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“The Red Baron” – New from Sabaton

Posted in Music, Uncategorized with tags , on June 15, 2019 by Sara Hammerzmith

And so the time has come! Another new single release from Sabaton, from their upcoming album “The Great War”. And this time, it was time for “The Red Baron” to come to show.

The song is about Manfred von Richthofen, a German pilot during World War I. He was known as one of the greatest fighter pilots of the war, credited to 80 victories and was well respected in Germany and by his enemies.

So, how about we start looking into the actual song yes?

The song itself starts off with eerie, circuslike organ, only to launch into a rather quick, and to a certain degree, swinglike kind of verse, and it keep it like this throughout the song. The organ remains in the background throughout the song as well. I can imagine the circuslike sounds to it is a kick-back to the nickname “The Flying Circus”.

While the song brings the thought back to “Night Witches” at some point, I’d love to argue that it has got a happier feeling to it, despite the eerie background organ – and it works faster without barely any fills, just all at once.

I actually.. At first listen I’ll admit I didn’t like it at first. But after giving it a few more tries, it grew very quickly on me. Now, I’m more excited than ever. And I can’t help but to get stage setting ideas, just as I did with “Bismarck”.

But yes I’ll say it – this is a dance song. This song it was will ensure Sabaton earns points on “Dance Friendliness”, and I myself, shall pick up a bit on swing dancing because of this.

// Sara

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Metalfest Open Air 2019: The Journey

Posted in Travels, Uncategorized with tags , , , on June 12, 2019 by Sara Hammerzmith

Oh hey here we go! A little over two weeks since this happened, but better late than never, am I right?

So, the journey began for my part on Wednesday already, and Toivo had already made it to Prague the day before or so, if I’m not mistaken. My journey started very calmly and peacefully with a three hour drive to the airport. Seeing as this festival lied so close to Sweden Rock, my travel options were limited. Normally I would have loved to take the bus down to it, but. Time management.

As I get older, I also get wiser, or in this case, I have less time optimism. So I had actually left home in a good and decent amount of time. Despite various obstacles along the road, I made it to the airport a little bit before the check in opened, so everything was chill. Except for the fact that I had acquired an illness prior to leaving, but oh well. You just gotta roll with it, you know?

So, going through the checks and everything, feeling pretty chill and then I almost fall over my feet when getting to the gates as the first thing I see is one large wall of Sabaton. There was this magazine, Sverigemagazinet, which made an interview with Sabaton about their festival, and it was all here to get. This trip was off to quite an amazing start, huh?

Flight was pretty uneventful, and I landed relatively safely in Prague in time. The flight had been changed in time prior to going, so it was rather late. I made it into the city and met up with Toivo who helped me to the hotel to drop off my stuff before heading out for dinner in the city.

We went to a restaurant called Vytopna in the central of Prague, which has your drinks delivered to you by train. It was an extremely cozy restaurant and a nice meal. After that, we took a stroll home and went to bed. Tomorrow was time for us to head over to Plzen.

Thursday

We went up.. Relatively early. Not super early, but relatively. About 8? We went downstairs to check out the breakfast at the hotel, but decided it wasn’t really worth it. So off we were, off to Prague railway station to lock up our stuff and then head off to a medieval restaurant called U Pavoka in the central of the city. Great food and great setting, and Toivo wants to emphasize he had some mead.

Once finished, we headed off to some sightseeing. Astronomical clock and the Karlsbridge was a few of our stops before FINALLY getting on the train to Plzen. Was a nice, calm train ride, and at the trainstation we met up with Alexandra, one of my good friends frm Czech Republic.

Together with her, we took the tram as close as possible to the festival and then walked what felt like forever until we found the festival and the camping and went to set up our camp. Once tents and all was set up, we headed off to an Albert to pick up the essentials for the festival. Everything is ridiculously cheap in Czech, at least for us so I guess we overshopped a bit? Our hands were hurting like hell afterwards, haha!

Once back on the camping, we chilled out for a moment, went to see some of Toivos friends before meeting up with Szilvi and Marci who were just coming in from Hungary. The rest of the evening were spent with with them, catching up on everything and anything.

