Showing posts from July, 2021
1) Bio (Symeon). The band has been active since 2004. After many live shows and festivals in Greece we found our sound as a power metal band. Also, it was difficult for us to find proper band members because we needed good musicians and nice people th…
By Enrico Spinelli THE RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES THE "SMOKE ON THE WATER" BY RICHARD WAGNER. 1851 More and more often it happens that the well-known German composer Richard Wagner is considered the father of heavy metal: surely ours, with his s…
Alice in chains guitar player Jerry Cantrell will release his new solo album, called " Brighten ", on October 29, 2021. The album was produced by Jerry Cantrell with some very special guests, like Greg Puciato, Gil Sharone, Duff McKagan, A…
Ok, this is a difficult one as we are not talking about a specific band but about tons and tons of amazing soundtracks, recorded in a long span of time. From your comments, I realized that this is one of the most difficult ones I've ever done and …
Some curious facts about the legendary Bruce Dickinson , singer from Iron Maiden (with a good solo career too), pilot, fencing champion, brewer, TV, radio host, and many, many other things... - He was born on August 7, 1958, and there is a song from h…
Who aged well in the rock industry? Here for a sort of experiment to see how rockstars are aging. I put together some big names of the music industry to see how are they doing in the (sad) process of aging. Here below you can already see one who's…
1) Bio I was born on May 2nd, 1983. Began my musical studies at the age of 6, by playing the classical piano, until the age of 12. After an accidental discovery of a guitar in a closet, I decided to start practicing it. At the age of 16, I began worki…
By Enrico Spinelli AN ALBUM TO REDISCOVER - KISS: "MUSIC FROM THE ELDER" - 1981 Dear friends, today I have a lot of things to say and, being prolix by nature, I spare you many personal preambles and go to straight the point, suggesting a ra…
Tobias Sammet from Avantasia's Facebook account gave us an update regarding the new forthcoming record and he replied to a question asking about Edguy - If we should consider the band part of the past. Here is the reply from Tobias: "I don&…
Here is another live album by Dream Theater , from the Lost not forgotten archives: A Dramatic Tour of Events – Select Board Mixes, a selection of songs from the tour of the album A dramatic turn of events album, the first without Mike Portnoy, rep…
THE NEAL MORSE BAND will release its new album called “ Innocence & Danger ” on Inside Out Music on August 27, 2021. Today the band presents the second single called “Bird On A Wire“ and below you can find my live reaction. The first single was…
Here we are today to talk about U2 and the songs I prefer from the catalogue of the huge Irish Rock band. As always, I try and pick up songs from as many albums as possible, to give you some variety. Saying that, sorry in advance if your favourite s…
Here we are today to talk about a special amp, designed for guitar, bass and acoustic guitar as well. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Positive Grid Spark 40 . To give you some specs before the review below: the amp is 40 watts and the speakers are 2x4”…
By Enrico Spinelli How could Black Metal sound in the 1800s? Of course, we are perhaps taking things to extreme levels here, but are we really that convinced that certain dark and evil atmospheres evoked by classical compositions are not nearly as di…
German band RAGE will release their new album, called “ Resurrection Day ” on September 17th, 2021 for SPV / Steamhammer. This will be the first album that the band releases after guitarists Jean Bormann and Stefan Weber joined the band replacing Mar…
1) Tell us about you I created HIVEKICKER in May of 2020. I was working full-time, being a full-time stay-at-home dad with my kid in virtual school, and finishing up grad school during the pandemic. It was crazy time. A friend encouraged me to start p…
Here we are, talking about The Rolling Stones , an institution in Rock music. The band just released a great live album recorded on the 18th of February, back in 2006 when 1.5 million people crowded onto Copacabana Beach. By now it’s one of the bigges…
By Enrico Spinelli I have often heard that Classical music has had two great sons, Jazz and Heavy metal, and perhaps that is why I am deeply attached to all three genres. My love for classical music perhaps dates back to my childhood (literally consu…
I had the pleasure of interviewing Timo Tolkki one week ago (if you missed this you can find it here ) and, as promised, a very interesting Q&A followed . You asked Timo your questions and he replied, as usual, in a very frank way and a nice co…
By Enrico Spinelli Here is one of the most loved songs by rockers/metalheads in the world, perhaps one of the first riffs in the history of music, loved across the board by generations of musicians from different backgrounds. But to talk about it we m…
Today is the turn of a top 10 about Alice in chains , a band that I have always known kind of superficially but that I have only begun to pay attention to very recently. Now that I have a clearer idea of their discography and I think I will be able …
Here we are today talking about Ibridoma , an Italian Heavy Metal band on the scene for 20 years now. Definitely a very respectable curriculum for a band that released an important album back in 2016. Ibridoma never missed the chance of having special…
It's a pleasure, an honour and a privilege to have Timo Tolkki here on Given to rock. I grew up with his music with classic Stratovarius albums like Visions and Episode , for sure two of the greatest and successful Power metal albums of the…
