The ever-reliable Joe Satriani returned with another guitar master class with the release of Is There Love In Space? in April 2004. Is There Love In Space? is the tenth studio album by guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani As one would expect from Therion, the albums’ lyrics feature mythical creatures, deities and religious sects. Lemuria apparently refers to a lost continent much like the mythical Atlantis and Sirius B to the twin star of Sirius A. A work colleague in the late 1990s got me into them and I have been a fan ever since.

What’s better than a new album from your favourite Swedish symphonic metal band? Why, two new albums of course! I was blown away by how good both these albums were as there was not a weak track between them in my humble opinion. Lemuria and Sirius B were released simultaneously by Therion on 24th May 2004 For me, this was their best album in many years and I was very pleased with what my ears were receiving when I took it home on its first day of release. I am sure that I was not alone in thinking the break-up would end the band and was very pleasantly surprised when they got back together. Hoodoo Gurus broke up in the late 1990s but reformed in 2003 before going on to record this album. The track “Empty Glass” appears to be some sort of tribute to David Bowie as its lyrics include the terms Major Tom, diamond dogs, starman and golden years.Įnding an 8 year gap between albums Mach Schau was released by the re-formed band

Seven Circles was a success for the band, particularly in Australia and their native Canada, and two promotional singles were released. In the end that turned out to be the case when they reformed in 2011. They had assumed the band was just going on hiatus for a while. It was a surprise to the other band members, as singer Jeff Martin announced his solo career. The Tea Party broke up after the tour that accompanied the release of this album in 2005. Seven Circles would be the last studio album released by the band for a decade She was asked to leave the band after this album which although I was originally disappointed, it just meant I now had a solo career to follow as well as that of Nightwish. The vocals were extraordinary so I wasn’t surprised to discover that lead vocalist, Tarja Turunen, had been opera-trained.

I was intrigued and was already into symphonic metal largely due to another band that features later in this blog post. Thanks to a sampler DVD which came with another purchase, I discovered Nightwish by watching the music video for lead single “Nemo”. Once, the 5th studio album by Nightwish and last to feature original vocalist Tarja Turunen

Jibber jabber future