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Eidola

Posted in Uncategorized on October 8, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

FINALLY! At last, at last my pretty little readers, Ireland is booked and set! I even managed to find a decent flight home. Now I just need to figure out if I wanna go to this one gig or not, but that is less important right now.

It feels sooo good to finally have it all done. To finally have checked everything off in the list, and know that now we can just sit back, wait and then enjoy the trip. I have also started to re-arrange my travelfolder, which was the most emotional thing ever, seeing it hasn’t been used since Australia. It was hard, really, hard, to erase all the categories and replace them, and even more so taking things out of it. Like, we are talking about a Sabaton ticket from FEBRUARY! FEBRUARY! That has been in this folder ever since.

blabla planerr

One week from today I’ll finally see Powerwolf and Civil War again, and then the week after I’ll see them again. I can’t wait for these shows to come soon enough, and, well, perhaps I should write something about this because most of you probably thought, knew or assumed that I’d be going to most of the shows up here in the North, and now only doing two. Why?

Well, it’s all about lost spirit, or how to put it. Whenever a Powerwolf or Civil War song comes on my “daily ipod” (has about ten songs featured of each band, and a total of 150 songs on the ipod) I skip them. I quite frankly, often forgot the tour was happening to begin with, which is because my head has been so much into France / Ireland, but also the US. The same thing happened this year – but with SlipKnot. I have, this year, said to people that I wish I could meet SlipKnot one day, and on Tuska, I told Nathan I was in Finland for the first time this year.

Except it wasn’t. I met SlipKnot in Helsinki in January. 

slipknotttt

But for some mysterious reason, I can’t for the life of me remember this, nor the Gothenburg gig. I remember meeting Eeva, Sebastian and Fritiof, but the gig themselves I can’t for the life of me remember. I have had moment where I sit and stare at my signed vinyl and still not remember I actually met them. Or saw them. And this is because of Australia. Because my head was so into Australia at the moment, that I couldn’t focus on anything else.

And this is why I’ve decided to cut back a whole lot of the Powerwolf gigs. I won’t be worth the thousands and thousands of crowns that it’ll cost, if I a month from now will not even remember going to this tour. But I do know that once I see them in Stockholm, I’ll want to see them again, making Örebro the perfect choice since it’s a few days apart.

With that said, I do know for sure I’ll enjoy the gigs. First in Stockholm with Michelle and Robert, and then in Örebro with Paula… Gonna try out some new stuff as well, so yeah. It’ll be good, regardless.

// Sara

 

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Grow Up

Posted in Music, Uncategorized with tags , , on October 7, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

So! Friday again, means that it’s a lot of new releases to look forward to. No less than three of my favorite artists and bands has released a single this Friday, and I figured I should write a little bit about them.

First up, Olly Murs.

It’s been a little while since “Never Been Better” and you’d almost think I barely care about him because of the lack of writing, but trust me, I have not forgotten about him. “Right Place, Right Time” is one of my absolute favorite albums. So when noticing that he’s having a new album coming out, I got superhappy! First single released is “Grow Up”

It’s a very typical Olly Murs song I’d say, it’s nothing very new in the music nor in the lyrics, but I like it. I relate a bit to it, I must admit, but that is a different story. I do like it though, I’m looking forward to the album!

Next up, is Lady Gaga.

Her first single off her upcoming album, “Perfect Illusion” had me jumping up and down and dancing around, and even still now whenever it comes on I’m just bouncing around as if it was “Hug You Hardcore” playing. Perhaps it’s the lack of Gaga, or just that it’s so perfect that make it, I don’t know. Today is the release of the second single, “Million Reasons”.

Holy hell. It’s very simple, toned down, acoustic songs, but she’s literally putting words to everything I’m feeling at times about people. This song is… it’s so good. So beautiful. I’m in absolute love. Damn, “Joanne” can’t come soon enough!

And thirdly, Amaranthe. For some reason, Amaranthe has managed to pin point exactly every single date Lady Gaga releases something – they even have the album releases on the same day! And they just keep it coming.

So, “That Song” was the first single, and as you know I wasn’t that impressed with it. It felt very bland for being an Amaranthe song, so I really hope number two, “Fury” is better.

Oh wow. Okay, so wow. This is basically the opposite of “That Song” – it s a very experimental and heavy song. Experimental as in the sense that they have a lot of layers of interesting elements – they’ve played with the voice and used it as an instrument to create interesting pieces, or, accesories as my AE teacher would say. It’s nice with a complete Henrik song too – and the chorus is supercatchy. It’s fun to hear him really working it, reaching points I’ve never heard him go before, which makes me superhappy. Despite all the extra glitter and interesting guitarsolo, the song is a bit one track, but it’s still interesting.

If anything, it makes the whole album a lot more interesting with these two as the singles.

