hard rock | Musicosity

hard rock

James Johnston

James Johnston makes Deep House and Deep Disco music in a cupboard in Glasgow, Scotland He has already had his music released on vinyl and digital by UNDERTONES/KOLOUR (Detroit) and 4LUX BLACK (Holland) with forthcoming releases on 4LUX, YAH! RECORDS (New York) and COMPOSITE (France).... For more info: http://www.thehouseofjames.co.uk
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Artist Type: 

Iron Maiden

There are multiple artists with this name:

1) Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, east London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. The band's discography has grown to thirty-seven albums, including fifteen studio albums, eleven live albums, four EPs, and seven compilations.

Pioneers of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Iron Maiden achieved initial success during the early 1980s. After several line-up changes, the band went on to release a series of US and UK platinum and gold albums, including 1982's The Number of the Beast, 1983's Piece of Mind, 1984's Powerslave, 1985's live release Live After Death , 1986's Somewhere in Time and 1988's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Since the return of lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith in 1999, the band have undergone a resurgence in popularity, with their latest studio offering, The Final Frontier, peaking at No. 1 in 28 different countries and receiving widespread critical acclaim.

Despite little radio or television support, Iron Maiden are considered one of the most successful heavy metal bands in history, with The New York Times reporting in 2010 that they have sold over 85 million records worldwide. The band won the Ivor Novello Award for international achievement in 2002. As of October 2013, the band have played over 2000 live shows throughout their career. For the past 35 years, the band have been supported by their famous mascot, "Eddie", who has appeared on almost all of their album and single covers, as well as in their live shows.

The band has changed their line-up several times up to 1999 when Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith returned to the band.

Their current line-up is:

Steve Harris (1975-): bass, backing vocals, studio keyboards
David Michael Murray (1975-): guitar
Paul Bruce Dickinson (1981-1993 1999-): lead vocals (see also Bruce Dickinson, Samson)
Nicko McBrain (1983-): drums, percussion (see also Trust)
Janick Gers (1990-): guitar (see also Bruce Dickinson, White Spirit)
Adrian Smith (1980-1990, 1999-): guitar, backing vocals (see also Bruce Dickinson and Psycho Motel).

Former members:

Doug Sampson – drums, percussion (1977–1979)
Dennis Stratton – guitars, backing vocals (1979–1980)
Paul Di'Anno – lead vocals (1978–1981)
Clive Burr – drums, percussion (1979–1982)
Blaze Bayley – lead vocals (1994–1998)
Dennis Wilcock - lead vocals (1976–1977)
Barry Purkis – drums, percussion (1977)
Paul Day - lead vocals (1975–1976).

Iron Maiden's work has inspired other sub-genres of heavy metal, including power metal and speed metal, and is generally thought of as an influence to any "metal" music containing dual-guitar harmonization. One example of their far reaching influence is that many bands from virtually every rock and metal sub-genre list Iron Maiden as one of their influences.

Many of the band's songs are based on history, folklore, movies and books, such as Aces High, Brave New World, The Trooper, The Clansman, The Wicker Man, The Prisoner, Where Eagles Dare, Out of the Silent Planet, To Tame a Land(based on Frank Herbert's Dune) and Rime of the Ancient Mariner – in which words from the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem are incorporated into the song.

http://www.ironmaiden.com/

2) Iron Maiden (later aka The Bolton Iron Maiden) is a late sixties doom-band. This Iron Maiden was formed in 1964 by Barry Skeels, Steve Drewett, Chris Rose and Alan Hooker as an acoustic band in Basildon, Essex that eventually evolved into a band called Iron Maiden. By 1966, the lineup was Skeels (bass), Drewett (vocals/harmonies), Rose (lead guitar), Tom Loates (rhythm guitar) and Stan Gillem (drums); they played Rolling Stones and blues numbers under the name "Growth". Reduced to a two-piece, Drewett and Skeels played blues under the name of "Stevenson's Blues Department" in pubs and clubs in Essex and London. They supported a number of up and coming bands including Jethro Tull, Fleetwood Mac, The Groundhogs and King Crimson.

In 1968, Drewett and Skeels were joined by Paul Reynolds (drums) and Trevor Thoms (guitar). They released an acetate (God of Darkness/Ballad of Martha Kent) under the then risqué name of BUM. When they signed to the Gemini label in 1970, the name was changed to the less risqué Iron Maiden. They recorded their debut album Maiden Voyage. Reynolds was replaced by Steve Chapman on drums and Iron Maiden released the single Ned Kelly/Falling. This coincided with Mick Jagger's film "Ned Kelly". A planned Australian tour fell through. The Gemini record label also folded (with the loss of the debut album master tapes) and Skeels left Iron Maiden. The band carried on without him for a while, but the debut album was not released until 1998 using duplicate tapes owned by Skeels. This "original" Iron Maiden is often considered by fans as one of the earliest 'true' doom metal bands.

