East Texas has produced yet another formidable young guitar player with award-winning, Ally Venable on her newest Connor Ray Music release, Puppet Show. Powerhouse singer and guitar player, Ally Venable was the 2014 and 2015 East Texas Female Guitarist of the Year, and the Ally Venable Band won 2015, 2016, and 2017 honors as East Texas Blues Band of the Year. Ably backed by drummer Elijah Owings and Bobby Wallace on bass, along with some thrilling and enthusiastic guest appearances by guitarists Gary Hoey and Lance Lopez, and Eric Steckel on keys, Puppet Show features eight originals and two covers. It is another solid step forward in the early stages of what will likely be a long and interesting career for the still teenage blues sensation, Ally Venable Band.

It's always fascinating to go back in time and re-discover the origins of a genre-defining band, especially one that has been as influential as Within Temptation. Originally released in 1997, the stripped down and dark/gothic doom of Enter stands in stark contrast to the polished and catchy Hydra, their latest studio release out earlier this year. And while Enter was previously reissued in 2007 along with the 1998 EP The Dance, Nuclear Blast - perhaps in light of the recent success of Hydra - decided to make these more obscure and out of print titles once again available for new (and old I suppose) fans of the band…

This reissue of the album recorded in 1977 is a landmark of the careers of Gismonti and percussionist Naná Vasconcelos, his only accompanist here. Recorded in only three days, the album's concept is based on the history shared by both musicians, according to Gismonti: two boys wandering through a dense, humid forest, full of insects and animals, keeping a 180-feet distance from each other. The album received several international awards, in England, U.S., Germany, and Brazil. It also, changed both artist's lives: Naná immediately became a disputed international artist, touring worldwide; Egberto returned to Brazil, decided to research Amazon folklore, which would be reflected in his later work.

The Vienna Carmen from 1978 is a sensational filmed document from the musical legacy of Carlos Kleiber: the meticulous conductor only ever conducted a highly selected repertoire, and among his very few audio and video recordings are only seven complete operas.

Digitally remastered four CD collection. Surely one of the most unsung bands in the history of American Hard Rock music, Bang released no less than three full-length albums for Capitol in the early '70s that criminally sank without trace. Undoubtedly the heaviest of Americas proto-metal bands from the period, they also had a strong sense of melodic power, which really should have led them to much bigger things…