// Sara

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And The Zombie Says

Posted in Uncategorized on October 6, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

Right now, my head is essentially mashed potatoes. Like a Zombie. Planning the major tour for November is consuming a lot more brain activity than it should, not even sure why at the very moment. The saddest part is that other tours get affected.

Like Powerwolf.

I looked at my workschedule today, and I couldn’t for the life of me understand why I had time off next week, only to remember that’s when I’m supposed to go to Stockholm to see Powerwolf. And I can barely remember it, because of my head being, basically, mashed potatoes. Or more like, my head is already in Ireland. Or in Paris, perhaps. And not to mention, the States. I’ve been trying to listen to Powerwolf and Civil War every day now in order to get myself excited, but nothing helps.

Does anyone else have these kind of problems when you plan a lot of tours at the same time? I must admit, it’s a little annoying. I know for sure I will enjoy the show once I’m there, but it’s hard to find any motivation. Perhaps I should just book the last things so I at least, you know, get there.

“And the zombie says…”

// Sara

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The Night The Monsters Died

Posted in Travels, Uncategorized on October 5, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

These past couple of days has been intense days of planning and booking the part France, part Ireland tour, and trust me on this fellow readers – there is no more satisfying then that point when you see how things are starting to come together, when you start to cross of things in your list to book, and getting one step closer to the trip, one step closer to getting there, which is amazing.

So, what is left now is figuring out things to do in Ireland. We planned to go to Boda Borg, so conquer that borg as well, but of course, Murphy’s Law and everything, Boda Borg is closed on the days we are in Ireland. Bummer, huh? Well, at least that gives us an extra day for other things so I guess we shouldn’t complain too much.

I have a list of things I’d like to do – like visiting the Guiness museum, the Phil Lynott statue being two of the things I really want to do. I want to walk around and explore a bit, explore the city. I guess I’ll see what my partners are up for once we get there. And speaking of seeing things – I have three days in Paris to kill as well, and I’ve already looked on the maps about the area where I live – Sacre Caeur, and while I have some things I really want to see, the plan is as well to walk around and explore the area a bit. After all, it feels like I have all the time in the world – but truth is, I have shows every single day of my stay in France, so my time is a little bit more limited than in Ireland.

planerrr

All we have left to book now are the trains, or transportations between Galway and Dublin, as well as the concerttickets. I can’t wait for this tour to begin!

// Sara

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The Funky Algorithm

Posted in Music, Uncategorized with tags , on October 4, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

Ahh! Despite FedEx technically saying this would arrive a little later, as in tomorrow, so imagine my surprise when I got downstair today only to see that it had already arrived! Ahh.

epicabox

I have been waiting to get this one so I finally could have the album on my iPod, and put in some of the songs (like “Edge of the Blade”) on my work out iPod. I get so ridiculously pumped from that song! So, what was in this fine little box then?

First and foremost, a wall flag. I am absolutely IN LOVE with the artwork for this album, beyond obsessed with it, so naturally I want this on as much as possible. However, as someone who’s been using wallflags as window blinds, I didn’t expect the size of this one.

wallflag

Just look at the size of that. It’s mindblowing! I’m not even sure if it will fit where I had originally planned it to. I will have to see.

The next thing, is a holographic projector. You put it on your smartphone, and you will see holographic images appear. I haven’t tried it out properly yet, so I’ll get back to you with results as soon as I had the oppurtunity to do it!

hologram

And then, of course, a vinyl and an earbook.

earbook lp

You can’t exactly see it on the image, I tried my best to capture it, but the earbook has got some gorgeous metalized engravings! I seriously sat and stared at this for a good few minutes because of the beauty in this artwork. Unlike Sabaton’s earbook, I might actually need to have this one on display one day. So absolutely gorgeous I can’t even deal with it.

It’s been a long time waiting to get this box, but finally it’s home. Now I’m eagerly awaiting the tour – both with Powerwolf and their own headline.

// Sara

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Anti-Anthem & That Song

Posted in Music, Uncategorized with tags on October 3, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

A little bit after I finished my blog about the song “Anti-Anthem” from Sumo Cyco, they released their musicvideo. However, I figured I’d talk about it a bit later and now it’s time!

So, the video is… just as the song, very typical Cyco, yet toned down. It’s not exactly “Fighter” or “Crowd Control”, but it’s still.. very Cyco, if it makes sense? It’s focusing more on the band, which I think it’s a good thing seeing this IS a very energetic and entertaining band. Sever is just mad – all over the place. I love her.

“That Song” by Amaranthe. Well… I don’t know. I think it’s a bit because I don’t like the song too much, and that is why I can’t really enjoy the video to the max. It’s pretty nice – it’s nice to see Elize incorporating more dance to it, even if it’s not a lot. But aside that – the video does make sense with the song. But there is one thing that I’m a bit curios about, and this doesn’t go for only Amaranthe really – why do they record the videos overseas? Like, this is a Swedish band, why is the music video acting as if they were from the United States, with the roadsigns, dollars etc? This is something I will never understand with bands. But, it is well made, they will get some extra points for that.

