H.E.A.T @ Frimis, Örebro 27/2-2025

Posted in Concerts, Uncategorized with tags , , on March 1, 2025 by Sara Hammerzmith

So here it was, it was time for the first proper concert of the year. Surely, I was attending 70.000 Tons of Metal about a month ago, but that is more of a festival setting, don’t you think?

The day started a lot more chaotic than I intended it to. I had all the intentions to get up in good time (one could say, jetlag has been kicking my butt since I got home from the States) so at the early hour of 14 I woke up and started getting ready. Luckily for me, this was one of the gigs that were rather close to home.

After doing my thing, I got in the car and headed over to the city and the venue. Playing my usual little game on what parking spot I can occupy tonight and hope for the best, and entering the venue a little bit past the dooropenings. The doors opened at 19, and the support act, Electric Boys, were set to start at 19.45.

Now. Frimis is a beautiful venue, looking at it. A very luxurious interior without losing the charm of being a minor venue. I have enjoyed quite a few shows here in the past, Raubtier and Powerwolf to name a few. So it was rather exciting being back, and not to mention, a gig close to home. And before you know it, the clock hit 19.45 and the boys got on the stage.

Electric Boys

Electric Boys is one of those bands I have seen live a lot in my life yet never really listened a lot to. Surely, I have a few albums but that’s about it. They opened up the set very energetically with “Psychadelic Eyes” and swiftly moving into “Groovus Maximus”. Now, their show started rather early so the crowd wasn’t exactly huge, but they sure were feeling it.

“I’ve got a feeling” was next up, followed up “Electrified”. And there’s something that really… I don’t know how to word it, but there is something about Electric Boys that always gets to me. I think it is the way you kind of get immediately sent back in time. A lot of bands age, and I am not saying that in a bad way, but with this band? It is as if time just stopped. Both musically, visually and how they move on stage.

I am instantly transported back and I feel like I am in the “Almost Famous” movie when they rip off the last few songs which were “Mary is a Mystery Girl”, “Domestic Blitz”, “Angel in an Armoured Suit” and “All Lips ‘n Hips” and before you know it, you are sent straight back into reality and back in 2025 and you sort of question yourself of what just happened. The energy on stage suited the feeling of the era impeccably and I enjoyed it all. Thank you, Electric Boys!

No less than 45 minutes later, it was time for the headliner. H.E.A.T.

H.E.A.T

As per usual, “The Heat Is On” is blasted out of the speakers as the video intro is starting to roll, featuring a real nice photo of the band, which brings the thoughts back to the 80’s before giving us an old school computer loading and processing screen, which added to the whole theme of it.

Crash taking the lead, the band appears on stage one by one and they kick off the gig with “Disaster”, the first single of the upcoming album. A bit surprising to me, but nonetheless an amazing opener. They headed straight into “Emergency” which has always, since it was released anyway, been one of my absolute favorites.

By this time, the venue was packed and the energy was GOOD. I am talking like, REAL good. Not just from the band, but from the crowd as well. And it was about to get wilder, as “Dangerous Ground” was next song on the list, followed by crowd-pleaser “Hollywood”.

They continued down the path of “Force Majeure” with “Rise”, “Nationwide” and “Harder to Breathe” which… by the way – was a hella more amazing live than I could ever have imagine when hearing it on the album.

Next up however… I have no words. It was a grand surprise, “In and Out of Trouble”. This song.. I swear. Ever since “Address The Nation” was released some 13 years ago, this song has been my all time favorite. And it NEVER changed. No matter the amount of albums they’ve been putting out, no matter how many times I rediscover their earlier albums… This one remains the same. And while I cannot sit here and say I NEVER heard it live before because I cannot and am not bothered to check right now, getting your own personal favorite song like this.. It just changes something. It changes something in the chemistry in your brain, in your body. And it was.. absolutely amazing live.

If there’s anything H.E.A.T has and has been known for, it would be their stage presence and energy. I know there was some talk back when Grönwall left if it would change, but Kenny’s got the energy to fill… his own boots again, I guess? Either way, it was absolutely magical and the highlight of the entire evening for me.

