Sara Hammerzmith

I’ve been supposed to write about Tuska for ages, but it HAS TO FUCKING WAIT A MOMENT BECAUSE OF THIS.

LORDIS. NEW. FUCKING. COSTUMES

Alright, so me and my dearest Sophie have been freaking out the past hour or so when we saw the new costumes. Like, Sophie said it best “We were so ready, and when they showed them we were not ready anymore”. Yes, this is the exact feeling. Oh my god.

Lordi releasing new costumes, any era, is the best. The build up, the hype, what will it look like, and once they are released, you are kind of dying because of how awesome or horrible they are. The build is intense, and you are left there hating this band so much because you love them so much that when things like this happens, everything simply explodes.

And about the costumes, they are so awesome. I can’t even… I won’t get into too much detail for now, I’ll await the single shots to get into it deeper, but I love it. I was always uncertain about the split parts, but it got better than I ever expected it to be!

The album cover! “Monstereophonic (Theaterror vs Demonarchy)” shortly referred to “Demonarchy”, “Monstereo” or “AWCA” (Album without a cool acronym). The first thing I think of when I hear the name is the old webshop Lordi used to have, Monstereo. Amazing. Aside that… I like the cover. I mean… It’s… bland I guess in a way.. But it’s so simple. So scaled down. It’s just. “Here we are”. I sort of like that. And the tracklisting are as follow:

01. SCG8 : One Message Waiting
02. Let’s Go Slaughter He-Man (I Wanna Be The Beast-Man In The Masters Of The Universe) AKA SoWCA
03. Hug You Hardcore
04. Down With The Devil
05. Mary Is Dead
06. Sick Flick
07. None For One
08. SCG VIII : Opening Scene
09. Demonarchy
10. The Unholy Gathering
11. Heaven Sent Hell On Earth
12. And The Zombie Says
13. Break Of Dawn
14. The Night The Monsters Died

At first I got a bit scared at the amount of songs, but then I remembered it’s a half concept album. Well, let’s just say already now that Track number two is referred to as SoWCA – Song without a cool acronym, because I can promise you I will never be bothered to write all of that, not even as an acronym. But aside that, it looks promising! As a “Deadache” fan, I’m obviously a lot more interested in “Demonarchy” part rather than the “Theaterror”, so well.. yeah I’m so hyped!

I can’t fucking wait.

// Sara

Today has been a… calm day? I really don’t know how to put it. I started a new job today, which was awesome. I guess it’s waay too early to say that I love it, but let me put it this way: This is the kind of job I really like.

Other than that I’ve been trying to mentally prepare for this weekends festival. It’s sort of hard to look forward to, in all honesty, but I guess, and hope, it’s just my usual travel fever. I’ve tried to pack all the essentials, and now battling with what the hell to wear. That is always the biggest issue when packing – what clothes to pack. And it’s always the same story. Hopefully I figure something out.

I went over to IKEA today to pick up some new stuff for my room. I honestly do not know the english, and not even the Swedish word for what it is, but it’s those kind of things where you sort your mail anyway. And while I was at it, I got a few more magazine holders in the same color. I still can’t decide if I should get another pair or not. It’s hard, because I really really like the color and the material, and they will soon disappear from IKEA So… Damn damn. In the midst of Tuska planning and everything!

But now, my (current) favorite song with Avantasia came on, so I really gotta run because I can’t sit still when this is playing.

NP: Avantasia – Avantasia

// Sara

Or more like, where the heck have I been these past couple of days?

Well, everywhere and nowhere. This past Monday I head over to Stockholm to catch Hollywood Vampires live. It was quite an experience… you could say. We had a good day at Gröna Lund – ran into Sofia, Robert and Malin as well as riding some of the ride. What made it a bit… disappointing, wasn’t the band themselves. It was all the Johnny Depp fan-girls who couldn’t be bothered to stay the entire show, but only came to get a glimpse of him and then leave, ruining the rest of the show for us. We spent most of the time in songs like “Whole Lotta Love” moving out of the way for people leaving, and it just sets me off. It’s absolutely okay if you want to go and see him now that he’s in Sweden, but perhaps you should a) stay the whole show or b) consider to stand a bit in the back to begin with, because some of us are actually here for the BAND, and not a specific person. I mean, sure, I’m not gonna lie. The major reason I was there was for Alleysan, but in the end – I stayed the whole thing.

BUT. The band was really good. Entertaining. And as I already said before – nothing makes me happier than hearing those little words: “Play the part of Alice Cooper tonight is – ME!”. Seriously. I love this man so much.

Aside this, I’ve been mostly busy preparing for Sweden Rock. For once, I’m not going to disappoint myself by packing last minute, but actually you know be out in good time. Which is why I’ve already packed up most of the things that I need to bring. It was a warm and nice day outside, so I took the opportunity to pack outside. So, music, bags, clothes. Fantastic. I can’t even wait to get down there. I also need to remove the bagtag from last years Graspop. Damn. Time flies.

But now. A work weekend and last packing. But it sure as hell will be good to get down there.