// Sara

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REVIEW: Leaves’ Eyes – Fires in the North EP

Posted in CDs, Music, Uncategorized with tags , , , on October 1, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

So, there’s been this little situation going on with Leaves’ Eyes, a band formed by singer Liv Kristine. After what seemed to be a bit of a peaceful, yet turbulent period of disagreements within the group itself, which left us knowing that the founding member, Liv Kristine, was no longer a part of the band and had been replaced by Finnish singer Elina Siirala, mostly famous from EnkElination to fill her shoes. It wasn’t an easy thing – they released a new video and a new recording of “Edge of Steel” with Elina on vocals, and while most people WERE being respectful to Elina and not hating on her, it wasn’t welcomed with big arms, which is mostly for the sole reason of re-recording Liv’s songs with Elina.

But, finally, after a bit of time, Leaves’ Eyes are delivering an EP with Elina as a singer, and I was looking forward to hear her in action with a song written more for her operatic voice, rather than trying to sing Liv’s more pop-oriented vocals, in lack of a better word to use.

So, this EP consists of five songs – much to my dismay, it was only one new song, “Fires In The North”, released in two different versions – one “normal” and one acoustic, and then three re-recordings of songs from the latest Leaves’ Eyes album, “King of Kings” – “Edge of Steel” which we are already familiar with, accompanied by “Sacred Wov” and “Sword in Rock”. All three of these are amongst my personal favorites off the album, making it even more interesting, but I won’t deny I was a bit disappointed to only see ONE new song appearing.

So, lets first talk about the new song – “Fires in the North”. It’s a pretty… decent song. I want to like this a lot, but it lacks. It has a bit of the Leaves’ Eyes spirit, makes me think of a few of their songs, a bit adventourus, but it never pops. I’m waiting for that explosion in the chorus that never comes – in fact, it’s really the same tempo and feeling all through the song, and it’s not until the third verse things starts to happen, which I really like.

However, what I will give them is that this song fit Elina a lot better. When I first heard “Edge of Steel” from the video, I felt that she was singing “too slow”, or how to put it more properly. I was used to Liv’s tempo in the song, and was a bit taken a back how slow it felt, but putting her operatic voice on this new song, which was adjusted better for her, was a lot better, and gave us a better insight in how Elina would work with Leaves’ Eyes, and I think it’ll be just fine.

So – for the three re-recorded songs – you already know I love these songs so I don’t need to stress that – was delivered with mixed results. As I explained above, it feels for me that “Edge of Steel” got a bit slow for my taste, however, she did a really good job on “Sacred Wov”, where her style fit very well with the song, and her best performance on this EP was delivered on “Sword in Rock” where she actually picked up the pace a bit, without changing her style, which was a nice surprise.

With that said, it was nice finally seeing Elina perform on something original, and I’m looking forward hearing her work on an entire album, and not just one song in the future.

le_fotn-e_1500x1500

(Label: AFM Records)

CDON I Amazon I Ginza

// Sara

 

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Anti-Anthem

Posted in Music, Uncategorized with tags , , on September 30, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

So! Today has been an eventful day in music – Epica’s released their album “The Holographic Principle”, and if that wasn’t enough, there’s been a lot of other releases today from Sumo Cyco, Civil War and Steel Panther. In fact, Alestorm and Skálmöld also released their collaboration single today, but I have decided to postpone writing about that one for now. However, lets return to three aforementioned.

So, I guess all of my blog readers know what Sumo Cyco is by now. A Canadian band with Sever in the lead that I fell unconditionally and unrevokably in love with earlier this year, they even became the REASON I went to the Butcher Babies show in the end. Today they released their first single of their upcoming album “Opus Mar”, “Anti-Anthem”. As a pledger, I got access to the song a little bit before the public, and I love it.

It’s very typical Sumo Cyco – energetic, in your face kind of song, yet I’d say it’s a little more melodic than we got used to on “Lost in Cyco City”, though that might be just me. The lyrics are also very typical Cyco – outcast kind of song, but “we got no Anthem”… question is though, did they just get themselves an anthem?

So, secondly, Steel Panther.

Today they announced that their new album, “Lower the Bar” will be released on February 24th next year, and along with it, they released the first single and a music video, which is no less than a cover of Cheap Trick’s “She’s Tight”

I think the video is fun. I guess it wasn’t until I actually saw this that I realize how much I miss them, in a way. I don’t regret not seeing them when they were here, but it’s good to see that they are back. I enjoyed the song, I also enjoyed the video a lot. It was a lot scaled down compared to older videos, but the humor is still on top. Love it. I can’t wait for the new album!

