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Powerwolf @ Batschkapp, Frankfurt, Germany 1/4 – 16

Posted in Concerts, Music, Thiz Izz Djermani, Uncategorized with tags batschkapp, battle beast, concert, Frankfurt, Germany, powerwolf, serenity on April 1, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

SO THE D-DAY IS HERE. Seriously, I love Australia and all, but Blessed and Possessed tour is literally what I’ve been going and waiting for the entire time. The Ultimate Enigma was great and all, but how can that beat Powerwolf AND Battle Beast, all in one evening? Nope.

Met up Michelle early in the morning to deliver some stuff for her to take in her luggage to make things a little bit easier on my part when going to Clermont-Ferrand and then we had a, what you could say, fancier breakfast, for once. Found this supercute place down the Kaiserstrasse, “What The Food!” Superdelicious food and superamazing staff. Warmly recommended would you ever need tasty breakfast in Frankfurt city.

With that said, we got to our respective hotels and started to get ourselves ready for the night. Michelle stopped by with some food and that’s when we finally found the time to do the dreaded Vegemite challenge. Seriously, oh my God. Sophie is going down for this one, haha! Gladly, I was smart enough to only take a little bit, while Michelle took quite a lot and almost made herself throw up… Dear lord.

After this, some final touches and then we were finally on the go. We got through the U-Bahn and gladly we found some other Powerwolf fans we could follow. I’ve been to Batschkapp once before, but I remember how disoriented all three of us where, so it felt good that we could take back on some other people. Of course, in the midst of it Michelle is like “What if they are really on their way to a pre-party or something and we’re just following them like some creepy stalkers?”

Thanks, Michelle. Thank you.

We got the line, and it was quite a line already, but hey, what do you expect when you arrive like, half an hour or so before the show starts? We waited in line for some time, I’m not sure if perhaps they were delayed or early with the doors, but they opened 17.52 exactly. I’d know this, because I was trying to calm down a hysteric Madlen on the other side of the phone.

So, we got let in and the first thing we did was to hit the bathroom and once we got out, we went into the venue and went on a quest to find Daniel and Toni. Which wasn’t that hard. You sort of see them. On a lightyears distance. So we went to them to say hi, but wound up staying with them throughout the show. This is also where I’d in fact ‘meet’ Toni for the first time and also Szilvi!

After a little bit of waiting, Serenity entered the stage and started their show.

So, I’m both unfamiliar but also not with Serenity prior to this show. I’m unfamiliar to the music, but I’ve seen a lot of their sponsored ads on Facebook, and after I realized they’d be on tour with Powerwolf I paid a bit more attention, but did not look up any music.

But, DAMN, I liked them. Or like, LIKED THEM. Damn damn damn. So fucking good I barely have any words for it, haha. It’s almost pathetic. They put on a great show and I was determined to get their latest album after the show, that’s for sure.

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Next up on the stage was Battle Beast, which is one of the two bands I’d been looking forward to a lot.

So, they got on the stage and opened the show with “Let It Roar” and my god, what a band! And Noora! What a performer! They continued on very strongly with “I Want The World … And Everything In It” and seriously, this band, what a rush! “Out on the Streets” were next before it was time for my personal favorite, “Touch in the Night” Of course not without Daniel so delicately enlighten me about this, due to a discussion we had two days ago. Haha. But seriously, this song live though, what a rush!

“Fight, Kill, Die” and “Black Ninja” were the next songs on the list followed by “Iron Hand” and “Enter The Metal World” before they wrapped it all up with “Out of Control”. The band thanked for the evening and walked off stage.

I’ve already said it once before very recently, but I need to state it again: WHAT A RUSH. Seriously, this band, Noora as a performer, WHAT A RUSH!

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After this, the wait for Powerwolf began and at this point I noticed Cyril, my French friend had arrived, holding a position up on the balcony. And with Cyril there’s only one way to greet him – with the face. The Face, as Ashleigh would call it. It was good to see him again!

And then, lights out and Powerwolf started. Intro. Band members entering and then the epic tunes of “Blessed and Possessed” started echoing through the venue with all the lights pointing right onto you, creating probably one of the most beautiful visions in front of you. I’m always going to applaud Powerwolf for their work with the lights.

After one of the most epic openings seen in a long time, “Coleus Sanctus” followed suit, and then “Amen & Attack” Seriously, that song though. Never, ever, fails to disappoint you.

Three songs into the setlist and my heart is already racing with happy emotions and exhaustion. The best feeling in the world, I’m telling you.

“Sacred and Wild” was next, followed by “Army of the Night” which was another jump-fest deluxe. Seriously, if this isn’t the work out of the year, I don’t know what is. “Resurrection by Erection”, my favorite headbang song “Armata Strigoi” and “Dead Until Dark” followed before the mood was turned down a bit for prayer in “Let There Be Night”.

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“Werewolves of Armenia” was next on the list, and seriously, this one live is beyond epic. In fact, all of it is, I’m just sort of running out of words to write about this show. “Saturday Satan” was next on the list, followed by “In The Name of God”.

The set was wrapped up with “We Drink Your Blood” and “Lupus Dei” and it was quite epic, I must admit, to see pretty much the entire arena getting down on their knees for the song. For once, you know. Most of the time people just ignore these kind of things.

The band left the stage, and “Agnus Dei” started echoing in the speakers before the band returned and ripped off “Sanctified With Dynamite”. Seriously, what is it with this band and raising your heartrate?

My personal favorite “Kreuzfeuer” followed before they wrapped up the set with “All We Need Is Blood”.

Seriously, what a rush. I was close to wiped out completely after this show, which only means one thing: One hell of a show. Thank you, Powerwolf for this show. It was amazing. I love you.

