Evergrey is a progressive metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden. The band was founded in 1995 and released its debut album, The Dark Discovery, in 1998. After a minor hiatus the band returns with its ninth album Hymns for the Broken on 26/30 September 2014.

Australian pop sensibility with modern progressive heaviness – the cult force that is VOYAGER.

With 5 full-length albums under their belt and shows throughout North America, Europe and Asia with the likes of Devin Townsend, Children Of Bodom, Soilwork, Nightwish, Epica and Orphaned Land, the five-piece from Perth is now firmly entrenched in its international repute as “the band who doesn’t sound like anyone else”.

With a fiery red keytar, a feisty female guitarist and concerts described as “amazing chemistry blending pop with heavy, technical and progressive riffs”, Voyager are consistently a live force to be reckoned with. Deftones’ Chino Moreno recently likened singer Danny Estrin’s vocals to Duran Duran’s Simon LeBon.

In June 2014, Voyager released their fifth opus; the internationally critically acclaimed ‘V’. Their new album received incredible reviews from media outlets such as Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, Classic Rock Magazine and Revolver Magazine. In addition, ‘V’ entered the top 20 on the CMJ US Loud Rock Charts and led Voyager to receiving a nomination for the ‘Breakthrough Artist’ award at the 2014 Prog Magazine Music Awards and an invitation to appear at Bigsound 2014.

Voyager has performed at major festivals such as ProgPower USA and Hammersonic Festival (Indonesia) and will be touring the UK & Europe in October 2014, including an appearance at the prestigious ProgPower Europe Festival in The Netherlands.

With soaring vocals, lightning fast guitars and a rock solid backline, Borealis is bringing leather back, and dragging power metal up with it. It’s been that way from the start for these 5 Canadian guys: all or nothing, and it shows in their music.

Starting out in 2005, Borealis wasn’t supposed to sound as it does today. The first songs and live performances were done with a female opera singer. It was quickly realized that the possibilities were limited following that path, so they set out to find the right sound. During their search, enough songs were written to record an album, but there was no luck finding a singer. However, at some point the band realized that guitarist Matt Marinelli had been holding out on them by not letting them know that he could sing up until that point.

With Matt now stepping in as their new singer and an arsenal of songs, Borealis entered the studio, and after a long and endlessly drawn out time, the debut album was unleashed in 2008 by the band itself. ‘World of Silence’ has quickly garnered attention from all angles of the industry, and word is just starting to get out.

“To me it was a chemistry that worked right away, ‘World Of Silence’ is a power metal masterpiece, capturing the sheer essence of the genre and improving it by adding speed and progressive metal elements! Their sound can be described as being both expressive and melodic, especially in the keyboards and guitar sections as a result of harmonized layering. The vocals of guitar player Matt Marinelli are another point that lifts this band to a very high level. Yes, brothers and sisters; there’s a new star born, heading from the west! This release is a blistering one for all those into Progressive Power Metal. Borealis is a band you should try out and believe me you won’t be disappointed for one minute.” – Officer Nice, Metal to Infinity Webzine

Having been playing locally with such world-renowned bands as Kamelot, Epica, and Sonata Arctica with nothing to sell, patient fans were elated to finally get their hands on the album, and Borealis played a packed show with Edguy to support it. Suddenly Borealis was a band on everyone’s lips in their home-area of Ontario, Canada.

A short history of a band working to fill a tall order! Consisting of Sean Werlick (keys), Ken Fobert (guitar), Sean Dowell (drums) and Jamie Smith (bass), along with the aformentioned Matt Marinelli, the top of the power metal scene is where these Canadians strive to be, and if there’s only one certainty, it’s that they won’t stop until they’re there.

Summer of 2010 was spent recording and mixing the sophomore album, sinisterly titled “Fall From Grace”, an album that will bring the band to where they need and deserve to be – as one of the best young bands on a growing metal scene.

Musically Borealis leans towards the classic power metal sound, not too far removed from bands such as Evergrey or even Savatage in their prime, but also the more progressive bands like Vanden Plas or Dream Theater springs to mind here and there. It’s all about energy, aggression, melodies and finesse – and Borealis has it all in spades.

“Oceans Of Slumber is what heavy metal music should sound like in 2013, being a cacophony of sounds and styles that all seem to meld together into an awesome and unforgettable trip.” 10/10

Eric May, The Grim Tower

Houston Progressive Metallers OCEANS OF SLUMBER Release Aetherial

On February 1st OCEANS OF SLUMBER self-released a progressive metal whirlwind called Aetherial. Labeling a band like OCEANS OF SLUMBER is never quite as easy as one would think. The Houston band features in its ranks the drummer of grind purists INSECT WARFARE (among many others), a degreed Jazz guitarist, and an all-around cast of “players’ players.” What results from this collective of skilled musicians and a broad cross section of influence is the adventurous Aetherial. Musical classification is of no interest to the band however. Instead, OCEANS OF SLUMBER create waves of stimulating atmosphere and use their talents to exploit the dynamics of the music, thereby creating the undeniably epic wall of sound that has become the Texans’ trademark. The person responsible for the mixing and mastering of Aetherial, UK madman Russ Russell (NAPALM DEATH, DIMMU BORGIR, EVILE, etc.), had this to say about his work with Houston prog-metallers:

“Oceans of Slumber are of one of the top 10 bands I’ve ever worked with. The perfect mixture of sheer brutality with ultimate musicianship taking you on a journey through music. Old school metal mixed with prog and psychedelia brought right up to date with cutting death metal and black metal influences. All my favorite stuff rolled into one!”