Tomorrow, was the first day of the festival.

// Sara

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Listening session with Sabaton

Posted in Music, Uncategorized with tags , on June 11, 2019 by Sara Hammerzmith

So people! Another long wait for something to read, but here it is at last.

Some time ago I was invited to a “secret location” to participate in a listening session, Q&A and a meet and greet with Sabaton. For their own reason, I won’t reveal the location, but anyway.

This was kind of a last minute spontaneous kind of thing, so I just booked the bus kind of on the spot, which was no major issue… I thought.

Since I booked the bus at such short notice, I was assigned a seat. And of course, the seat assigned just HAD to be the one with a non functioning poweroutlet. And my computer, the computer I currently bring with me on tour, has a battery time of 50 minutes. Great. Just great.

On top of that, I got a bit rushed in the morning, and because of that, forgot my waterbottle. No biggie, right?

Except that I get horribly motion ill, and to top it off, I had cramps from hell. AND, becuase we aren’t even done yet, we got one of those bus drivers who drives extremly recklessly.

So here I was, in pain, being ill as hell, unable to work.. And the bus gets about 40 minutes delayed. Because why the hell not right? Gladly, I had plenty of time before the session, so it did not ruin my time plan, it was just a little bit of torture.

Once in Stockholm, I headed off to an Espresso House as per usual to have a quick lunch / dinner kind of thing and make myself ready for the evening.  I stowed away my stuff in a locker at the central station and headed off to the “secret location”. It wasn’t too hard to find, much to my pleasure although I’ve never been there before.

The first thing that happened was pretty much standing around waiting. And waiting. And after waiting some more, we were finally let in the salon for the listening session. It was a beautiful kind of old school cinema, and I loved the setting. The host spoke a bit before playing us the first five songs of the album.

So, I guess the most important part of this is this: What were my first impressions and opinions?

So, the first song, “The Future of Warfare” is a pretty lowkey but yet hitting opening song. I felt, or feel, that it might set the mood completely for the album – darker, harder, yet not leaving the Sabaton influences. It brought my thoughts back to “Primo Victoria” and “Metalizer” soundfigure, with a touch of “Coat of Arms”, if that makes any sense to anyone.

Second song of the evening, “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” made me throw my hands up in the air out of frustration. The only thing I can say about this song is that it’s “White Death”. It’s the new “Winged Hussars”, so to speak. Lyrically it’s fine, but at this point I’m still too frustrated at that to give a more proper view or insight.

As far as “82nd All The Way” goes, I can’t remember I thought anything special about it, it sort of blanded out amongst the songs, however, a song that REALLY stuck to me was the next one – “The Attack of the Dead Men”.

I had this song stuck in my brain for the rest of the weekend. And as soon as I think of the title, it starts playing in my head again. This one I really liked, a lot. And it made me excited, as it felt relatively new for being Sabaton.

Last song that got played, was “Devil Dogs” which wasn’t a bad song at all, but it brought the thoughts too much back to “Smoking Snakes” (not like ‘Seven Pillars’ though), but all in all – good.

So, I guess you can say I liked what I heard, and it did get me more excited than ever for the new album. And now, it ain’t long left. Just a month, ish.

After listening to the song, the band came into the room and we had a press-conference kind of Q&A, where we got to ask questions to the band and they’d answer. It was a pretty cozy thing to be honest, it felt very down to earth and relaxed. At least in my point of view.

Once the Q&A was done, we all lined up for the photo to be taken, and once that was over – heading home.

Thank you Warner Music and Sabaton for this evening, it was quite the pleasure. It was a spurr of the moment kind of thing for me, but I was not disappointed in doing it! Thank you!

// Sara

 

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New Sabaton: “Fields of Verdun”

Posted in Music, Uncategorized with tags , , on May 3, 2019 by Sara Hammerzmith

So the day is here. “Fields of Verdun” is finally officially released. This day couldn’t really come any sooner if you ask me, but finally atlast it’s here!

As I spoke of before, “Fields of Verdun” simply covers the battle of Verdun, the longest and probably one of the grimest battles throughout the first world war.

So here’s the video as well as the song. Where do I even begin? With the song perhaps.