After the show, we first went to the merchandise to check it out real quickly and caught up with Cyril. And then I see a familiar person. Could it be? YES! It was Madlen. God. I haven’t seen this girl since Noch Ein Bier, and sure, it may only be like, what, nine months? But nine months is A LOT. I told her that “see, you made it!” which she responded “yeah, to the last song!” Haha. Well… She made it! Oh, this will be a lot of fun.

We hung out quite a while after show, before it was time for all of us to head to our own destinations. Madlen was kind enough to drive us home to our hotels, and we avoided speaking about how early we’d need to get up the next morning, but then again, it’s easy when it is for bands, right?

Thank you all involved for this amazing night – you are the best people in the world. I love you all.

// Sara

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Sabaton @ The Nick Rayons LCR, Norwich, United Kingdom 26/2 – 16

Posted in Concerts, Music, Uncategorized with tags alestorm, bloodbound, LCR, norwich, sabaton on February 27, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

So, finally the day was here! The day we were going to see Alestorm and Sabaton’s co-headlining tour, supported by the amazing Bloodbound. We started the day off wandering about in Norwich, but I figured I’d save that for it’s own entry that I’ll schedule to appear during our flight. But, later in the night it was finally time. We were unsure whether the time on the tickets was showtime or doortime, since in Sweden, it could as well be the show time as the doortime, so we figured we’d get there around 6 – just half an hour before door opens, or in case of showstart – we are there half an hour before the show starts. After that it was just time to get ready. It’s tricky when two ”costumed” bands play the same show – what band do you dress for? So basically, Sabaton gear and Alestorm make up. That should do the trick.

But then, getting there was interesting enough. First and foremost, gladly, we found a bus we could take so we didn’t have to walk for a good hour. The ”scary” thing is that there seem to be no such thing as station-announcer on the buses, so we basically just prayed to God that someone else was also going to get off at our stop, and I kept close track on the GPS to see when we got closer.

Gladly, a lot of people were getting off, so it was no issue. Then we arrived at this university campus, because apparently, the concert venue is on campus grounds. After walking around like lost squirrels for a while, we finally found the ”Heroes On Tour” trailer and the line for the show.

While the UK are a lot warmer than Sweden these days, it was still one cold wait for the doors. When they finally opened we got in, and it’s sort of weird in a way, because the line felt pretty long, and the venue was rather small, despite this, we were two people, TWO PEOPLE away from making it to the front row. So we stationed ourselves in the middle of the arena instead, and figured we’d remain there until it got too crowded, if it ever did. But first Bloodbound merch, and then, bathroom.

And while in the bathroom, I hear the tunes to Bloodbound’s intro song. Good riddance on me, that I was done. So I rushed back into the venue, had to struggle to get a hold of Michelle and then go get her because apparently she forgot where we were supposed to stand, haha.

Bloodbound opened with the song ”Iron Throne” strongly. It wasn’t a lot of people there, surprisingly, or well, at least not on the floor. They followed up with ”Metalheads Unite”, which is kind of interesting, because The Singer *NAMN* actually introduced ”In The Name of Metal” but they all were like, screw that.

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After this, they continued with ”In The Name of Metal”, followed by my personal favorite – ”Moria”. Damn, how much I love this song and this band. This was followed by ”Stormborn” before they wrapped up the set with ”Nosferatu”. Yes, you saw right. Somewhere along the way they lost ”When All Lights Fail”, which is sad, it was my favorite off ”Stormborn”.

After this, the wait for Alestorm began. Now, it started to get quite crowded. I’m not surprised though – they are actually co-headlining, and I must admit even I was looking more forward to Alestorm than I was to Sabaton. After some time, the intro got off and they opened their show with ”Keelhauled”. They followed up quickly with ”Over The Seas” and seriously, the crowd was going mad! I’m not surprised, because I did too, in all honesty.

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”Magnetic North” was next to be done, followed by a, according to the band, rarity of a song, “Surf Squid Warefare”. This was followed by “Nancy the Tavern Wench”, and then “Walk the Plank”. “The Sunken Norwegian”, “Wenches and Mead”… and I’m gonna tell you something. So, basically, LCR is like, they have stairs down to where the “floor” is, and during “Wenches and Mead”, I shit you not, I was pushed UP ON the staircase. The pressure seriously! This was followed by “Drink!” and it was during this song, and starting from here that Michelle and I decided to join in on the moshpits. “1741” followed, “Hungover” “Captain Morgans Revenge”

They wrapped the set up with ”Rum” before they and their duck left the stage. Lucky us, we had just planned to go and get water when Michelle caught the water bottle thrown out by Elliot. Free water, yay!

So, they left the stage and now the wait for Sabaton began. I swear to God, I was sitting there shaking like a leaf, had to sit down on the floor in attempts to recover. It sure has been sometime since SlipKnot, that’s for sure. Need to work out more, this stamina is absolutely horrible when it comes to metal shows. I’ll do over and do right for Blessed & Posssessed tour.

So, pretty much right on time 21.30 ”The Final Countdown” started and then the intro, and then of course the damned ”Ghost Division”. I told Michelle that if they open with ”Ghost Division” one more time, I’m going to fucking punch someone. And I almost did. It’s been eight years can we like… move on?

Anyway. They followed this song up with ”Far From The Fame” before they did the first surprise for me – ”Uprising”. I was glad to hear it, since it’s like the only song I actually care for on ”Coat of Arms”, what I did not care for though, was the people trying to mosh to this song. I mean, moshing is all fun and games, but seriously, to ”Uprising”? The following song, ”Midway” was on the other hand all cool to mosh to.

The band had really good energy, and the audience was insane. Jocke made a comment about it being too many pirates in the crowd tonight, but on the same time, Jocke, what do you expect? Haha, the heck.

