Text & Pics by Arto Lehtinen
&
Marko “Hård Rocker” Syrjala
SATURDAY 12 JUNE
Danger Danger
It has become a tradition in recent
years at Swedenrock to see at least a couple of re-unions
and “reborn” shows. In this case, after 11 years apart, the
original singer Ted Poley has returned to Danger Danger and
another re-union has become reality.
Well Danger Danger actually never went away. They have
released a great number of albums with vocalist Paul Laine after
their break up with Mr. Poley. They have toured across the USA
and Europe. But they have never reached the kind of success they
had in the late eighties, and in the early nineties with
Ted Poley.
As for the show,it was okay all in all. Ted was singing well
and the band played like they always do. The audience seemed to
be surprisingly well aware of their old hits like “Bang, Bang”,
“Boys Will Be Boys” and MTV era favorite, and their biggest
song ever, “Naughty Naughty”. It must be said that some of the
material sounded a little “out of date”. They should definitely
also play some more recent material from their
The Return Of
The Great Gildersleeves, Dawn or Four The Hard Way albums,
not just the stuff from the first three. Overall, this was
another reunion. How necessary or successful will this one be? Only time will tell.
Boys Will Be Boys
Beat The Bullet
Crazy Nights
Under The Gun
Going Going Gone
Don't Blame It On Love
Bang Bang
Afraid Of Love
Good Time
Monkey Business
Rock America
I Still Think About You
Naughty Naughty
Kingdom Come
The biggest problem with Kingdom Come is that nowadays they
are not the same band as they used to be in their glorious past.
After all personal problems, Lenny Wolf has had numerous
line-up changes yet they still continue touring and recording under
their old name. That’s a shame… They almost no longer play the kind of
music that used to, but they had a good sound. Perhaps I'd have
enjoyed it more if I'd actually known more than two of the
songs played. The thing that stood out for me about them
was down the band behind Lenny. They looked a bit like
some reggae band and played very well, but I really couldn't
understand what those guys were doing in this band? As for Lenny
himself, even his vocals were pretty good. He mostly looked
disinterested. At the end of the show Lenny was asking
us if we'd had a great time. Somehow I don't think he really
cared whether we did or not. Their performance in Swedenrock was
in a few words: dull, lackluster, and boring. The only highlight of
the show was a final encore “Living Out Of Touch” from the
classic debut album which kind of reminded me what this band once
was capable of. There’s no doubt that they were the biggest
disappointment here this year.
I Feel Fine
Only Rainbows Know
Should I
I Don´t Care
Didn´t Understand
What Love Can Be
Twilight Cruiser
Mother
Slow Down
Always On The Run
Living Out Of Touch
Axel Rudi Pell
The
well known German guitar virtuoso, Axel Rudi Pell, rose on
the main stage as the first of the day and managed to pull a
large amount of people to follow his set. The
line-up of Pell’s band has undergone everal changes
as known faces have visited the band such as Rage
drummer Mike Terrana who is definitely one of the more known drummers in the metal
genre. Mike has been behind the drum kit a couple of years by
now with Axel Rudi Pell. As for the vocalist, Johnny Gioeli, who
has been in the band
since 1998, he is the longest surviving vocalist in the
band’s history. Johnny Gioeli did quite a routine job after all,
but it was obvious all the interest of the audience was concerned with Pell’s playing.
The rest of the band
remained more in the background. There was nothing wrong with
this gig but hey… just one song from the new King’s And Queen
album. That’s not enough…
Heart
After a long silence the Wilson sisters have decided to return
with a new album and a tour. Before getting to the stage,
Heart, or actually the Wilsons’ sisters, held a press conference
in the packed tent. Heart’s return to the limelight had been
obviously anxiously waited with interest for quite a
while. Basically the whole band was present, apart from Mike
Inez. Even though Heart isn't a fave bands of ours, seeing
what an enthusiastic reception they got was overwhelming. The Wilsons sisters
were also totally stoked about getting such a positive response.
The band did an equal set covering a lot of old and newer material and concluded with
some old Led Zeppelin classics.