The good news primarily, is the fact that at the first listen and listens, I can’t really seem to find it being similar to any other song I heard before. I might change this statement once I’ve gotten more used to it, but that is a big plus. The little breakdown reminded, and still at some points, remind me of “Poltava” but the song all in all seem to be relatively new.

The feeling of the song brings my thoughts back to “Heroes” album at first though, which isn’t all too surprising considering that ex-guitarist Thobbe Englund helped to compose the song. I guess that on some levels, this song could have fit on “Coat of Arms” as well, but I personally get a lot of “Heroes” vibes – primarily from the fact the guitars are a lot more prominent as compared to the synths, which was the case on “The Last Stand” album.

So… what is then my humble opinion. To be perfectly honest… I’m a little… disappointed. I guess I just expected more. From what I’ve read and understood, Verdun was a very very grime and brutal battle, and having them make a very… almost rushed song, with very very generic lyrics made it all fall very, very flat for me. I wish there would have been a lot more greatness put into this – perhaps the perception is somewhat ruined due to the release of “Bismarck”, who, on the other hand, was a very epic and big song.

I don’t really see this song growing on me, sadly, which is sad because there was a lot of anticipation for this one. But hey, this could very well simply be that “one bad song” on the album, am I right?

As for the video.. I’m sadly not impressed by that one either. It feels a bit.. But you know what? If the song isn’t grand and epic, how the hell can the video be? I do however wish for a bit more action, I guess. And a bit more gore. They could’ve afforded that.

Shame innit, that the first single and song of the album is outshined both song and videowise by a song not even on the album. But oh well, as strange as it may sound, the disappointment of “Fields of Verdun” does make me want to hear the whole album NOW.

// Sara

 

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Bismarck – New Sabaton Song

Posted in Music, Uncategorized with tags , on April 22, 2019 by Sara Hammerzmith

So here it is people! It was rumored already a while back that a new single called “Bismarck” would see the light of day, but as I’m not one to gossip on my blog and wait for the real news, I kept it low, but wasn’t surprised when that is what was indeed revealed.

So, “Bismarck”. The song tells the story about the German battleship, the first of two built for the Nazi’s “kriegsmarine”, a ship which was commisioned in 1940, but after an intensive hunt that had sunk a lot of the enemy ships, even she was sunk.

So, now that the trivia is over, lets move over to the music shall we?

First and foremost, and it tears my heart apart to have to say this over and over again – it wasn’t exactly anything new to the table. While it was no “Winged Hussars” I can feel several different songs while hearing this. BUT – with that said.

There was something I did notice, something that made me feel very much at home. The productions resembles the production of “Primo Victoria” and “The Art of War” and it sent me 12 years back in time for when I became a real die hard fan of the band and I suddenly felt very much at home. I feel a bit of “Panzer Battalion” in the pre-chorus and it just makes me shiver and gives me goose bumps. Jonas Kjellgren is the one who produces Sabatons sounds the best, if you ask me.

It’s a very epic and bombastic song, almost like “Wolfpack” but turned up – it’s something about the songs about the ships that makes ’em go like this I suppose. God, I feel like my feelings are all over the place.

Now, this song won’t end up on “The Great War”, so I can’t say I’m more stoked for the album because of this, But I am indeed looking forward to seeing this song live. And while they are at it, why not dust off “Wolfpack”?

// Sara

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Mr OX

Posted in Music, Uncategorized on April 16, 2019 by Sara Hammerzmith

I’ve started several new blogs, about the boat, about Avatar, that is yet to be finished. But I have to pause everything I’m writing about currently to talk about something a lot heavier that reached our news today.

After 13 years of service, Mr OX is no longer a member of Lordi.

I… Don’t even know where to begin this entry. I’ll be honest and tell you all, I never thought I’d write an entry like this again, but then it hit me that the only option would be an entry about the band disbanding and it’s like choosing between the plague and the black death.

So. It took me some time to remember, but it just hit me. My first memory ever of him. And I’ll just skip the whole “I almost died during the show” kind of stuff and head straight to the meet and greet.

