Sara Hammerzmith

If you could put a band together of your favorite vocalist,drummer,guitarists,and bassist, who would those people be and why?

Oh wow. This was a tricky one. I mean… If I’d pick all my favorites… Let’s begin at Mark Slaughter on vocals, because as most of you people knows, he is my absolute favorite as far as singing goes. His voice… It’s amazing. I don’t even know what to write. As for the drummer, I’ll have to go with a bandmate of Mark, someone who’s been my favorite drummer for a very long time, Blas Elias. He’s a decent drummer who get’s by without being a one-trick pony like some other drummers that may be just fast, and not have a lot of other to bring to it.

As far as stringbending goes, I’ll start with my very first guitar hero straight out of Norway, Trond Holter. He was the first guitarist I was ever impressed by, and still to this day I adore him like he was God. Accompanying him on the guitar, I’ll have to put Jim Root from straight from Iowa and the opposite genre of Trond. The way he plucks and improvises with the guitars… you are never bored when you listen to him. And imagine that – Trond delivering the solid part and hearing Jim improvise over that. Ohhh.

As far as bass duties goes, I’m gonna stick with my finnish hellbull OX. I’m not too big on bassplayers, but I’ve always adored OX’s attitude and he’s pretty good at what he’s doing. And since I like keyboards in bands, I want to throw in Hella as well. She’s one hell of a show woman, and she’s that extra thing the band would need to get on a really good show.

So, there you have it. These are the musicians I’d put together, if I’d pull together all my favorites. However, as some of you may know, I’ve never been a big fan of supergroups, so… these are all my favorite put together, but if I’d put together a perfect band, the line up would be Mr Lordi, OX, Amen, Hella and Mana.

Supergroups in all it’s glory, but nothing beats that perfect bandsetting that just makes the chemistry, energy and outcome perfect.

// Sara

Again, I won’t be judging the skills too much per se, but again aim for my favorite drummer rather than the best in the world. When it comes to arguing about musicians, people will always have their own opinion, you know? Half of the world praises Joey Jordison, the speedball, and half of the world hates him. Half of the world loves Lars Ulrich, half hates him. No matter how you twist and turn, there will always be people who hate on it, so, therefore, I went with my favorite drummer in a band.

And it should come to no surprise to all of you, that that particular drummer is no one less than pet the destroyer, Kita.

So this was essentially the only picture I had available close enough on this computer. Oh well.

So Kita. As most of you know, Kita has always been my favorite member of Lordi, or actually, perhaps not always. There was indeed a period where I didn’t have a favorite member at all, but then I saw him waving the sticks behind his kit after they had won the Eurovision Song Contest, and that’s when I fell in love with him, so to speak. He was so cute.

I’ve met him two times, in his monstrous disguise, first in 2006, which is pictured above. I already wrote about some of it when writing about OX, but seriously, it’s a fond memory. Both me and Lina were so scared, or shy perhaps, to walk up to them, and when Kita saw my shirt he started calling out for us to come over (and OX joined in as well when he saw Linas shirt). I kept staring at the floor being so shy, and when I was just about to crash right into OX, I was stopped by Kitas arm going around me. Thank god for that. He turned me around, told me he liked my shirt and then the picture was taken.

2009 was a little “slower”. I was the first to enter the backstage room, and Kita was already sitting there. Which scared me A LOT, haha. It went pretty fast from that – I got my shirt signed, a hug from him and a small chat.

Who would have thought, that when Paula and I went to Nosturi in 2010, that it’d be the last we ever saw of him? I don’t think anyone saw it coming at that point.

Yeah. Mana, and definitely Otus, may pass him skill-wise. But he’ll always be one of my first love’s, when it comes to loving musicians, and no skill, speedball or big drumset can ever come above that.

Thanks for all, pet the destroyer.

// Sara

Bassplayers… There is nothing I am as lost about as when it comes to bassplayers. Not becasue I don’t like them, but because the whole world is so unfamiliar to me. But there is one bassplayer, one that has always been close to my heart, and he has been ever since I first became a fan of this band. Do I even need to introduce him?

Klubben, Stockholm, Sweden March 2009, Deadache tour. Photo by me.

No copyright stamp, because I fucking trust you guys. Alright, so, this man doesn’t need an introduction – you all should be more than familiar with him by now.

Like I said, being someone who’s fairly unfamiliar with anything bass, I cannot judge his skills. But seriously – raise your hands – how many of you can honestly say you don’t fucking get into when you hear “Bite it Like a Bulldog”? “Where’s the Dragon?” ? The list can be made long.

But of course, being my favorite goes beyond that. It isn’t only what he do on stage, but also what he has done for us, to us, with us, off-stage.

Like, in 2006, when I was so scared to walk to them I almost walked right into, hadn’t Kita stopped me. And how I slowly raised my eyes and eventually met his intense, green eyes looking down on me. Seriously, hadn’t Kita been there to hold me I would have passed out, out of fear.

Or fast forwarding to Italy 2013, when I was going to hug him and I couldn’t reach because he was too tall, and he started laughing at me and teased me for being short (I’m totally sure you are not as freaking tall without your boots, you sonofaaaaa).