Kick It Out
Crazy On You
Papa Was A Rolling Stone
Straight On
Oldest Story In The World
The Perfect Goodbye
Love Alive
Dog And Butterfly
Make Me
These Dreams
Alone
Even It Up
Vainglorious
Wild Child
Magic Man
Barracuda
Black Dog
Misty Mountain Hop
Children of Bodom
Finally it’s the Finnish band’s turn to show their skills
in the front of the Swedish metal audience. Placing the Finnish
band before the Swedish In Flames was definitely an
interesting situation giving a good way to compare how
differently the crowd would react to these two bands and to see how
these two bands would compare. Anyway the Finnish pentad
didn’t go and blow up the whole place up, instead they offered a more a
standard gig experience for the Swedish crowd and a handful of
Finns. The vocalist/guitarist Alexi Laiho appeared to be more talkative
than normal as he even unveiled the name of the suspected murder
of the Lake Bodom in public and above all when introducing the
current axeman Roope Latvala, by telling the former guitarist switched to
a more conservative family life. Those issues could
have been left undone anyway as it wasn’t any smart move from
him afterwards. Instead, focusing on putting the gear to
the maximum level would have been a better choice… It could
be fairly said that the Swedenrock festival was one gig amongst
other ones in the touring calendar of COB as the band did a
solid and routine gig without any unexpected or unpleasant
surprises by relying on the known and guaranteed Bodom, let’s
say now, classics…
Hirax
The thrash assault continued when LA based Hirax got on
the Spendurps stage. However, there wasn’t that much audience
raging in the battlefield as the Finnish Nightwish (for obvious
reasons) pulled people to follow Tarja’s operatic
singing. Only the very devoted and hard core fans decided
to witness Hirax in action. The reunited LA thrash core veterans
were absolutely on fire for the whole gig. The crowd should be
rewarded
for their ultimate looking head banging. The Hirax fronted Katon W Pena terrorized
during the approximate 60 min set by
both old classic tracks as well as newer ones. Obviously, the
band was damn pleased with the reception as Katon jumped from
the stage to the photo-pit in order to shake hands of people
there and even the bass player did an unexpected visit to the
crowd by running off from the stage to the field and played the
bass in front of the crazy head bangers. Hirax would be an
absolutely vicious live act in a small indoor club where crazy
bangers and divers would create an ultimate atmosphere. I am
definitely willing to testify Hirax in some club, because their
performance at SwedenRock was already so energetic and full of
metallic passion that this energy would cause a ballistic
reaction in a smaller club environment..… (HEY KATON WHERE IS MY
PROMO STUFF hahaha)
The New Age Of Terror
Hate Fear And Power
Hostile Territory
Destroy
Broken Neck
El Diablo Negro
Kill Switch
Demon Evil Forces
Suffer
The Plague
Bombs Of Death
Nightwish
The gods of the weather could have been a little bit merciful
for the biggest Finnish metal export, Nightwish. It didn’t
last but a couple of minutes until the heavens ripped apart
and it started to rain like hell causing a massive exodus to the
already packed beer tents. Nightwish definitely faced the worst
weather of the whole festival. It would
have been damn curious to learn what sort of reaction Nightwish
could have created if the weather had remained as beautiful
as it had been during the whole day.
Nightwish hit the audience with
a surprise with the Megadeth cover “Symphony Of Destruction” sung by the band's
hairy bassist Marco Hietala. Basically it was definitely a weird
choice from the band which has a large repertoire of their own
known and excellent tunes. In general, Nightwish relied on the
new material from their majestic masterpiece ONCE
by doing plenty of tracks such as “Nemo”, “Dark Chest Of
Wonders”, “Planet Hell”, and of course some older material from
Wishmaster and
Oceanborn. Besides
the one cover track from Megadeth,
they did the old Gary Moore song “Over The Hills And Far Away”…
Two cover tunes on one gig….Hmmm… Kinda odd to be honest…
Technically there were three covers because they also played their
own version of classic “Phantom Of The Opera”. As stated above,
the rain definitely ruined the Nightwish set and it
didn’t make any sense to be under the cold shower. But the Nightwish guys definitely battled with brave and
understanding through the gig by giving to the remaining audience
what they had earned for braving the weather.
(not in right order)
Dark Chest Of Wonders
Planet Hell
Wishmaster
She Is My Sin
Nemo
The Phantom Of The Opera
Elvenpath
Stargazers
Higher Than Hope
Symphony Of Destruction (Megadeth cover)
Bless The Child
Elvenpath
Stargazers
Sleeping Sun
Over The Hills And Far Away (Gary Moore cover)
Dead Boy's Poem
Slaying The Dreamer
Wish I Had An Angel
Nifelheim
Wow…Nifelheim got to be the most brutal and obscure band ever
booked to the Swedenrock fest as far as I can remember. The Gustafsson brothers
are known for being the die hard Iron Maiden
freaks and have been interviewed by the Swedish TV a couple of times.
They
definitely created a chaotic maelstrom on the Spendrups stage
which has never ever been experienced in the history of the
Sweden Rock festival. The band follows the real way with an utterly nihilistic old school dress code by having chains,
and leather....even more than Rob Halford could have. Unfortunately, the stage
show was more lame, cos the Gustafsson bros may have not been allowed
to carry out their most grotesque ideas on the stage. They
had to settle for using candles and a war of words. As a matter of fact, the Swedenrock festival could have a little bit more
of these kinds of brutal bands on the bill I think.
The Devastation
The Final Slaughter
Sodomizer
Satanic Sacrifice
Demonic Evil
Die In Fire
Death Strike From Hell
Storm Of Satan´s Fire
U.D.O
The German metal icon, UDO, seems to be constantly touring around
by doing a lot of normal indoor gigs and during the
summer these huge outdoor festivals. Well, why not? If there
is a tremendous demand among fanatical hard rock fans then he
might as well!
It is more or less obvious when getting a new album Udo and company head out
to tour and do a couple of tunes off
from the latest output, but mainly focus on the old Accept
material. The exact same thing happened now as the set
contained several old Accept songs, a couple of new tunes from
Thunderball and just few old U.D.O. gems. Of course, it would have
been great to hear more tunes (now there was only 6 U.D.O. songs
out of the 16 songs) from U.D.O.’s own solo career like “Living
On The Frontline”, “Shout It Loud”, “In The Darkness” etc. But
all in all Udo and the rest of the band did a solid gig
without any surprises at all.
Thunderball
The Bullet And The Bomb
Metal Heart
Independence Day
Pull The Trigger
Living For Tonight
Restless And Wild
Son Of A Bitch
Blind Eyes
Man And Machine
Up To The Limit
Animal House
Balls To The Wall
Princess Of The Dawn
I´m a Rebel
Burning
In Flames
The Finnish own Bodom beach terrorists,
Children of Bodom, unleashed one hell of a ass kicking set on
the Swedenrock stage. It was a real challenge for In Flames to
outdo CoB. Putting In Flames on the third stage was a weird choice
from the Swedenrock organization since the combo’s current highly
acclaimed album has been highly placed on the Swedish
charts for several weeks. The band has
also become bigger during the last two years and has gained a new fanbase.
Especially in Sweden, In Flames could be
named as one of the biggest selling metal combos at the moment.
It wasn’t any surprise that the whole field was totally packed
by thousands. In Flames kicked the set off in the daylight but
it
got better as darkness claimed the Swedish
sky. Especially vocalist Anders Friden
definitely seemed to enjoy playing in front of the
home crowd and turned out to be one hell of a humorous dude by
telling how he feels kinda stressed now that Europe are gonna play
after them. The band was in the damn fine strike and naturally
focused on doing a plenty of newer tracks like "Quiet Place",
"Cloud Connected" and of course as a surprising mandatory old tune
off from the first album Behind Space.
There were a lot of happy people leaving for the main stage
after the kickass set of In Flames. Who won the Finland - Sweden
contest, In Flames or Children Of Bodom, well In Flames!
EUROPE
Sweden’s biggest
ever hard rock name, Europe, had managed
to be the third headliner of the festival by being the
last band on the bill. The huge interest toward Europe’s
comeback was already experienced in the press tent earlier in
the same day when the first two seat rows were conquered by the
Swedish media, but fortunately the whole press conference were
held in English. The whole band was at present in the conference
where the band announced about working on the comeback album
having taken some influences from Thin Lizzy and even from
Sabbath...wow cos usually the latest material on the last studio
albums especially the kind failed Prisoners In The Paradise were
based on the softer direction in order to attract to the fans
who had fallen their knees by the megalomaniac 'The Final
Countdown' hit. Anyway someone threw quite an interesting
question about the band’s guitarists by asking why Europe didn’t
have the second guitarist, cos for example Iron Maiden has three
ones in the rank, Ian Haugland ironically replied if Deep Purple
got Richie Blackmoore, why they would have Steve Morse in the
band.
