Current Nashville Industry Music Awards (NIMA) Alternative Rock Band of the Year vocalist / bassist and motorcycle rally queen Jasmine Cain has released her new album "White Noise" via 3Thirteen Music / eOne Music. You can order "White Noise" now here. White Noise was produced by Mills Logan (Taylor Swift, Luke Bryan, Toby Keith), Jasmine Cain and Lincoln Parrish (Cage the Elephant), and features Jasmine Cain members Zach Ballard and Benjamin Johnson on drums and lead guitar, respectively.

This is, by far, Jasmine Cain's strongest album to date. Having self-released four albums prior to White Noise, the songwriting has reached its pinnacle. With so many miles behind and so many miles left to travel, the Sturgis, SD nativehas paved a way for female rockers in the motorcycle culture. As JPF Female Artist of the Year and Nashville's Music City Mayhem (MCMA) four-time Female Rock Vocalist (in addition to the aforementioned Nashville Industry Music Award), Cain has set the standard and raised the bar. Living her life through her songs and gypsy spirit like a modern day Janis Joplin, she is a ghost on the road sitting next to you as you take your own musical journey.  
 
Cain states:-

"White Noise was a fun challenge for me because for the first time, we were writing songs together as a band and we only had two weeks to complete the writing process. I've never been put under the gun that hard and it forced me to get really focused and stay that way.  My entire life had to be shut off. With that being said, I was very skeptical of the lyrics sound contrived and forced, but much to my surprise, and the surprise of everyone else, the songs happened effortlessly. Only a few times can I remember getting tripped up on a part or lyric and hitting a wall. But I just didn't force it. I started a new chapter and just wrote something else until that came to me. Most days I was just shooting ideas at the wall, but occasionally we would hit a vein and write two or three songs that day. It was really amazing to be able to do that. You don't really know if you can until you have no other choice." 

 
Jasmine Cain and her band are endorsed by S&S Cycle, Epiphone Guitars, Kramer Guitars, Warwick Basses and GHS Strings.
 
www.jasminecain.com  
www.facebook.com/jasminecainrocks

From the gutters of south Sweden, Liv “Sin” Jagrell emerged as a major force as the vocalist for hard rockers Sister Sin. Throughout their 13 year career, Sister Sin sold thousands of albums and toured the world with high profile tours supporting the likes of Slayer and King Diamond on the Rockstar Mayhem festival tour, as well as being a part of the Revolver Magazine ”Hottest Chicks in Metal” tour. Sister Sin toured relentlessly for over a decade across Europe and North America garnering an intensely loyal following of rockers that craved the band’s aggressive and melodic brand of hard rock.

When Sister Sin called it quits at the end of 2015, Liv knew that she had much more to give to her fans. From this, Liv SIn was born. Liv is currently working on a new music that shows the power, sexiness, and attitude that she is known for. Liv says ”for me it has never been an option to stop singing. I live for the stage and for my fans. I still miss Sister Sin, but I am very excited to work on my own project, and I can promise it will not be some soft pop rock. This is going to be metal deluxe, because that’s who I am!" Liv SIn offers a modernized hard rock sound to take Liv into her next phase, a sound that is destined to please both new fans and her long-time fans of Sister Sin.

www.facebook.com/livsinmusic

See the GazettE live

USA / Canada:

25 April – Bomb Factory – Dallas
27 April – Danforth Music Hall – Toronto
29 April – Playstation Theatre – New York
1 May – Regency Ballroom – San Francisco
3 May – Wilterm Theatre – Los Angeles
5 May – Vogue Theatre – Vancouver

Europe:

3 June – Le Zenith – Paris
5 June – E-Werk – Cologne
8 June – Tonhalle – Munich
10 June – The Circus – Helsinki
12 June – Izvestia Hall – Moscow


http://the-gazette.com/
https://www.facebook.com/the-GazettE-Official-255684944526717/

‘Merry metallers’ Reckless Love will be returning to London in June in the wake of their sold out show at the Scala Theatre in March. The flamboyant Finns, who have recently released their fourth studio album, ‘InVader’, via Spinefarm Records UK, have now been added to the line-up for the ‘Camden Rocks’ festival, set to take place on Saturday, June 4th.   

Says guitarist, Pepe: “Camden Town is truly a special place for Reckless Love, as we rocked our first ever UK show there back in 2010! Since then, we've returned many times to this beautiful place, and even held a smashing month-long residency at one of its many lively rock clubs. So it is with the greatest pleasure that we come back in 2016 to take part in the awesome Camden Rocks Festival!!” 

In support of this one-off outing, Reckless Love will be releasing a new single / video, ‘We Are The Weekend’ – opening track on ‘InVader’ and a genuine party-starter in true RL spirit. In addition, a double coloured vinyl version of ‘Invader’ – complete with previously unreleased bonus track, ‘Zoo’ – is about to go into production; apart from a Record Store Day piece in 2014, this will the first time the Finnish Four have had their music issued on vinyl!  And the colour of the vinyl? Pink. Next silly question.

