Humanoid is the seventeenth studio album by German heavy metal band Accept, released on 26 April 2024. It is the band's first studio album on Napalm Records, with whom Accept had signed with in February 2022, and also marks the first time since 2017's The Rise of Chaos that they had recorded as a five-piece band rather than a six-piece. Humanoid has received positive reviews from critics. Dom Lawson of Blabbermouth.net gave the album a rating of seven-and-a-half out of ten, writing, "For those who enjoyed the previous five, there is absolutely nothing here that fails to live up to expectations. Accept are, and have always been, exceptionally good at heavy metal. It's their thing", and added that the album "can be devoured as another generous serving of fresh metal anthems." Lawson also referred to "Unbreakable" and "Mind Games" as "among the finest songs that the band have written since 2009", and "Straight Up Jack" as "so unapologetic about its debt to AC/DC that resistance is useless."

Deep Purple have never quite been placed in the revered 1960s canon that includes the Who, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, or any of the other British rock bands who continue to reunite in various configurations to tour and even periodically release new albums, but given that the group has always been a riveting and brilliant live act, part prog, part heavy metal, part funky R&B, and imminently theatrical, that second-tier designation seems like both an oversight and a shame. Returning with this set, the band's first since 2005's Rapture of the Deep, and featuring a near-classic lineup of vocalist Ian Gillan, guitarist Steve Morse, bassist Roger Glover, drummer Ian Paice, and keyboardist Don Airey (Jon Lord, whose distorted organ parts were so much a part of the classic Deep Purple sound, left the band in 2002 and died in 2012 of pancreatic cancer), one can only marvel at how timeless it sounds, as if it were actually recorded in the early '70s and not tracked a little more than a decade into the 21st century.

In 2013, over a quarter century removed from his first album, Joe Satriani uses his solo albums as a way to stretch himself, both to flaunt his skills and perhaps to move him into areas where he's not quite comfortable. Unstoppable Momentum, his first album since 2010's boogie- and prog-heavy Black Swans & Wormhole Wizards, finds the guitarist occasionally indulging himself in a bit of swing, letting him ride an elastic beat ("Three Sheets to the Wind" has a supremely delicate touch), and he also digs into a bit of a nasty ZZ Top groove on "Jumpin' In," a boogie he turns inside-out on its immediate successor "Jumpin' Out." This is a pretty good indication that this is the work of a virtuoso who enjoys playing with his surroundings, tweaking tempos and arrangements to coax out unexpected wrinkles…

In January of 2008, the Japanese Arcangelo label re-released all the albums by Swedish avant-proggers Samla Mammas Manna/Zamla Mammaz Manna originally issued between 1971 and 1980: 1971's Samla Mammas Manna featuring keyboardist Lars Hollmer, bassist Lars Krantz, drummer Hans Bruniusson, and percussionist Henrik "Bebben" Öberg; 1974's Måltid and 1975's Klossa Knapitatet, both recorded after the departure of Öberg and the addition of guitarist Coste Apetrea to the lineup; 1976's Snorungarnas Symfoni, written by Gregory Fitzpatrick and performed by the Måltid/Klossa Knapitatet lineup with guest appearances by trumpeter Kalle Eriksson and saxophonist Ulf Wallander; and 1978's Schlagerns Mystik/För Äldre Nybegynnare and 1980's Familjesprickor (Family Cracks), both recorded after guitarist Apetrea had been replaced by Eino Haapala…

This three-disc box set from Sony gathers up the first three long-players from Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac. Released in 1968, Fleetwood Mac (often referred to as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac) was a blues-rock juggernaut that stayed on the U.K. charts for nearly 40 weeks, while that same year's Mr. Wonderful beefed up the band's already meaty sound with a full horn section. Appearing in 1969, Pious Bird of Good Omen offered up a collection of B-sides and singles that were recorded between 1967 and 1968.

At the start of the 1980s, it dawned on somebody in charge of Jimi Hendrix's musical legacy that a whole generation of new listeners had come of age since the guitarist's demise. That meant it was time for a fresh raid on the vaults and a fresh, authorized album release to fly the flag of the Hendrix estate, amid the steady stream of bootleg, gray market, and other unauthorized collections of his early work starting to fill up record store bins and browsers. Kiss the Sky did not just resurrect and recycle old familiar recordings, but included a pair of tracks that were new to most listeners and had a lot of meaning for serious fans. The album walked a fine line, emphasizing the more challenging side of Hendrix's work without ignoring some key elements of his mass appeal…

Schizoid Dimension: A Tribute to King Crimson contains contributions by a variety of artists on Cleopatra-affiliated labels, including Controlled Bleeding, Chrome, Brand X, Pressurehed, Astralasia, Melting Euphoria, Alien Planetscapes, Architectural Metaphor, Xcranium, Spirits Burning, Solid Space, and ex-Crimson violinist David Cross, whose track features John Wetton on vocals. Sometimes the artists' styles don't really mesh well with the music, but at other times, the reinterpretations can be fresh and compelling.