Sad news: The music world mourns the loss of Ray Manzarek (74), founding Member and keyboarder of The Doors, White Zombie drummer Phil Buerstatte (44) and Uriah Heep bassist Trevor Bolder (63). R.I.P.!
German Hardrockers BERSERKER will donate 18.000€ to the Berlin cancer charity for children on May 25. November 2011 BERSERKER front man Schröder was diagnosed with cancer, now he is cancer-free. In 2012 the band collected money for this charity at their concerts and will also continue to do so in the future. Slayer´s Jeff Hanneman is dead: he passed away at about 11AM on May 2nd near his Southern California home because of liver failure due to an infection after a spider bite. R.I.P. Jeff!
The Siberian Jay music video "I´m Holding" featuring Mikko Sirén from Apocalyptica on drums - we reported about the videoshoot in our "1h with" Special - can be watched here: http://youtu.be/C-hSNurZVcs
With Shiraz Lane we have another very young Hard / Sleaze Rock band from Finland`s capital Helsinki whose average age is 19 years. Life, love and music are their sources of inspiration, and next to the classics like Guns`n`Roses, Iron Maiden and Skid Row, also comparatively young bands like Hardcore Superstar belong to their musical influences. Young and fresh, that`s how Shiraz Lane themselves sound like...
The opener of their 4-track-EP "Before It Strikes", "Bite Me", starts to rock straightforwardly, and it`s a real catchy song, not to say: A Hard Rock composition out of the picture book. And the guitar solo sounds pretty neat as well. With the following title track "(It Won`t Hurt) Before It Strikes" comes the next catchy song before it winds down, first a little bit with "Bullet" and then even more with the final semi-ballad "Take You Higher". The latter surprises at its end with a "Na-Na-Na" singing part for which singer Hannes Kett apparently gets support from the guitarists Jani Laine and Mickey Kalske as well as from bass player Daniel Luca and drummer Ana Willman. While listening to it for the first time, one might grin about it, but only because it`s so surprising and not because it`s cheesy. Oh, no: They aren`t cheesy at all. When we are talking about Shiraz Lane, we are talking about serious Hard / Sleaze Rock! And even if the production of their first EP is not of the highest quality: Good songs are good songs - and they will stick in your ears and in your mind right after the EP has been played for the first time. And that`s the way it should be!
Keep an eye on these guys `cause we will hear much more from them in the future!
