Original Post Date: Dec 29, 2009
Grave+Desultory+Vicious Art+Valkyrja, Stockholm 28/7-2009

Valkyrja
A swedish Black Metal band that has just released their second album. I knew them beforehand and knew something good was comming,  I was actually a bit surprised that they were the opener but I guess they really are the least known band on the bill. All bands had one hour sets anyway, just a shame that Valkyrja didn't get as much crowd support that I think they deserved.
They don't do anything new, or spectacular really, but they do their thing really well so it doesn't matter. The music and their live appearance simply screams "Black Metal" - and it's performed just the way that Black Metal should be. Some corpsepaint, fast songs, atmospheric, no bullshit inbetween songs. Overall really nice!

http://www.myspace.com/valkyrjaswe

Vicious Art
I knew these guys by name beforehand, it beeing Jörgen Sandströms band and all. But I hadn't really listened any to them. But these seasoned Death Metallers knows how to put up a good solid show. And they have some kickass songs that got the crowd (that had increased a fair bit by now) headbanging.
Also it's great fun to watch Jocke Widfeldt (vocals). He really gets into the crazy image of the band, and really plays the role of someone going mental. Switching emotions fast like only someone that's crazy can do, going from fear, anger etc... Good entertainment!
Valkyrja did set the standard for the night and Vicious Art certainly kept the bar high!

http://www.viciousart.se/
http://www.myspace.com/viciousartsweden

Desultory
I have actually never even heard about this Death Metal band, but apparantly they've been around for 20 years. Really nice and melodic band however, great guitars (despite a worn pick...). Funny singer too, he had some good talk inbetween songs.
I don't really know what else to say about them, it was a good solid show, and there's definitly a reason why they were the last supportband on the bill and not the first.

http://www.myspace.com/desultoryofficial

Grave
Ah, this is the fourth time I saw Grave. Nothing unexpected, but I'm still not bored at all! It's simply a pure class band that at least I can't get tired of. Their songs are still good enough to just stand and enjoy... this night there was a bigger crowd than last time I saw thou thou, and that means more action! The atmospere was pretty nice actually. Good stuff, Grave certainly deserves all good stuff comming their way.
There was a few songs in the set that I hadn't heard live before - which is a nice thing. Since they've played here quite a few times lately it's cool that they mix stuff up a bit.
It was no surprise that Jörgen came up on stage to do the last song either. I mean, they were on the same stage allready so why not? I did miss which song he would do thou, I called Into the Grave but he sang Soulless. I don't mind thou, I've allready seen Jörgen do Into the Grave live so I'm just happy about that! ^^
Again, pure class from Grave. I'll certainly see them next time they're playing as well. Despite having seen almost the same set several times I don't get bored. The songs are just damn good!

http://www.grave.se/
http://www.myspace.com/gravespace


Original Post Date: Dec 28, 2009
Septic Flesh, 20/12 Chania, Crete, Greece

I arrive to Crete and see these posters about Septic Flesh playing the same night... cool! They never play in Sweden, so of course I had to go!
There was some other greek bands playing as well, don't remember their names and it wasn't that great anyway so I just skip to Septic Flesh instead.

Septic Flesh
Reaaaaally good frontman! Okay, I didn't understand a word of what he was saying since he spoke greek but despite that I could tell that he created a great connection with the crowd and he got the venue moving. And for one of the last songs in the slow part he yelled "are you ready?!" (but in greek) then when the fast part started he threw himself into the crowd and started the biggest moshpit of that evening! I think about half the venue was involved in it. :]
He kept moshing for the rest of that song, and then for the next one he brought up people on stage to headbang with the band.
The rest of the band also performed well - it was really tight, and the sound was good too. Especially the guitarist did some cool stuff. I wish could tell you some names of the members, but looking at their homepage/myspace I only get confused... first of all they didn't have a bald bandmember for example... (and looking on livepics there they don't have it there either?). So I have no idea who's who or whatnot. Haha. ^^;
It was a really nice show anyhow, with a happy crowd. Only downside was that they only played for one hour. But ahwell, you can't have everything.

http://www.septicflesh.net/
http://www.myspace.com/septicfleshband


Original Post Date: Nov 29, 2009
Freak Kitchen + Saint Deamon + Eaglestrike, Stockholm 28/11-2009

Eaglestrike
The bassist of Freak Kitchens project where he sings and plays guitar. Was some nice hardrock/Heavy Metal. Reminded me of Mustasch a fair bit, and theyäre both from Gothemburg so maybe that's not so strange. It was pretty nice anyhow. Allthough not many people had showed up yet.

Saint Deamon
Second time I see them, and pretty much nothing has changed. They're still an allright band with a great vocalist and a good bassist. I still feel something is missing in their sound but it's still enjoyable.