Again, the list can be made long. But it goes to a whole new, personal level, as to why he’s my favorite, and why he’s one of my heroes.

Always and forever.

// Sara

Wow, at first it was a little hard to choose. Or, as I started typing, it still is hard to choose, but on the same time… As soon as I got this question, my mind went directly to one certain singer, and I don’t think any one of you reading are going to be surprised by my choice.

Mark Slaughter.

This is a picture I took of him at Sweden Rock 2012, I can’t be bothered to open up my MAC to photoshop a logo onto it, so don’t take it please thank you very much. Anyway, Markysan… First of all, no one, NO ONE can deny that this man has quite the voice. But most importantly, for me, is that his voice soothes me. It makes me calm. I would love to sit here and analyze in what makes him good, but I’m afraid I don’t know enough about singers and singing in general to give a good opinion rather than that I love his voice.

Oh. Right. He’s the singer of Slaughter by the way, the band that emerged when Vinnie Vincent Invasion broke up, you know, Dana and Mark continued on with Tim Kelly and Blas Elias. Bobby went on to Nelson and a numerous of other projects. Nelson’s “After The Rain” is a killer though, check it out. But now I’m getting sidetracked.

When Lordi announced in 2010 they were going to use Markysan for additional vocals on “Babez For Breakfast” I fucking flipped. I had to re-read it a hundred times, and I still didn’t believe it until I got the album in my hands and heard his voice on the album. And his appearance on Chrissy Steele’s “Magnet To Steele” still sends me shivers down my spine.

// Sara

EASY FUCKING PIECE OF CAKE.

Do I even need to write out the name of the band? Really?

Well, Obviously – Lordi.

Their career peaked around Eurovisiontimes, but has since then peaked right down. They are still going strong, smaller venues than before but still headlining. Those of you who’ve followed me for some years, knows without a doubt that this is not just a band to me, it’s my life, basically.

Thanks to this amazing bands I have met all of the most amazing people in my life. And even if I don’t know you through Lordi – we still probably know each other thanks to Lordi. Hadn’t Lordi entered my life, I wouldn’t be a metalhead. Hadn’t I been a metalhead I wouldn’t have started musicjournalism. I wouldn’t have started at Ingesunds College of Music. A lot of things that has happened in my life has directly been change, because of these monsters.

I can’t sit here and say that you all suck and that Lordi is the best thing ever and that everyone should listen to them. I do think they are a bit underrated – mostly because people makes it all about Eurovision and won’t even care about listening to gems as “Deadache” or “Scare Force One” or “The Children of the Night”. I had a guy I was interested in back in the days, who literally had only heard the big four – “Hard Rock Hallelujah”, “Devil is a Loser”, “Blood Red Sandman” and “Would You Love a Monsterman” and tried to tell me they were the most overrated band ever.

Like dude. Seriously.

So yes. Lordi. To me, the best thing ever. Thanks to Lordi I’ve seen places I never thought I would, like, all the countries and cities I’ve traveled to to see them and all… God, I practically owe my life to them. I love you Monstars, always and forever.

// Sara

The worst part about getting these kind of questions, is the fact that you have to single out a band you currently don’t listen to, and like I stated a few days ago – had you asked me only two years ago if I would be into SlipKnot, I would have laughed and asked if you were crazy.

So it feels weird to single out a band and be like “I don’t like that” because one day I may.

But if we talk only about the present and what I feel at the moment, those kind of bands would probably be like Metallica and Ghost. I can’t say either of those bands are BAD, I’ve just never gotten into them. I don’t really know why, it’s just, haven’t clicked, I guess.

So yeah. Ghost and Metallica, there you have it. By these criteria I could make this list very very long, and could probably list every single black metal band and so on, but it feels a bit easy, don’t you think?

// Sara

I had to recalculate how many times I’ve seen certain bands to make sure I got the right one, and I did.

It was actually pretty crowded – we have Steel Panther with 11 gigs, HammerFall with 12 gigs, and even Sabaton tied with Lordi on 13 gigs each. But neither of these are the band I’ve seen the most.

The band I’ve seen live the most times, 16 times,  are also the band that happens to be my very very first favorite band ever – Wig Wam.

(Fagernes, 2006)

I’ve seen them a total of 16 times, up until their breakup a few years ago. It started out as massive boom in 2006 with eight gigs, and then it has gotten fewer and fewer over the years, and the last time I saw them was actually here in Sweden, in 2010. A few years later they announced their break up. I always found it odd that they put out “Wall Street” without supporting it whatsoever.

Either way, this was actually a very good band. Like, a VERY VERY good band. Good on the albums, and phenomenal live. While I do miss them sometimes, and most importantly, all the amazing people I met through them, it feels like it was for the best in the end that they called it quits.

(Söre Osen, 2006)

Thanks for these years, Wig Wam, and thanks to all you amazing people I met – Lina, Kjersti, Kath, Nina, Hansi, Tinna and more.

// Sara
(All photos are obviously by me)