Monthly Archives augusti 2010

Posted in Cd Reviews

Massacre/Sound Pollution

Tyska Iron Fate gör här sin debut. De vill blanda power metal som SANCTUARY/NEVERMORE med gamla goa BLACK SABBATH/IRON MAIDEN/JUDAS PRIEST. Sångaren Denis Brosowski nämns ofta i infon och en häpnadsväckande skiva utlovas.

Ödesmättade intro ”The Arrival” drar igång enligt samma formula som Conan Barbaren. Självbetitlade ”Iron Fate” inleds modell HALFORD – högt alltså. Sedan blir det nästan thrashigt. Jag får känslan av VICIOUS RUMORS, och Denis sång påminner även om LEATHALS Tom Mallicoat. Men de har driv, tyngd och melodi samt gitarrer i Murray/Smith-stil. Ett litet irritationsmoment är Sascha Wendlers trummor, som är fast i power metal-träsket. En positiv bit är Martin Pflugmacher och Harms Wendlers inspirerade gitarrdueller...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Massacre/Sound Pollution

Fler tyska debutanter, denna gång är det Bay Area thrash som möter skate hard core som SUICIDAL TENDENCIES och mosh core som MUNICIPAL WASTE. Hannes sköter thrashsången, Tobiasdödsljuden och basen, Dennis gitarr, och Florian trummor kompletterar lineupen. Ok…To the Pit.!

”BTM”, Brutal Thrash Maniacs. Det är väl en avsiktsförklaring så god som någon? Sången går mellan döds/black och Bay Area utan att tveka, tack vare de två sångarna. Trummorna är rena RUMBLE MILITIA-beatet och THE PROPHECY²³:blandar verkligen. Kort intro och över till ”From the Basement to the Pit”. Sången blandar som vanligt men trumtempot är dubbelkaggefritt BaY Area 80-tal. De sätter verkligen en egen prägel på det de kallar brutal thrash...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Nuclear Blast/Sound Pollution

ACCEPT, ett bandnamn som får minnena att flöda. Riffen, refrängerna, rösten, allt passade in i åttiotalshårdrocken. Nu till 2010. ACCEPT återkommer efter 2005-års nostalgispelningar på festivaler som Sweden Rock. 2009 började Peter Baltes, bas, och Wolf Hoffmann, gitarr, lira ihop, nu boendes i New Jersey. UDO var inte intresserad pga. sin solokarriär, och en bekant förde dem samman med Mark Tornillo (TT QUICK). Sedan har det rullat på, och många väntar sig nog stordåd. Hur blev det då?

Faktum är att tyskt möter amerikanskt i ”Beat the Bastards Down”. Gitarrerna känns igen (Wolf och Hermann Frank), och vissa beat är som förr. Tyngden i muskine känns mer som nittiotalsplattorna ”Objection Overruled”, ”Death Row” och ”Predator”...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Since a weekend in Oslo is pretty much equivalent of a bus trip to Western Sweden and some food drinks there, plus my current favorite band played at this festival in Gothenburg, plus I don’t mind a change in the concerts locations, I found myself in a bus towards the Swedish city on Saturday morning. The 4 websites I previously checked announced rain, so I picked some boots to help me keep my feet dry which turned out to be quite useless for the warm day. With some instructions from locals and the nice tram driver, I ended up at Villa Belaparc, the location of the free event. I was worried when I stepped off the tram since all I could see were trees and a highway. But then I heard the music and found the place rather close to the stop.

The place is something like a big restaurant by the s...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Efter att ha lyssnat på några klipp på nätet från olika spelningar ett år tillbaka ställde man sig framför Black Stage med ett inte så taggat humör. Kommer Vince låta lika krasslig som han gjort på ett flertal spelningar den sista tiden och kommer Mars ramla av scenen? De negativa frågorna var många och snabb fick vi svar på dem. Med en rejäl örfil på köpet! Det visade sig att jag hade helt fel. Vince lät ju riktigt bra för att vara 2010.

Med en rejäl kickstart med inledande Kickstart My Heart och kaxiga Wild Side fortsatte det i högt tempo. Smällare och granater backas upp med en scen designad som ett americans getto med höghus. Tommy lee sitter ganska lågt och syns väldigt dåligt...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Ankkarock, held in Finland’s capital region in Korso, about half an hour train ride from the Helsinki central railway station, is your typical Finnish festival: They try hard to brand themselves as a local festival, and are hoping to pull in people living nearby with safe bookings. In fact, at least 75% of the bands are exactly the same as on basically every other Finnish festival, and the rest of the bill is there to attract people from a little further away. The festival has a camping area, but since Ankkarock is basically a city festival, most people sleep the night in their own bed.

Two days of Ankkarock saw a total of thirty bands on three stages, and a bunch of local bands per day on the fourth mini stage...

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...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

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...