Articles

Andy Fletcher, keyboardist and co-founder of synth pop and new wave giants Depeche Mode, known to all the band's fans as "Fletch", has died at the age of 60. Depeche Mode confirmed the news today through their social media channels,…

Procol Harum's singer, pianist and co-founder of the cult proto-prog rock outfit Procol Harum, has passed away at the age of 77. The band confirmed it in an official statement: "With deep regret, we must confirm the death of Gary Brooker,…

Marko Brecelj has died at the age of 70 (in his 71st year), one of the sharpest, wittiest and most sparkling Slovenian musical artists. In his ideas and expression he was most often "blood brothers" with a provocative avant-garde art pole,…

Aki Rahimovski, the beloved frontman of Croatian rock giants Parni Valjak, passed away on January 22, 2022, in a hospital in Novo mesto. He was 66 years old. The band announced the news on their official Facebook profile with a short…

Meat Loaf, one of the most beloved and commercially successful hard rock and heavy metal singers, who was also a film actor among other things, has died at the age of 74. The news was announced by his agent, who wrote the following in an…

Burke Shelley, founder, frontman, singer and bassist of the cult Welsh rockers Budgie, has died at the age of 71. The sad news was confirmed by Shelley's daughter Ela Shelley, who posted the following yesterday on the band's official…

Location: San Francisco / Chase Center / United States of AmericaDate: Friday, December 17, 2021 and Sunday, December 19, 2021 The year was 1981. Hard rock fans were being treated to albums like AC/DC - For Those About to…

A few days ago, the Slovenian rock and metal community lost Sašo Banovič, one of the key figures of the Postojna area, who through his commitment, enthusiasm, fire and constant involvement in rock activism left an indelible mark not only…

Johnny Solinger, who fronted American glam metal legends Skid Row from 1999 to 2015, passed away yesterday, June 26, 2021, at the age of 56. The cause of death was liver failure. Johnny Solinger, full name John Preston Solinger, born…

On February 12, 1981, Rush released their eighth studio album, “Moving Pictures” (RockLine review). It's one of the most important albums in the band's history, if not the most important. Fans simply can't agree on that one when they weigh…

In 1981, Iron Maiden were slowly closing in on the massive change that the world would witness at the end of March 1982. But even the stretch right before that career turning point wasn't without some radical upheavals, and they followed…

David Bowie (January 8, 1947 – January 10, 2016), the eternal musical chameleon and sonic alien, who blasted into space in his songs with Major Tom, sold the world, went looking for life on Mars with Hunky Dory, caught post-apocalyptic…

In mid-June 1970, Uriah Heep released their studio debut »Very ‘eavy … Very ‘umble« in the UK (RockLine review) and laid the groundwork for a musical artistry all their own. It didn't take more albums than their contemporaries needed to…

Five years have flown by in a flash. Five years since we lost one of the greatest musical visionaries in the history of rock 'n' roll – the brilliant mind of David Bowie. Fifty years ago this November, the man put out his third studio…

In the "immodest notes" below, we're serving up a bouquet of albums that dropped last year and, in the opinion of the RockLine crew, left the biggest mark. 2020 delivered a seriously rich harvest of top-notch music, which made choosing…

This RockLine piece is all about albums by Slovenian artists that dropped last year and are so good they deserve a special shout-out. But still... Not every album by a Slovenian artist released last year actually made it to our…

On December 28, 2020, it was five years since the world lost its first rock icon. That was Ian Fraser Kilmister, known to everyone as Lemmy. Even though he never tried to be, or even wanted to be. He was a musician who actually lived…

Emerson, Lake & Palmer were the first true supergroup in music history. The band was formed in London in April 1970, with a lineup built around keyboardist Keith Emerson, vocalist, guitarist and bassist Greg Lake, and drummer Carl…

King Crimson put out not one but two albums in 1970. The second one, "Lizard" (RockLine review), was recorded by a completely different lineup, one that, just like the patched-together crew behind its predecessor, was doomed to a short…

»With »Trespass«, their first prog record, the band took a massive step forward from the previous album and showed that, despite the members' youth, they were one of the most mature groups of the day. Or rather: the music they started…

Soon after forming in the second half of the sixties, Van Der Graaf Generator became a band that pushed musical boundaries with its progressive vision and unbridled pioneering swagger, throwing the doors wide open for the progressive rock…

