Category Gig/Festival Reviews

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Children Of Bodom played their only Finnish summer festival gig of 2010 at the Ankkarock festival. The concert took place in the middle of their studio sessions for the seventh and yet-untitled COB album. Judging by the completely mind-blowing amount of Bodom shirts in crowd, they were clearly one of the most anticipated acts of the weekend.

Having played the British Bloodstock festival the night before, the band hit the stage with little sleep. They’re seemingly used to extreme schedules, as this hardly showed through as they launched their set with Follow The Reaper, closely followed by Hate Crew Deathroll.

Bodom isn’t understandably too keen on showcasing their new songs on YouTube in cellphone video quality, so the setlist did not include any new material, and – perhaps due to the limi...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

It’s 80s all over again, when Reckless Love hits the stage to open the second day of Ankkarock. Call ’em hair metal, glam rock or just plain faggotry, the leggings-and-make-up-wearing rockers your parents warned you about are back and here to stay. As the band hops on the stage without an intro tape, it remains a mystery if they came from behind the backdrop or a time machine of some sort, with their fluffy hairs and – up until it’s the time for the tracks for the ladies – 80s tees.

These guys are outrageous enough to throw the double ”S” from the KISS logo, as well as the ”V” from the Van Halen logo straight on their own logo, so it’s no wonder the live show is like it is: The pretty boy Olli Herman (vocals, ex-Crashdiet) showcases all the classic rock manners from scissor kicks to hip ro...

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It had rain all morning of Friday the 13th but the luck smiled upon the festival in the afternoon, and it got way too hot at times. A bit of research on Spotify or main website, before heading to the festival grounds, made me decide to check out Trash Talk. I can hardly remember much about their music since from the very first second I got next to the stage, among a really shy crowd, I saw the singer jumping off the stage and going in the middle of the non moving attendants. There he started singing/screaming, running around, asking folks to start running in circle and altogether he barely spent some minutes with the rest of the band on the stage...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

A festival that started back in 1999 with just a handful of bands and grew up to need 6 stages in 2010 where hundred of bands perform. And let’s not forget the Øyanatt every day after the festival and klubdaggen the day before, during which tons of other artists perform in plenty of clubs and bars all over Oslo. The festival is more or less a city event now, no longer just an area with stages, music and crowd. The main action happens in the Middelalderen park in Oslo, a place that hosts the ruins of a church from around 1200 and a nice little lake, adding a special charm to the event. But the organisers try to take good care of the historical place, trying to convince the people not to sit on them or vandalise them...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

This was the first edition of Vagos Open Air I had the pleasure to attend; after chatting with some friends that attended the past edition it was noticeable an evident increase in the number of audience this year, perhaps the cancellation of two other summer metalfests may have contributed in some way. Vagos Open Air is a relatively recent fest (located in a small town 90km south of Porto), being this their second edition which received aproximatedly 9500 people.

Day 01
We arrived just as the Portuguese thrashers Prayers of Sanity were starting to play, but there was only one queue for both accreditations and buying the tickets so we waited on the outside during their whole performance...

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I knew little of Ulver’s recent compositions and albums since I didn’t quite dig the few songs heard from the album coming after the debut black metal album. And after that, I just didn’t get to hear anything, so I went to the concert with an increased dose of curiosity and interest, especially given the majestic location of the Opera scene. Which raised my expectations to a ’special’ concert at least. The fun began upon arrival at the place where you’d see the long haired tattooed metal heads who mainly gave up their black leather clothes or spikes and put up some more ’sophisticated’ clothes. Don’t imagine too fancy stuff now, sometimes it was probably just a black shirt instead of a printed tshirt, it was just fun to notice the attempts of not being extremely metal for some of them...

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Öland Roots är den lilla mysiga festivalen på södra Öland. Festivalen äger rum i Sandbergen, Stora Frö, och festivalområdet är en gammal folkpark, belägen i en talldunge endast ett stenkast från havet. För fjärde året i rad är festivalen slutsåld, men det finns inga planer på att göra festivalen större eftersom man vill bevara den mysiga känslan.

Till skillnad från många andra festivaler går det förhållandevis lugnt till på Öland Roots. Kanske är det den lilla ytan eller de blandade åldrarna som gör det, men mycket beror på stämningen på musiken, den gungande baktakten som sprider sig från scenerna, ut över området och tälten och ända ner till stranden. Området framför scenen är som ett stort hav av dansande människor när något av banden spelar...

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This was the 8th edition and every year this festival grows more and more, this year the organization was expecting aproximately 25.000 people (which is the limited capacity), all the tickets sold out and the camping sites as well.
The Marés vivas Festival took place in the city of Gaia in a site called “Cabedelo” for the 3rd consecutive year (located on the other side of the Douro River) so it has a terrific view over the city of Porto. The place has a large number of facilities where you can buy beer, food, cigarettes, clothes, candies, etc. and it has two stages: one is for smaller concerts and after-parties, which leaves the main stage for the headliners.

Day 01
The night started with the beautiful and relaxing voice of Morcheeba; there was no delay at all but the place wasn’t ful...

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Det dystra, mörka introt som ljuder över festivalområdet får en att för en stund glömma bort att det faktiskt är strålande solsken ute. Istället känns allting plötsligt svart.

Det är Triptykon, bandet mest känt som Celtic Frosts efterföljare med Tom G Warrior i spetsen, som idag får ersätta avhoppade Deicide. Utan en min intar de sina platser och kör igång med Celtic Frosts ”Procreation Of The Wicked”. För det är upplägget med Triptykon live, i alla fall såhär i början med endast ett album bakom sig, att kombinera gamla CF-klassiker med nytt material.

Tom har fått med sig tre fantastiska musiker, V.Santura, Vanja Slajh och Norman Lonhard...

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Lite trögt tycker jag nog att det går i starten. Att kliva upp bakfull och sjunga på det sättet Andreas ”Whipslasher Bernadotte” Bergh gör kan inte vara bland det lättaste. Och det hörs tyvärr till en början. Han låter lite sådär, musiken är något otight och jag får känslan av en liten dos osäkerhet från scenen. Men som sagt, bara till en början.

För Deathstars är ju Deathstars. Med glimten i ögat och ett växande självförtroende blir det bara bättre och bättre. Snyggheten, attityden och de militäriska poserna är på plats, liksom Andreas förföriska mellansnack om till exempel att hälla blod i prinsessan Madeleines blonda hår innan ”Blood Stains Blondes” och lämpligheten för killarna att hålla i deras flickvänner när han vill ge dem ”Tounges”...