Freak Kitchen
Ah, the Freaks! I've been to one of IA's guitar clinics before so I know he's really crazy allready and nothhing has changed... now he has another two crazy dudes with him on stage! It was just great really. Freak Kitchen is a band with a very unique sound by themselves, it's amazing how they can mix heavy as fuck Death Metal riffs with Jazz tunes and crazy solos without it ever becomming bad. And they sound as good live as on CD. You hear IA do that crazy lick on CD while he's singing... guess what? He does it live too.
Also I don't understand how you can fail with a show when you have not one, but two great frontmen on stage. Because both IA and Krister are really really great with the crowd. They really interact and say a lot of funny stuff. Like when Krister made his sing-along game while doing silly dances... then he spotted a guy who copied his silly dance and they instantly got him up on stage to dace with them! Or when IA notice that one guy is looking for his hat ha asks if anyone had seen it and then found it (after taking some directions from the crowd) behind the stage. Then refused to give it back until he was done with it (he found it after all so it's only fair! :P ).
And IA... he says the most ridiculus funny things overall... he never stops speaking unless he's playing. And he has a lot to say. Most of it nonsense. Funny nonesense! This combined with great music gives a really really good show!

The songs the played includes;
Hateful Little People
Taste My Fist
Speak When Spoken To
Snap
The Rights To You
Chest Pain Waltz
Silence

And a few more... They played for almost two hours which went by really fast. I guess everyone was missing Teargas Jazz in the set, but IA apoligized because they hadn't had time to practice it... but he promised they would play it ten times next time! :P


Original Post Date: Nov 28, 2009
Mayhem+Aeon+Godphobia, Stockholm 27/11 - 2009

Godphobia
Don't start a show by telling the crowd that they suck. That won't make them support you better. Their performance was decent however, but nothing memorable. Good first band of the night pretty much.

Aeon
Brilliant! Great from start to finnish! Technical, fast, brutal and tight as fuck! One of the best drummers in Sweden for sure, and with some great riffing and a nice voice. Not that great entertainers thou, their show is all about energy so you can headband and such. No talk between songs or anything, just playing. But I don't mind, when they do it so well!
Also they played a song from the upcomming album called Forgiveness Denied, and that was one FAST motherfucker! Looking forwards to that album. :]

Mayhem
No pigs, no blood, no Maniac... I was a bit sceptic at first but they managed to pull it off. Attilla in a pope-robe and a crazy-bloody corpsepaint is one good entertainer. He's an... actor really. He really manages to create an eerie atmosphere with his gestures, scythe, rope (ready to hang someone) and light. At one point he got the crowd pretty exstatic by holding his scythe upside down and swinging it back and forth like a pendulum. It was like some mass-hypnosis really. They have their crazy thing and they do it really well!
The rest of the band performed well, like you expect. Especially Hellhammer of course. That man is insane. If Fjellström in Aeon is amazing... then I can't find a fitting word for Hellhammer. He's just insanly fast, and he's everywhere at once but never missing a beat like a damn machine. I'm happy to have seen him drum live, that's a experience!

Overall Mayhem were allright, it was nice to see them. But the greatest band for me this night was without a doubt Aeon!


Original Post Date: Nov 20, 2009
Behemoth+Devildriver+Scar Symmetry+Arsis - Stockholm 19/11-2009

Arsis
American Thrash first time in Sweden. They had some really fast and technical riffs that was quite nice. I rather enjoyed their show, it was nice stuff. And the crowd was very much into it for beeing a first band!

Scar Symmetry
Yeah. About that. Let's go on.

Devildriver
I checked them out the same day to see what the fuzz was about. My impression was that it's pretty good stuff but quite repetetive. My impression after seeing them live is pretty much the same. They have a GREAT frontman thou, he really got the crowd going. So it was a nice show, but for me it could've been a few songs shorter. :P

Behemoth
Second time for me seeing them, so I had quite some expectations. Unfortunatly they weren't met really. Don't get me wrong, it was a good show for sure. BUT. Why where there like a minute between each song? Why did they only play one hour? Why did thet just run off the stage after the last song? Felt a bit like they weren't really into it this night, just an ordinary day at work. But then again, Behemoth on an ordinary day is still a good show so I'm not really dissapointed. Nice to hear that Nergal has learnt some swedish since last time. And the talk overall between songs were good as usual.
And the visual scene show is always great with Behemoth. Everything from the background flag, to the mic-stands, to the blod-spitting... It's not only great to listen to Behemoth it's great seeing them too. A cool thing by the way was that there were no music during the set-up for Behemoth after Devildriver, just some eerie sounds that really built up the atmosphere before they got on stage. But that's the thing, even thou the band didn't seem at their best they have everything so greatly planned so they simply can't fail. :]

Set-list:
Ov Fire and the Void
Demigod
Shemhamforash
Conquer All
LAM
As Above So Below
Slaves Shall Serve
At the Left Hand ov God
Alas, Lord Is Upon Me
Decade of Therion
Chant for Eschaton 2000
Lucifer


Original Post Date: Nov 8, 2009
Månegarm+Thyrfing+Skyforger, Stockholm 7/11-2009

Skyforger
Lattvian folk, first time in Sweden! Very good band, very good on stage! It's not often a supportband gets a full hour to play, but these guys certainly deserved it. It was pure pleasure to see them really, especially the guy playing the folk insturments. Sometimes switching several times during a single song!
Can't say I know the set, but at least we got one extra song - because the support was really great really. Very nice show!

