, the Bedfordshire-based five-piece proclaim: “We’ve evolved and broadened our palette to produce a second album that is wilder, more exploratory and captures the essence of our exhilarating, psychedelic live performances.”
Rattle Your Bones (which, natch, is included on This Mountain Waits) has its very own video. Watch it below.
Rattle Your Bones is also featured on the free CD that comes with the latest issue of Classic Rock: Undivided – 15 Of The Hottest New Bands In Britain. Go here to vote for your favourites! (But you better hurry – voting closes on April 24.)
Bullet have released a video for their track Rolling Home. View it below.
It’s taken from their fourth album Full Pull, which came out via Nuclear Blast last September.
The Swedish hard rock band recently welcomed new guitarist Alexander Lyrbo to the fold after Erik Almstrom bowed out with no ill feelings.
They’ll appear this summer’s Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park festivals in Germany.
Full Pull tracklist
01. Midnight Oil
02. Full Pull
03. Running Away
04. All Fired Up
05. Rolling Home
06. In The Heat
07. High On The Hog
08. Rush Hour
09. Freeriding
10. Gutterview
11. Warriors
Following The Union’s decision to postpone their remaining UK tour dates, after lead singer Peter Shoulder was taken ill onstage and unable to continue during a concert at the O2 Academy in Islington on February 21, the band have now confirmed the rescheduled dates for the remainder of the tour.
They are as follows:
March 23 – Newport Steelhouse
March 27 – Bristol Fleece
March 28 – London O2 Islington Academy
All tickets for original dates will be valid and refunds will be offered to those who cannot make the new dates.
The Union have also announced the addition of a new date for the tour, and will now play at the O2 Academy in Liverpool on March 24.
BlackWolf, who have been the support band for the tour, will continue to open for The Union at the rescheduled dates. A further special guest for The Union’s date at the O2 Academy in Islington is expected to be announced shortly.
Go below to watch three exclusive clips of The Union playing acoustically in the Green Room of Classic Rock magazine.