“Beg Beg Beg” was next song on the list, which is yet another crowdpleaser, but I am not using this word in a derogatory way, if there is anything this band is good at – it is the anthems and the crowdpleasers. And for myself, I think that this is one of the many things that has made them survive for as long as they have.

While the rest of the band exists the stage, Crash remains and delivers an entertaining and great drumsolo which merges into the intro of “Back to the Rhythm”, the song I assumed would be the opening song, but this placement is even better. At this point, you could literally feel the room boiling, and it was about to get better since “Living on the Run” was next on the list.

Kenny stops the show at this point to tell us some news, which I think most of us were aware of at this point – but for those who were not – H.E.A.T is releasing a new album, and while they have already played “Disaster”, they were now about to treat us with another new song off the new album – “Bad Time for Love”.

And I LOVED it. If I wasn’t already excited for the album, I sure am now! Another.. dare I call it classic by now? How long has to pass in a bands lifespan for a song to be called a classic? I don’t know, so I guess I’ll just refer to it as such. Anywho, “1000 Miles” was the next song, and if you are unfamiliar with H.E.A.T., like my boyfriend for instance, you might be recognizing this song from their participation in Melody Grand Prix in 2009 with the same song.

After “1000 Miles”, Kenny has a sentimental speech about how to choose songs on the setlist, and how no matter what you do, no matter what town you go to, there will always be someone who wants this or that song. That every song is someone’s favorite, and wraps it up with him not really caring, because so does he and with that, they fire off “One By One”, which is another amazing song from “Force Majeure”.

At this point, sadly, unfortunately and miserably and all the other words with the same meaning – at this point we had reached the end of the show. I was expecting “A Shot at Redemption”… but much to my surprise, genuine surprise, “Tearing Down the Walls” was in fact the last song. And I do not hate it. Not in the slightest. On the contrary, it just makes so much sense? To wrap it up with that?

With that, the band paid their dues and walked off stage. I got really lucky with a crewmember who was incredibly generous and handed me not only a setlist but also a pick from Sky Davids. I do not know if I thanked him enough for that, but I sure hope he knows it.

This gig though… It was amazing. And it’s like, I always know ok? Like I know H.E.A.T delivers on a whole different level and play in a different league, but it is so incredibly interesting for me to see how… I don’t know. All I know is that I truly needed this. And H.E.A.T, thank you so incredibly much for this amazing evening. I hope to see you soon again.

// Sara

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Red

Posted in Uncategorized on January 28, 2025 by Sara Hammerzmith

I believe the saddest part about a lot of things in life is when you, subconciously, abandon things that makes you happy and feels good. That would be me and this blog. I feel the most alive and at ease when I write, no matter what I write. I prefer writing about music and my life of course, but you know.

As I write this anyway, I am at the airport bound for the United States and the 70.000 Tons of Metal cruise which I will attend with Gina whom I met on the cruise back in 2019. It’s about to be a very nice girls trip, and my plan is to revive the blog while on this trip.

I hope you are all willing to share the journey with us.

// Sara

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Amaranthe – The Catalyst

Posted in CDs, Uncategorized with tags , on March 28, 2024 by Sara Hammerzmith

The year is 2024 and Amaranthe are giving us their seventh studio album “The Catalyst”. As a lot of you know, Amaranthe is one of my absolute favorite bands. They have an incredibly special spot in my heart and I was more than eager to hear another new album from them. Their previous albums has gone from clarity to clarity, so it was with high hopes I dove straight into this album.

The album starts off very typically Amaranthe with a bombastic melodic opener which gives you a bit of a premonition of what is about to come – an explosive album, something not too new, but perhaps not too familiar? Sadly, the first thing I think of when I hear the opening song, as much as I love it, it feels like a mix between “The Score” and something Dynazty would write – which wouldn’t be too odd seeing Nils Molin is now in the band.

Following up strong is one of their singles “Insatiable” which INSTANTLY brought the thoughts straight back to “Drop Dead Cynical” from their third album “MASSIVE ADDICTIVE” – and at this point I’m starting to form a little frown on my forehead as it’s becoming very… same of the same? If this makes sense. The song itself is a banger though – just like “Drop Dead Cynical” is.

