Sweden Rock Festival 2018
Caught a glimpse of Swedish "hillbilly" hard rockers Bullet!
They got some mighty fine tunes on their latest album "Dust To Gold"
Stumble by Hardcore Superstar their stage banter were horrible and cringeworthy.
Luckily for them their upcoming album seems to be a return to former glory and their 5 dollar music video "Baboon" which is a Beastie Boys "Sabotage" rip of is pretty funny and works really well. Juan Berlito is a true champion.
We would loved to hear more of Crazy Lixx swedish sleaze/glam but the Finnish Queen of Steel Noora Louhimo (Battle Beast) was calling with her killer voice from Sweden Stage.
Battle Beast went "Straight For The Heart" and grabbed the audience by the troath!
Battle Beast were firing on all cylinders with amazing singer Noora (the female incarnate of Rob Halford) taking control of the stage in a Xena Warrior Princess like regalia.
"Black Ninja" shows the the blistering power and range of vocalist Noora Louhimo´s voice.
Strong opening for Avatarium with Into the Fire/Into The Storm
Impressive performance by Jennie-Ann Smith "Girl With The Raven Mask" was the highlight of the show
With the intro soundscape of “Salvation” Maria Brink entered the stage
In her her classic “Mother Maria” outfit the crowd was in a hypnotic rapture and with a mere flick of her wrist, front woman Maria Brink took complete control of the audience and In This Moment launched into the intense and driving tune “Blood”
In This Moment music has a unique combination of metal, industrial and gothic and they deliver a visually epic show.
Maria Brink’s stage presence multiplies everytime she enters from behind the curtains to reveal a new stage costume.The band wore a Mad Max post-apocalyptic look, original member Chris Howorth lead guitar and Randy Weitzel on rhythm guitar look like twins as they both sport some dreadlocks in their hair and have similar face paint styles.Midway through the set, Brink takes her leave while the guys kick out a monster jam of some classic covers including Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” weaved into “Creeping Death". Several fans are dressed up in outfits that resemble lead singer Maria Brink and some are wearing devil horns, bunny ears, corsets and dark makeup, emulating the gothic-horror fashion Maria exuded from stage.
In This Moment closed their set with their mammoth hit "Whore"
Maria Brink´s voice was stunning, as her entire presence is, wearing an over-the-top costume or a simple see-through outfit. She is beautiful and attention-demanding a force to be reckoned in the highly dramatized set executing a powerful and sexually charged performance.
The Dark Element first live performance ever
The Dark Element is fronted by the former Nightwish vocalist Anette Olzon together Finnish guitarist and songwriter Jani Liimatainen (ex. Sonata Arctica).The performance was exactly what I had hoped for; over a dozen beautifully-executed anthems that straddled the line between symphonic metal and melodic metal.
I wish they played some Nightwish songs during the set from Anette´s era in Nightwish the crowd would have gone wild. Anette Olzon is a fine looking woman but she should fire her stylist and get the same stylist that Tarja or Maria Brink (In This Moment) has.The infamous "Death Stare" drummer from The Dark Element music videos was sadly a no show.
The power metal supreme force Helloween strikes at Sweden Rock Festival
"Pumpkins United'" features the current Helloween band members with the addition of singer Michael Kiske and singer/guitarist Kai Hansen.The band kicked off with "Halloween".with Deris and Kiske sharing vocals, complimenting each other perfectly and a triple guitar attack of Hansen, Weikath and Sascha Gerstner. Kai Hansen took to the microphone to provide the vocals for the pre-Kiske era with ‘Starlight’, ‘Ride the Sky’, ‘Judas’ and ‘Heavy Metal (Is the Law’)
After Churchill's Speech a spitfire airplane hits the stage
In the opening seconds of "Aces High", bedlam erupts in the audience a fantastic "Where Eagles Dare" set the pace before "2 Minutes to Midnight" in the Blaze era "The Clansman" dance man Janick Gers is dancing his cringeworthy leprechaun dance.
Bruce Dickinson got sliced during "The Trooper"
Iron Maidens Legacy Of The Beast tour is a History/Hits tour concentrated on material from the "Magic" years 80-88 with some later deep cuts and songs thrown in. Just like KISS in 2013 Iron Maiden brough the whole stageshow to Sweden Rock Festival (no watered down "festival season" stage show as many other cheap ass headliners has) and what a marvelous stage show Iron Maiden brought.
"Flight of Icarus" (first live performance since September 17, 1986)
The demonic green strobes and the Burton-esque delivery of “Woe to you, oh Earth and Sea” signalled the arrival of ‘The Number of the Beast.
A triple encore The Evil That Men Do, Hallowed Be Thy Name and Run To The Hills
German Thrash behemots Kreator attacked the stage with "Phantom Antichrist"
Miland Petrozza orchestrated the midnights madness with the great guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö.
The stageset was incorporating powerful lighting rigs into their heavily backlit performance.
Live, Kreator are a model of German efficiency.
