After concluding their successful co-headline tour through North America, progressive metal legends Opeth finally release "In Cauda Venenum (Extended Edition)". This special edition, available on digipack, contains the English and Swedish versions of Opeth’s latest album "In Cauda Venenum" with new illustrations by internationally renowned Travis Smith in the booklet. In addition, there is also a third CD including 3 unreleased bonus tracks, both in English and Swedish…

Simon comes from Belfast in Northern Ireland, a place that resonates of the best music traditions like Gary Moore, Rory Gallagher as well as bands such as Thin Lizzy, Stiff Little Fingers, and obviously U2. His biography tells the story of his band touring with no sound engineer, driver, roadie, playing 30 shows in 35 days and catching the attention of the label who challengingly asked him to “Show us what you've got” by booking him into a studio for 12 hours on his only day off on tour to be auditioned. Simon not only convinced the label, that he has what is takes, but left a probably eternally lasting impression.

Jazz meets techno meets big band. It really shouldn't work…and yet, as anyone who has ever heard or seen the Jazzrausch Bigband will know, the reality of the band in action firmly knocks that idea on the head. Ever since Jazzrausch started in 2014, it has been on an unstoppable path of growth and development which has been very much on the band’s own terms. Jazzrausch first came to attention as the house band at the legendary Munich techno club "Harry Klein" – currently threatened with closure, incidentally – where the recordings for the new album "Emergenz" were made. Since then, the band’s growing renown has taken it to Germany’s great temples of classical music: the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Isarphilharmonie in Muich and the Berlin Philharmonie… and a buzz has been building internationally too. What is Jazzrausch Bigband all about? Putting a couple of exceptional and unconventional musical brains in charge, letting their sense of what is serious and what is banging prevail, and then seeing how much it can appeal to both younger and older audiences. Jazzrausch has dealt with the whole idea of ‘no can do’. By hitting it out of the ballpark.

Universally famous for his glorious overtures Light Cavalry and Poet and Peasant (Naxos 8.553935), Franz von Suppé was one of the greatest exponents of the golden Age of Viennese Operetta. But he was also a master of incidental music for popular plays, one of which is Mozart – an example of Künstler-Lebensbild (‘life portrait of an artist’). Suppé’s music subtly accompanies the stage action as the story of the composition of Mozart’s music unfolds, offering a potpourri of Mozart’s works served up with Suppé’s trademark flair. Die Afrikareise presents a piquant and brilliant travelogue.

Camille Bertault and David Helbock are two of the most jaw-droppingly talented members of the cohort of European jazz musicians currently in their mid-thirties. Their journeys in improvised music are always adventurous, playful and exciting. She is the new rising star of French vocal jazz. He, Austrian-born, is one of the most fascinating pianists on the scene. Their two personalities might appear to be polar opposites, yet Bertault’s live-wire humour and Helbock’s calm self-assuredness only appear to be different on the surface. When it comes to the musical choices they make, they are emphatically on the same page. Each is astonishingly versatile, with an innate sense of dramaturgy. This voice-piano duo reaches unbelievable levels of inventiveness here on “Playground”.

Top Notch was formed by songwriter and guitar player, Eric Kellogg, in 1984 and included Ken Robertson on vocals, Todd Jeffries on bass, and Mark Alderette on drums. The songs were primarily written by Eric Kellogg and Ken Robertson. The hard rock sound that they developed was melodic with blazing guitar solos. Top Notch recorded their first demo on an 8-track in the bedroom of one of their best friends. This was met with much acclaim and their songs were played on KLOS and KMET Southern California radio stations. This launched them into the LA rock scene, playing every major club including The Roxy, The Whisky, Gazzari’s, and the Troubadour, opening for who would become some of the largest rock bands such as Warrant, Rough Cut, Poison, and many others. Top Notch was then picked up by Available Management run by Alan Oken and David Libert, who managed bands such as Guns N Roses, Alice Cooper, and Bryan Adams.

This box set continues the chronological re-releasing of Neil Young’s Official Releases, remastered where analog tapes exist. Volume 4, released as a 4 LP box and 4 CD box. The ORS Vol 4 collects an eclectic set of decade-spanning sounds. Hawks & Doves (1980) revisits his folk roots and explores some of his most country-leaning offerings; the blistering Re•ac•tor (1981) showcases a stomping set of heavy, overdriven rock with Crazy Horse; and This Note’s for You (1988) casts Young as a big band leader, belting out intricately arranged blues. The Eldorado EP (1989), a 5 track mini-album, previously only released on CD in Australia and Japan, is full of feral distortion and earthy crunch featuring Young backed by The Restless (Chad Cromwell and Rick Rosas). It includes two thundering tracks — “Cocaine Eyes” and “Heavy Love”— not available on any other album, along with different versions of 3 tracks that appeared on Freedom later the same year.

There’s no sign of any let up in Neil Young’s current reissue/release productivity, with the announcement of three new albums in his ‘Official Bootleg Series’. These are Royce Hall, 1971, a solo acoustic gig which was recorded on 30 January of that year on the UCLA (University of California) campus; Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 1971, another solo acoustic performance and the last US show of his 1971 solo tour; and, perhaps most excitingly, Citizen Kane Jr. Blues (Live at The Bottom Line), an On The Beach-heavy set from New York City, 1974.

There’s no sign of any let up in Neil Young’s current reissue/release productivity, with the announcement of three new albums in his ‘Official Bootleg Series’. These are Royce Hall, 1971, a solo acoustic gig which was recorded on 30 January of that year on the UCLA (University of California) campus; Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 1971, another solo acoustic performance and the last US show of his 1971 solo tour; and, perhaps most excitingly, Citizen Kane Jr. Blues (Live at The Bottom Line), an On The Beach-heavy set from New York City, 1974.