“Damnation Flame” – third song of the album – is the first song of the album to actually draw some real attention to me with its Battle Beast like rhythms, is a very interesting song that I wound up enjoying more than I thought I would. Perhaps it’s due to the nature being closer to older Amaranthe? Who knows.

Unfortuneatley, I feel like a large portion of the album that follows is a little bit of the same old same old, and not only that, but also relatively watered down versions. It feels like I heard a lot, or similar shapes, of a lot of these songs before – but the predecessor being far superior than the “new” shape of the song.

My attention isn’t caught again until “Breaking The Waves” which is another one of the more bombastic songs that makes me wanna go out on an adventure – and it has this cozy and eerie vibe to it that I personally highly appriciate in music. Imagine listening to this late at night at the dark seas… Yes. Let me set that picture in your head.

After this, however, the album picks up for a little while in songs like “Outer Dimensions” and “Resistance”. The first mentioned song is a very typical upbeat and fun Amaranthe song that really caught my attention real fast – all of a sudden, it’s not so so-so anymore, but actually makes me bob my head for real and get into it. There is a lot of little productional details that just adds to the atmosphere of the entire song – and that is what I love.

“Resistance” on the other hand is a what I would call more of a “fun” song. This is the song one would be raging around and playing around to live, if they were to play it live that is. Which I truly hope they will. Sadly, the album hits the dip a little with the finishing song of the album “Find Life” which really didn’t… do much for me. I guess it was an ending? Ending on a low note?

Overall – song wise – I’m a little bit underwhelmed. I would not go as far as say that it is bad, but I’m a little underwhelmed. I have a hard time seeing myself find any major favorites on this album (personal favorite songs are songs like ‘Helix’ and ‘MASSIVE ADDICTIVE’) but I guess it is bound to happen to any band at some point. Amaranthe has after all gone from perfection to perfection and every once in a while this needs to happen.

As far as performance, I have nothing to say. I love the energy and chemistry between Elize and Nils in “Stay a Little While” even though I am not an overly huge fan of the song (Yes, I am indeed very biased towards ‘Amaranthine’, ‘Exhale’ and ‘Endlessly’) but the chemistry – absolute perfection. The new Screamer – Mikael – fills the shoes of Henrik wonderfully. He really fits in the other voice vice – I guess this is what I miss, I would have loved to have an equivalent of “GG6” or “Fury” to fully let him show off what he can do – but perhaps next time?

I am looking forward to one day see what they will do with this tourwise – while the songs aren’t strong, I do see a lot of live show potential.

What are your guys thought on the album?

// Sara

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Monochrome

Posted in Travels, Uncategorized on December 6, 2023 by Sara Hammerzmith

And so the day had finally arrived. The day that were cast in the name of Harry Potter. Both me and Sophie had been waiting all our lives (well..) to finally visit some of these spots – and for myself, despite spending quite a bit of time in London, I have never really visited anything Harry Potter related.

The day started incredibly early with us getting ready. While Nathan was in the shower, Sophie and I got geared up. She was sporting a full on Gryffindor Student outfit – with cloak and everything and me myself went for a more subtle Black Milk inspired fit with their blazer as well as their tartan Ravenclaw Cuffed pants. Nathan was.. simply a muggle.

We started our day off with a quick breakfast at Starbucks – yes me and Sophie har both obsessed with it – we headed off to King’s Cross to visit Platform 9 3/4. As per my tour earlier this year I had found out where the queue was going to start, so we waited outside from the beginning. Except for Nathan who had to double check just to be sure.

Gladly, the expected wait time was an hour (and we had been time budgeting for more) but in the end we only waited a solid 40 minutes before it was our time to get our pictures taken. Not only did we take our individual shots, we also got a groupshot to cement our friendship.

( Photos)

After photos had been taken, we went in to purchase our groupphoto – and – since both me and Sophie are in our 30s and can do what we want – we both got ourselves our acceptance letters to Hogwarts. After all this time, you know? We did some more minor shopping and then we headed off to Wheterspoons for lunch, our biggest adventure yet awaiting us.

