With 2011’s excellent 'Modern Ruin' still a fresh memory, Covenant is already back in the studio working on a follow-up, tentatively titled 'Leaving Babylon'. Featuring material that spans from Northern Light-era demos to brand-new creations, 'Leaving Babylon' promises to be "a bold new direction for the band", according to the announcement:

"Beat-heavy yet introspective; Leaving Babylon is Covenant’s sonic exploration into uncharted emotional waters. It’s the feeling of memory made sound—the melancholy of Sweden in the wintertime, the strange beat of electric hearts, and the longing for forgotten parties."

Meanwhile, the band also announces a first leg of its tour, in Germany, also in September 2013. 

Tickets here.

The Eden House has just premiered their new single "Bad Men (OnTheirWayToDoBadThings)" on Youtube with Monica Richards (ex-Faith And The Muse) on vocals and Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music) on guitar!

Enjoy the video below. To order, and to listen to the B-side, "Survival Instinct", featuring the lovely Amandine Ferrari, check the band's bandcamp page.

theedenhouse.bandcamp.com/album/bad-men-ontheirwaytodobadthings-single

Belga Films has released Taken 2 on dvd and Blu-ray. It's available in any shop.

In this succesful sequel we see Liam Neeson for the second time in a quite unusual role as the father who tries to find his kidnapped daughter.

Taken 2 is a real tip for fans of exciting actionmovies.

Synopsis

The retired CIA agent Bryan Mills invites his teenage daughter Kim and his ex-wife Lenore, who has separated from her second husband, to spend a couple of days in Istanbul where he is working. Meanwhile, the patriarch of the community of the Albanese gang of human trafficking, Murad Krasniqi, seeks revenge for the death of his son and organizes another gang to kidnap Bryan and his family. Bryan and Lenore are abducted by the Albanese, but Kim escapes and is the only hope that Bryan has to escape and save Lenore

Pieter Nooten, the man who wrote monumental tunes for Clan Of Xymox, is back with a new album Haven.

Peek-A-Boo can proudly announce you the fact that you'll soon can read an interview with the man about what was, but more perhaps important what will be....

In the meantime Pieter invites us for a sneak preview of his album Haven

Enjoy, but most of all...dream away.

Artist: DOMINIC
Album: PERSONA
Format: CD | LP | DIGITAL
Release: 22 March 2013
Label: Denovali/ Cargo

It's been four years since their previous album, but now DOMINIC is finally ready with album number three, “Persona”.

In the first years since their beginning in 2001, DOMINIC have mainly focused on concerts and live shows and have toured Europe a lot especially after 2003. Many DOMINIC releases have seen the light of the day during these years, including two full length albums. Most of these recordings had been done live and as quickly as possible. The band has had its focus on catching the nerve and roughness the live format adds, without spending too much time on post production.

With the new album DOMINIC took a different approach and thus Persona marks a new step in their history as a band. DOMINIC started working on the songs for the album shortly after their previous album “Nord” was released in 2009. Since 2010 there have been fewer live shows, but a steady and continuous work on the material for Persona. Finally DOMINIC have been in and out of the recording studio in the Summer and Fall of 2012 to finish the record.

The result is Persona, a manifestation of a band that has toured and played together for more than 10 years. DOMINIC have always been hard to label, but attemps to characterise them have used terms such as punk, hardcore, post-hardcore, screamo and post-rock. These are all genres the band is well known with, and musically DOMINIC is probably some- where within. Yet, these terms could never suffice to describe Persona entirely, the only thing that's for certain is the fact that DOMINIC are DOMINIC, and Persona is Persona.

The album name “Persona” is borrowed from the psychiatrist Carl Jung, who defined “the persona” as a mask, the facade we try to maintain in social settings. The persona-mask occurs between the individual and the society around, and is not more real than the characters played in a fictional play. Both in fiction and in real life, the mask has two functions; to make a certain impression on others, and to hide the true nature of the individual.

Band page: www.facebook.com/dominicnord
 

Artist: PETRELS
Album: ONKALO
Format: CD | 2xLP | DIGITAL
Release: 29 March 2013
Label: Denovali/ Cargo

ONKALO is the follower of the highly praised PETRELS concept debut album HAELIGEWIELLE ("Petrels has provided us with what has to be the strongest solo debut from a musician so far in 2011." (Fluid Radio) + "The album is a masterpiece of narrative, a blackened ship with a broken mast that defies the storm and in so doing discovers its own dark destiny." (8.5/ 10 - The Silent Ballet)

ONKALO ('hiding place') is the name of the spent nuclear fuel repository currently under construction in Finland to house hazardous nuclear waste. It is designed to last a minimum of 100,000 years - a scale of time unimaginable when the oldest surviving man made structures have endured not even a tenth of that time. The human species as we know it is thought to have existed for approximately 100,000 years - is it possible for humankind to build something that will endure a timescale that vast again? And what will be left to uncover it if it does so?

Taking this as a starting point, Petrels second album - after acclaimed debut Haeligewielle - draws on a fascination with how we deal with what is left over, both physically and mentally. With this thread running through Onkalo, Petrels also takes inspiration from speculative science, immense time scales, retro-futurism, personal history, and how the post-war optimism of the dawn of the atomic age has come up against a more uncertain vision of the future.


Band page: www.facebook.com/petrels