Cryptic Writings is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band Megadeth. Released on June 17, 1997, through Capitol Records, it was the band's last studio album to feature drummer Nick Menza. His departure would mark the end of the band's longest lasting lineup to date, having recorded four studio albums. Megadeth decided to produce the record with Dann Huff in Nashville, Tennessee, because they were not satisfied with their previous producer Max Norman. The album features twelve tracks with accessible song structures, specifically aimed for radio airplay. The lyrics were also altered, in order to make the music more inclusive for wider audience. These changes were met with mixed opinions from music critics, who noted the band moving away from their thrash metal roots.
Nicholas Edward Cave is an Australian musician, writer and actor. Known for his baritone voice and for fronting the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Cave's music is characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences and lyrical obsessions with death, religion, love, and violence.
Wesley Stace is an English folk/pop singer-songwriter and author who has used the stage name John Wesley Harding. Under his legal name, he has written four novels. He is also an occasional university teacher and the curator of Wesley Stace's Cabinet of Wonders.
Nicholas John Currie, more popularly known under the artist name Momus, is a Scottish musician and writer.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are an Australian rock band formed in 1983 by vocalist Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and guitarist-vocalist Blixa Bargeld. The band has featured international personnel throughout its career and presently consists of Cave, violinist and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn P. Casey, guitarist George Vjestica, touring keyboardist/percussionist Larry Mullins, also known as Toby Dammit, and drummers Thomas Wydler (Switzerland) and Jim Sclavunos. Described as "one of the most original and celebrated bands of the post-punk and alternative rock eras in the '80s and onward", they have released eighteen studio albums and completed numerous international tours.
Wanted Man is a folk rock album by Paul Kelly and was originally released in July 1994. It was issued on Mushroom Records in Australia and was Kelly's first solo studio album after disbanding his previous group, The Messengers. Tracks 1–10 were recorded at three Los Angeles studios while tracks 11–13 were recorded in Melbourne. It was produced by Kelly, Randy Jacobs and David Bridie. The cover art for Wanted Man is a colophon rendering of Australia's legendary outlaw Ned Kelly as a guitarist and was painted by David Band.
Henry's Dream is the seventh studio album released by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, in April 1992.
Anita Louise Lane was an Australian singer-songwriter who was briefly a member of the Bad Seeds with Nick Cave and Mick Harvey and collaborated with both bandmates. Lane released two solo albums, Dirty Pearl (1993) and Sex O'Clock (2001).
Prayers on Fire is the debut studio album by Australian rock group the Birthday Party, released on 6 April 1981 on the Missing Link label in Australia, later licensed to the 4AD label. This was the band's first full-length release on an international record label and the first after changing the group's name from the Boys Next Door to the Birthday Party. It was recorded at Armstrong's Audio Visual Studios in Melbourne and Richmond Recorders in the nearby suburb of Richmond, between December 1980 and January 1981.
B-Sides & Rarities is a compilation album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released in March 2005. It features over 20 years of the band's B-sides and previously unreleased tracks. It is also the first recording to include all members of the Bad Seeds, past and present up to the time of its release: current members Mick Harvey, Blixa Bargeld, Thomas Wydler, Martyn P. Casey, Conway Savage, Jim Sclavunos, and Warren Ellis, and former members Barry Adamson, Hugo Race, Kid Congo Powers, Roland Wolf, and James Johnston. A second volume, B-Sides & Rarities Part II, was released in October 2021.
Hugo Justin Race is an Australian rock musician and record producer who had been based in Europe from 1989 to 2011. He was a member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (1983–85), and The Wreckery (1984–89) with Nick Barker and Robin Casinader. As from October 2013 he was simultaneously a member of Hugo Race and the True Spirit, Hugo Race Fatalists, and Dirtmusic. True Spirit have released 12 albums. Race returned to live in Australia in 2011.
"Young Hunting" is a traditional folk song, Roud 47, catalogued by Francis James Child as Child Ballad number 68, and has its origin in Scotland. Like most traditional songs, numerous variants of the song exist worldwide, notably under the title of "Henry Lee" and "Love Henry" in the United States and "Earl Richard" and sometimes "The Proud Girl" in the United Kingdom.
"Red Right Hand" is a song by Australian rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It was released as a single from their eighth studio album, Let Love In (1994), on 24 October 1994. A condensed version was included in the single, while the longer version was included with the album. The title comes from John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), in which it refers to the vengeful hand of God.
T. Rex were an English rock band formed in London in 1967 by singer-songwriter and guitarist Marc Bolan, who was their leader, frontman and only consistent member. Though initially associated with the psychedelic folk genre, Bolan began to change the band's style towards electric rock in 1969, and shortened their name to T. Rex the following year. This development culminated in 1970 with their first significant hit single "Ride a White Swan", and the group soon became pioneers of the glam rock movement.
"Deanna" is a song by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It is the second single from their 1988 album Tender Prey. An acoustic version of the song opens the 2005 compilation B-sides & Rarities and includes phrases from the Edwin Hawkins Singers' song Oh Happy Day on which the song was based.
King Ink is a collection of poetry, lyrics, plays and writings by Australian musician and author Nick Cave. It was first published in the United Kingdom by Black Spring Press in 1988.
"Palaces of Montezuma" is a song by the alternative rock band Grinderman. It is the eighth track and third single from the band's second and final studio album, Grinderman 2, and was released on 14 March 2011 on Mute Records. Produced by Nick Launay and written collectively by vocalist Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn P. Casey and drummer Jim Sclavunos, the song has been described as an "atypically straightforward love song" and was written for Cave's wife, Susie Bick.
Push the Sky Away is the fifteenth studio album by the Australian band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released on 18 February 2013 on the band's own label Bad Seed Ltd. Recorded at La Fabrique in southern France, with producer Nick Launay, it is the band's first album not to feature founding member Mick Harvey, who departed from the band in January 2009. The release also marked the return of founding member Barry Adamson, making his first album appearance since Your Funeral... My Trial (1986), and was the last to feature keyboardist and pianist Conway Savage, prior to his death in 2018.
Skeleton Tree is the sixteenth studio album by Australian rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It was released on 9 September 2016 on Bad Seed Ltd. A follow-up to the band's critically acclaimed album Push the Sky Away (2013), Skeleton Tree was recorded over 18 months at Retreat Recording Studios in Brighton, La Frette Studios in La Frette-sur-Seine and Air Studios in London. It was produced by Nick Cave, Warren Ellis and Nick Launay. During the sessions, Cave's 15-year-old son, Arthur, died from an accidental fall. Most of the album had been written at the time of Cave's son's death, but several lyrics were amended by Cave during subsequent recording sessions and feature themes of death, loss, and personal grief.
Ghosteen is the seventeenth studio album by the Australian rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It was released on 4 October 2019 on Ghosteen Ltd and on 8 November 2019 on Bad Seed Ltd, both the band's own imprints. Ghosteen is a double album—the band's first since Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus (2004)—and the final part of a trilogy of albums that includes Push the Sky Away (2013) and Skeleton Tree (2016).