By GMA's Afghan correspondent Abdul Basir Shakeri

Hojat Hameed, who is the leader of White Page, decided to establish a rock band. He established White Page on March 8th, 2011 after he came to agreement with the other members of the band; Rateb Ramesh, Rabi Adib, and Reshad Afzali who were active in another rock band from the Afghanistan National Institute of Music called ‘Afghan Vision’.

White Page resumed it's music practicing in a small room located at 6th street of Qala-e-Fatula, however they had to leave there because of the people, who were giving unfair names to rock music, and loud voices of rock music. White Page restarted its music practicing in a smaller room located at Karte Char after a delay of one and a half months, but they had to leave there due to the same problems. It took one month for White Page to restart its practices temporarily again at the Afghan National Institute of Music. One month later, they found a place entitled Youth House and carried on their practices over there even though they were compelled to leave Youth House due to frequent complaints made by people. Eventually, they moved to the Venue Restaurant located on 6th street of Qala-e-Fatula and continued their practices there.

At this time, they got familiar with Archibald Gallet, who had a positive effect on promoting the band. Archi started working with White Page as a mentor. At the same time, White Page attended the biggest music concert in Afghanistan – Sound Central – which was a rock festival. White Page could prove itself as the best Afghan Rock Band and draw the attention of others.

After the festival ended, White Page members decided to compose their own songs. The first song is called ‘Fuck The War’ but the name was later changed to ‘Stop The War’ because of social and cultural conditions in Afghanistan. This song is blended with Afghan Music; the song is in Afghan 7/8 rhythm which expresses three decades war and the issues of this period in Afghanistan. The second song is called ‘Bridge’; this song expresses to create a relative bridge between Afghanistan and the and other countries across the globe. White Page members decided to compose the song when the band leader (Hojat Hameed) traveled to the USA as the first Afghan Rock Ambassador; he played music with some of musicians there like Copal Band. It should be mentioned that White Page is the only Afghan Rock Band that Rolling Stone magazine, which is one of the most popular rock magazines through the world, has published an article about it.

White Page has had great performances at many stages such as: Embassies, Afghanistan Rock Festival, a young festival, and many public centers. The White Page members decided to separate after an excellent performance at American University of Afghanistan on March 4, 2012. The decision happened due to major problems like: having no possibilities and equipments for recording the songs and having no financial support. But as time went by.....

Hojat Hameed decided to re-establish White Page. Finally, he re-established White Page again on June 21st, 2012. With other members: Reshad Afzali, Sasan Fanoos and Maqsoud Sadid. White Page are currently active in the Afghan Youth Orchestra with Hojat Hameed working as concert master and violinist, Reshad Afzali as percussion soloist. Sasan Fanoos as guitar soloist, and Maqsood Sadid as the rhythm guitarist.

In brief, White Page is an Afghan band that is made of Afghan Youth. It works for promoting the music especially rock music in Afghanistan in order to show the real and good face of Afghanistan to the world.

Now, there is a new and blank page for Afghanistan music, a white page over all black pages of which reflect adversity of three decades war. It could be written using good words, the good days of Afghan people and unsaid and unheard words of them, the words which are in the hearts, and finally the development of Afghanistan. That’s why it is called “White Page”.

White Page hopes that it can represent the music of Afghanistan on great stages all over the world. White Page exercises utmost to pave the way and never gives up any effort to achieve this goal.

Recently they performed at the US embassy and they got an award from the US Ambassador in Kabul about 2 weeks ago and they also performed at the Sound Central Festival 2013. They recently  changed the vocalist.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/WHITE-PAGE/134246383334585?fref=ts

Puerto Rico's very own Aura Azul has officially had it's latest release 'Beyond The Doors Of Time' become sold out in Japan.

The single has had three achievements given by ourstage.com - 'top 10 metal' in July 2012 and 'top 40 metal' in August and September 2012 respectively. Ourstage is owned by the MTV network.

Evidence of it selling out in Japan can be seen here: http://rockstakk.shop-pro.jp/?pid=56797196

Also here: http://www.metalpesado.com/mailorder/shop.cgi?order=&&keyword=aura%20azul&FF=0&price_sort=&pic_only=&mode=p_wide&id=27131&superkey=1

Furthermore Iron Maiden and Iron Maiden's management handpicked Aura Azul to open for them in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The video of which can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF7nOIvIkqw


www.auraazul.tk
www.totalsteelrecords.com
http://www.facebook.com/auraazulband
http://auraazulband.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/auraazulband
http://www.myspace.com/auraazulband

(Clockwise from above, Lordi (Finland), Terasbetoni (Finland), Eldrine (Georgia) and maNga (Turkey).

Is it a strange phenomenon that is occurring or is it simply a new idea by European music industries to promote their metal music scene?

Ever since Lordi graced the stage of the Eurovision song contest back in 2006 and won it emphatically with their song 'Hard Rock Hallelujah', this was to become the first Heavy Metal entry in Eurovision history and consequently the first one to win the competition. Post-Eurovision the band were congratulated from many alike from the Mayor of Helsinki to the President of Finland at the time, even producing Christmas stamps with the band members masks on them as well as coca-cola delivering a Lordi style product. Their winning song 'Hard Rock Hallelujah' was then released on their sensational album 'The Arockalypse'.

