Rapidly rising effervescent British progressive / modern melodic metal rock five-piece Touchstone have inked an exclusive long term deal with SPV / Steamhammer to release their much anticipated third studio album, ‘The City Sleeps’ on January 9th. ‘The City Sleeps’ boasts select sweeping, classic ‘Touchstone Rock’ trademark dynamic moving epics such as ‘The City Sleeps’ and ‘When Shadows Fall’, but also ventures into more melodic rock areas than before. On ‘The City Sleeps’, the sequel to the title track of their last album, ‘Wintercoast’, Anna-Marie Wayne, actress and daughter of ‘War Of The Worlds’ composer Jeff Wayne, adds her substantial voice-over talent to the title track. ‘When Shadows Fall’ is the sequel to the song ‘Shadow’ from Touchstone’s first album, ‘Discordant Dreams’, and picks up a few decades later, while ‘Horizons’, ‘Half Moon Meadow’ and ‘Sleeping Giants’ all mark exciting departures for the band as they embark on a new melodic rock journey. And then there is the downright crazy ‘Good Boy Psycho’, where the mental twists and turns of this psychotic rollercoaster of a track leave you gasping for breath!
Touchstone, who were formed in 2003 by keyboard player / vocalist Rob Cottingham and guitarist Adam Hodgson, were joined by bassist Paul Moorghen in 2006, vocalist Kim Seviour in 2007 and drummer Henry Rogers in June 2010 to complete the current line-up. After the release of the band’s warmly received debut 4 track EP, ‘Mad Hatters’, in 2006, incredible young vocalist Kim Seviour joined the band and they recorded their debut album ‘Discordant Dreams’ with John Mitchell (Kino, It Bites, Arena, Frost*) mixing and Tim Turan (Motorhead, Marilyn Manson, Frost*) mastering the LP. After winning ‘Best New Band’ at the Classic Rock Society Awards in 2008, the band toured with It Bites. Their second album ‘Wintercoast’, featuring Oscar winning actor Jeremy Irons performing the prelude narration, lifted Touchstone’s profile even higher, winning them a series of prestigious appearances at such major American Festivals as the Rites of Spring in Philadelphia in Spring 2009 and CalProg in California in October 2009.
2010 saw the release of ‘Live In The USA’, a double album of 14 live tracks recorded at the 2009 gigs, which received glowing reviews. Powerplay’s Andrew Haunt awarded the album 10/10, enthusing “The vocal interplay between Kim and Robert is sublime, and certainly the centrepiece of the Touchstone Sound as well as its secret weapon…They have the ability to be both hard hitting and extremely personal in the same song. Not a single note is wasted with their tunes…These are the early days of one of the genre’s future icons, and ‘Live In The USA’ is about as perfect a place to start as you can get.” Classic Rock’s Geoff Barton rated ‘Live In USA’ 8/10 in the magazine’s September 2010 issue, stating “The quality of the songwriting always shines through and never gets swamped by complexity. In fact, ‘Joker In The Pack’ and ‘Strange Days’ might just be the two best commercial-sounding prog tunes written in the last ten years. No Kidding.” Touchstone opened the first ever High Voltage Festival in London’s Victoria Park in July 2010, prior to the likes of ELP, ZZ Top, and Black Label Society, whose main man Zakk Wylde commented “Great set – you guys will never be 1st on again!”
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