måndag 13 Jul 2009, 17:55
Thursday
Due to different complications I arrived about 8 hours late to the festival. The only interesting bands (according to me) that I missed was Fatal Smile, Wolf and Dead by April, two of which I have seen live before. Though I arrived just in time to see Dia Psalma!
Dia Psalma: (5/5)
An extremely great live band! Dia Psalma is interesting in the way that you don’t really know which genre to categorise them into. Their music differs from different variations of punk such as trallpunk and folk punk to more heavy music like alternative rock, hard rock and heavy metal and they also have many different looks within the band. One looks like a true metal musician, one like a punk rocker, one like an alternative rock musician etc. Though, this is exactly what I think is important with bands; variation! I simply love Dia Psalma, and after this concert I understood that I have listened far too little on them, I didn’t even recognise all the songs. So, the setlist here isn’t really complete, and I don’t know if they played any song before Kulisser because I arrived some minutes late to their concert.
01. Kulisser
02. Hon får…
03. Emelie
04. Igen & igen
05. Vi svartnar
06. Ack högaste himmel
07. Lösningen
08. Den som spar…
09. ???
10. Tro rätt, tro fel
11. Luft
They may have played some song there in the middle that I forgot about also. After the, to me, unknown number nine they said that the next song was going to be their last and I was one hundred percent sure that they were going to play Luft. When they started to play Tro rätt, tro fel I actually thought that they wouldn’t play Luft at all due to that their time soon was over, but directly after Tro rätt, tro fel had ended they played Luft and their setlist was complete. The only songs that I really missed were Alla älskar dig and Höstmåne which are some of my absolute favourites.
Testament: (x/5)
The rain continued to pour down on the extremely muddy field were the festival was held. I didn’t listed actively on Testament because I was holding a place for the Dark Funeral concert which was about to take place directly after Testament had played their set. I think that I could like Testament if I gave them a chance though, but I don’t really have time for that for the moment. One thing that I thought of during their concert was that many of their songs had the same name as Iced Earth songs. (Or maybe it’s the other way around, I don’t know.)
Dark Funeral: (5/5)
Beauty. Yes, I know that many find Dark Funeral a bit noisy and screamy (especially live), but I love it. It’s noise in a beautiful way! They are also funny because they really, really look like pandas. More than any other black metal band I have ever seen. They entered the stage just after ten in the evening and the rain continued to pour. As I though, they started off with King Antichrist and then mangled through their setlist really well. The songs they played were:
01. King Antichrist
02. The Secret of the Black Arts
03. The Arrival of Satan’s Empire
04. Goddess of Sodomy
05. 666 Voices Inside
06. Vobiscum Satanas
07. Open the Gates
08. The Dawn No More Rises
09. Hail Murder
~ Encore ~
10. Atrum Regina
Emperor Magus Caligula is also a bit funny when he talks. He really sound like a little innocent child and he doesn’t in any way try to sound angry or cool when he talks. I like that. I also liked the setlist and they played my favourite: 666 Voices Inside. Though, I think that they also would have played Angel Flesh Impaled from the newest album. One of the highlights of this concert didn’t come until it was over; I got a pick! That made me really happy!
W.A.S.P.: (x/5)
Because W.A.S.P. played for one and a half hour I went to eat and check some merchandise during their concert. Then I went back to the stage in time to see I Wanna Be Somebody (their one song that I really know). That one was great, but the rest I don’t really know. I don’t think that it’s completely my type of music. It’s a bit boring.
D-A-D: (4/5)
D-A-D isn’t really my type of music either, but their show was great and they also increased the entire show’s greatness with their first encore; the acoustic beauty Laugh ‘n’ a 1/2. After that they played, as their last, some other song that I recognised but don’t know the name to.
Friday
I slept until after twelve sometime, and missed the two first bands. (Henceforth I will completely skip the bands that I really didn’t see anything of.) The rain had faded and sometimes the sun shined through the cloudy sky. At two o’clock I went to see my first band: Apostasy.
Apostasy: (3/5)
Even though I have never really listened to them and I don’t know any of their songs I kind of like them. I saw them live on House of Metal 2007 and have liked them since. They are very melodic but still very brutal. The show itself wasn’t that special and it still feels pretty demo-band-ish in some way. I’m surely going to listen to their upcoming album though, because I’m fully convinced that it will have some nice tunes on it.
Aeon: (x/5)
I only watched them for like five minutes. It sounded brutal and I think that I could like it. It wasn’t that catchy though.
Corroded: (3/5)
Extremely easy-listened music. I hadn’t heard them before but still it felt as I had heard it all. I would call it pretty normal alternative rock and I understand why people like it. I’m not that fond of this kind of music though, but I still think that they were a nice band to see live.