It was the first year of the new millennium when Iron Maiden dropped their comeback album with the re-recruited "deserter" Bruce Dickinson. It was an album of salvation, an album of relief, an album that landed at the right time in the…

For Saxon, 1980 was the most important year of the band's career. That February, they dropped the album »Wheels of Steel« and took the torch from a freshly born phalanx of bands serving up, for the time, a combination of insanely fast and…

What is there left to say about an album that's already had everything said about it? Did anyone ever even need to say anything about an album like this? A fast 40 years have gone by since it came out in early November 1980. Even a passing…

Prog rock giants Jethro Tull, led by their unbridled, energetic, lucid, sarcastic and charismatic frontman Ian Anderson, rock's most famous flautist, who has always known how to poke at social sore spots with his one-of-a-kind lyrics and…

Iron Maiden released the live album »Live After Death« 35 years ago. It was mid-October of that long-gone year. The story behind it is a feat on the level of the biblical exploits of gray-bearded Moses. A story about Eddie the mummy…

“Atom Heart Mother”, Pink Floyd's fifth studio album overall, is considered one of the most overlooked records of their entire career, even though with it the band put out something completely different from its predecessor »Ummagumma«…

After »Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son«, the hugely successful tour that followed its release – with the band pushing their stagecraft even further, expanding and enriching all the sets and scenery to serve up even more spectacular shows –…

1969 went down as the year Led Zeppelin's rock'n'roll supernova exploded, and it was impossible to look away. All of a sudden, this new star was blazing at full intensity. That year they built an incredible launch ramp and catapulted…

This September marked 40 years since the release of Ozzy's debut, "Blizzard of Ozz." It's the album that saved the singer's music career. To get a rough picture of how we ended up with the album that marked Ozzy's final step into a solo…

1970 was a straight-up breakthrough year for Black Sabbath, in every sense of the word. In February they released their studio debut »Black Sabbath« (RockLine review), and by the end of the year they had two studio albums in the bag. On 18…

This is the story of the album with which Judas Priest redefined their heavy metal and caught the trends of the moment. In 1990, Judas Priest were seen as veterans, heavy metal elder statesmen of sorts. Painkiller put these enthroned…

“By the time of »Headless Cross«, Iommi had finally found a lineup formula that let him sleep a little easier. In that relaxed atmosphere, the same crew of musicians recorded an even stronger album, “Tyr”, which still failed to win over the…

“»Empire«, which was produced once again by Peter Collins, just like »Operation: Mindcrime« (with Jim Barton handling engineering duties) in Vancouver, Canada, remains a timeless musical achievement even after 30 years, embodying the…

In early 1980, AC/DC found themselves in a seriously unenviable position. The Grim Reaper tapped their enigmatic vocalist Bon Scott on the shoulder and invited him along. For good. On 19 February 1980, he was found dead in the early…

""Squeezed between two more successful Jethro Tull albums and unfairly overlooked in the band's vast discography, the excellent "Benefit" nevertheless holds the key that opened the door for them to record, the following year, a huge album,…

" When it was born 50 years ago, “Very ‘eavy … Very ‘umble” served up remarkable innovation, and with that very first record Uriah Heep proved they were a band with a finely honed musical pedigree, one they could boldly build on and push…

"The story behind the 50th anniversary of one of the most important albums in the history of rock music."

"With Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith back in the fold and a killer new album in "Brave New World", Iron Maiden reclaimed their status as a superpower on the global metal map at the dawn of the new millennium!"

"“In the Wake of Poseidon” is less predictable than the debut thanks to some fresh avant-garde touches, and that makes it a real treat for music connoisseurs."

"No-one gets to Heaven Till they've lived a while in Hell And even then it's rare That you'll be going there" Ronnie James Dio ("Magica", 2000)

Florian Schneider (pictured right), founding member of German music giants and electronic music innovators Kraftwerk, has died at the age of 73. The news was confirmed in an official statement by Schneider's colleague and fellow…

"When Ozzy left, plenty of people figured Black Sabbath were done. They couldn't have been more wrong. The band reinvented its sound and style and made one of the best albums of its career. This is the story of "Heaven And Hell"!"