This was the first time ever I met Lordi, which is you know, 13 years ago now. Shy as we were, as we were approaching OX and Kita who were the two to call me and Lina over, I was looking down at the floor, and walking. As Kita grabbed me (once I reached him) I was stopped. And I saw a big pair of boots, and I slowly raised my eyes until I looked UP to a massive hellbull who was looking straight down at me. Haha. Had I taken just one more step I would have bumped straight into him. Thanks Kita almighty for saving that.

I do have a few small memories with him despite him perhaps being the member I notice the least over the years. I remember an incident more specifically in Italy, 2013, during “To Beast” tour. Or Awca, as I’d call it. I was asking each and every member if I could have a hug (this is from my fangirl days, you know) and I couldn’t quite reach him – in case you guys haven’t noticed… he’s pretty big with them boots.

Some other memories I, we, I guess, cherish with the hellbull himself is the bassolo he conducted during Monstour, that continued on through Sextourcism. His funky bassolo that really, and truly, lived up the mood during the shows. I might perhaps be speaking simply for myself, but still.

In a way, I was very very surprised to see him leave, but on the same time I guess it kind of made sense. I don’t know if perhaps this has to do with age, that it ain’t as big of a deal as it was when you were younger, or if it is because you think about it – he’s been in for some time, and maybe he’s just over it. I guess the surprise moment rather comes from the fact that this line up seemed to be so steady. It’s been the same for seven years, and I guess there is where the torn comes.

With that said, all the best to you OX!

 

 

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The Great War + “Fields of Verdun”

Posted in Music, Uncategorized on April 12, 2019 by Sara Hammerzmith

So, it is time finally. FINALLY Sabaton has unveiled what is going to be the next album – titled “The Great War”. And I can’t even contain my excitement.

So, this is the coverart for the new album. Unlike previous albums, I’d actually dare to say that this cover is one of the heaviest yet. A bit macabre, if you ask me. The smoke turning into skulls, the soldier crying (crying blood or simply bleeding through his hands is up for your own interpretation) on top of fallen soldiers of war… It’s macabre. It’s the only word I can really use.

“The Great War” is for those who might be a bit uninformed, World War I. So, they continue along the path of concept albums, a path they walked down since “Carolus Rex”, the aforementioned being about the Swedish Empire, “Heroes” which covered stories about unique soldiers in war, and “The Last Stand” about the battles that ended whatever war they were from.

And I love concept albums, so bring it on. And I’m glad the focus has shifted from WWI to the first one. Now, they have of course covered WWI before occasionally, but not like this.

Which leads me to the second point of the post, the snippet of the first song “Fields of Verdun”.

“Fields of Verdun” covers the battle of Verdun, which is said to be the longest and most lethal combat of World War I. It was fought between German and French armies, and it lasted for a bit over nine months, with the French standing as victors in the end. That is, as far as there is any “victory” in war – it’s all just a bloodbath to me.

So.. about the snippet. There is a 10 second snippet that came with the History Channel Episode… And… Yeah.

It’s not that it’s bad. So far it sounds good, and it sounds very typical Sabaton. It’s very hard to judge something simply based of a few seconds – but these seconds are extremelt similar to “Poltava”. I was even able to sing along with the melodyline. It gives me flashbacks to when I heard “Winged Hussars” the first and were about to flip my shit. So let’s hope that it was just a temporary thing.

But despite that… I am so excited I can’t even wait!!! And on my name day of all day!! July 19th!

// Sara

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REVIEW: Rise of the Dragon Empire – Bloodbound

Posted in CDs, Music, Uncategorized with tags , , , on March 20, 2019 by Sara Hammerzmith

So the time has come. The time has come for Bloodbound to present to us their eight studioalbum, which so also happens to be the continuation of the saga started on the previous two albums, “Stormborn” (2014) and “War of Dragons” (2017). Now, they hand us a newely forged album straight from the blacksmith. And I couldn’t be more stoked.

The album starts off pretty intense in fact. It heads straight into an uptempo song, which also happens to the title track of the album. The song is full of cheerful and interesting melody lines, and it continues like this throughout the album with a few stick-off’s – second song of the album “Slayer of Kings”offers us some heavier battle tunes with an extremely headbang friendly chorus and fast shredding verses, before launching into an epic story about “Skyriders and Stormbringers”. A more magical and mystic approach is being served in “Magical Eyes” which tells the tale of exactly that.