Crucified Barbara: (3/5)
Well, what can I say? They sounded like I thought they would. It’s not bad but it’s not very good either. I like the song Losing the Game, though, and I know that they played that one. I don’t have that much more to say about it.
Paradise Lost: (x/5)
Apparently Paradise Lost had switched place with Gemini Five. I think that Paradise Lost is an interesting band, but I haven’t had the time to really listen to them. I don’t think that they got the audience that they deserved now because they got a much earlier playing time than they were supposed to, so I don’t think that they performed as well as they’re able to, and because I haven’t listened to any of their songs earlier it was hard to really enjoy the concert. So, I went to eat instead. Though I still heard them from where I ate and I still think that they are interesting and I’m sure that I will listen to them some in the future.
Mustasch: (5/5)
Aah, Mustasch again. This was the fourth time that I saw them live within one year, and they were still as fun to watch as always. They had a bit longer playing time now than on Metaltown (70 minutes instead of 60) so they added two songs (track eight and nine) to the setlist they played there. Otherwise the only change was that the song they started off with on Metaltown, Bring Me Everyone, was number three now. Here follows the complete setlist:
00. Intro (the same as always)
01. Dogwash
02. Down in Black
03. Bring Me Everyone
04. Teenage Pacifier
05. Accident Black Spot
06. Falling Down (with guitar and bass solos)
07. I Hunt Alone
08. 6:36
09. I Lied (?)
10. Black City (with guitar and drum solos)
11. Parasite
12. Monday Warrior
13. Double Nature
They played all the important songs even this time (of course, because they played the same as on Metaltown) and as always they had great contact with the audience. They remain one of my favourite live bands, and even though I’ve seen them four times within a year I would like to see them even more. Why don’t they go on their own headliner tour, and maybe get to play for like two whole hours? That would be extremely nice!
Arch Enemy: (5/5)
Arch Enemy; the band that I had waited for the entire day. They were supposed to play at Rockweekend last year, but because of sickness they had to cancel that show and Sonic Syndicate played in their place, which I think was really sad. Well, this year they were here and they were great. They didn’t play exactly the songs that I had counted on so there were actually some tracks in the middle that I didn’t even recognise. Here comes the setlist as I recognised it and remembers it:
01. Blood on Your Hands
02. Ravenous
03. Taking Back My Soul
04. Dead Eyes See No Future
05. My Apocalypse
06. Revolution Begins
07. ???
08. I Will Live Again
09. ???
10. We Will Rise
11. Nemesis
12. Solos (incl. Intermezzo Liberté)
I think that both the unknowns are old songs, because at least before number seven Angela said that they were going to play a tribute to their old albums or something like that. What I would like to change with the setlist, though, is that I would like to hear more from the Anthems of Rebellion album, which is their best according to me. For example songs like End of the Line, Dehumanization or Leader of the Rats. Well, it was still a great show and I will see Arch Enemy again, I promise!
U.D.O.: (3/5)
Actually, I don’t know how many songs he played that were actually U.D.O. songs. I recognised like three or four songs and all of them were Accept songs in the beginning. They started off with Metal Heart which is one of my favourite Accept songs, and they played Balls to the Wall, which is my number one Accept favourite, as the first encore. That’s about what I remember from the show. Everything in the middle was pretty boring actually.
Gemini Five: (2/5)
Well, they were a bit harder than I thought they would, but they’re still not good, according to me. They were actually pretty boring to watch so I’m not going to write any more about them either.
Chickenfoot: (3/5)
I have to say directly: I don’t like the idea with “dream team”-bands, and I don’t believe that they will make any better music than anyone else. And I wasn’t wrong. Okay, I could listen to it and it wasn’t bad, but they’re still not worth to be the headliner of the day just because they’re famous from other projects, and 60 minutes would be more than enough for them and not 90 as they got now. You could reckon that they were extremely grateful for being allowed to play here, and that’s always nice to see, but still; they’re not that great! The highlight of the concerrt was the encore; the Deep Purple cover Highway Star.
Sator: (3/5)
I’ve heard a lot about Sator but I have never really understood what sort of band that they really are. They were a funny band to see live though. They had much energy and they talked in a perfect amount between the songs. I also found out that I actually knew one song with them that I hadn’t thought about; I Wanna Go Home, which I mostly have listened to covers of but still it was nice to hear the original band performing it live. Sator was a good ending of the second day of the festival, and I went to bed almost directly after they had finished playing.