Forward a year and as Lordi opened up again with their winning song succeeding a spine-chilling introduction showing the Finnish part of the article circle (in fact the vocalist Mr. Lordi was born in Rovaniemi, the administrative capital of Lapland - could Santa Claus really be a demonic rocker?) and the band playing on an icy and snowy backdrop which features iconic Finnish cultural symbols, such as the pine trees, the wolves, the frozen landscape and of course Finnish Heavy Metal.

It then was the turn of Finnish Power Metal band Teräsbetoni, whom of which currently is on a hiatus as of 2011, signed to Sakara Records (previously signed to Warner Music Finland) the quartet embraced the cold winter storm of Helsinki's Hartwall Areena and the passionate Finnish Metal scene followers that valiantly waved their national flag along to the music, but what possibly made the band end near last position may rest with the choice of song, 'Missä miehet ratsastaa' which in fact progressed the band to the final in the 2008 edition of the Eurovision, even so it is a fabulous song, full of oomph and gusto, even so the final interval act was even more sensational, the Cello Metal legends that are Apocalyptica

Forwarding a few years to 2010 and it was Turkey's turn to enter a metal band, sure it was not as heavy as the previous bands but it still carried enough riff kudos to land maNga a second place finish in the Final, losing out unfortunately to Germany's Lena; to this day most music fans still claim maNga should have been the winners since their song (and themselves consequently) were unheard of relatively in Europe, whereas Lena and her entry was already massive hit on the European music scene, still maNga put up a damn good performance with their song 'We Could Be The Same', which aptly is a good slogan for the global metal community, we are the same as it would seem. maNga in fact had gained popularity through their song 'Bir Kadın Çizeceksin' as it was featured on the 2006 edition of FIFA and came from their debut s/t album, the album was later re-released as 'maNga+' with additional songs and adapted artwork, still keeping maNga's recognizable creature. Then their second album came out 'Şehr-i Hüzün' in 2009, still keeping the band's trademark sound of Anatolian melodies and Nu Metal. Their latest album is 'e-akustik' and was released last year, overall in my opinion they were the real winners.

Consequently 'We Could Be The Same', the Eurovision entry that maNga went with, was the first ever English song they have done, since then they also released the single 'Fly To Stay Alive'.

Forward on a year and the Nu Metal / Alternative Rock trend carries on, this time it is the Georgian band Eldrine to grace the Eurovision song contest and 2011 was to prove to be another humdinger for metal as the winning song was far from rock or metal. But none the less to see a Georgian Metal band in Eurovision is a shock since the scene itself is relatively minute, with only a handful of bands actually getting known in the Caucasian region, but none the less they brought the Nu Metal sound once more, even with costumes that may even represent traditional values in terms of dress style.
Heavy Metal may need that, just 'One More Day' to reshuffle and deliver another lashing on Eurovision to win the title of the most competitive music song contest on the planet.

So where does this leave the relationship between Heavy Metal and the Eurovision Song Contest? Maybe some day a variation of the contest may be made to suit metal music, maybe Sweden or Norway may send a Black Metal band in, who knows. But what happened in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest did not happen in the final of the competition, during the semi-finals and the voting stages to vote acts to the final, from Switzerland the duo act Sinplus of whom play Post-Punk, New Wave and Alternative Rock music sadly did not get through, nor did the Israeli rock band Izabo, sure it is not metal music, but the latter is just an evident sign that rock is still represented, more so another act not to make it to the final was the Slovakian artist Miroslav Šmajda of whom plays Alternative Rock / Heavy Metal. However on a side note, the French entry Anggun is of Indonesian origin and as I found out when interviewing her, she takes influence from Heavy metal music, yet sings pop music, weird eh? So what will 2013 bring....

As Eurovision Song Contest 2013 rolls onto our screens on the following dates (NB for the UK semi-finals will be on BBC Three and the Final on BBC One - commentators Scott Mills and Ana Matronic, Graham Norton respectively):

Semi-final 1 - 14 May 2013
Semi-final 2 - 16 May 2013

Final date - 18 May 2013

There are a number of rock / electronic music entries that should be watched out for.

Representing Albania is the Rock duo Adrian Lulgjuraj and Bledar Sejko
Representing Armenia is the Rock band Dorians
Representing Italy is the Pop Rock artist Marco Mengoni
Representing Lithuania is the Indie Rock artist Andrius Pojavis
Representing Macedonia is the Pop Rock artist Vlatko Lozanoski
Representing Norway is the Electro / Pop Rock artist Margaret Berger
Representing Spain is the Pop Rock / Celtic Rock band El Sueño de Morfeo
Representing The Netherlands is the Alternative Rock / Pop Rock artist Anouk Teeuwe
Representing The United Kingdom is the Pop Rock artist Bonnie Tyler

The closest musically to metal music would be between the Albanian, Armenian and Spanish entries.

Lets start the show.