// Sara

Well.. During the Eurovision week, you could say my life were screaming glitter and pink. If you haven’t already figured it: The “major television production” I’ve been working on is no other production but Eurovision Song Contest itself. And it has truly been a magical experience really.

I have postponed this entry for some time, because I really don’t know where to begin to tell you all about this. First and foremost, I’m so grateful to EBU and City of Stockholm for taking me and offering me this truly magical experience.

I was one of the lucky few who got to work with the commentators – for those of you who don’t know what this is, it’s basically the people who sit and comment the show, in between the songs and such. I’ve been blessed to work with the most amazing co workers, and we have had a lot of fun.

Truth is, I’ve been trying to write this blog entry for so many days now, even weeks, and I still don’t know what to actually say, so I’ll just post a few pictures to sum up my experience, instead of constipating this blog.

I haven’t written in ages. I fooled myself into thinking I’d have the energy to do so while away working, but in reality I didn’t. I just wanted to leave this here right now, because I plan to write about it all – about my entire experience, but I’m still messed up and sleep deprived from the week in Stockholm. So, while I get everything into place again, please enjoy these masterpieces of Eurovision entires.

// Sara

So, today was the day I finally went off to Stockholm, and to stay there for a week. Since I was working during the night, I decided to take a late train to make it… fairly early, but not too early. And for first time in many years, I actually went by train. Yes you heard that right. I. Went. By. Train. And surprisingly enough it went pretty well. Perhaps I should have more faith in SJ… Nah. Not yet.

So, I got to the capitol, locked up my bags at the busstation before heading off to meet up with Robert to get some keys to the apartment. Spent a little time together before I he head off to wherever he was going and me heading off the the Globe Area for some errands. Seriously, there is this special mushy feeling walking the bridge I walked so many times going to concerts, but this time be greeted with loads of Eurovision music from the “singing bridge” thing and all the flags… Once done, I went to Eurovision Village in Kungsträdgården, and again… This… mushy feeling of Eurovision being in town. I’ve been to these places quite a few times before of course, but it’s still. It makes one mushy.

Before heading home I stopped by the big flower next to the village, finally. You can really sense it all starting now. Finally. It’s that time of the year, you know.

// Sara

So.. I had to make a bit of a difficult decision today. At least you know, one of the most difficult so far this month. And that was to cut off two of my longest bracelets. Peace&Love 2009 and Peace&Love 2007. The reason was that I’d seen 2009 being cut off half way because of being worn out as well as noticing that the year is starting to vanish on 2007, I had to make the decision. It was a hard one – it’s always difficult for me to part with my bracelets, but the one thing I sure as hell did not want to happen was to lose them somewhere where I wouldn’t know, so this was really for the better. It’s just a little bit sad you know – I had planned to have 2007 until next year, so it would have been on for ten years… but upon seeing the yearmark almost vanishing, I figured it was just as well. If you can’t see what bracelet it is, what is the point?

It’s just… sort of marks a new era. These two were the last Peace&Love bracelets to remain on my arm all in all, so P&L is basically just gone. And not only that – P&L 2007 was my first you know. My first bracelet, and also my favorite bracelet of them all. It was orange and red… Just… beautiful. And then that festival – Front row on Alice Cooper with 20 000 people behind me, the festival where I (finally?) found out Sabaton was in fact a Swedish band… Saw The Ark… oh The Ark. What a band. Saw Crashdiet for the first time too… But speaking of Sabaton… Haha. I figured I was going to record songs that I liked, so I could decide on which album to pick up. So I recorded “In The Name of God” – only issue being – that I filmed the last chorus. And at the point in Sabaton’s career, they didn’t actually sing the real chorus, but rather a parody chorus. No wonder I had problems finding the song, huh? Haha, oh those days.

Peace & Love 2009 was also special in a way. It marks the festival where I saw the least shows – I think it was three, or three and a half. I saw Turbonegro, and then half of Satyricon (mostly because I saw Satyricon in 2007, and though, why not again?) but it’s famous for other things – for waiting 12 hours in 30 degrees weather for Mötley Crüe. I got tanned and burned so badly the tan didn’t disappear until it was summer again next year. And since I had a top with crossed straps, I had the weirdest tan ever because of that. I just remember sitting there, on Nikki Sixx side of the stage, feeling a bit dizzy of all the sun. Getting through Volbeat because one had to… And then in “Home Sweet Home”, where everybody simply forgot about the four men on stage because news about Michael Jackson’s death had just hit us. Like a reporter said – “Never before has an entire Mötley Crüe crowd wound up talking so much about MJ as that night”.

Wow… this became a trip down the memorylane for sure. Isn’t it fun. It’s just a piece of fabric, a piece of fabric that says when and where you have access… But yet, they are filled with so much memories, so many emotions… I guess this is the reason it’s hard to let go off them. Because… they mean so much. You look down on them and you see “Ah yes, Peace&Love 2007”. But… all good, or what was it Mötley Crüe said, all bad things must come to an end?

// Sara