Long Distance Calling is a post rock band based in Münster, Germany. They played their first show and released their first 4 song demo EP DMNSTRTN in late September 2006.
They play an instrumental rock music, based on heavy guitar riffing and shaking hands with psychedelic and calm elements. As most bands with this description tend to explore dark and depressive moods, these guys change between timid beauty and hard boiled reality in a tough play, always based on a driving rhythm section.
The demo EP DMNSTRTN became “demo of the month” in VISIONS magazine and ROCK HARD magazine.
Their most recent album, eponymously entitled Long Distance Calling, came out in 2011.
Sólstafir is a metal band from Reykjavík, Iceland which formed in 1995 and currently has four full length releases. The band’s unique style has made it hard to categorize Sólstafir into a specific genre or group of genres.
Sólstafir were formed by 3 friends, Aðalbjörn Tryggvason, Halldór Einarsson and Guðmundur Óli Pálmason in January 1995.
Later that year the band recorded it’s first demo tape “Í Norðri” and at the end of the year the band hit the studio again to record what was to become the second demo “Til Valhallar”.
“Til Valhallar” was never released as a demo though and 4 of the 6 songs were released as a MCD by View Beyond Records. It was later re-released in 2002 with all the 6 songs.
In 1999 Sólstafir entered the studio to record it’s debut full length album.
Although the recording of “Í Blóði og Anda” had started in 1999 the album wasn’t released until 2002, due to endless delays and mishaps, the band truly believed they were cursed.
In the meantime Sólstafir started playing live shows in Iceland, and for that had added a second guitar player, one Sæþór Maríus Sæþórsson.
So for the first time as a four piece, Sólstafir recorded a new demo in 2002, eventually releasing 3 songs as Black Death: The EP.
After many years of involvement on different ends of the Norwegian rock and metal scene, four hard rock devotees teamed up under the name Sahg, in the late summer of 2004. The members had gained long and wide experience – together and each on their end – from bands like Gorgoroth, Audrey Horne and Manngard, in which they were and still are engaged. Still, they had a craving to form this new band, and when it finally came together, the ball started rolling pretty quickly.
Already by the end of 2004 the first rough demo was distributed to a limited number of record labels, among others Swedish label, Regain Records. The record company responded very quickly and positively, and within another couple of months, the record contract was signed.
Throughout the winter and spring of 2005 Sahg worked on the material for their first album, and at the same time built up quite a solid reputation from their live efforts on the club scene of their hometown, Bergen. ‘Sahg I’ was recorded and mixed throughout the summer and fall of 2005.
Shortly after the studio process was completed, drummer Kvitrafn left Sahg. But the band continued their determined work, and created the artwork for the album single-handedly themselves. Also, the video for ‘Godless Faith’ was shot in October the same year. In short, 2005 was a very busy and eventful year for the band, going from newly started garage band to up-and-coming doom rockers with a worldwide album release coming up.
