_{English band Absolva released their fifth studio album, “Side By Side”, through Rocksector Records on 17th April. Ahead of the release of that album I had the opportunity to chat with singer and guitarist Chris Appleton about Absolva, the album and being part of Blaze Bayley’s band. We chatted via Skype on 27th February and you can hear that interview, along with four tracks from the new Absolva album and one from the new Blaze Bayley album on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 6th March. It was also repeated on the Show on 17th April, but can now be found on our MixCloud page - https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/interview-with-chris-appleton-from-absolva-6th-march-2020/}

_{Dutch symphonic metal band Delain released their sixth studio album, “Apocalypse & Chill”, through Napalm Records on 7th February. It has been almost four years since the release of the last studio album in 2016, although the EP “Hunter’s Moon” had been released in February 2019. The Friday NI Rocks Show on 7th February included a promotional interview that had been recorded by the band’s founding member Martijn Westerholt. The tracks “Burning Bridges” and “One Second” have also been featured on the Show in recent weeks.}

_{“Peach” is the debut album from English band Gorilla Riot and it was released on 31st January through Off Yer Rock Recordings. The band formed in 2013 and released four EPs between 2014 and 2018. Over the past few years they have toured with a number of artists, played in Europe and featured on some of the big-name festivals such as Ramblin Man and Download. The track “Still Doing Time” was included on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 28th February.}

_{There are two NI Rocks Shows uploaded each week on Rock Radio NI. These are the playlists for those shows for the month of February – all of which are still available from the On Demand Player. There are tracks by around 130 different artists on the Shows this month. Playlists for January were published previously and these Shows are also available via the On Demand Player – http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/news/rrni-updates/3722-ni-rocks-playlists-for-january-2020.html}

_{This month the Friday NI Rocks Show included interviews with Doug Aldrich (Revolution Saints, Burning Rain and The Dead Daisies) and Jeff Pilson (Black Swan and Foreigner). All interviews can be found here - http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/interviews.html. There were also special promo features/interviews with Delain and Biff Byford this month to coincide with album releases.}

_{Local band Blackwater Conspiracy released their second album “Two Tails & The Dirty Truth of Love & Revolution” on 14th February. The release comes about two and a half years after the release of the first full studio album and almost five years after the release of their debut EP. The latter coincided with the band changing their name from Million Dollar Reload. The band is featured regularly on the Friday NI Rocks Show and so far I’ve played two tracks from the new album on the Show - “All Wired Wrong” on 21st February and “Take It On The Chin” on 28th February.}

_{American metal band Ironflame released their third album, “Blood Red Victory” through Divebomb Records on 7th February. Ironflame initially started as a solo project by multi-instrumentalist Andrew D’Cagna in 2016 but has evolved into a full touring band. The track “Blood Red Cross” was included on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 14th February.}

_{“Suite 226” is the fourth full studio album from power metal band Serious Black and it was released on 31st January through AFM Records. After releasing three albums in as many years, the band took almost another three years to release “Suite 226”. This is a concept album focusing on the story of someone being held in padded cell number 226. The track “When The Stars Are Right” was included on the Friday NI Rocks Show in December, followed by “Let Me Go” on 14th February.}

_{Autumn’s Child is a new band formed by the highly respected Swedish singer / songwriter / keyboardist Mikael Erlandsson and it released a self-titled debut album through AOR Heaven on 31st January. Erlandsson was a founding member of the successful band Last Autumn’s Dream and the new band name is presumably a reflection of that. There will be a track from the album on the Friday NI Rocks Show next week (6th March).}

_{When a band has worked with Toby Jepson on their debut album and Ricky Warwick has co-written two of the tracks on that album, then it’s probably worth checking it out! That band is Anchor Lane and that album is “Casino” which was released by R7 Records on 31st January. The track “Casino” was included on the Friday NI Rocks Show in December.}

_{“Sonic Playground Revisted” is the second album from Finnish band The Ragged Saints and it was released on 31st January by AOR Heaven. Work actually commenced on the album shortly after the release of the band’s debut album in 2013 but stalled with the band taking a hiatus for several years. With their collective feet back on the throttle, the band have returned with a great new album. The track “Turning Cold” was included on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 14th February.}