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My beloved ”Wolfpack” was next on the list, and damn, chills every time. Also a little sad this is not a Karlstad exclusive anymore, but then again, the more people who get to hear this amazing song the better in the end! ”Wolfpack” was followed by ”Resist And Bite” and then ”Carolus Rex”, damn this song. This song. There’s no other song I think, by Sabaton that empowers me as much as this one. Not even sure why.

Next up was ”Swedish Pagans”. Like, Thobbe started playing a bit and Jocke made the joke that ”now we have to play it” and no, no you don’t. I know I title myself a Swedish Pagan to mark my spot in the Sabaton fandom, but seriously I’m so over this song. But, the crowd enjoyed it!

”Attero Dominauts” was next, or actually, it wasn’t supposed to be ”Attero Dominatus”. Jocke admitted right afterwards that they were supposed to do ”Soldiers of 3 Armies”, but he mixed it up. So, they simply followed up with it. Strange, this is the second Swedish band out of two on the same night who mixes up the setlist.

My personal favorite of Sabaton, ”The Art of War” followed and damn. If I didn’t have a slayerneck already, I sure as hell got one now. They wrapped up the first part of the set with ”To Hell and Back”. Damn I love this song live.

Here’s the funny thing. They left the stage, but I’m not sure anyone really noticed. Because they sort of left, and the ”Night Witches” intro started directly almost, so I don’t think anyone really noticed. But ”Night Witches”, ah what a song. This is the song they should open with. So fucking perfect.

But, to get back to ”where-they-really-leaving” part, imagine my surprise when they all of a sudden did ”Primo Victoria”, and then wrapped up the set with ”Metal Crüe”? And then it was over?

Sabaton’s set went by so fucking quickly, I barely even noticed it passing by! It’s insane. The setlist over all was pretty boring in my opinion – perhaps I’m comparing too much to Noch Ein Bier set, but seriously, where’s ”Gott Mit Uns”? I really missed that one. And I’m sure I’m not the only one. The gig per se was very scaled down, just the band and us. I liked that.

But. Despite the set being boring, I guess we can say they never fail to entertain, like, ever. Considering how fast it went by. God, I love all these men who performed tonight. They are the reason I breathe.

After the show, we headed over to Alestorm’s merchbooth to pick up on a shirt where I almost ran over Chris Bowes, and later wound up chatting and hanging out with the guys in Bloodbound. It was nice to talk to some people from home, and we spoke about everything from touring to Australia to Noch Ein Bier to early days of corpse paint.

We did a quick stop by Sabaton’s merchtable to catch up with Jaqueline before we left the venue and got home.

Seriously, thank you all for this amazing evening. You are great.

// Sara

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Toto @ Fryshuset, Arenan, Stockholm 19/2 – 16

Posted in Concerts, Music, Uncategorized on February 19, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

So, it was time for the last concert on Swedish soil for a very long time, and I got on the bus already at 6 in the morning because of a work interview I had scheduled in the late mornings. It was pretty nice, I must admit, to go this early – first and foremost, you actually got somewhere in time and had time to do things. Secondly, the bus was pretty empty which is the best, if you ask me.

So, I got to Stockholm already at 10, locked up my luggage and headed over to the interview, which went quicker than I thought it would, so here I was, left with a lot of dead time to spare. I headed over to Motormännen’s office to get my international drivers license, only to remember they didn’t open ’til 12, so I went back to city to do all my errands – pick up a new case of translucent powder as I am, after a few years, starting to run out of mine, picked up sunglasses + a top at Gina Tricot before Australia, found some cheap sale earrings at H&M which will do wonders at Powerwolf if I don’t find the perfect ones… When all of this was done, the clock was really only around 11.

Damn damn damn. How to kill time? There’s only one place: Science – Fiction book store. First and foremost, it takes time to go there, and once there… yeah. This is my kind of place. I went over the Manga section pretty quickly, I still haven’t finished the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon mangas I already have at home, so I figured that could wait a little. Then I hit the Sci-Fi department… and got stuck there for a while. Partly I was looking for the books in the The Fifth Wave series, but since I forgot the authors name it took a bit of time. At first, I planned to get “Mazerunner”, “The Fifth Wave” and then a third book, which turned out to be “Divergent”, but I changed “Mazerunner” for “The Endless Ocean”. If I remember correctly, I could not wait to get onto the next “The Hunger Games” book, so I might as well have all parts in the The Fifth Wave series already from the start.

Gladly, this killed a lot of time, and Motormännen had finally opened so I went there, signed up for the license which only took 15 minutes to make, or less, really, so I was left there with SO MUCH time before the check in on hotel’s started. So I headed over to Espresso House to sit off some time, where I could also use my new phone. You see, for some reason, the SIM card won’t activate so I need WiFi for now.

After a while, Robert started to head into town, and I quickly checked into the hotel, dumped my stuff, fixed my make up and packed for Toto and headed down to see him. It was soooo good to see him again, and after looking around Shock for a small moment we went to C.U.M where we spent a very, very long time since Robert was getting his measurements for new pants, and me myself, I found the jacket I’ll be using for all Civil War shows in the future. Need to save up!

After this, we went and picked up Michelle at the bus station and went to a All-You-Can-Eat thai buffé and I think we all overate. Seriously, I almost felt ill afterwards, and I thanked God it was Toto we were about to see, and not Korpiklaani or some other band we jump around to a lot.

We got to Fryshuset around 10 minutes past 19, which was decent time. Toto was about to begin at 19.30, and I got a little stressed getting in the bathroom line, but we all made it on time, and a little late, like, 19.35, Toto began their show with “Running Out of Time”.

They continued on strongly with “I’ll Supply The Love” and “Burn”. “Stranger in Town”, the ever so wonderful “I Won’t Hold You Back” was ripped off before the whole arena exploded in “Hold The Line”. What else to be expected?

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They continued on with “Georgy Porgy”, “Afraid of Love”, “Bend”… before it started. You know, that song.

“Pamela”

And I mean… I love this song. I think most of you might know it, or perhaps not, but ah damn. It was so great to hear it live again, and I died as much this time as last time. After this, we got a piano solo from David Paich before they moved on with “Great Expectations”.

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This was followed by “Without Your Love” and “Bridge of Sighs” before it was time for Steve Luthaker to grant us one of his amazing solos. Seriously, that man! “Holy War,” “The Road Goes On”, “Orphan” and lastly “Rosanna” wrapped up this night perfectly before they left for a moment only to come back.

At first they ripped off “On The Run / Goodbye Eleonora” before ending the whole show with an eleven minute long rendition of “Africa”. Seriously, the sing alongs in Africa, the rythms, I can’t even begin to tell you.

This was a great night, I tell you. A clam, almost… atmospheric night where you experience some of the finest musicians practice what they do the best – performing fine piece of music and arrangements that made me close my eyes many times throughout the night only to hear the music itself live without the sight.

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This was an amazing night, to the extent where I barely even know what to write about it. This was an amazing way to leave Sweden for a while. Thank you, Toto!

// Sara

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SlipKnot @ Scandinavium, Gothenburg, Sweden 20/1-16

Posted in Concerts, Music, Uncategorized with tags concert, göteborg, gothenburg, metal, scandinavium, slipknot, suicidal tendencies on January 20, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

When we woke up in the morning, quite early, receiving a message from Robert that he’d left his residence in Stockholm towards Gothenburg, we simply laid there and didn’t really feel like going up. But you know, out of all the days I’ve used “XIX” to get myself to do shit, I guess this was the day it fit better than ever seeing we were going to see SlipKnot. “But I have to – so it might as well be today”. We still overslept a bit, but a little bit before noon we were on our way to Gothenburg and the second and sadly last date on this tour for us.

It was quite a nice ride. We put on some stupid old 90’s music, that isn’t really 90’s music, but people refer to it as, and discussing future plans that won’t probably ever happen, stopping by McDonalds in Säffle on our way down. It was a smooth ride until we reached Gothenburg and learned there had been a huge accident right on the road we were supposed to go, but gladly, we took the wrong turn and managed to dodge it all by a breath. We got to Focus, painted on our faces and then we went down to Scandinavium.

Robert had already left for the meet & greet once we made it, and when we got there we got numbers on our hands for the queueing system and then… we stood there. SlipKnot has this weird habit of always coming in the winter, and we always have the habit of being underdressed. Or actually, that is on purpose because I don’t wanna deal with the whole wardrobe thing. But it’s not so fun when it’s like -15 degrees or whatever.

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While waiting in line, there was this one guy who kept walking off and about, in and out of the line before he remained behind us in line. I observed him for a while, stared at him, narrowed my eyes to my fox-face and then I took a turn around Michelle and asked him if he was here alone. For the moment he was, but his friends were about to come. And this is the story on how we met an amazing person called Fritiof. Thanks to us starting to talk to him the hours passed by very quickly, and he held our spots while we got some hot chocolate to warm up. After a while his friends Sebastian, My and Jesper joined us as well and we had a hella good time before they let us in.

So.. at the gates I learned I may not be able to take my wallet-chain in. And the security must be a joke, because I asked him what the hell this was about, and he said “it’s new rules, all over the world!” so I made a snide comment about this not being the rules in Finland, in which he responded “But that’s Finland..” and I thought to myself, but hey, you said the world?! Isn’t Finland included? FOOL! Anyway, they let me in with the chain regardless, but I think they’ll want to have better information on what you can and cannot bring.

We went right into the venue and saw that all front rows were taken, but we figured we’d say hi to Robert at least. Then we met up with our newely-found friends, but we said good bye because we wanted to look at the merchandise and then we got popcorn and drinks and went back to our new friends and spent what must have been the most pleasurable wait for Suicidal Tendencies, which began right on time at 19.30.

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I must admit, I was feeling it a bit more this time around. Maybe it is because I already saw them once and therefore were a little bit more familiar, or if it simply was because they seemed to be in a better mood, I don’t know. They still delivered a good set, and the crowd was feeling it as well. There were even a couple of wall of death’s in the midst of everything! Says a lot I guess.

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After this, the wait for SlipKnot began which also went by very quickly. Due to the amount of moshpits and wall of deaths that had occurred already during Suicidal, we decided, Michelle and I, that we’d head back a bit in the venue like we did last year in order to not be stuck like packed fish. So once “Be Prepared for Hell” began, we head off backwards.

They opened up strongly with “The Negative One” and seriously. This is one of the best songs they have, I shit you not. Once this songs comes on it’s like I’m electrified right through the body. The build up, the heaviness… Seriously this song. I’m so happy it’s back in the set, but also a bit bummed that it’s the first track! When not being taken so much by surprise, I enjoyed it more as an opener!

“Disasterpiece” was the next song on the list and it was just as powerful as in Helsinki. The one major different thing is the crowd. The crowd was like… so much better than in Helsinki. No offence my amazing finnish friends, but seriously, it wasn’t… quite the same.

“Eyeless” and “Skeptic” – my two lovebirds on this tour was next on the list. Seriously, I’ve been so lucky with getting “Eyeless”. “I am Hated” followed by the ever so melancholic “Killpop”. But seriously… the venue… hearing the crowd… it gave me chills. Hearing the crowd do the chorus of “Killpop”… seriously, the chills!

By the way. I don’t remember exactly where in the set this happened, but today was no other than Sid Wilsons birthday! So we all got together and sang Happy Birthday to him while he was running around on stage doing his thing. He’s seriously my spirit animal, and exactly the kind of show-person I strive to be, would I ever be on stage.

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“Dead Memories” again, it’s good you know, makes up for Michelle missing out on it last year. “Everything Ends” followed by “Psychosocial” my lord, what a rush! I don’t understand what was different – perhaps the band was in a better spirit, or perhaps it was the crowd, but something just simply made it so much better.

And then there’s “Wait and Bleed”. Now look – “Wait and Bleed” was actually cool already in Helsinki… but in Gothenburg. With this crowd… Oh my fucking God man, as Corey Taylor would put it. I’m amazed the roof is still on top of Scandinavium. It was followed by “Duality” which got the same treatment from the crowd.

“The Devil in I”, “Metabolic” and “(sic)” wrapped up this amazing set before the band left the stage and that Going to Hell dance-y hippity hoppity song came on which made pretty much everyone around us dancing and bouncing around.

The band came back on stage and started off with “Surfacing”. Ahh, the arena went wild. “Left Behind” was ripped off before the last, and the best part, of the entire show started “Spit it Out”.

Seriously, I am not lying to you when I tell you this – “Spit it Out” is my favorite part of the entire SlipKnot show, and I think you all know exactly what part I’m referring to. Seriously, you just feel the blood pump in your veins when you are sitting there and Corey is going down the verse before everyone in the arena just explodes all on the same time when the chorus hits off… And of course, this would be better if everyone actually sat down. Fucking hell, I don’t get people some times.

After this, the band said good night and left the stage for good. And with that said, the tour was officially over.

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We reconnected with Robert after the show, also said hi to Janie again which we had met earlier in the day before going to pick up our car. Focus closes at midnight, and we figured it’d be better if we moved it outside just in case. Robert drove us there, and when we got back to the parking lot I found this weird little muffin staring at me through the window of the door next to us. Seriously, Robert is that kind of weirdo we really need in our life.

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We went to McDonalds where we met up with our newely-found’s and sat down for a late night snack talking about music, life, everything, and Robert went over how the meet & greet had gone down and showed us his signed leg.

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One by one did out company start to drop out, and about half past midnight we also decided to start going home. It was insanely cold outside for someone so lightly dressed as me, and then began our ride home.

This was an amazing night. I’ve said this many times before, but seriously. I love the bands I have in my life, and I love the people I get to meet and have in my life thanks to these bands. Thank you SlipKnot for everything, thanks Fritiof, My, Jesper and Sebastian for the company and to Michelle and Robert. I love you all.

// Sara

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SlipKnot @ Hartwall Arena, Helsinki, Finland 18/1 -16

Posted in Concerts, Finland, Music, Uncategorized with tags concert, Finland, hartwall arena, helsinki, metal, prepare for hell, slipknot, the gray chapter on January 18, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

January 18th marked the first concert of the year, and it would be by no other band than SlipKnot. Ironically – Amaranthe was the first concert of the year last year, and it was only a by a breathe that Amaranthe didn’t become first gig this year. Hadn’t Amaranthe been first last year, SlipKnot would have been first. Isn’t it fun how faith works sometimes?

We woke up… way too late. Like, I don’t even fucking know what went wrong. We were supposed to go up around 12, seeing we came so late in with the flight that we got to bed really late and all of that. Despite this, we managed to drag ourselves out of bed and headed out. We had planned to make a quick visit to Music Hunter to look for some hard found Epica albums. Despite being a recordstore that is filled from floor to roof with CD’s, those two albums were nowhere to be found. What a shame.

We got back, picked up pizza at the pizzeria next to the hotel and started getting ready for the show. Called a taxi just to be sure to get there in time and all of that, and despite this, because of trafficjams, we didn’t get there and registered exactly two minutes before closing time. So, we got in, rushed to the cloakroom to leave our jackets and were then rushed to the room the meet&greet was going to happen.

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We stood in a little half circle around the hostess told us a bit about how this meet&greet would go down. We’d first take the picture with the band, since most, if not all, of them would attend, and afterwards we’d get our stuff signed. I thought to myself, sounds good, after all, this is how Lordi used to do it back in the days. So she asked us to form a line, and Michelle and I wound up first in line. Since I won’t really accept at all being first in line, haha, we moved ourselves backwards in the line. I’ve met many bands throughout the years, but I’ll always be a bit scared the first time around with a new band.

So, then, the band arrived, and to my surprise there were eight people joining us today. Corey, Clown, Alex, Jim, Sid, Jay, Chris and Mick. Our meet and greet had originally said only 3-4 would appear, so I guess this was an upgrade!

So the line moved on pretty quickly and before we knew it, it was our turn. Unlike the rest of the people we decided to go together, because why the hell not? And also, timesaving. Once we came up there about half the band cheered at the fact we were two, and Jim made some comments about two girls and one Corey. It was a fairly quick little session and then we got back in line for the signing.

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For the signing, they actually lined up, sort of like a table, like an actual signing session. Fast than you’d think we were already at the start, with Corey being first. Jim second. Clown third, and Sid fourth.

Sid was the only one of the members in SlipKnot I actually gathered up the courage to actually talk to. While Jim and I shared a laugh about something, Sid was the only one I dared to say something to. And do things to, all in all. I had barely looked at the other members, but with Sid I even leaned in and focused real hard in order to see through his sunglasses and meet his eyes. Sid is “my man” you see, he’s the one in SlipKnot if we say so. However, the only thing I actually said to him was that I liked his Mickey Mouse pants. He told me Mickey was cool. That was cool.

It was followed by Alex, Mick, Jay and Chris. See, I always had a bit of a problem with Jay, because of the impression I got of him from online, so imagine my surprise when he turned out to be extremely friendly. Alex was too, but that was no surprise really.

After all was said and done, the band left the scene and we were allowed to go and leave our signed stuff in the cloakroom. Oh, right! The ‘special tour gifts’ was a lighter and a poster. I must admit I thought it’d be something different, but you know. I won’t complain!

We were taken down undergrounds to some secret entrance to the venue, where we were let in before everyone else together with the people who had early entrance tickets. Despite the entry and everything being a bit delayed, I was surprised to see Suicidal Tendencies entering the stage exactly at 20 sharp.

So, I haven’t really listened a lot to Suicidal Tendencies prior to this gig, and I never had a very good impression of them, and well… It didn’t really change either. The band was absolutely fine and delivered very well on stage, but this really isn’t my kind of music. It’s something about that style that just doesn’t work for me. BUT, they did a good job warming up!

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After this, the wait for SlipKnot began. And it was held pretty short. Of course, not without making jokes about how early Korpiklaani would go on stage, but still. About a minute late, “Prepare For Hell” started, and the band came out and opened with “The Negative One”.

Well… That’s a first I guess. That surprised me, like, so much. I was very happy, that “The Negative One” was back since I thought it was a big mistake not including it at Graspop, but I had really thought “Sarchastrophe” would be the opener. They continued on with “Disasterpieces”… and sadly… the arena… Damn. At least on our side, it was fucking dead man. I don’t even get it. Why do you get front row if you are just going to.. stand there? Oh well. “Eyeless”, my personal favorite was next in line before something… almost magic happened.

They played “Skeptic”.

This marks one more song I always wanted to hear live from “The Grey Chapter” that finally happened. Fuck… that was magic. Corey Taylor spoke a bit about it being 15 years since “Iowa” was released, and then they continued the set with “I Am Hated”.

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The tour this time was very scaled down. On “Prepare for Hell” tour, they had this big goat head in the background, fire and pyrotechnics until no end. But not this time. A normal television screen, sort of, playing various videos and backdrops and some lightbulbs here and there. And that’s it.

Next on the list was “Killpop” and I was as happy as ever to hear this beautiful piece of music again, and it all went so atmospheric. Blue and purple lights, toned down… It was magical.

And then… a big moment for Michelle to say the least, when the tones to “Dead Memories” started. I shit you not, she got completely silent. It was truly her night, song wise.

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“Dead Memories” was followed by “Everything Ends” which was strongly followed by “Psychosocial” and “Wait And Bleed”. Despite these two songs, the crowd, at least on our side, was still dead as hell. “Duality” and “The Devil in I” continued the set, followed by “Before I Forget” and then… this special little thing happened.

“Metabolic”.

“Metabolic” FUCKING HAPPENED. Who would have fucking thought? Need I tell you all how insane we went? Oh god. What a rush it was! They wrapped up the set with “(sic)” before they left the stage.

An interesting little song started, it was like, a folksong about going to hell, and the members came back on stage. They blew off “Surfacing” and “Left Behind” before, what for me is the best moment of an entire SlipKnot show – “Spit it Out”.

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Seriously. There is something truly special about the whole “sit the fuck down” moment, and this would be the first time I did it in the front row. I must admit, it was fucking tight to sit down, but the guy behind me and I managed to sort it out so that he sat around me, almost having me in this lap and then he could have his arms around me on the fence as well. And you know… how it’s pumping. How it builds up. And then how you all JUMP THE FUCK UP!

I thought it’d fuck up our spots, but it didn’t!

With that being said, the band thanked for the night and left the stage.

It was a really good show, they had great energy and I enjoyed seeing them so much. But on the same time… there was something lacking. Like, “Custer” for instance. And “People=Shit”. But most importantly… it felt so… intimate. Being so close to them… and the show being so scaled down… it almost felt like seeing them in a small club environment. It was… pretty sweet in a way. A band you consider an arena band, a band you have usually seen in a distance, now seemed to intimate, and so close… so… reachable.

And that is what made it all so worth it. I love this band so much.

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Right after, we hit the merchstand to pick up a tourshirt, and then we hooked up with one of the people from the Meet&greet, and then got home.

This has, despite some mishaps, been one of the most amazing days in my life. I really needed this right now. Thank you SlipKnot, Live Nation and Michelle for this amazing day.

// Sara

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REVIEW: Brainstorm – Scary Creatures

Posted in CDs, Music, Uncategorized with tags afm records, brainstorm, in cooperation with, metal, scary creatures on January 15, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

German band Brainstorm was founded in 1989 by Torsten, Milan and Dieter, but it was first in 1997, following a few EP releases and a lot of live shows they finally released their debut album “Hungry” which received a lot of good critics. Ten studio albums later, we find ourselves here with their most recent release – “Scary Creatures”. Question: Will it be better than their previous, “Firesoul”?

It starts out pretty heavy with “The World To See”, and it’s a bit… creepy, you know, like Lordi creepy? It felt like a good start, so I had every intention to like this album. Sadly, this wasn’t the case.

The thing is, pretty much all the songs seem promising at first, but then they lose it all in the chorus. I’m not sure what it is – perhaps I had too much expectations on the album due to previous works and because of the label the label put on the album, but the album is lacking something – and it’s lacking in the choruses. But if we are going to look away from this for a moment – it’s a pretty heavy album.

But it’s not only bad. There are two songs that actually are pretty cool – “Take Me To The Never” which carried a pre-chorus to die for, and the titletrack “Scary Creatures” which was a really good track. Something that does bother me a little bit about the album is the mix. I can’t seem to get over how… I don’t like the mix that much, in all honesty.

So to sum it up. It’s a heavy album, but also a decent album. If you like Brainstorm you should most definitely give it a go, but it doesn’t outrun it’s proceeder, “Firesoul”

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(Label: AFM Records)

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// Sara

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REVIEW: Rhapsody of Fire – Into The Legend

Posted in CDs, Music, Uncategorized with tags afm records, in cooperation with, into the legend, metal, reviews, rhapsody of fire, symphonic metal on January 13, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

Italian symphonic metallers Rhapsody of Fire started their career already backin the ’90s, then under the name Rhapsody, but due to legal issues they had to rename the band. The band has a strong backcatalouge and and now back with their fifth album after the name-change.

The album opens up with a powerfull opening hymn, with a tint of premonition in what is about to happen, and it completely EXPLODES into the opening track “Distant Sky”. And my god, what a song. The build up with the pre-chorus, with it being stopped and continued and then exploding into the the gigantic chorus… Well, I guess we can simply say they made a great first impression.

And it only gets better. The songs are majestic and epic, they have great choirs and magnificent musical arrangements. The way they have inducted the strings orchestra and choir, together with amazing work by the talented people (The guitarsolo in “Into the Legend” is giving me eargasm after eargasm) in the band can’t be anything but closing to a masterpiece.

While the album has an amazing continuity, all songs are not the same – some songs has a more folk-element to them (“A Voice In The Cold”) and some are more aggressive and forward (“Winters Rain”) and then we have the long last experimental piece at the end – “The Kiss of Light” which is a 15 minute piece mixture of metal, opera and atmospheric music, showing off the broad talent of the band.

Than can I say other than this album being a pure masterpiece? Well, it’s perfect. I’m consider myself lucky to have been able to review this album, and I can’t wait to dance around the place to the tunes on this one.

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Label: AFM Records

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// Sara

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REVIEW: 21Octayne – 2.0

Posted in CDs, Music, Uncategorized with tags 2.0, 21ocatyne, afm records, hard rock, in cooperation with on January 11, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

21Octayne consist of three guys from Germany that are all well-established in the metal community, having played with some of the big icons. So, they all got together and formed the hard rock band we now know as 21Octayne. In 2014, they released their long awaited debut ”Into The Open” which was received well by the critics, and now they are back with their second one – ”2.0”

So, let’s move on to the album. It starts pretty cheeky, with a catchy uptempo song, where we see proof of Hagens amazing vocal capabilities. Sadly, from there, it goes downwards. The album is, in my taste very flat. No real surprises, most songs sounds the same. There are a few OK songs – like ”Lost” which I found pretty cute.

And then there’s ”Tale of a Broken Child”. Despite not being a fan at all of the album in it’s entirety, I fell in love with this song. The lyrics, the melodies… Ah yes. They hit it right with this one.

Sadly. One song isn’t exactly what I need to call this a good album. They will get some credit for being a DIY album, seeing Hagen is doing most, or all, of the production work, and it’s a clean production. But there isn’t much more I can say about it than that, sadly.

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(Label: AFM Records)

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// Sara

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Non Stop Rock n Roll

Posted in CDs, Music, Uncategorized on December 3, 2015 by Sara Hammerzmith

I’m going to talk a bit about this album, “Non-Stop Rock n Roll”. I have talked about it before I’m sure, but seriously…

I recently re-discovered the album on our way down to Gothenburg to catch HammerFall and Civil War, as we decided to bring a CD from every shelf. Seeing Wig Wam has it’s own shelf, the choice was easily made. I can honestly say that “Non-Stop Rock n Roll” is by far Wig Wam’s best album ever made.

I’ve always been of the opinion that Wig Wam sort of re-made their albums over and over again, but improving them. Like, “Wig Wamania” was a new version of “Hard to Be a Rock n Roller” and thus, “Non Stop” becomes a better version of “Wig Wamania”. And seriously… This is one of my personal favorites as far as albums goes.

It starts off like a punch in the stomach with “Do You Really Wanna Taste It?” and continues on with the a bit heavier and rougher “Walls Come Down”. After this comes two more, to the music, happier songs – “Wild One”, which, despite the cheery music, is not a very happy song. “C’Mon Everybody” is the other one. And then it comes.

“Man in the Moon”

Like… Where do I even begin with this song? This is essentially the new “Bygone Zone” which is absolutely fantastic, but “Man in the Moon”… I get both extremely happy when I hear it, but I also feel like crying. I’m not even sure how to explain… The mixture of the music, the lyrics and Glam’s voice just makes it… epic. For being such a scaled down song. The melody line in the chorus is to die for…

“Still I’m Burning”… I love this song. It’s a more upbeat song, and most importantly – it features Teeny on vocals. For some reason, the more albums came out, the more the other members started singing. The song is… how do I explain this. It’s rough, almost a bit possessive, needing, craving. God I love it’s intensity.

And now… I’m going to talk about the best song on the album.

“Rocket Through My Heart”.

It might be hard to believe that this one is my favorite, considering what I wrote about “Man in The Moon”, but honestly… This song is… it has this low profile. When I hear this song, I think of summer. I think of festivals, I think of sitting in the park with a drink in your hand with your loved ones, catching the eye of that person that is or at least could be your lover, listening to an old school stereo. It has this 80’s vibe, this… how do I write this. I can’t. It’s just… perfect in so many ways without being particularly difficult, experimental or extreme. It’s just the perfect song for a perfect night.

Seriously. Wig Wam may be long gone, and I might not listen to this band at all as much as I should nowadays, but this album.. this album my friends. Some of the best bits, I tell you.

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// Sara

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HammerFall @ Scandinavium, Gothenburg, Sweden 28/11 – 15

Posted in Concerts, Music, Uncategorized with tags civil war, edguy, HammerFall, metal, scandinavium on November 28, 2015 by Sara Hammerzmith

So, it was time for us to get going towards Gothenburg and what looks like to possibly be the last gig of this year. For once, we actually got going at a good time – I guess I’m a bit of a time-optimist, and have the tendency to get going way too late, but for once, we got going early. However, that only lasted so long when first of all a GPS showed us the wrong way to a candy store, and then getting through one of the slowest Subway services to date. Seriously, I understand that you need to refill things sometimes, but if you are about four people, can’t another person go for you if you have a LONG line of customers? Oh well.

Well, despite these mishaps, we were still on time pretty well. A few pitstops later we were finally on a straight way to Gothenburg… until Michelle missed the turn. And we found ourselves driving in circles before finding out where to go. Once we hit the parkinglot, it was basically a streetrace to Scandinavium where we were put in the queue, and after a few if’s and but’s we finally made our way into the arena, where we ran around like chickens with a headache before finding our way into the arena and the floor, which we entered to the tunes of “Braveheart”.

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Yes, third song in the list. That’s what you get when you a) miss the turn and b) are put into a long, long line. But you know, at least we didn’t miss the whole show. Funny thing; when standing there watching the band, I notice that Rikard is waving to me. I was unsure at first if he was really waving to me, but I waved back. Then I looked around, and noticed there were barely any other person around me. Huh. Who would have thought he’d remember me?

Anyway. “Gods And Generals” were next on the setlist, followed by “Bay of Pigs”. The band was really energetic, the crowd… well, it wasn’t too bad. The only thing I sort of noticed is how little people there were. I mean, this is Scandinavium we are talking about, it’s a pretty big venue actually. And despite being ten minutes LATE, we still made it basically front row. So yeah, that surprised me a lot. But, the people who were there gave them a warm reception.

“I Will Rule the Universe” and “Rome is Falling” were the last two songs before it was time for Civil War to leave the stage. Seriously though, this was a great set, and a great way to start this evening.

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After they left the stage, the wait for Edguy began. Which wasn’t rather long – gladly, the passtimes were pretty short. Hallelujah!

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Right on time they began, and opened the whole show with “Love Tyger”. And now, my friends, the venue was getting rather filled, actually. At least where we stood. And the reception from the crowd was MASSIVE. Already before going to the show, despite not being into Edguy, I was unsure about them opening for HammerFall, getting slight Monster of Mora flashbacks.

The band was really on. They delievered a good set – seven songs long, 50 minutes and a lot of energy. Seriously, these are the kind of bands who you just love to see. Just look at me – I’m not into them, or more, I didn’t know a lot about them, and even I enjoyed it. I love the sassiness the singer had, by the way, when he scolded us for not sounding excited enough. Haha. I love sass.

There was one thing that frightened the hell out of me though. And that was the gigantic austronaut that they blew up right next to the drums. Seeing it getting bigger and bigger and filled with air was fucking traumatizing, I shit you not. While I found it scary as hell, I also found myself not being able to take my eyes off it. The human contradiction, huh?

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They left the stage, and here’s where my Monsters of Mora vibes showed to be true. You see, in 2007, HammerFall had this anniversary show or whatever, Steel Meets Steel 10 years of Glory or something like that, and they had three openers: Tryckvåg, Sator, Sabaton.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Sweden’s geography, I’ll put it to you this way: Mora lies in Dalarna, which is also the home county of Falun, which is the homecity of Sabaton. To make a long story short; despite this being before Sabaton’s big fame, half of the venue left after Sabaton. Despite it being HammerFall’s headline show. Oh dear.

And the same thing happened here. It got nearly empty after Edguy, most people obviously going to buy drinks. Michelle got us popcorn since we were getting really hungry, and then we manically ate the popcorn until the lights went out and HammerFall began their show with “Hector’s Hymn”.

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So, some people obviously came back, but not as many as when Edguy played, sadly. Not that it matters. The audience reception were INSANE, and of course, why wouldn’t it be? This was strongly followed up by one of my personal favorites – “Any Means Necessary”. It’s been what, like six years? Since it came out, and I’m still in love with the song, and the whole album for that matter. “Renegade” was next on the list, followed by “Bang Your Head”.

I must admit, setlist wise, it wasn’t a lot of surprises. As a matter of fact, there were no surprises. I guess I’m the one to blame a bit, who expected something else than the average World Wide (r)Evolution tour setlist. However, what I WILL give the band, is that they were ON FIRE. So energetic, so going for it!

However, there was one slight surprise. It was time for Oscar’s, David’s, Pontus’ and Fredrik’s solo, so I stopped my headbanging for a moment to catch something to drink when Joacim yells out:

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, STEFAN ELMGREN!”

I shit you now when I say I fucking dropped that juicebox and almost choked on the juice by the mere sight of my homeboy Stefan. I mean… It’s hard. I’m used to see him – since he was a part earlier this year, but it was so weird to see him on stage with the whole band. Not as a substitute, just as a secret guest. You know, I loved the gig so far, but this were the point where my face cracked up in a smile.

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He, and the rest of the boys played through the “400 Meter Medley” before he left the stage and the show went back to normal, continuing on with “Threshold”.

“Last Man Standing”, “Glory to the Brave”, “We Won’t Back Down” and “HammerFall” where the last songs to be played before the band left the stage.

Of course, as the audience cheered for them, they returned and continued on and started with “Templars of Steel”.

And it’s here, things get funny again. See, I’m standing there, minding my own business when I feel someone getting close to me. As the bitch I am, I narrow my eyes for a second only to realize it was Rikard! And then my narrow eyes turned to shocked and happy eyes and we hugged and chatted a bit, whenever the show was silent. He stayed with us, I might add.

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They continued on with “Bushido” before wrapping up with “Hearts on Fire”.

And with that, they left the stage for good this time.

Sincerely, HammerFall, Thank you so much for this show. Even though it was “the same” it was still great. It still gave me a slayer-neck. Thank you so much.

After this, we started talking a bit more with Rikard, where he also invited us to the afterparty.

But that, my friends, is another story that I’ll tell some other day.

// Sara

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