"British Steel was the album where Judas Priest managed to elegantly fuse the bristling punch of heavy metal with a radio-friendly accessibility, given an extra boost by the rise of the N.W.O.B.H.M., and with it Judas Priest scored their…

Four decades ago, on April 14, 1980, heavy metal giants Iron Maiden unleashed their self-titled studio debut on the world. The road to it was thorny, but when the album landed, it actually charted one spot higher than the red-hot Saxon,…

" Back then, you'd have been hard-pressed to find an album that captured the wild, untamed spirit of a brand-new genre's big adventure better than "Wheels Of Steel". It's regarded as the central musical achievement that founded the…

"Duke is the album that loudly announced Genesis had entered the eighties too, riding a gradual storm of stylistic changes, just like plenty of their prog rock contemporaries."

At 67, one of Slovenia's sharpest and most distinctive blues and rock guitarists, Janez Zmazek - Žan, has left us for good. Under Žan's fingers and hands, his unforgettable guitar would "purr, sing and moan" in a way all its own, like…

"When it came out, the Black Sabbath debut was met with mostly disapproval and incomprehension from the critics of the day, and it took years for it to earn the respect and standing it deserves as one of the most important achievements in…

"This year marks 50 years since the album that "saved" Van Der Graaf Generator's career and clearly set the compass needle for the band's further evolution. An album that arrived ahead of its time and, with its avant-garde weirdo swagger,…

ALEŠ PODBREŽNIK Slovenia:1. Bakalina Velika - Prvi krajec "What its predecessor “Španabije” (2017) hinted at in the closing track Ko se je dielu sviet, “Prvi krajec” fully delivers. With the new album, Bakalina Velika cunningly stretched…

In this article we pick ten lyrics by the iconic Canadian prog rockers Rush that best capture the guiding principles of their legendary drummer Neil Peart (09/12/1952–01/07/2020).

This RockLine piece is all about albums by Slovenian artists that came out last year and are simply too good not to shout about. So here we go! RockLine has dug through the best of the best that the Slovenian music scene gave us last year:…

"Permanent Waves", the seventh studio album from the mighty Canadian prog-rock fortress Rush, came out on 14.01.1980 on Mercury Records, which means exactly 40 years ago. On this album, Rush started approaching arrangements in a more…

Music isn't always serious business, sometimes its whole mission is just to have fun. And the biggest party is often thrown by bizarre masked weirdos with made-up backstories, over-the-top costumes and strange, off-the-wall themes. Just…

You simply can't talk about Swedish death metal without mentioning Entombed, who in 1990 unleashed their monstrous debut Left Hand Path — arguably the most important Swedish death metal album ever made. It gave the Swedish scene its own…

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" is the famous Hamlet quote that has become synonymous with describing a corrupt, rotten society. To paraphrase it, something rotten was also born over thirty years ago in Denmark's northern…

Ahead of Saturday's marathon of established local champs and promising young forces of the Slovenian metal scene, we're putting their videos in the spotlight. Make the wait for Support the Scene Fest go faster by checking out the videos…

"Here are ten hand-picked power metal albums that came out twenty years ago, left a real mark on the power metal scene and the metal world in general, and make for especially sweet trips down memory lane."

This year marks fifty years since the release of "In the Court of the Crimson King," the debut from English band King Crimson, now recognized as the album that laid the cornerstone of the progressive rock movement. A musical phenomenon from…

YouTube has been the go-to spot for promoting new tracks for a while now, with labels, musicians, producers and everyone else using it. In recent years, rock and metal fans have also been paying attention to players who want to show off…

ALEŠ PODBREŽNIK Slovenia - Top 10 albums 1. Duhovi – Dobri duhovi prošlosti 2. GHB (Grega Habič Band) - Songs Of Breathing Freely 3. Prismojeni profesorji bluesa – Wacky Blues Professors 4. džeZZva – Sintur 5. Demolition Group – Pojdiva…

On Monday, April 16, 2018, Alan Jakin, a former member of Nova Gorica art rock champions Avtomobili, passed away after a serious illness. He was one of the most distinctive guitarists around, and his playing and approach left a lasting…

A little over a week before Judas Priest's first show on Slovenian soil since 1991, at Metaldays 2018 (Thursday, July 26, 2018), it will be 28 years since the events that could very well have ended the career of one of the most influential…

ALEŠ PODBREŽNIK SLOVENIA: Art/Pop/Rock/Jazz: 1. EPP (alias Erik Platon) - Ekonomski propagandni pop 2. Na lepem prijazni – Srceder 3. Divje jezero – Pobeg iz blodnjaka 4. Drevored – Na zahod 5. Smaal Tokk – Sindrom druge plošče…

Strip away the influences of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century classical music and the early twentieth, and the roots of progressive rock reach back to the first half of the sixties, to what is now the United Kingdom.