Sweden’s biggest hard rock export Europe was definitely one
of the most anticipated acts for sure. The whole field was entirely
covered from the front security barrier to the last corner of
the field. The set was started off with “Seven Doors Hotel” from
the debut album, followed by “Wings Of Tomorrow”. As a matter of
fact, Europe did a nice set consisting of a surprising lot of
tracks from the first two albums, whereas the material of the
last album released in 91 was totally neglected. Of course the
mandatory guitar solos and drums solos were the obvious part of
Europe’s reunion gig at Swedenrock. Especially Haugland’s
drum solo was definitely too long anyway. As for the sound, it
was damn heavy making all the classic softer rock songs
sound tight and heavy.
Vocalist Joey Tempest appeared to be in real good shape,
jumping all around the stage, whereas Norum and Leven were more
calmed down by being more in the same place on the stage throught
the whole gig. As it was already widely known, Europe had spent
the whole spring in the studio recording new material for
their upcoming comeback studio album. Of course Swedenrock was
an ideal place to test the new material on the
audience. “Start From The Dark”, a title track from the
forthcoming album, got played for the first time and frankly
the song in the live situation sounded quite heavy, but with
normal melodic parts and Tempest’s clear voice giving the
traditional Europe landmarks to the structure of the song. It
isn't any surprise which song concluded Europe’s gig and all in
all, the whole brilliant festival. Yes, it was 'The Final Countdown'.
Europe definitely melted all the hearts of even the truest death
bangers singing the old Europe classic by heart and several
known faces from known Swedish bands were in the audience were
following Europe.
1. Seven Doors Hotel
2. Wings Of Tomorrow
3. Superstitious
4. Time Has Come
5. Ready Or Not
6. Heart Of Stone
7. The King Will Return
8. Scream Of Anger
9. Sign Of The Times
Gitarr-solo: John Norum
10. Stormwind
11. Carrie
12. Open Your Heart
Trum-solo: Ian Haugland
13. Let the Good Times Rock
14. Yesterday's News
15. Cherokee
16. Rock The Night
17. Start From The Dark (new song!!)
18. The Final Countdown
Now it would be about time to express both thanks and a
little bit criticism as well. Firstly the criticism... As for the
price, having gone up to 150 euros this year was definitely a
little bit too much for anyone’s normal blue collar wallet for
sure. From any festival visitor’s point of view putting such a
price is without any doubt a huge price to pay. Of course most of
visitors have normal day jobs, being able to purchase the normal
150 euro three day ticket, but there are a lot of students
digging metal music who can’t even afford to purchase a
normal CD from a shop so instead go and download the whole album
from the net in order to save some money for food and paying
mandatory bills. For everyone’s sake it would be wiser to
decrease the price a little bit. Of course big rock festivals
like Swedenrock definitely need a huge budget in order to book
more bands for upcoming events.
Another thing to point out is the photographing. The Swedenrock organization had limited photo passes to 80
persons because of problems having come up in previous years,
especially last year when some wise guys didn’t obey the rules of the security guys to leave the photo pit on time as
required. Therefore, taking pics of bands in this year’s event
turned out to be more than complicated. As far as those 80
passes given to the press people, it went beyond the normal
comprehension of anyone as magazines that only use maybe
2 or 3 in an article had full accreditations whereas
magazines using several dozens of pics in articles and
interviews got absolutely nothing. Therefore, some of our pics
unfortunately look
lame because we were forced to take pics from such a long
distance (for example, the Scorpions pics were not even usable).
The whole festival was, like before, very well organized.
Everything worked well timed in every aspect. As usual the whole
festival was damn success in every aspect in terms of huge
crowds, app 20000 visitors each day. All the security issues had
been taken care of extremely well as no fights or any kind of other
dispute was witnessed. Even a legion of the Swedish cops marched
through the merchandise area like soldiers on parade.
It is sure
these 20,000 visitors are eager to enter the festival in 2005
and hopefully the legendary Mötley Crue would be testified there
at last.. Adjö !!