The Ozzy headlining concert could have been a great event
But it felt more like a quick cash grab almost a non existing stage show? no photographers allowed in the pit or in the audience? the stage security were haunting people with cameras in the frontrows. Ozzy placed himself in the middle of stage and hardly left the place during the concert? something was fishy with Ozzy´s vocals? was he using hidden singers again like he did in Stockholm with Robert Mason (Lynch Mob, Warrant)? "It looked like a big black tent. Offstage right and behind the bass bin speakers in a Stockholm arena, Ozzy Osbourne’s crew had set up a portable vocal booth. Inside the booth’s black curtained exterior was a microphone and stand, floor wedge monitor, and an intercom to communicate directly with the sound engineer. The booth also contained a video monitor scrolling lyrics — to Osbourne’s metallic solo hits like “Crazy Train” and Black Sabbath classics like “War Pigs” — from the bottom of the screen to the top. says Robert Mason"
But it felt more like a quick cash grab almost a non existing stage show? no photographers allowed in the pit or in the audience? the stage security were haunting people with cameras in the frontrows. Ozzy placed himself in the middle of stage and hardly left the place during the concert? something was fishy with Ozzy´s vocals? was he using hidden singers again like he did in Stockholm with Robert Mason (Lynch Mob, Warrant)? "It looked like a big black tent. Offstage right and behind the bass bin speakers in a Stockholm arena, Ozzy Osbourne’s crew had set up a portable vocal booth. Inside the booth’s black curtained exterior was a microphone and stand, floor wedge monitor, and an intercom to communicate directly with the sound engineer. The booth also contained a video monitor scrolling lyrics — to Osbourne’s metallic solo hits like “Crazy Train” and Black Sabbath classics like “War Pigs” — from the bottom of the screen to the top. says Robert Mason"
Highlight of the show when the great Zakk Wylde came to the frontrow for the guitarsolo
Setlist had a strong start with "Bark at the Moon", "Mr. Crowley", "I Don´t Know" but suddenly came to a halt with the dreadful Black Sabbath song "Fairies Where Boots" "Suicide Solution" and "No More Tears" picked it up before the mundane "Road To Nowhere" and a humdrum version of Black Sabbaths "War Pigs" then a Instrumental medley with a Zakk Wylde guitar solo were he teased us with licks from the fantastic "Miracle Man" and "Perry Mason" the terrible "I Don't Want to Change the World" followed thankfully we got "Shoot In The Dark" and "Crazy Train" before the horrible "Mama, I'm Coming Home"
Musically Lugnet brought the 70´s rockage in full force
The crushing blows from Z’s bass, the soar of Matti´s guitar, accompanied with the wails from Mackan´s guitar and the driving beats provided by Jansson laid the ground work for Johan Fahlberg´s great vocals to shine.
MESHUGGAH pulverized Sweden Rock Festival piece by piece!
Meshuggah mesmerized the audience both sonically and visually with their complex "Tech" metal and stunning stage and lighting show.
Stratovarius has achieved legendary status in power/neo-classical/symphonic metal
and have a great arsenal of power/neo-classical/symphonic hits in their catalog. The audience was shouting for "Father Time" and other classic Stratovarius songs but the short set-list was concentrated on their later material thats unfortunate when Stratovarius once every blue moon play at Sweden Rock Festival
A roar went through the audience when they heard opening riffs to the classic "Black Diamond" and when Mr. Johansson flawlessly soloed on the keyboards.
Tarja neo-classic symphonic metal queen
A classical music intro provides a epic, dramatic fanfare for the former original Nightwish vocalist Tarja Turunen. Tarja´s haunting beauty and vocal majesty shines in a Nightwish medley of Tutankhamen, Ever Dream, The Riddler and Slaying The Dreamer.
Judas Priest start the show with the title track from amazing album Firepower!
Judas Priest is no. 1# on the swedish album chart for the first time ever with the album "Firepower" that packs more Firepower than an atomic bomb! Title track and No Surrender are pure metal perfection.
There were high expectations would Judas Priest give Iron Maiden a run for the money after relasing one of the best Judas Priest albums in ages. The stageshow was far from the glory Judas Priest stagesets of the eighties.
Halford sadly spent a lot of time crouched over the teleprompter/autocue while singing and barely moving. Something Iron Maidens Bruce Dickson has commented on "I never realized that people were using Autocues. What the f--- is that all about? People pay good money and you can't even remember the sodding words. The daftest one I ever saw was [Judas Priest's] 'Breaking the Law.' It's on the f---ing Autocue. 'Breaking the law, breaking the law / Breaking the law, breaking the law / – guess what? – 'breaking the law.' It's ludicrous."
My complaints about the setlist there are better and more interesting deep cuts than "Grinder", "Bloodstone" and "Tyrant" and its a mistake to replace the absolutely beautiful "Angel". The highlights were Turbo Lover and You´ve Got Another Thing Comin` where Halford left the teleprompter/autocue to connect with audience and the new songs from Firepower "Lighting Strike" and the chilling "Rising from Ruins" worked perfectly in the Sweden Rock Festival night.
Footnote: all images with the name of the blog are taken by me under the influence in the audience with a bad camera
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