JORN Parts Ways With Guitarist, Bassist

Guitarist Tore Moren and bassist Nic Angileri have left JORN, the band led by Norwegian powerhouse vocalist Jorn Lande (MASTERPLAN, AVANTASIA),in order to focus on their solo careers and other projects. Their replacements have not yet been announced.

"Live And Let Fly", the new video from Lande, can be seen below. The song comes off the singer's new album, "Bring Heavy Rock To The Land", which entered the official Swedish chart at position No. 34. The CD was released on June 1 in Europe and June 5 in North America via Frontiers Records.

"I think this album follows a similar Jorn tradition like those before, more heavy rock oriented than metal," says Jorn. "But, as usual, it's not one musical expression all the way through the album, but a variety of musical landscapes within the categories of rock and metal."

A winning formula should not change, so Jorn has again worked with Tommy Hansen at Jailhouse Studios in Denmark, who mixed the album, ensuring the right edge to the rich guitar and vocal sound that is now trademark to all JORN releases. The lineup sees the return of Jimmy Iversen on guitar who also appeared on "Spirit Black".

As usual, in addition to the original material, Jorn offers some interesting covers. This time, MASTERPLAN's "Time to Be King" and Christopher Cross' "Ride Like The Wind" are the ones to get the Jorn treatment.

"When we wrote 'Time To Be King', I heard a different and more rock-oriented arrangement in my mind," says Jorn, "so after the MASTERPLAN album was released, I couldn't stop thinking about how it would sound if it was recorded with this other arrangement. I don't know which one's better, I have ended up liking both versions. As for Christopher Cross, I have always loved 'West Coast'-oriented music and bands like 10CC, PAGES, SANTANA, LITTLE RIVER BAND, EAGLES and so on. So I thought 'Ride Like The Wind' would be a good song to do Jorn style. SAXON also released a version of this song in the '80s, and the arrangement we made ended up beeing a mix between the original version and SAXON's. It's also a fun song to sing and play."

Jorn Lande's strong and diverse voice and solid songwriting skills have now become legendary in the hard rock world. In a career spanning over close to 40 album releases, as frontman for ARK and MASTERPLAN, in addition to featuring on spectacular projects such as NOSTRADAMUS "The Rock Opera", BEYOND TWILIGHT "The Devil's Hall of Fame", Tobias Sammet's AVANTASIA and AYREON.

"If you buy a Jorn album today, you know what you will get," states Jorn Lande. You are guaranteed to get your adrenaline going with the riveting sound that has solid roots in classic hard rock/heavy metal music, such as DIO, BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW and WHITESNAKE.

The title track, "Bring Heavy Rock To The Land", was released as a single worldwide on May 14. A video for the song was directed by Thomas Tjäder (PRETTY MAIDS, IN FLAMES) and can be seen below. Jorn says, "The title track has really a strong Jorn trademark. It was a natural choice for a title track, I felt the same about 'Lonely Are The Brave' back in 2008. Sometimes one song's got the magic and you just know it. 'Bring Heavy Rock To The Land' is such a song and regardless of how the whole album is evaluated by critics, I feel that this song will live on and become an essential Jorn classic!"