Guitarist Lars Eric Mattsson will release the 25th anniversary edition of his Astral Groove album on January 9 through Lion Music. A video for “Heart Of Stone” is streaming below.

Astral Groove was recorded in 1994 after Mattsson played for about a year in a cover band doing Jimi Hendrix and blues classics, so it is no big surprise that this release is pretty heavy on the blues vibe. Usually described as hard rock with funk and blues influences Astral Groove is a bit different from other albums that Lars had been involved in. It was by accident that this project ever came true. Lars had been writing the material with the plan that the musicians in his 1994-95 cover band, Voodoo Chile would record the songs, but it just did not work, so in stepped vocalist Bjorn Lodin, coming from his own band Baltimoore, which had just released its fourth album and also split up. Bass player Michael Ahlskog had previously played in Vision as well as on Lars' earlier solo recordings. Drummer Thomas Tornefjell made the band complete. Several reasons, both personal and commercial, killed the band which never got a chance to perform live. But the music lives on - and you can't deny that Astral Groove was jam packed with great feel.

In 2019 Lars revisited the master recordings and came up with the ultimate version of this timeless classic album. There are still a few unused tracks from these 1994 sessions that will probably see the light of day eventually.

Tracklisting:

“Heart Of Stone”
“If I Could Fly”
“Can’t Find A Way”
“Burning Desire”
“King Of Lost Dreams”
“Until We Meet”
“No Way To Misunderstand”
“Snowblind”
“Not Foolin’ Me”
“World Is Burning”
“Slave To The Moon”
“Lonely Child”
“President”
“How Does It Feel?”
“Merry-Go-Round”
“Tango In Sane”

“Heart Of Stone” video: