Sara Hammerzmith

I was originally about to blog about something completely different today, but it had to move aside for this. Something I’ve been waiting for for SUCH A LONG TIME.

Today, SlipKnot finally confirmed and released the dates for the European leg of their Prepare for Hell tour.

It was so fun, because I remember I got on Facebook and I saw they had some UK dates up, so I was like ok, sure fucking thing, they need to have the rest of Europe with them, so I went on their webpage and noticed that not only did they have an additional European tour.

They also do Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden

And it’s so fun, I literally laid down in my sofa and kicked my legs in the air and fangirled ala Candace over the fact they are coming to Sweden. Not really because I’m so SO SO SO fangirly about them, but because I was so sure they were just gonna skip Sweden (like another masked band we all know so well) but hell to the no they won’t!

I’m so excited. OTN tickets are about to be released on Thursday if I understood things correctly, normal ticket release is on Friday. Now I have about three days to make up my mind which of the dates I should do.

Decisions, decisions…

// Sara

I’m like 11 days late with writing this entry, but what the hell, better late than never! So, on October 3rd Olly Murs, I hope you all know who he is, came out with the first single from his new album “Never Been Better” called “Wrapped Up” featuring Travie McCoy.

It’s very typical Olly if you ask me, nothing too new at all under the sun, but it’s also what he do best – typical feel-good love songs! However, it does make me a bit excited for the new album, mostly to see what else he has on there! I hope whatever is on there is a little, little tad more better than this.

With that being said, I’ll be blasting this a whole lot until the album comes!

// Sara

LastFM feed: Top 5 bands this week

This is the day I’ve been waiting for for SOO long! The first bands confirmed for Sweden Rock 2015.

The bands are as follows:

Wolf
Steve Seagulls
Delain
Torsson
Hell
The Angels
Rock Godess
The Quireboys
Exciter
H.E.A.T
Dark Tranquility
Nuclear Assault
D.A.D
Lucifer’s Friend
Hammerfall
Backyard Babies
Toto
Mötley Crue
Judas Priest.

This is a good start, if you ask me. I’m especially excited for H.E.A.T, HammerFall, Mötley Crüe and Judas Priest.

It’s hilarious actually – only about 20 minutes or so before the release, I was thinking to myself “Haha, it’s going to be a 2012 all over again, when I see Mötley Crüe being confirmed and I’m just gonna book the tickets immediatley”

And then Mötley Crüe was indeed confired. It makes me glad I get to see the boys one more time before they call it quits. And yes, wherever Mötley Crüe goes in Sweden – I go there too. I think it’s one of the few bands I’m extremely faithful to, despite never considering them my number one band. H.E.A.T…. My god! I’m happy to see them again. And of course, need I say anything about the Templars? Of course not. But you, 4 bands that I’m really really stoked about in this writing minute is a good start. I’ve gone to Sweden Rock for less bands, haha.

This was a good start. I’ll make sure to listen through the rest of the bands to see if I find another golden ticket hidden, so I don’t miss out on bands that I later discover.

Like I did in 2012 with Return.

That one burns HARD.

// Sara

So! Today SlipKnot released a new song from their upcoming album “5: The Gray Chapter”, called “Custer”

So. THIS, my friends, I enjoy LIKE HELL. More than I enjoy “The Negative One” and “The Devil in I” together. At first when I heard it, I didn’t even recognize Corey’s voice, which is insane! What is it then that I love so much about this song… everything. I love the beat and rythm in the song, you know, the flow – the writing, essentially.

I’m also in deep love with the arrangement, and especially the arrangement with the vocals. First of all – can we just appriciate that Corey have gotten back to the vocals he’d have for like S/T and “Iowa” or any early stuff really – and that he got back this, how do you say it… almost teasing way of singing? Not teasing as in a tease, but as in the chorus of “Eyeless”, where he got this… mocking! Mocking tone to it, but throughout the whole song.

And then we have this that occurs right before the chorus – where everything just goes silent, basically, and someone speaks “cut cut cut me up and fuck fuck fuck me up”, before it goes RIGHT INTO INSANITY AGAIN! Heavy beats, heavy riff, strong vocals. And I’m not sure if it’s my dysfunctional speakers – or do the sound actually increase? Does it go higher in dB as the song progresses?

I’m having it on right now on my big speakers, and it started off fine, now it’s terrifying me with the volume. And I haven’t even touched the volume knob. Whatever it is – if it’s anything I love about SlipKnot – it’s the intensity. The end of this song people, if you aren’t going insane, you just ain’t feeling it, and you need to crank it up even louder.

Well. Finally, I’m getting a song that truly gets me excited for this album. “The Negative One” and “The Devil In I” was fine enough – but this, this is the good stuff. Ahhh. This is the sound of good music.

// Sara

This morning I woke up to some sad news, but this time, it wasn’t about Lordi, but about HammerFall.

After 15 years in the band, Anders Johansson has decided to leave the band.

The reasons given in the status posted by HammerFall on their official Facebook page, it was due to musical differencies and many, many years in the musicbusiness that lead to Anders feeling that “enough is enough” and that he is now leaving it all behind.

First of all, I’m just gonna say that I have mixed feelings about it. I’m a little shocked over it – they JUST released “(r)Evolution” and they just had their release party a little over a month ago, and the tour was coming up – and pof. Anders’ gone. Just like that.

But on the same time, while I’m shocked… I still don’t get upset. I understand it. He’s been in the buisness for a little over 30 years, at least, and has done so many things, that I guess at some point you just have to stop. Even I would have, if I had the musical resumé Anders has.

With all this being said, I wanna give a BIG shout out to Anders – a HUGE THANK YOU for all the music, all the shows and all the memories. I don’t really have any specific memories with Anders since I never met HammerFall more than at signing sessions – but Anders, you are one of my favorite drummers through times, and one of the major influences on me and why I want to be a drummer one day.