In good time we got on the train to await our next destination, which was no less than the Warner Bros Studios itself. We got on the train and then the bus and arrived that the magical place.

We arrived quite a bit too early – nearly two hours early for the sake of safety, so the first thing we did was take in the sights and later have a bite. I was not as hungry as my friends and settled on a Death Eater cake and the other two had burgers.

After this, we headed into the store to check out what they had. Which, obviously, is a lot. At this point we did face a dilemma – do we shop now or later? You see, we had chosen the last entrance of the evening, and upon deciding that we did not want to rush through it, we said we would shop the most important stuff now and then we can come back later if there is time.

For myself, I picked up quite a bit of Ravenclaw goodies. A Quidditch sports team sweater, a hairclip, a magnet and such. I also got some stationary items such as tape and a little Christmas decoration. Not a whole lot, but enough considering we had to carry it all around.

And so it was time. For our slot. We got into the line and was brought into the place. The first room we enter was a room full of the movie posters – most versions of it as well as translations, concept arts – the jist!

After a little while we were urged into a little room where we were urged to sit down and watch a little movie, and once over – they opened the grand halls to the Great Hall, by the help of a fellow visitor – and we were allowed into the Great Hall, which had Halloween decors up all around.

It was incredibly surreal to see all of this – to be THERE. Where, literally, all the magic happened. Seeing the costumes of the – the characters – it was absolutely magical.

The first thing found as we went through the hall was the cupboard on the stairs – it really… I don’t think I can put it in words properly how this all made me feel. I love a lot of things in life, but there’s nothing quite like feeling like you are in the world of Harry Potter. Ever since I was a child I wanted to be in it, and even upon playing Hogwarts Legacy a part of me was just fuming that this was not in fact my reality… So being, you know, THERE – it was a surreal feeling.

We walked about the beginning and saw Dolores’ wall, the multicolored fountain and many other things before moving toward the commonrooms – at least the ones of Slytherin and Gryffindor.

The thing is, with all due respect – I will let the pictures speak for themselves rather than going into detail about everything – but the thrill of being there during Dark Arts seasons was the random attacks from death eaters – which was an amazing touch to make it all more alive.

Thats it for today. I’ll tell you all about our next endavours next time!

// Sara

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Crimson Thunder

Posted in Uncategorized on November 12, 2023 by Sara Hammerzmith

As we woke up in the morning, our first proper day together in London began! While walking through Shaftesbury Avenue, Sophie had once again talked to us about how much she would have wanted to see the Frozen West End Musical, so up we went, headed over to the theater streets and bought ourselves tickets for the show in the evening.

While waiting for the show to begin we decided to do a little of a combined shopping and sightseeing tours. As most of you know, I do frequent London at least once or twice a year, but it had been a long ten years since Sophie last set her feet on British soil, and she could not for the life of her remember what she had seen or not. So off we went!

We started our first trip to what probably is a must do for anyone doing London for the first time – Buckingham Palace. With a bit of disappointment, as the King was not in the country right now. Honestly, I still don’t feel accostumed to say there is a KING of England? Oh well.

We took a stroll through the park as we went off to get towards Big Ben and the Southbank – which is one of my favorite locations ever. Ironically, my favorite location in Brisbane is ALSO the southbank – who could have thought?

When arriving at Big Ben, we found ourselves caught up in the middle of a pro-Palestinian demonstration, which all of us loved and supported. It was incredibly beautiful to see people, not just in London but all around the world, getting up behind Palestine. Anywho – we went to visit the Big Ben and then made our way over to the Southbank, London Eye and a very cute bookshop! I guess it is a chain shop in the UK, but I did find some interesting books that I planned to come back for another day.

We headed over to an amazing pizza place close to Waterloo station for some dinner before we went back towards the theatres and attended our very first West End musical! We had gotten some really good seats if you ask me – surely, they were a bit away but it gave us a perfect view over the entire stage.

The musical itself was very good! It was a bit of a mixture between Frozen and Frozen 2 which had me raise my eyebrow a bit due to small changes to the plot, but nothing major! The actresses and actors were amazing and it was an incredible show to watch! I would highly recommend people seeing it.

