Mort Walker is gone

Sad to hear that Beetle Bailey and Hi & Lois creator Mort Walker has passed away. He was one of the all time greats.

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Dragonhead arrives

The new Leaves´Eyes album “Sign Of The Dragonhead” arrived yesterday, and I ordered two versions as you can see. This turned out to be a good addition to the already existing legacy and they have come up with some really nice material here. “Riders On The Wind” is a bonafide classic. Could be a hit in my humble opinion. Well done.

(My image of said release)

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Mikio Fujioka is gone

Babymetal guitarist Mikio Fujioka has passed away at 36. Apparently, he fell from an observation deck on December 30 star watching, and died on January 5 surrounded by family. The shocking news was made official for the world a few hours ago in a heart felt message on the official Babymetal Twitter account. “The “Little” Guitarist of Babymetal´s Kamiband has passed away in the METAL GALAXIES. We hope that he is now with his GUITAR MASTER A. Holdsworth and enjoying an epic guitar session with him. We are the one. Together. We are the only one. You are the one. Forever.”

Condolences to the Babymetal Family, and to his beloved ones.

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Nine reasons to be happy

This arrived in the mail yesterday. The first album from Swedish artist Ammouri (full name Marina Ammouri) – “Dare To Be Happy” – backed by a bunch of high profile musicians (rockers) from well known bands from the last few decades (Alien, Poodles, King Diamond, Therion, Hammerfall etc). A classical schooled pianist as well as a professional sound engineer and singer, Marina has worked with many artists over the years, most recently doing some road work with the Vivaldi Metal Project. People will have a hard time sticking this into a convenient genre, but AOR with a touch of many interesting ingrediences sounds about right. The first song had me go “Fuck, this sounds great!” and that is so important. Her vocal approach reminds me of (Lisa) Dalbello, and this is also true for the sense of adventure that you have here. You will hear echoes of beauty here that ranges from Accept to Edith Piaf, but this is a huge musical Universe and Ammouri has the guts to explore many places. This is going to be one of the best albums of 2018, it will also be the sonic invitation card to an audience that still has to discover how great this is. I would say that the potential here is huge. What you get is nine tracks, superbly produced, very well executed by everybody involved and with a voice that demands to be heard. Oh, and there are no filler tracks. How rare is that in this day and age?

This is a thing of beauty, just order it (release date is January 12) and support this right now.

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