Guitar wizard Michael Schenker did some great work with UFO, but his Michael Schenker Group solo work was spotty. He hooked up with vocalist Robin McAuley to form the McAuley-Schenker Group, which still made the common MSG abbreviation possible…

Theander Expression is the AOR project by Swedish guitar player Andree Theander, who started to work with the first album in 2012 and released it one year later. It was called "Strange Nostalgia" after one of the songs and got critically acclaimed around the world of melodic rock in 2013. Andrée Theander with his band delivers a pure AOR album, spiced up with energetic licks and furious solos and occasionally leaning towards the more powerful side of 80s Westcoast, all in all tailor-made for everyone who is into the high class AOR sounds of bands like Street Talk, Toto, Work Of Art, Mecca and Lionville…

This is the album that finds Kymera truly defining their own place in the world. After credible debut featuring vocalist Steve Walsh problems soon appeared forcing a switch of vocalist. The big surprise was the recruitment of Pink Cream 69 bassist and star producer Dennis Ward as vocalist. His raspy, yet sultry vocals suited the more straight ahead MHR direction of the A New Promise album.

The second album of Finland's Burning Point might not have invented powder, but it has the merit to be much better than their debut album. The band is showing more consistent songs and a much more constant album.

Annie Lennox's 2014 covers collection, Nostalgia, finds the former Eurythmics vocalist soulfully interpreting various pop, jazz, and R&B standards. In many ways, Nostalgia works as a companion piece to her similarly inventive 2010 album, the holiday-themed Christmas Cornucopia…

Theatrical metal – that’s how the four Danes of EVIL MASQUERADE have chosen to name their particular brand of music, and they do manage to deliver solid evidence, that also in the country of red sausages, the will to experiment and take great different paths in music is as great as ever…

"Barcelona" is an album recorded by Freddie Mercury, the front-man of the popular British rock band Queen, and operatic soprano Montserrat Caballe. The album was recorded in 1987 and 1988, and released in 1988. It is the final solo album recorded by Mercury, who died of AIDS on November 24, 1991. 25 years after the original release of the lead single, Barcelona, has been given a special re-release in an entirely newly orchestrated re-working.

The Complete Album Collection is Paul Simon's Complete Recorded Works – minus Simon & Garfunkel, of course, along with "Slip Sliding Away" – and, as a whole, it is a mightily impressive body of work, showcasing an artist who remains restless and curious four decades into his career. The package is handsome, presenting each CD as a mini-LP, the sound is terrific, the price is affordable, and the scope is complete, so The Complete Album Collection is in every way an upgrade over the previous The Complete Studio Recordings.

Jordan Rudess - Rhythm Of Time Magna Carta “Dream Theater,” keyboardist Jordan Rudess and a slew of progressive-rock guitar gods navigate tricky time signatures on this high-flying production. At times, it’s difficult to discern whether it’s Rudess performing his synth lines or guitarists such as Greg Howe and Joe Satriani’s, high-tech – into the ozone – type leads. Essentially, Rudess is a speed demon on the keys. Occasionally, he interjects slick jazz grooves into the mix, but the thrust of this generally, soaring affair is rooted within his polytonal chord progressions, and layered orchestrations. And as we might expect, drummer Rod Morgenstein (Dixie Dregs) handles the difficult pulses with chutzpah along with a whiz-bang approach to dynamics.