Once it was over we headed back to our hotel to have an early night. Our most jampacked day was awaiting us the next day – and we could not be more excited.

// Sara

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Paper Rings

Posted in Uncategorized on November 9, 2023 by Sara Hammerzmith

And just like that, Friday came along! I started my morning by checking out and walking the whole of twenty minutes to the hotel me and my friends had booked for our longer stay. The only thing I kept thinking that morning was that I had wished I had simply extended the stay on that hotel rather than taking a different one, but I should consider myself lucky it was but a twenty minute walk only.

I walked there early in the morning with the hopes of being able to leave my luggage for later, as I did not really fancy to bring it with me to the meet – and much to my surprise – not only could I leave the luggage for later, I could also do all the paperwork prior to checking in later! This made me incredibly happy, as it means everything would just be DONE WITH.

Once done, I headed out to Starbucks for some nice breakfast. Yes, shoot me. I do love myself som Starbucks, and while Espresso House will forever be my number one, I do love treating myself Starbucks whenever I’m out and about since we do not have that where I live.

Time went on quicker than I actually expected, and it was time for me to leave. Now let me tell you a tale of London underground. The travel time to the destination of the meet was 30 minutes. So I figured, and hour should be enough. After all, I had no luggage or anything the like, and the underground stations where right next to the Starbucks. And getting to Paddington was really no problem.. But as I stood on the relatively newly opened Elizabeth Line, together with cosplayers galore heading off to Comic Con (which has the same train and destination as I did) only to learn that the ONE train we had to go on was having issues and thus “cancelled” sort of. We got adviced to get on the next train and change to the DLR at some other destination. Said and done.

Then I finally arrived in Canary Wharf for our meeting, but of course I got a bit lost, and being stressed from the trains sure did not help! I was meant to be there around 13.30, but in the end I got there at 14.30. But you know what?

All of the stress and resentment I felt towards the underground simply vanished the moment I saw my beloved Tree standing outside Platform waiting for me! I met her last in April while on the Sabaton tour, but by jove have I missed her! I try to catch her streams as much as I can, bit it quite is not the same as when you can hug someone and talk to someone. I updated her briefly on the drama of the trains and she let me know that Platform had.. mildly fucked up the booking despite promising the hosts a certain way it would be dealt with. That is very sad, to be honest. We scouted this destination when I was in England on tour, and what we loved about the destination was the impeccable service… which.. Just was not quite there anymore, the way we remembered it.

But nevertheless! I got to meet a whole group of amazing people, for example AntTyrant which is someone I’ve seen and interacted a lot with in Tree’s stream and Quillster! We all sat together and played Mario Party at the location and simply caught up on everything and nothing. Despite all the hick ups, it was a splendid time nonetheless. And it was equally amazing meeting all of Matt’s community as well!

If it was not enough that I had had issues with the underground, meanwhile, Sophie had been having her share of issues as well. Her train from Disney to Lille had been delayed, like, heavily delayed to the point where she missed her Eurostar connection taking her to London. And upon looking on the website, all of the remaining Eurostars for the day was sold out. Nathan and I were deep in looking for flights to get her on – because at the end of the day – what matters to us is that she comes, even if we have to break bank to get her there. So it was a turbulent and hectic morning, but by the time I had reached Platform Sophie had managed to get on a no-show seat in Eurostar, and as we sat down in a nearby pub for a drink I got the message Sophie was approaching St Pancras and I had to leave the meet a little early.

So, GLADLY; issues on Elizabeth line had been resolved, so getting back to my friends were easy. And seeing these two people, some of my best friends ever, again, was so emotional and we were all just… kind of freaking out. Despite being in our 30’s, we most likely looked like unattended kids. Especially, considering we headed into the first Tesco we found to buy as much snacks as we could muster for our planned movie night in.