However, soon after the "original" Iron Maiden was re-discovered , their name was officially changed to 'The Bolton Iron Maiden' since the Iron Maiden led by Steve Harris already had the name 'Iron Maiden' trademarked. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Artist Type: 

Attention

Minneapolis, Minnesota based rock band featuring former members of Atlantic Records recording artists Gratitude. "Stand Strong EP" released Winter of 2007. Co-Produced by 3 time Grammy winner, Chris Testa. Full length album "Everything Takes Forever" released spring of 2009. Second full length album released February 1st, 2010. Titled "Through the Wire."

Artist Type: 

Tonk

Tonk are a Hard Rock band based in Canberra, A.C.T. According to themselves, they are "everything that's wrong with the world, and everything that's right with rock 'n' roll." They have recently recorded and released their debut album entitled "Sister Switchblade". They have gained a strong following within Canberra and around the local region. They have toured with the likes of Airbourne, Jimmy Barnes, Shihad and Karnivool, just to name a few.

Artist Type: 

The Darkness

There are at least six artists with this name:
1. A popular hard rock band from the United Kingdom
2. A death metal band from Germany
3. An alternative rock band from Poland
4. A Eurodance group
5. A thrash metal band from the Czech Republic

1. The Darkness are a hard rock band which formed in Lowestoft, England in 2000. The band consists of Justin Hawkins (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Dan Hawkins (guitar, vocals), Frankie Poullain (bass) and Ed Graham (drums). According to the Nothin's Gonna Stop Us Songfacts, Ed Graham inspired the band’s name as his youthful bleak moods were known as The Darkness.

They are widely regarded as a glam rock band, but the members disputed this and saw themselves as a classic hard-rock band. Their highly retro style of music was influenced by rock bands like Queen, AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, Aerosmith, Sparks, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, T. Rex, Def Leppard, Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy. They are best known for the soaring falsetto of their lead singer Justin Hawkins, whose departure in 2006 resulted in the dissolution of the band. In 2011, the band announced their return, with a third album, "Hot Cakes," to be released on Wind-up Records.

Dan had initially seen his brother's potential of being a frontman after Justin did an impressive recreation of Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' at a New Year's Eve party in 1999, thrown by Justin and Dan's aunt in her pub The Swan at Gillingham just over the River Waveney in Norfolk, despite the fact that Justin was only miming to the original song. Playing at first only in pubs and bars, their pyrotechnic guitar solos and over the top performances soon brought them to public knowledge.

Achieving major success in the UK in 2003, The Darkness received considerable radio airplay of their singles, including I Believe in a Thing Called Love and the Christmas hit Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End). Their debut album, Permission to Land, reached number one in the UK charts and went on to sell one and a half million copies in the UK alone. The success of this album led to heavy touring for the band, which included headlining the Carling Festivals in 2004. The band won three Brit Awards in the same year, including Best Group, Best Rock Group and Best Album. They also won two Kerrang! awards for Best Live Act and Best British Band.

By late 2004 the band's huge success had led to a public backlash, and people claiming that the band were more a joke than a 'real' band became more common. The band responded to this criticism by touring the UK's top arenas on the "Winter-National Tour" tour with the Irish group Ash supporting them. One part of the show included Justin climbing upon a life-sized white tiger during "Love on the Rocks with No Ice" and being elevated around the audience whilst still playing guitar. The majority of the shows on the tour sold out.

On May 23, 2005 original bass player Frankie Poullain left the band during the recording of their second album, apparently due to "musical differences" with Justin Hawkins. Frankie has disputed this version of events, claiming he was "frozen out" and forced to leave the band by Justin and his longterm girlfriend (and the band's manager) Sue Whitehouse. On June 13 2005, The Darkness announced that Richie Edwards, formerly Dan's guitar technician, had replaced Frankie as bass player.

One Way Ticket, the first single from their second album, was released on 14 November 2005, debuting and peaking at number 8 on the UK Singles chart. The Darkness followed this with their second album One Way Ticket to Hell...And Back on November 28, 2005 to mixed reviews despite it having been produced by the well known Roy Thomas Baker whom has worked with bands such as Queen. Although it has been made platinum its sales do not come close to their debut's five-times-platinum rating and its chart peak at number eleven is a weak showing compared to Permission To Land's number one. The second single release from this album was Is It Just Me?, released on 20th February 2006 and charted at number eight. Soon afterwards Justin announced while performing live that the third single to be released from the album would be Girlfriend; and gained a mixed response. Released on 22nd May 2006, it charted at a disappointing number thirty-nine.

