Swedish progressive band Pain Of Salvation will release the second part of their concept work "Road Salt" next Monday in Europe and on October, 11th in USA, on InsideOut Music.

"Road Salt Two" follows the turbulent and successful release of "Road Salt One" in the year 2010 and the touring activities in its support which climaxed with shows in India and South America earlier this year.

Expect a further dose of 70s rock influenced sound with interesting twists, with a slightly darker atmosphere than the first chapter.

Jump to their facebook page for the preview of a new track included in "Two", called "Conditioned".

This is the new video for veteran californian rockers Switchfoot. The song is called "Dark Horses" and it's the first single off the new album "Vice Verses", to be released next Tuesday.

The band chose recording wizard Neal Avron (Weezer, Everclear, Semisonic, Anberlin) as producer of the new album, while the mixing job is courtesy of Adam Hawkins.

You can still preview the whole record at this ESPN Music link. Enjoy.

Their third studio album, "Banquet For A Starving Dog", was released last week via 3 For 5 Records, with Universal Distribution, preceded by the single "Run Your Mouth", which you can watch the video here.

Although ETA is a guitar-oriented band with great songwriting skills, I think that their strength is the vocal performance of frontman Taki Sassaris: his slightly husky voice, always warm, intense and soulful, moves perfectly on the wonderful melodic vocal lines, typifying all the songs and contributing significantly to the identity of the band's sound. If every band had a singer with such charisma and ability, the current music scene wouldn't seem a festival of the clone.

Anyway, do not underestimate the partners in crime of Taki, all solid musicians, never predictable in the building of the sonic textures, both in the dark/heavy moments and in the more atmospheric ones.

As I reported earlier, New Orleans alternative rockers MUTEMATH will release their third studio album "Odd Soul" via Teleprompt/Warner Bros. on October 4th.

Two months ago the band made available to the fans  the titletrack in a unique video mixer platform, giving them the chance to build their own audio and video mix.

Now it's time to hear another track from "Odd Soul", the new single called "Blood Pressure" and to watch the relating video, here on the left.

Just a note on the guitar player: a few weeks ago Todd Gummerman announced on his blog that he was officially replacing Greg Hill, who left the band in October 2010.

For the new album "Rock N' Roll Romance", released two days ago via Universal Music Canada, the band wrote a handful of songs with Our Lady Peace lead singer Raine Maida, an experience that -according to lead singer Cameron Malnyk- helped push the band into some new styles and sounds. As for the sound of the new album, Malnyk used one word, matured: "We've matured a lot. I think we've just kind of grown up over the years traveling around and penning songs throughout the way."

My point: State Of Shock may not be the most original band of the planet, but they're highly enjoyable and if you're into energetic pop-rock and the mainstream rock of bands like Nickelback and Theory Of A Deadman (and throw in even a little bit of Def Leppard), then you better check them out. Maybe starting from the first single/video off "Rock N' Roll Romance", titled "Have A Nice Day": watch it here.

Canadian rockers Art Of Dying released their second album, the first for Intoxication/Reprise Records, last March.

Titled "Vices And Virtues" and produced by knobs-superstar Howard Benson and by Disturbed guitar player Dan Donegan, the record features a new version of the most known song from the canadians' debut, "Get Thru This". This song became the official theme song to WWE's 23rd annual Survivor Series pay-per-view in 2009. It was also used frequently during the April 27th, 2010 edition of WWE NXT. This track is also included in the soundtrack for this year's Transformers: Dark Of The Moon movie.

Enjoy the just released new video for "Get Thru This" here on the left.

"Running After You" is a new song that belgian rockers Zornik are giving away for free as a thank you to the fans for supporting them during the past 10 years. To celebrate their tenth anniversary, the band will ready "The Best Of Zornik" on October 14th: the fans can vote their favorite songs at this link; the top 12 songs will make the best of. But it's not over: on October 29th Zornik will reward their fans with a special concert at the Ancienne Belgique club: a not-to-be-missed exclusive anniversary show! Click here for more info.

I realized I haven't featured this nice video of danish synth poprock masters Carpark North yet. The video is for the song "Everything Starts Again", included in the band's best of "Best Days", released last year. The video's been shot in Greenland with the direction of Jeppe Kolstrup. Here you can watch an interesting "behind the scene".

Carpark North have a brand new BandPage on facebook: head to it now, following this link.

As you may know, SafetySuit sophomore album "Times Like These" will be out on October, 18th via Universal Records, with the production of famed knobs wizard Howard Benson.

I've already featured the first single/video off the new record, "Get Around This". Today the band is releasing the second single, simply named "Let Go". Have a listen to it at SafetySuit's facebook page (click on the image on the left to be redirected).

Something new for you. First of all, the new Will Hoge video for the first single off his upcoming new album "Number Seven". Here you can find more details about the new release.

For the song, titled "When I Get My Wings", Hoge found inspiration in an obituary he read about a 50-plus-year marriage. The video illustrates the love story from its infancy to the present-day heartache of losing the love of your life. Click on the image on the left to watch the video.

Then we have a new Train song. It's called "To Be Loved" and it's taken from the "Abduction" motion picture soundtrack. It may not be one of their best tracks ever, but is not bad either. Click on the image to listen.

Train are finishing a brilliant US tour with Maroon 5 and Gavin DeGraw. After the tour is over, the band will start recording their new, sixth studio album with Butch Walker at the production helm, for a Spring 2012 release, with a single out in February.

Last but not least, we have Simple Plan's brand new video: it's for the third single off their latest studio album and it's titled "Astronaut". Click on the image to watch it.

Simple Plan's new record "Get Your Heart On!" debuted at number two on the Canadian Albums Chart last june, while it debuted on the US Billboard 200 at number fifty-two and fell off the week after with a complete lack of record sales in contrast to the band's previous efforts.