“Side By Side” is the fifth studio album from English band Absolva and it was released on 17th April by Rocksector Records. The band was formed by singer and guitarist Chris Appleton in 2012 following the demise of Fury UK and since then it has been almost constantly recording or touring. Chris was my guest on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 6th March and that interview and four tracks from the new album were repeated on the Show on 17th April - http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/interviews/3739-ni-rocks-interview-with-chris-appleton-from-absolva.html


 

Chris Appleton, his brother, guitarist Luke Appleton, and drummer Martin McNee were part of Fury UK, a band that released four albums between 2002 and 2012. When Luke joined Iced Earth as their bass player in 2012 Fury UK went into hiatus and Chris formed Absolva alongside Martin, guitarist Tom Atkinson and bass player Dan Bate. Luke later replaced Tom in the band, but continues to play with Iced Earth, and Karl Schramm replaced Dan on bass in 2014. For many years the Absolva band members have also been part of Blaze Bayley’s band – both in the studio and on tour.


“Flames of Justice”, the debut album from Absolva was released in 2012 and the subsequent albums have all followed quite quickly after – “Anthems to the Dead” in 2014, “Never a Good Day to Die” in 2015 and “Defiance” in 2017. The three year gap to “Side By Side” is the longest period yet between albums and is mainly due to band’s extensive touring schedule.


Chris Appleton released a solo album called “Restless” in 2015 (http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/interviews/1776-ni-rocks-interview-with-chris-appleton-absolva.html ) and Luke Appleton released an album called “Snake Eyes” in 2019 (http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/back-stage/music-reviews/3598-ni-rocks-recommends-qsnake-eyesq-by-luke-appleton.html ).

 

Check out the Absolva website - https://www.absolva.com/home

 


About “NI Rocks Recommends”

This is purely a personal recommendation and some information about the artist and the album; not a traditional ‘review’. Most of the recommendations posted are for albums that have been sent to us digitally by the record label or promoter. Quite often I’ve also bought the album on CD or vinyl as well and sometimes I just feel the need to post a recommendation for an album that I’ve bought myself. Essentially these are albums that I like and which I’ve played some tracks from on the Shows on Rock Radio NI!