And lastly for today, Civil War.

So, on November 4th Civil War will release their new album, “The Last Full Measure”, and today, as the two others, they released their first single “Road to Victory” and a lyricvideo together with it . (Video can be seen here)

So, well, this is very typical Civil War, but I like it, a lot. And what I love about this song in particular is the pre-chorus. Like the “Dogs of War, no one can tame us”, I don’t know exactly what it is about that part that speaks so much to me – perhaps it’s the word “utopia” and “euphoria”, but I think it’s more about it being headbang friendly. The whole song really is, but just.. I love when there comes certain extra heaviness in songs you know? And this one has it.

So, that was a little bit about some of the new releases. Like I said, I’ll get back to you regarding Skálstorm, because else I’d could be sitting here forever writing.

// Sara

 

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Legenden om HammerFall

Posted in Music, Uncategorized on September 29, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

So, finally, like, two years after I bought this book I finished Oscar Dronjak’s biography “Legenden om HammerFall” – which translates to “HammerFall: The Legend” very simply.

When I finally, after my two year hiatus picked up this book again I could barely put it away. I actually had to save the epilouge to make sure I had something fresh in mind when writing this. That’s how capturing it was. The first couple of chapters covers his childhood and upbringing, but very soon does he start to talk about his musical life and what got him started on the journey, followed by a detailed story about every single era of HammerFall up to after Swedish Outbreak tour (meaning, anything happening after “Infected” is not covered).

What I enjoy so much about this book is his way of writing. It reminds me a little bit about my own writing on this blog – very personal to the point where he says things like “And me, whose of normal height” (He’s about two meters tall) and things like that, which makes it very entertaining at times, as it’s inviting and makes you feel almost like you are there with him, sitting there and talking to him. At times, I had to stop and start listening to some of the bands he wrote about only because he wrote so passionately about them. Reminds me a lot of myself.

I get the feeling that this book is very honest. He admits his mistakes and mess ups, and I don’t talk simply about musical such, but personal – as to how they dealt with Patrik losing his brother while on tour as an example. I liked that. I liked to see a person who writes his own book who criticizes himself and his own actions. Aside that, it’s filled with a lot of fun trivia facts about HammerFall, and it’s very rich – at the end of the book Oscar has listed every single bandmember, every show, every supportband – I like that. I really do. And, you know, this is going to sound extremely cliché and perhaps even forced, but as with any other book you ever read, this has sort of made me think of other things. I’m thinking about when HammerFall worked with Michael Wagener, and he did the same thing to them as he did to Lordi, and as well as many other things. I’ve found myself referring to this book ant quoting it a lot. I guess that says a lot, huh?

So, with that said. I really enjoyed this book and would warmly recommend it to anyone who loves HammerFall.

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// Sara

 

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Glory and The Scum

Posted in Uncategorized on September 28, 2016 by Sara Hammerzmith

You know, I’m this person who’s a bit of an in-betweener. I really love productive days, but when it all comes down at the end of the day, I get completely numb even though I know things will sort out so quickly if I simply pull myself together.

First of all – I was extremely worried for my work today. I had three different shifts, and since I wasn’t confident I’d finish the first in time, creating a domino effect making me late on all of them, I had troubles sleeping. But, everything went fine. Actually so good that I’m not even sure if it’s a good thing. It can’t be a good thing when things go too smooth, now, can it?

I had a very short drum rehearsals today. I basically just went over the same songs again, picking up extra things I hadn’t thought about before. I’m going to try to structure up my rehearsals better starting from next week, when I have a bit more time to look into lessons, tabs and so on which will make thins A LOT easier.

And thirdly, finally bits are coming together for November tour. First and foremost, bookings has slowly started, which really both excites me and exhausts me. I think it’s in the moment of the booking that it’s just stressful all over – what if I took the wrong date, the wrong hotel, wrong amount of people? So many things can go wrong, and what if I got the wrong concerttickets? THE HORROR. But, when all is said and done, everything feels much better.

plans

Secondly, I decided to get a new bag for hygiene products yesterday. I saw this lepard bag that has the same construction as my make up bag – you fold it together and zip it up for easy travel, and then you open it up and fold it out, and it has a hook at the top so you can hang it up. It’s going to be soo relieving to be able to HANG UP your hygiene products rather than just stacking it up everywhere and nowhere when traveling, will save time, headache and troubles packing too, as it’s just to roll it up as soon as your done. Convenient for touring, you know.

necssaren

oppen

And… while at the store, I noticed a book sale, and ironically and perhaps a bit of faith – only one tourguide left, and it happened to be Paris! Since I’ll spend a few days there, I figured I might as well get this one, so I can make sure to maximize my stay there! I’ll sure take my time with this one.

paripari

But for now: Trying to find a hotel that will fit for all three concerts. Headache upcoming.

// Sara

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