We went back to the hotel, went out to get Sophie’s beloved Shake Shack. I am not gonna lie, she threatened us that if we did not enjoy it she would cancel her friendship with us. Gladly, we did enjoy it quite a lot! After this, we went for a little stroll – ended up in Chinatown by chance, walked by Shaftesbury Avenue which for us Potterheads felt special and saw all the theaters. We also came upon an IKEA that was designed as an IKEA bag. Lovely.

When we got back we simply crashed and watched a Harry Potter movie. I gave Nathan the deodorant he left at my place this summer, he got me hot sauce, Sophie had brought a Rémy shoulder plush and he handed her Lordiary. As we watched The Deathly Hallows, we fantisized and talked about what was to come the coming days.

And oh boy. We were in for a treat.

// Sara

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Unchain Utopia

Posted in Uncategorized on November 8, 2023 by Sara Hammerzmith

Oh my Lord as I would be saying to my friends. It has been a hot minute since I last wrote – but all that is about to change, I will have you know. I just came home from the trip of a life time, at least as far as it feels right now, and to be honest, a trip you get to spend with the best of your friends, is it not?

What started off as attending a streamer meet together with Maria, ended up being one of the most magical trips of my life. So, I’ll take it from the start. It all started with our dear friend Treecle, in fact. Just as us, she’s a fellow streamer and for the first time ever, together with streamer Matt Orloff, she was planning and going through with Treecle-Meet 2023! Being a long time supporter and friend of Treecle it was a no brainer for me to attend, and at first Maria had the idea of coming too. The next plan was to attend Comic-Con together with Tree over the weekend – however, changes in Maria’s personal life made things difficult to go through as originally planned – but as so did, a different plan started to bloom.

My Disney Besties – commonly known as Lordi besties – that are no strangers to this blog – Nathan and Sophie started speaking in our little groupchat about how they wanted to visit a Disney exhibition, and why not the Harry Potter studios? And so, our first non-Lordi, non-concert vacation plans were born.

After planning and stressing, freaking out and sweat and tears – the time was finally here. But, I will make a little halt right here. We’ll be getting to this part of the trip eventually, but first I must speak of the first parts. My meetings with my wonderful Twitch colleagues and friends.

As Treecle-Meet was happing rather early on Friday and I happen to live where no airplanes fly, I decided to travel out a day before my dear Disney Besties, and so I did. I arrived in London around 15 on the Thursday afternoon, and after making my way to the hotel (located relatively near Paddington Station) I got refreshed and headed out to meet up with my friends.

This was going to be the second time I met Corin, but it was the first time meeting Georgina, Divya and Pen! And it was so incredible. We went to a mexican place to eat where we had a wonderful time, eating and catching up and talking about everything and nothing. Sleepie and Pen had to leave a little earlier, so the remaining three of us went to Hard Rock Café for some drinks where we took some lovely pictures and had some lovely drinks.

But alas, all good things must come to an end so did this evening. I hope it won’t take too long before I see these amazing people again, because I absolutely adore them.

// Sara

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Lose my Mind

Posted in Uncategorized on September 13, 2023 by Sara Hammerzmith

I honestly do not even know where to start as of now. All I do know – is that I truly wanna get back into writing, into blogging. About the gigs I attend, but also just in general about life. I am not sure truly why I even stopped.

Was it the pandemic? The sudden scarcity of tours and travels, the sudden halt to everything that was my life and what was this blog? But then it slowly came back, and I did write stories here and there.

And now, I make this promise to you as well we myself – from now on, I will try my hardest and bestest to keep this blog updated. Not necessarily with new stuff, but even old stuff. Where do I even begin?

// Sara

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Colder

Posted in Uncategorized on April 11, 2023 by Sara Hammerzmith

Oh sweet love. It’s been a while since I did a proper European tour – in fact, I’d dare to argue it was way before the pandemic was a thing. I was on The Great Tour as the great outbreak happened, and then kept watching tour plan after tour plan fall apart. Since then, I started studying at University and decreased my time spent on the road for school reasons.