After having disappeared for quite some time the band announced that singer Justin Hawkins had left the band on 11th October 2006, after a battle against drugs.

On December 24, 2006, it was reported by Yahoo! News that bass player Richie Edwards would become the group's new frontman, with Toby MacFarlaine to join The Darkness and take over on bass. In blog entries on MySpace, Richie Edwards, Dan Hawkins and Ed Graham said that they had started recording a new album with Toby McFarlaine, and that they had formed a new band together.

On March 2, 2007, The Darkness' official website was changed, showing a photograph of the new, and as yet unnamed band. Links to the members individual Myspace pages were included, confirming the line-up of Richie Edwards, Dan Hawkins, Toby MacFarlaine and Ed Graham. Richie later added a message to the site, categorically confirming that the band would not continue under the name "The Darkness", saying "we are literally days away from announcing our new name".

It was announced on August 25, 2007 that the band had finished recording an album but no release dates or names, of either the band or album, had been decided. Record label and support has yet to be decided.

On November 9, 2007, it was announced on The University of East Anglia's student union website that the new band would be called Stone Gods. This name was confirmed on the official website on November 21, 2007. The line-up has been confirmed as Dan Hawkins (lead guitar), Toby MacFarlaine (bass), Ed Graham (drums) and Richie Edwards (vocals/guitar).

In March 2011, The Darkness announced on their newly updated website that they would be reforming the original line-up to play the Download Festival in Donington, Derbyshire. Songfacts reports that Nothin's Gonna Stop Us, the first new material from the band since they reconvened, was made available several months later as a free download from The Darkness’s official website.

The Darkness will be releasing "Hotcakes," their first album since reuniting, in 2012 on Wind-up Records. This album includes the singles "Every Inch of You" and Everybody Have a Good Time." Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Artist Type: 

The Casanovas

The Casanovas were originally formed in 1999 with all three original members hailing from Melbourne, Australia. The Casanovas was the brainchild of brothers, Tommy and Patrick Boyce and original bassist, Jimmy Lewis. The Boyce brothers met Jim while working together scrubbing pots & pans in the back kitchen of Pattersons cake shop in Windsor, Melbourne. The idea of the name ‘The Casanovas’ was partly inspired by the look of the ‘Casablanca’ records logo that featured on early Kiss vinyls that they all grew up listening to.

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Kinoath

A new Brisbane four-piece, formed originally in 2009 as Broken Silence but adopting the Kinoath moniker early 2010, they play a blend of heavy metal riffage with a catchy hard rock aesthetic. The group originally formed in halves - George Phillips (lead guitar) and Mitch Gardner (bass) having been school friends for years and in previous bands together before they filled the spots lacking in the band started by Jake Kowalonek (vocals, rhythm guitar) and Jasper Warmington (drums).

Artist Type: 

Stone Sour

Stone Sour is a three time Grammy Award-nominated American Alternative Metal/Hard Rock band from Des Moines, Iowa, USA The band was founded by Corey Taylor, vocalist of Slipknot, and former drummer Joel Ekman. Early days
Taylor's long time friend, Shawn Economaki, joined shortly after, and filled in as the bass player. The band had played clubs and bars with different guitarists - often filling the position for just one show. This time, Stone Sour recorded 2 demo tapes, in 1992 and 1994. Shortly after, in 1995, Jim Root - who is now also part of Slipknot with Taylor - joined the band.

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Nonpoint

Nonpoint was formed in January 1998 by vocalist Elias Soriano, bassist Kenneth "KB" Charman and drummer Robb Rivera.
The band created a name for itself in the burgeoning South Florida metal scene of the mid-late '90s. Other notable bands to emerge included Puya, Endo, Darwin's Waiting Room, Lost and The Groovenics.
Nonpoint's first album Separate Yourself was released independently in 1998. The band's first commercially released album Struggle was released on May 18, 1999 on the now defunct Jugular Records.

Artist Type: 

Guns N' Roses

Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band founded in Los Angeles, California in 1985. The band has released six studio albums: Appetite For Destruction in 1987, G N' R Lies in 1988, Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II in 1991, The Spaghetti Incident? in 1993 and, after 15 years and with frontman Axl Rose being the only member of the original lineup remaining, Chinese Democracy in 2008. They also released an EP titled Live Like A Suicide in 1986.