Blood and Iron Records

         Heavy Metal Label & Mailorder

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DR19: DREAMS OF VENUS-Songs from the Essex Street Market CD with Slipcase (Limited to 300 copies!) Co-release with Hellven Records.

Power trio Dreams Of Venus emerged in 1990 in New York, shortly after the breakup of Hades and consisted of Jimmy Schulman (Hades, Vessel of Light, Cassius King) on bass, Addie Flaxx (Pound Of Flesh) on guitar/vocals and Kirke J. Blankenship (Our) on drums. Influenced by late 60's and early 70's music, they had something different from  what was happening at the time. Through mismanagement and all the industry crap that goes  along with it, Dreams Of Venus was just another up-and-coming act thrown into the pile of bands  that will never be heard. But after being shelved for so long, their 'lost tapes' came back to the band. Their brand of Psychedelic Hard Rock is close to some of the most relevant names of the period that were in a similar musical path such as Trouble, Masters of Reality, Saigon Kick and even Warrior Soul. Presented in a slipcase with a 12-page booklet with lyrics, photos and band history. 

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PROGAOR15: OZ KNOZZ-Ruff Mix (Expanded Edition) CD £13 (Texas Rock Dyamonds Series - Limited Edition of 300 copies) 

1975 Texas Heavy Prog masterpiece revered in collectors circles as one of the best 70's U.S. Prog albums. Oz Knozz contrary to other bands of the 70s that recorded a lone cult album, continued their career up to the mid' 80s without a release, but wrote several songs and performed them live. In recent years, the band self-released two great albums of fine Pomp/AOR-ish Hard Rock that were much welcomed by fans of the genre.

Limited collectors edition expanded with live in 1976 bonus tracks that were never recorded for the album. Booklet includes liner notes about the album by band leader Duane Massey and rare photos.

File Under: 70's Heavy Progressive Rock.

For fans of: Bloodrock, Hard Stuff, Tempest, Night Sun.

STILL HOT!

DR18: BLOWN FREE-Maximum Rock and Roll CD £13 (Texas Rock Dyamonds Series - Limited Edition of 300 Copies)

David Mathews started his career way back in the late 60s, in the Psychedelic scene. In 1978, he formed Blown Free, in Houston/TX. Moving on to a heavier, more direct approach, clashing the fuzzy acid guitar sound with high-energy riffing, brilliantly shown in "The Wizard" single, which became over the following decades, a holy grail for 70s & 80s Metal collectors. 

Presented on Digipak CD includes band history and band photo plus cover of the second single. Digitally remastered from the original tapes. Another Texas Rock Dyamond, limited strictly to 300 copies!


Blown Free were a Houston band active between 1978 and 1982. Their history is almost completely unknown, what is known is that the band’s leader and main songwriter, David Matthews, has a long history in music. He got his start in Wisconsin, playing in some underground psyche bands as early as 1968. When he moved to Houston he immediately put together his own band and the resultsof this can be heard on this disc, what recordings survived anyway. If there ever was a band that could be classified as “obscure, underground rock” this is surely one. The only known release on this band is a sole 45 released on Excelsior (the label owned by the late Bill Holford, SR. of ACA Studios in Houston). Mr. Holford would sometimes take a band under his wing and help them through business deals and publishing deals, which is what he did with Blown Free. After the dissolution of the band, and the break-up of Matthews’ marriage, David took off for greener pastures back in Wisconsin where he started his own label and put together another version of Blown Free, this time under the moniker of The Matthew Davis Project.

Tracks 1-4 Recorded at ACA Studios in Houston, TX, 1982.
Track 4 is an alternate mix of the version on the 7" single.
Tracks 5-11 are taken from a rehearsal tape recorded sometime in 1978.
Track 12 taken from the band’s only official release, the Excelsior Records
 7" single, recorded at ACA Studios and engineered by Bill Holford, SR.

File Under: 70's Hard Rock, Psychedelic Hard Rock. 

For fans of: Josefus, JPT Scare Band, First State Bank and Highway Robbery.