Thyrfing
Was very nice seeing them finally... when I first got into Månegarm I was allready hooked on Thyrfing and I remember thinking... "Damn, it would be awesome with show with Thyrfing and Månegarm". And here we are! I'm a bit dissapointed with Vääninen leaving the band and the new album is so slow... so I was a bit worried about this gig. But Jens did the old songs justice, except for Kaos Återkomst which I think he did a bit strange.

The set included;
Far åt helvete
En sista litania
Griftefrid
Digerdöden
Ur askan ett rike (dedicated to Månegarm)
Kaos återkomst
And one or two more that I don't remember.

Oh, Jens is a good frontman too by the way. He had good talk inbetween the songs, funny and good connection. Nice job guys!

Månegarm
Fourth time that I saw them now. Still not getting tired. :)
I think Erik was a little bit too drunk when they got on stage (at 0:30 mind you, so that's not very unexpected I guess :P ), and his voice wasn't top notch at all times. The growls were good thou, and he did most of the clean vocals great so that's not big complaint really. Other than that it was pretty much what I've come to expect from Månegarm. All very good, funny talk inbetween songs, Janne running around everywhere and great support from the crowd. And the sounds was really nice!
As I saw them two months ago in Boden I'm a little bit dissapointed that they played the exact same set-list as then... but then again it's a great setlist so that's not too bad!

Mina fäders hall
Genom världar nio
Vedergällningens tid
Ett gammalt troll
Sigirblot
Nattväsen
Havets vargar
Ursjälens visdom
Vetrarmegin
I evig tid
-
Janne playing a flute solo
Hemfärd
(Vinternattskväde)

Also I couldn't stop myself when I got home with the new album, had to listen! And it sounds great!
So this was a damn awesome night, not only great music but meeting a lot of friends ("everyone" was there!) and just a generally great atmosphere! :D


Original Post Date: Oct 20, 2009
Porcupine Tree+Katatonia - Stockholm, 19/10

Katatonia
Took a song or two for Jonas to get the vocals right, but after that it was a really nice gig actually. Only 40 min thou, but they squeezed in Teargas and a new song there. Really liked the new song acually, seems they're going back to beeing heavy again. Was a Meshuggah-riff in there even. :]

Porcupine Tree
Uh, they started the set by playing the entire first disc of the latest album. The took a break for 10 min and played another hour of mixed songs. It was really nice, loads of talent on that stage. And once Steven acually talked with the crowd he did it really well. :)
Also they had excellent sound and I'd really want to play around with the amp that Steven used...
Well, I'll just put it simple - it was an excellent performance all in all. ^^


Original Post Date: Oct 18, 2009
Amon Amarth+Entombed , Stockholm - 17/10

Evile were supposed to be on this show as well, but there's something about Sweden and bassists... R.I.P. Mike Alexander.

Entombed
The main reason I went. It still surprises me that there are people into Death Metal that doesn't know about Entombed, to me Entombed might as well have been the headline.
Ahwell, it was a solid one hour set with a nice mixture of old and new. I did miss Masters of Death thou, other than that a really nice set.
LG seemed to be in a really good mood to be home and playing in Stockholm again, and he should be! It's always nice to see them on stage again.
I'm pretty broken today because I got stuck in a pretty wild moshpit... in other words there was good support from the crowd. ^^

Amon Amarth
I've said it before... I think Amon Amarth are way better live than they are on CD. I still only own one record from them and I don't plan on making it more any time soon... but meanwhile I won't miss a show thou! Johan Hägg is a really good frontman, keeping everyone on their toes firing up the crowd when it starts going a bit slow again and beeing funny inbetween the songs... Oh, and Johan also seemed happy about beeing home in Stockholm. You don't find Amon Amarth here very often anymore, they're more often on another continent these days. :P
Nice set, and as expected LG showed up on stage to sing Guardians of Asgard. Probably the hilight of the set for me. Death in Fire was pretty damn intense as well.
Also through the entire show they had some really great pyro. :]
The crowd was more for hands in the air and headbanging and even a few crowdsurfers than for moshing (there were moshing of course, but fewer people), so the support for both bands semmed kinda different really. All in all it was one of the most "wet" shows I've been to in a long while.