And then, my friends, a new metal anthem and hymn has found the light of day “Blackwater Bay” is nothing short of a massive anthem – the way it’s been arranged musically and the crowd like constant chanting. I could absolutely see this being played with the whole crowd coming along with the song itself. This is one of the highlights most definitely on the album for me.

The album is picked up in “Giants of Heaven” and the rest of the album serves that same sort of purpose – heavy beats with cheerfull melody lines, with “Warlock’s Trail” being the only song to really stand out for me in the end – bringing the thoughts back to “To Hell and Back” with Sabaton, I can see this song being something extremely appreciated by the crowd. It’s a new “Silver Wings”, if you like.

The album is at last round off with a power ballad, giving a more mellow ending to an otherwise very powerful album. The band has had a very strong influence of Nordic folk elements this time around, something I appreciate a lot, as well as an added amount of keyboard accessories, creating hymns and hits that will stick in your brain. But sadly, none of it’s particularly new.

I mentioned “To Hell and Back” above when talking about one song, but I found myself many times thinking the lyrics to various songs by various bands (Sabaton, Alestorm, Serenity and HammerFall to mention a few bands) and while it’s hard these days to write something completely new, I’m not sure how fond I am of the fact that I found myself singing the lyrics to “1741 (The Battle of Cartagena)” when listening to “Slayer of Kings”.

That aside, the band has created yet another solid album which really does follow the line of its preceders. I guess you can tell I have pretty mixed feelings about it. I really enjoy a lot of the tracks, but damn. If the similarities weren’t so obvious…

Favorite song: “Blackwater Bay” I think.
Least Favorite: “Balerion”
Dance-friendliness:  5/11
Headbang-friendliness:  9/ 11
Crowd-friendliness: 7/11


(Label: AFM Records)

CDON I Ginza I Amazon

// Sara

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Avatar @ Nöjesfabriken, Karlstad, Sweden 2/3-19

Posted in Concerts, Music, Uncategorized with tags , , on March 2, 2019 by Sara Hammerzmith

I do not think there is a gig this year, boat included, that I’ve been looking more forward to than this particular one. Avatar, all at home. You see, eight years ago, On November 11 – so, 11/11/11, I was at this exact venue, discovering this exact band. My memories from the shows are shallow, my most prominent one being Johannes almost hitting me and Maria in the head with his stick during “Torn Apart”.

But is had passed quite some time since, and now they are here with their Avatar Country tour and I couldn’t be more stoked. Sofia and Toivo had arrived already the day before for some taco coziness, and we spent this day listening to Avatar, watching some old live shows while getting ready and then having a nice dinner at a mongolian restaurant before heading off to Nöjesfabriken to wait in line.

Much to our delight, it was no issue to wait inside the bowlingbar which made this queueing about hundred times more pleasant. There were a few people ahead of us in line, but not a problem nor a surprise.

For this particular event, or perhaps this goes for all events at this venue, but it was new to us. So, at 20, they’d open some sort of cashier where you exchanged your ticket for a wristband for easier entry. However, this way kind of messed up alot. Us who had waited forever no longer had any particular spot in the line, and us who HAD waited started to gather together to push away others.

There was this one particular group of people who tried to jump the queue, and we were very worried they would. As they opened the door we got ready… And they were all stopped in agecheck. All of us internally cheered as we safely gathered the front row spots we’d been waiting for, and watching the jumpers come second. There is a God somewhere, clearly!

With that said, we waited for the first artist to start, and in the blink of an eye (mostly because I was watching Melodifestivalen at the same time) he was on stage.

Dylan Walshe

First act of the night was Dylan Walshe, who is an Irish singer-songwriter. It was simply him, his harmonica, his guitar and a few percussion pieces tied to his feet. He was very very good – I enjoyed the calm before the storm, so to speak. He was also a very funny guy on stage. I liked him.

