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Events and Reports - 2000 Decibel Festival - Festival report - 2000 Decibel - 21-22. May 2004 - Bengtsfors, Sweden.
2000 Decibel is a rather small festival in Sweden, and with a program that included bands like Notre Dame, Persuader, Ironware and an old favorite of mine, LeFay, I decided to let 2004 be my first year at the festival.
The trip to the festival ground from Denmark was rather complicated, as we had to travel for about 8 hours, until we reached Åmål railway station, where we had to catch the final bus. Unfortunately the bus never arrived, and we had to put up our tents and spend the night at the station!
(Steen: I only have one thing to say: "Fucking Åmål!" )
Next day went with getting there, buying beer, which you have to do in a special shop in Sweden, plus you're not allowed to drink strong beer at the festival ground itself, only at the camp. All due to the strict alcohol policy of Sweden.
Well, we arrived, and started partying at once, drinking beer at the camp, playing Metal on Steen's very small speakers, and chatting with the Swedish Metalheads!
Day one, the 21th of May.
Draconian (Nina)
Well, having just arrived at the festival, we just wanted to see some Metal, so even though I didn't knew Draconian, I decided to give it a try. This was mostly just a concert to warm up with. The band played some sort of gothic Metal, pretty atmospheric, with a male and a female singer, reminding me a little about Beseech (at least the album I own with them, .From A Bleeding Heart). The show is hard to judge, when not knowing the music better, but it was pretty good, and served as a warm up for getting ready for at lot of music the next two days!
LeFay (Nina)
Being one of my ultimate favorite bands, LeFay was the main reason for my presence at this festival. The band split up some years ago, but now they are back together, thank God, and judging from tonight's show they are back with a vengeance!
The show kicked off with To Isengard, and it was clear right away, that the band is in excellent shape! They really gave it all they had, going completely berserk and delivering their genius music with such an energy and nerve, that I was completely blown away!
Frontman Charles Rytkönen is a real maniac on stage, jumping, screaming, headbanging and really putting his soul into delivering a great show! This was a metal concert as it is meant to be, full of sweat, screams, nerve, and of course great, great music! As Metal as can be! The setlist wasn't only the hits of the band, but also offered some surprises, such as Master Of The Masquerade, The Source Of Pain and In The Court Of The Crimson King, which was great! The band sounds much rougher and harder live than on record, a great thing, and the sound was very good and clear as well. Maleficium was bound to be a highlight, and so it was! What a fantastic song! Heavy, melodic, and with this typical mystical feel, I have only found in LeFay songs! The chant from the audience in the chorus sent chills down my spine!
One thing is to have fantastic songs, but delivering them with such strength and balls, as was the case today, is what make a band so great as these guys truly are!
This was the highlight of the festival for me, no doubt! Now I truly believe that LeFay can come back very strong, and that the band will last this time!
Ironware (Nina)
Ironware is a band I have followed for quite some time, actually since their first demo, and after releasing the debut album Break Out last year, I think the band remains pretty underrated till this day. Openly inspired by Gamma Ray and similar bands, this act delivers a slightly harder version of the German Power Metal school. Yes, it's heard a few times before, to say the least, but then again, who cares when it's as good as this.
And truly great it was! So catchy songs easily translates live, and the band worked great as a unit, especially I must mention leadguitarist Niklas Möller, who did an excellent job, as well as singer Pasi Humppi, who's voice have improved a lot since the other times I've seen them, and he sounded crystal clear today! This was another highlight of the festival for me personally, as Ironware is one of the bands I really like, but rarely have the pleasure of seeing live, and today's show was probably the best I've seen them do so far! I arrived halfway through the opening song, Holy Man, and right after that they played Time Machine, such a catchy, great song, and I was already in ecstasy, jumping as high as I could, screaming my lungs out!
The guys also offered a pre-listen to one of their new songs from the forthcoming album, which sounded rather promising. Only small disappointment was, that they didn't play Saviours, one of my fave songs of theirs.but well, the show rocked, that's for sure, too bad not more people had shown up for this Power/Speed Metal blast!
Pain of Salvation (Steen)
Pain of Salvation were the main reason I had taken the trip to 2000 Decibel. After all the excitement I had built up, it was probably impossible not to be disappointed in some way. With the intro sounds of Remedy Lane the excitement in the front rows of the audience were running high and the band soon got on stage and went into Winning a war. Daniel was of course speaking Swedish to the crowd and I didn't have a clue what he was saying. All I could see was that he suddenly took over the drums while Johan Langell took the microphone as the band went into a new song I had never heard before.
Johan was singing in a harsh growl-like style and to say the least it will be interesting to see how this song turns out on record. Johan didn't seem too comfortable being the new frontman and the band went back to the usual line up after this song. Highlights for me were great versions of Used and Ashes, but I really missed a few songs from Remedy Lane instead of those they played from One hour... Technically the band was amazing but for some reason they failed to really connect with me this time and seemed just a bit too self absorbed during some songs. It felt a little like a spark was missing compared to the last time I saw them live. With a playing time of less than an hour the concert was over way too soon and I left with a weird feeling of missing my left arm.