Not entirely though – as you might have recalled, I saw Lordi in Paris and I’ve been to both the Great Sweden Tour with Sabaton – but is it really the same as going on an actual Eurorun? Or at least sort of Euro-run. I’d argue it is not. And this tour that lies upon me – The Tour to End all Tours – is a tour I have been waiting a long time for. Longer than the two years it has been postponed, you see…

In 2006 I saw Lordi live for the first time. I was ecstatic, as should be, and I did not understand why, why oh why is there a band playing before them? And you know, being a German band they spoke very good English. They wore weird city camo pants and they were all over the place. Little did I know at the time, this band would become the love of my life.

In 2016 I got my first taste of what a tour like this could be like – when Lordi headlined the “smaller” stage on Sabaton Open Air right before Sabaton played on the “mainstage”. It was the first, and only time I have shed a couple of tears at a Sabaton show. At that time, it was out of pride. Look what has happened, in the ten years that I’ve been following both of these bands.

So when the news broke about this tour… My wish, the wish I had since 2006 – to get to see this line up together again.. Finally came into fruition. I have been waiting and wishing. More and more and more. Hoping, that maybe one day, one day it will happen.

And suddenly, the announcement was there. Just like that.

And I am so ready. Who will I see there?!

// Sara

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Tour Diaries – Sabaton / Hulkoff II – Part 1

Posted in Travels, Uncategorized on January 31, 2023 by Sara Hammerzmith

And so it was time. Finally time to get back on the road again. It’s been just a bit under a year since the last Swedish tour of Sabaton, and for this run Hulkoff was coming along again. The first stop of the tour was in Övertorneå, pretty damn far up in the North.

So, travels started out pretty early in the morning – if I remember correctly I left my place around eight in the morning to head over to the airport. With being out of the touring habit for so long, I have lost track on how to do it and have not prepared ANTYHING in all honesty in order to make this tour go smoothly – like, sure I left well on time, but upon arriving at the airport I realized I hadn’t sorted any sort of preorder for the parkings, so I just went ahead and took the first best parking I found. Gladly enough, this is the parking I would usually have anyway so no issue really.

Off I went to meet up with my friend Isabelle whom I’d get to share this adventure with and we got on our plane, picked up the rental car she had arranged and started off the drive towards Övertorneå – which is located around two hours driving from Luleå. Oh yeah.. We had a bit of an incident on our way up. So, I get motion ill, or car sick if you like, very, very easily. And I forgot to take my pills, but I did not realize this until I started feeling a bit nauseous. I tried combatting it by stopping quickly on the road and driving with the window down – even taking a pill even though it technically was a bit too late….

And at one point I had to ask Isabelle to just pull over in the dead middle of a road and I went out… And it was a basic cascade. I haven’t done that in a long time, but I guess it was about time! Lesson learned. The worst part though? I didn’t get my very long hair out of the way, so I tried my best to clean it with snow.. I thought I was so fly until I borrowed Isabelles shower later only to realize I had just mushed it all in my hair and created a nice… cake… of that…

ANYWHO.

And let me tell you this – going up north – this much up north – it is like visiting a different country. It is legit the same country, but it is so incredibly different on the same time. The houses are quite more rustiqe than I’m used to home where I live, and most importantly – it is so incredibly silent. At least at the place where I lived – Willa Armas just outside of Övertorneå. Its a huge what seems to be family owned mansion of sorts with a huge kitchen and you stay in one of the bedrooms of the house. Baths are shared, and there is a sauna in the basement. The owners meet up with you and make sure you are most comfortable and help you out. They are extremely friendly – I can very warmly recommend this location for you. It is handy if you have a car already though, as it is outside the city.

Obviously, as we were arriving pretty late on the first night we went off to buy some dinner and have some before Isabelle brought me back to my hotel and the next day was about to commence. Got up WAY TOO LATE in what I would have liked myself, but obviously, if it is anything I learned about myself this past few months it is that I tend to always stay up way too late – I guess I can thank me discovering TikTok for that..

Anywho. Isabelle came to pick me up, bless her, and we headed off to the Arctic Circle – which was pretty damn interesting to see actually! A part of me is kind of all up in the air about it all – I have always wanted to travel up north but I never really had the chance properly til now – which means the world to me.

We headed back into the city to cook some more dinner before heading over to the show – but I’ll save that for another post!

// Sara

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