The Mahones

Next band up was The Mahones, and irish-canadian punkband. And now it was party time. They delivered a very very nice and energetic show, and got us in the mood so completely before Avatar. I’m very happy they were here.

And then… Oh man. The hype was real. Like, we were so excited and SO ready for this. It wasn’t even funny how ready we were. Waiting and waiting, getting impatient and what not… when finally… “Glory to our King” echoed throught the speakers and it was time for us to preach to our King.

Avatar

The venue is very small, so obviously, the throne was not in place, so it started with the King walking onto the stage. Obviously, the band started the show with “Statue of the King” and the euphoria was set. If that was quite the firestarter, it did not slow down as they continued with “Hail The Apocalypse” straight up. Hello dead neck!

And there was absolutely no rest as the king stepped up the front of the stage to start the plucking intro to “Bloody Angel” and the band has us all ripped to shreds with the song. Seriously, what is it with this band, and absolutely destroying us?!

Johannes started speaking about bathing and painting himself in blood, and any person who has ever witnessed Avatar is well aware what song he’s referring to. “Paint Me Red” was next, I’m absolutely positive at this point that the band simply does anything it can only for the sake of slaughtering our necks.

I’ll be frank and upfront admit that I was foolish enough to believe that perhaps some kind soul would be documenting the setlist properly, or that I could look it up afterwards, which was all in vain. I do remember what songs was played, but I do not remember the exact order. So excuse me for that.

“The Eagle Has Landed” and “For the Swarm” was ripped off, and again – I said just a paragraph ago but I’ll say it again – NECK. MURDERERS.

“Get in Line” and the “Black Waltz” was also performed, the latter one much to our surprise. But the greater and more pleasant surprise for me was when they started off the intro to “Puppetshow”. I wasn’t exactly expecting it, so I was so so happy. One of my favorite songs, it was.

“Torn Apart” was also being played, much to my.. Perhaps not surprised, but my delight. When Maria and I first saw this band live on this venue some seven years ago, this was in particular the song we remembered as Johannes almost hit us in the head with his stick. So it was.. beautiful? In a way to get to experience it again.

And then.. an intro rolled. The intro I know so well from being my favorite song off “Avatar Country”. A song I was convinced was simply a filler, an outro, a song to never be played live (like Sabaton’s “Ruina Imperii”)..

“King after King”.

Unlike Sabaton, Avatar actually played this one live. I got to hear one of my top Avatar songs ever live. I couldn’t even believe it was happening, but it sure did. Holy hell.

There were a quick change of wardrobe before the bubbles started floating all around and they wrapped up their set with “Avatar Country” followed by “Smells like a Freakshow”.

And holy hell what a show. I mean, as someone who has followed Avatar for many many years, and at many times listed them as highlight of the festivals, I am still blown away, BLOWN AWAY with how great of a live band they are. It makes me so happy every single time.

Thank you Avatar, for this evening!

// Sara

 

 

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Sweet but Psycho

Posted in Uncategorized on January 2, 2019 by Sara Hammerzmith

Hello blog. It has truly been some time.

I have just had waay too much on my mind to be able to properly produce anything worthy to post here. I don’t even know where to begin?

The tour was good. I’ll admit it had its ups and downs, and some people have truly shown their true colors – both bright colors as well as dark. I got to see so many new places and faces, and one major highlight of the tour was indeed the trip to Vienna.

Maria joined me down there, and we did a lot of touristing and exploring, visited the Spanish Ridingschool and saw two wonderful concerts.

After that, I’ve been home. I attended Sabaton Cruise, my 30th Sabaton show ever. The show was.. I mean, it’s ironic and beautiful all at the same time that my 30th Sabaton show also turns into a Carolus Rex show, as that is my favorite kind of shows. Beautiful.

After this and a show of H.E.A.T I’ve simply stayed here trying to catch my breathe. Life eventually catches up with you, and not everything goes as planned. Gladly, I have some of the best friends in the world to catch me whenever I am falling.

With the risk of sounding way too cliche, it’s a new year now. And the sky is already looking brighter. Perhaps not in this second I am writing this, but in general. Next up on my list is 70.000 Tons of Metal, and I could so desperately need a vacation right now. From everything, and everyone.

// Sara

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