Doomsday (1979). Gravestone play somewhat somber Progressive Rock of a rough nature. This is a re-release of their 1979 album on the Garden of Delights label. The music is at times jazzy and bouncy, and there are hints of blues throughout, and the majority of the tracks are instrumental. There is a lot of improvisational blues styled stuff going on here. The guitars are the main lead instruments, although there is an organ tickling the background, the guitars are full front, screaming in true psychedelic fashion on the latter tracks of this album.
War (1980). In the eighties, Gravestone from Illertissen, Swabia, became quite famous as a hard rock and metal group. What many people don’t know is that they initially - and with a different line-up - released two LPs with progressive rock and critical lyrics, namely “Doomsday” from 1979 and “War” from 1980, in small editions of 1000 copies each…

The third and final album of what could be called Journey's cocoon phase (Escape would give birth to a fully formed butterfly and put the band through the stratosphere), 1980's Departure would also be the quintet's last with keyboardist/vocalist Gregg Rolie. Produced by Geoff Workman and Kevin Elson (essentially both engineers turned producers), the album continued to build on the band's previous two recordings, but offered an added edge, arrangement-wise. This was likely due to the fact that the band had walked into Automatt Studios with 19 new tunes and proceeded to record most of them live, eventually trimming down to 11 songs. Catapulted all the way up to number eight on the Billboard Top 200, Departure was the band's highest charting album to date and got off to an explosive start with the driving riffs and chorused vocals of "Anyway You Want It"…

Against The Wind is the eleventh album by American rock singer Bob Seger and his fourth with the Silver Bullet Band. Against The Wind was an immediate commercial success, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart in its third week and remaining there for five weeks behind Pink Floyd's The Wall before reaching No. 1 and holding the top position for six weeks. By late 1981 the album sold 3.7 million copies in the United States and was certified 5x platinum in 2003. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band won the 1980 Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for the album Against The Wind.

Horace Parlan has recorded many albums for SteepleChase since moving permanently to Copenhagen in 1973. Parlan tends to sound at his best in a trio where he can draw inspiration from his sidemen, so this often-sparse set of unaccompanied piano solos, despite some good moments, is not his most essential outing. However, Parlan's chordal style is quite distinctive on the five jazz standards (including "Alone Together" and "Lullaby of the Leaves") and his own "Musically Yours," and his fans will be interested in what was his first purely solo date; another record issued later on (The Maestro) also resulted from the same day.

2006 special collector's edition reissue for first time on CD. Signed to Polydor in the UK and A&M in the US in 1980, Johnny Van Zant teamed with legendary producer and original Skynyrd A&R man Al Kooper to cut this blistering debut album. Drawing from his southern roots and Skynyrd's fiery guitar fuelled legacy, the music is a hot burrito of fuel injected riffing (aided and abetted by twin lead guitarists Robbie Gay and Eric Lundgren) and the kind of down home back porch rocking that brings to mind the best work of Skynyrd,.38 Special, Marshall Tucker and the Allman Brothers Band. Look out for 'Standing in the Darkness' a poignant and touching tribute originally written as a poem for late brother Ronnie, surely one of the finest closing tracks on any southern rock album.

Previously unissued recordings from the renamed Missus Beastly! 'Dr. Aftershave' was not just the title of the third album by Missus Beastly, it was also the name the band used for a short while during its latter period, apx. 1980. These tracks were recorded for an intended album that, in spite of interest from a couple of labels, didn't see the light of day til' this CD-release.The material is in an appealing instrumental fusion/jazz rock style, and pretty much continues where Missus Beastly's last album had left off.

This exciting live session is pretty definitive of the Great Guitars. With fine support offered by bassist Joe Byrd and drummer Jimmie Smith, guitarists Charlie Byrd, Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis romp on such swinging numbers as "Broadway," "Air Mail Special" and "Straighten Up and Fly Right." As usual, Byrd, with his grounding in classical guitar, is the most distinctive, while Kessel and Ellis constantly pay tribute to Charlie Christian. This combination worked quite well, and each of the Great Guitars' five recordings are easily recommended to fans of bop guitar.

Who would have thought it? Reunited after splitting in the mid-'70s, the Pretty Things return with a new wave album. It's not what anyone might have expected, but it's very far from a disaster. The stop-on-a-dime arrangements and natural power show them to be well-seasoned, and Phil May, with an extremely mannered voice, comes across as a taunting frontman. In fact, you tend to feel that if Thin Lizzy had eased up on the metal, they might have made an album very much like this - great, catchy songs based in R&B and old rock & roll ("Lost That Girl") - but with the tongue firmly in cheek (check the Sting imitation on "No Future") while pandering to fashion. But when the results are as good as the jangly "Office Love" or "I'm Calling," you really don't care where the tongue's residing…

See You Later is a album by the Greek electronic composer Vangelis, released in 1980. It breaks quite violently with the style he had employed in the late 1970s and later, relying much more on vocals and being more experimental and returning (in many respects) to his early 1970s work like Earth or 666. It was never released in the United States, and is one of his rarest albums.

Building on the bandmembers' own personal accomplishments that came from the Rockin' Into the Night album, .38 Special released an even stronger bunch of songs a year later with Wild-Eyed Southern Boys. Focusing on the same Southern-based rock & roll formula, the efforts from Southern Boys contain a little more guitar zing while complementing the band's ability to produce marketable radio music. "Hold on Loosely," with its smooth vocal stride, managed to peak at number 27 in April of 1981, giving .38 Special its first Top 40 single, and the title track, "Honky Tonk Dancer," and "Back Alley Sally" keep a homespun flavor alive and well, indicating that the band's Southern roots haven't been dismissed completely.

The ten 1963-1964 sides that make up the majority of this set have sort of fallen through the historical cracks over the years. They didn't deserve such shoddy treatment - Sam didn't record "Back Door Friend" or "Hi-Heel Sneakers" anywhere else, and he's in top shape throughout The Late Great Magic Sam. Two live tracks at the set's close from 1969 don't add much to the overall package.

For what would be his final of over 20 Blue Note albums, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley uses a sextet that also includes trumpeter Woody Shaw, the obscure guitarist Eddie Diehl, pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Mickey Bass, and drummer Leroy Williams for a typically challenging set of advanced hard bop music. For the first and only time in his career, Mobley recorded a "Suite" (consisting of "Thinking of Home," "The Flight," and "Home at Last"); the remainder of the set has three of his other attractive originals plus Mickey Bass' "Gayle's Groove." This music was not released for the first time until 1980. It is only fitting that Hank Mobley would record one of the last worthwhile Blue Note albums before its artistic collapse (it would not be revived until the 1980s) for his consistent output helped define the label's sound in the 1960s. Mobley's excellent playing and the adventurous solos of Woody Shaw make this LP (his last as a leader) one to hunt for.

Probably the best of all the many albums Longhair waxed during his comeback. A tremendously tight combo featuring three horns and Dr. John on guitar delightfully back the Professor every step of the way as he recasts Solomon Burke's "Cry to Me" and Fats Domino's "Whole Lotta Loving" in his own indelible image and roars, yodels, and whistles out wonderful remakes of his own oldies "Big Chief" and "Bald Head."