Again, Thank you Anders, for everything. Good luck in the future!

From their releasegig at Liseberg, Anders sporting the Hector helmet.

// Sara

Alrighty folks! This was actually released a couple of days back, meaning, I’m a bit behind since I completely missed out! But yes, here, finally. Steel Panther’s new musicvideo for the opener on their most recent album: “Pussywhipped”.

Well.. What can I say. The video is a tad bit more…. graphical, if you like, compared to earlier work, but on the same time it’s pretty much exactly what I’d expect from them to put out. It’s so hilarious, the video and the song makes me think of a friend of mine, it’s absurd haha. But it’s well made and it has some sort of story, and that’s nice.

But in all honesty, it’s fun and it’s Steel Panther. I’m not too fond of the song,or “All You Can Eat” at all for that matter, so perhaps this is why I’m like meh about the whole video, or maybe I’m growing out of the band (I won’t abandon them though, I’d never do that). I guess it’ll be different when Lordi releases the “Scare Force One” video, since that song is an absolute killer in every way possible. (Oh. Did I spoil something for someone now? Sorry, don’t really care!)

What are you guys thoughts on it?

// Sara

First of all; apparently, it’s my 7 year anniversary as a WordPress-blogger today! Time sure flies sometimes, don’t you think?

I wanna take today’s entry and tell you a little bit about a band I held fondly for many years, the norwegian punk-rock band CRASH!.

CRASH! was formed in Halden, Norway in 2005, then under the name Already Taken, but changed the name in 2006. The band itself is most famous for their two appearances on the Norwegian pre-selection for Eurovision Song Contest. MGP, in 2007 with the song “Wannabe” and then in 2008 with the song “Get Up”. They didn’t do too well in the contest – but they gained some well-deserved publicity and acknowlegdement.

They released one EP – “Wannabe” and one album – “CRASH!” and played a lot in Norway, a few gigs in Sweden and even had a smaller tour in Romania before they called it quits in 2009.

Photo taken by me, in Halden, Norway on June 16th 2007.

I had the blessing to catch this band live once – when they were opening up for Wig Wam in Halden in 2007, and I really enjoyed it. I’m normally not into punkrock that much, however I do love this band a lot. Their debut-album is just… I can listen to it for hours sometimes. It’s a shame they disbanded, but I guess it was somewhat inevitable. Even though they gained some popularity – they never really had a break-through, and I guess you can only continue on for so long.

But regardless if the band still exists or not – their music lives on.

Buy the album here: CDON.com

// Sara

I’m still a bit asjdklasjdlkaj after artRAVE and haven’t yet gotten off that Lady Gaga vibe and rush you get on after seeing her live, and in lack of better things to write about, I figured I’d give you a bit of a throwback entry, if you like, at all the shows I’ve seen with her. I’ve ripped pretty much all my pictures from my Dayviews or DeviantArt, hence the odd watermarks.

My first Lady Gaga show ever was at Gröna Lund, August 2nd 2009. It’s a little odd to think about – she freking played GRÖNA LUND. Nowadays she sells out Globen in like, an hour, and she played at GRÖNAN. And even better so, I actually arrived rather late and still 1) got in, and 2) scored a decent spot.

The setlist for the night was short, and why wouldn’t it, she only had one album at the time. She started the gig with “Paparazzi” and followed up with “Lovegame”, “Beautiful, Dirty Rich”, “The Fame”, “Money Honey”, “Boys Boys Boys”, “Just Dance”, “Eh Eh”, “Brown Eyes” and ending the show with “Pokerface”. Ah, those were the days!

My second gig with Lady Gaga was during the Monsterball on May 7th, 2010. 

This time around, the stage and show was a LOT bigger. Of course – she was playing Globen, and she just had this HUGE breakthrough with “Bad Romance” (as I was already into her, I didn’t pay attention too much as to how much popularity she gained, but I think it was quite a lot).

The stagesetting for this era is the favorite I have ever seen her have. I can’t explain, but I just love it. To this day, this remains my favorite shows I have ever seen of her, not only because of the stage, but also because of the setlist. I’ve always had bad luck with my favorite songs, so I literally DIED inside when she opened with “Dance in the Dark”, which is my all time favorite Lady Gaga song.

The stage was bigger, the show was also bigger – I think we counted it to 25 changes of clothing during the show. The setlist was also QUITE much longer – this time around, starting with “Dance In The Dark”, followed by “Glitter & Grease”, “Just Dance”, “Beautiful, Dirty Rich”, “Vanity”, “The Fame”, “Lovegame”, “Boys Boys Boys”, “Money Honey”, “Brown Eyes”, “Speechless”, “So Happy I Could Die”, “Monster”, “Teeth”, “Alejandro”, “Pokerface”, “Paparazzi” and wrapping up with “Bad Romance”.

This is also the show she had the fish in. I sadly can’t locate a picture of the fish as we speak, but here’s a video where you can see it. THE FISH.

The third time I saw Mother Monster was on the Born This Way Ball, August 30th 2012.

This time around she had this HUGE castle with her, which I can sadly not dig up a picture of either, but it was HUGE I’m telling you. The show was big and energetic, just as it did on the previous tour, so nothing to complain about, except perhaps the setlist. I wasn’t too fond of it, and it appears I wasn’t at the time either since I can’t even dig up a setlist at all.

And of course, this leading up to my most recent show, which was at artRAVE, September 30th 2014.

The show was a lot smaller than it previously have been, and as I said yesterday, looked almost just like a rave. But then again – there is absolutely nothing like seeing Mother Monster and putting your paws up together with Little Monsters from all over.

We were born this way.

// Sara