Saturday
This day I slept even longer and missed most of the early bands of the day. Though, I didn’t really care of seeing them because I hadn’t even heard of most of them. So I didn’t go into the festival area until after five in the afternoon. I catched a glimpse of Lucy Seven, but only like the last song or something, so I can’t really say anything about them. After that I went to see Memory Garden but they weren’t that good so I went to check out more merchandise instead. When the clock reached for six I went to see the first band that I really knew something about this day; Scar Symmetry.
Scar Symmetry: (4/5)
I don’t know any songs with Scar Symmetry, but I think that they’re a really good live band. They’re also interesting because they have two lead singers and they perform great. I’ve seen them one time before, but I don’t remember that they were this great live. Though, I don’t think that they had two singers back then. That might be one reason to why I didn’t find them as interesting then as I did now.
Renegade Five: (x/5)
I only saw one or maybe two songs and don’t have much to say. Not really my type of music. Too.. normal.
Nightingale: (4/5)
I didn’t know it at the time I saw them, but checked it out afterwards; Nightingale is one of Dan Swanö’s projects. He is some kind of a legend for many and he has played in many different Swedish bands, for example in Bloodbath together with Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth. Nightingale’s music was far more melodic and calm though, and it was nice to just stand and listen to live. I can’t tell any song that they played but what I can tell is that most of the songs had very power metal-ish names of which I’m not very fond. Another funny thing was that the guitarist looked like a typical dansband-musician and must have been at least 10-15 years older than the other members. The music was great though, no questions about it.
Hot Leg: (1/5)
Tsk, tsk, tsk… I really don’t like glam rock, so I really don’t like Hot Leg. That’s about what I have to say. The only funny thing to watch is how special they dress, haha.
H.E.A.T: (3/5)
Well, this isn’t that good music either. Though, this is nicer to watch because it still has very catchy choruses and it’s easy to listen and sing along to. The only song that I knew was the Eurovision song 1000 Miles and that one was really nice live.
Queensrÿche: (4/5)
This is also a very interesting band that experiments a lot. The mix many different instruments and have complicated drum beats and other stuff. It’s funny to watch, even though I have never ever listened to them before. Maybe I should get some of their best albums though, and give them a fair chance. Because I’m a fan of progressive music I think that I would like Queensrÿche to.
Edguy: (4/5)
Edguy is a really great live band. Maybe, as Tobias said himself, he talks a bit too much sometimes. Though, it wasn’t that annoying and they performed the songs well. I think that they would have played Wasted Time though, which is some kind of a favourite for me. The song I remember that they played were: Lavatory Love Machine, Vain Glory Opera, Save Me, Superheroes and as their last song they played King of Fools which I think was the best one live actually, tightly followed by Vain Glory Opera and Superheroes. I also liked the drum solo that they played to tunes from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. That was great.
Dimmu Borgir: (5/5)
Doubtless the best band of the day. Dimmu Borgir are extremely good and they performed very well. They played several songs that I didn’t recognise though, but still they played the three most important songs; The Serpentine Offering, Kings of the Carnival Creation and Progenies of the Great Apocalypse, which also was the three absolutely best songs live. Some other songs they played were The Chosen Legacy, The Maelstrom Mephisto, Puritania and The Sacrilegious Scorn, together with some other nice ones that I don’t really know. One thing that I think was really funny was that Shagrath said that the best Swedish bands were Onkel Kånkel and The Kristet Utseende. I don’t even understand how he can know about bands/artists such as Onkel Kånkel. It’s just an unserious project that has released some songs on the Internet, and which Shagrath apparently heard in some way. Dimmu Borgir was also the band that had the most pyrotechnics on the entire festival and I think that they hade the best show and the nicest looks of all. Worth to mention is also that Vortex’ clean vocals was just as nice as on the studio recordings and that was some of the highlights of the concert to.
Napalm Death: (4/5)
Because I didn’t really see them on Metaltown I made sure to see them now. I can’t say that their music is good, that’s the wrong word, but they’re really funny. I think that they played about the same set as on Metaltown, so they played songs like On the Brink of Extinction, Deceiver, Scum, The Kill, Time Waits for No Slave, You Suffer, Siege of Power and the Dead Kennedys cover Nazi Punks Fuck Off. The funniest thing during the concert was that some people never stopped screaming “You Suffer!” although they had already played that one, so the singer, Barney, said “We already did that one”, but they continued to scream it anyway. Maybe they wanted to hear it one more time, but Barney also said something about that they only play such beauties once during a concert, so they didn’t play it again. The concert was great though!
Overall I have to say that most of the bands were really, really great and they seemed to think that it was finny to play in such a small place; on a field in the middle of nowhere. It’s also funny that the festival has grown so much from last year, when it was a rather small two-day-festival. The dividing between the days was also very well done, and I think that most people could find a band each day that they really loved. I’m surely planning on going to the festival next year.