Shorter is in great form on Joy Ryder. His sound and approach on soprano are unmistakeable and instantly recognizable. He allows himself much more space to blow than he did on the undersung and misunderstood classic Phantom Navigator, and he takes full advantage of it. That’s probably why most jazz critics vastly prefer Joy Ryder to Phantom Navigator.It is brilliant.

DEMONICAL, the Swedish death metal band featuring past and present members from CENTINEX, GRAVE, REGURGITATE, INTERMENT, AMARAN, WORLD BELOW and DELLAMORTE, will release its third album, "Death Infernal", on April 15 via Germany's Cyclone Empire Records. The CD was recorded, mixed and mastered at Necromorbus Studio (WATAIN, UNANIMATED, DESTRÖYER 666) in Alvik, Sweden under the watchful eye of DEMONICAL frontman Sverker Widgren. According to a press release, "Death Infernal" will be "a lethal dose of fast Stockholm-style old-school death metal mixed with more epic and cold elements, hence creating the most deadly and victorious soundtrack for the upcoming downfall of Mother Earth."

The third album of an international project consisting of musicians from Netherlands – Ben de Graaff and Finland – Markus Heinonen (Astral Sleep). Monotonous dark tracks in the vein of funeral doom metal demonstrate melodic side of the genre. The compositions are full of melodies, keyboard passages and acoustic guitar interludes make raw funeral doom metal from Night of Suicide interesting not only for adepts of rawness and desolation, but also for those who seek the beauty in music.

Greek demons SEPTICFLESH will release their new album, "The Great Mass", on April 18 in Europe (April 19 in North America) via Season Of Mist. Commented Seth: "This is a small fragment of the artwork that will dress the new artistic experiment of SEPTICFLESH, 'The Great Mass'. It is a small part of an occult machine made from marble and flesh, fantasy and reality, order and chaos. A great machine composed from the blasphemous union of strange figures, creations of Man, the creator of the gods and demons. Their grotesque purpose will be revealed soon, when all the cover editions of the new album will be presented and will be combined together… Let the great self-cannibalistic symposium begin."

The Unseen Empire marks Scar Symmetry‘s fifth album and the second with dual vocalists Roberth “Robban” Karlsson and Lars Palmqvist. While the Swedish progressive-power death metallers have always held a unique niche in the genre, the band has eclipsed anything it’s previously done with this release. In so doing, Scar Symmetry has further set itself apart from its contemporaries. The album is about The Illuminati, and the New World Order. Or as drummer Henrik Ohlsson describes it, “the elite bloodline pulling the strings of mankind in order to manifest their agenda.”

I Start Counting were one of those mid-80s indie synth pop bands, like Colourbox and Freur, whose hits you probably know and may even have lurking on vinyl 12" somewhere in your loft or garage, but who sadly never made it into the public consciousness despite a fair amount of airplay.

SSQ first released their debut album Playback in 1983 under Enigma Records. The band's first live performance was held at the Greenworld Distribution warehouse in Torrance, which was then the location of the Enigma label. The video for "Synthicide" later premiered on West Coast television and brought greater notoriety for the five-member band.

An album containing a wealth of subtly amazing (and often delightfully odd) things happening within what at first glance can superficially seem like pleasantly slick commercial new wave. Intricate, hyper catchy and full of exceeding smart choices in instrumental voicings and stereo imaging, I hear passing bits of of the grandiose drama of The Associates (if not their histrionics), the witty and structurally skewed synthetically driven work of The Passage and the arty-to-the-point-of-showing-your-prog-roots work of The Shiny Men and new wave-era Anthony Moore. One of my favorite recent discoveries.