Morifade (Nina)
Morifade is one of these bands I like, but never really have come to love deeply. The music is very good, but just miss that little extra from being really great. Nevertheless, it's good Power Metal, and the gig today proved to be an enjoyable experience. The singer Stefan Petersson, had a pretty good contact to the audience, and gave a good performance together with the tight band. It looked like they really believed in what they did, which is always great! The best parts of the show for me was Ending Of Time and the last song, Cast A Spell, both from my favorite Morifade album, Possession Of Power!
Day two, the 22th of May.
Persuader (Nina)
Four young Metalheads from Umeå form the promising band Persuader. Blasting thrash riffs combined with godly melodies, the band plays a harder, rougher version of Power Metal. After being blown totally away by their latest release Evolution Purgatory, I was excited to see what the band could deliver live. Unfortunally the band played pretty early, and I had just got up and drunk one single beer before the show, which meant I was a little weird in my head.ohh, well. These shooting stars managed to get my head banging, my hoarse voice screaming along right from the starter Strike Down and during most of the show, which was quite an achievement at this point of the day! They played most of the songs from Evolution Purgatory, leaving out any track from their debut completely, which is somehow understandable, as that album is only released in France. The band was very tight, a fierce and powerful machine! The songs that made me sing loudest in ecstasy were Passion/Pain, Raise Hell and Sanity Soiled. A great show for sure, sweet that I will see them again at Sweden Rock Festival very soon!
Steen: Persuader were the highlight of the festival for me and they blew the morning sleepiness out of my head with their powerful music. They stood completely unimpressed on the scene and blasted away for half an hour before leaving. Their lead singer had an impressive voice live and sang with just as much power as on record. For the rest of the festival I couldn't get Strike down out of my head. I will be in the front for Sweden Rock, that's for certain.
Notre Dame (Nina)
The very theatrical, one-of-a-kind bizarre band, Notre Dame was something I was very excited to experience! Being influences from old horror movies, vampire legends and old obscure comics, the band delivers a vision completely their own.
Huge black fences, a pillory, something that looked like a dead woman in the background and various other effects graced the stage as the band entered, dressed up in weird costumes. Everything seemed complete, and with relatively few effects, the band managed to put on a show that was second to none! The music of Notre Dame is as bizarre and weird as their image: some elements of Black Metal, again some elements from old horror movies soundtracks, and crowned with a combination of the snarling voice of Snowy Shaw and the soft, sensual vocals of frontwoman Vampirella. A weird, wicked experience!
As I only know one of their albums, the first song I could recognize was Sabbat, where I banged my head a happily sang along. The song sung by Vampirella, Vlad The Impaler, was cool to hear too, though there were some problems with the microphone, a shame! Vampirella is very charismatic on stage, and moves around in a way that is both very seductive and very charming, clad in tight sexy outfits, she definitely put on a great show.
Snowy Shaw ended up in the pillory during the show, and this was as much a theatrical event as a musical one.
The drummer Mannequin De Sade looked like a mix of uncle Fester from the Addams Family and Frankenstein, and sat completely still while playing, which looked cool and fitted the style. The guitarist Jean-Pierre De Sade, wears a steightjacket and a white mask without any decoration at all, which gives a total anonumous appereance and feeds the curiosity of what's behind the mask.
A song that shows the weird style of Notre Dame excellently is Black Birthday (Hip Hip Hooray), a sort of a Black Metal birthday song, and today they had a very young fan on stage during this tune, who looked like being mixed with ecstatic and fearfull emotions, as the band moved around him.
Towards the end of the show the band did a cover of Abba's Money, Money, where Vampirella threw out Notre Dame dollar-bills, completely made, with a worth of 666 dollars! A fun little souvenir from a highlight of the festival!
My personal highlight of the show was Bouffoon Bloody Bouffoon, a great song, carried out with much energy and the enjoyable voice of Snowy Shaw!
Tad Morose (Nina)
Wow, what a great concert! I am only slightly familiar with the music of Tad Morose, but this concert convinced me, that this is something I have to look more into in the future. The show was performed with such energy and enthusiasm, that it was almost unbelievable! The singer, Urban Breed, is very charismatic on stage, running around like a madman, with a big smile on his face and an attitude that screams "I just love this", and the band sounded really tight! Not one of the bands I came to see, but this ended up being another highlight! The singer from LeFay, Charles Rytkönen, came on stage as a guest vocalist on the song Matters Of The Dark, and the two frontmen ran around on stage like two lunatics, having a lot of fun! Other songs they played include Anubis, No Mercy, Another Time Around and In The Shadows. A great show for sure!
Steen: Yes, along with Persuader Tad Morose was the highlight of the festival. Looking at their energized performance it was impossible not to get carried away by their music. This show alone was enough to make me invest in their albums. It's been a long time since I've seen a band be so happy on stage.
Cans (Steen)
Cans was the other band I was really looking forward to as I enjoyed their debut a lot. I was just in the mood for an hour of old school Heavy Metal. Unfortunately the audience seemed a bit dead and it was only during the last part of the show that they finally got in the mood. Cans delivered a good show and played most of the songs of their debut album along with two Warlord songs (Child of the damned and Lucifer's Hammer) which kept the long time fans happy. The band rocked pretty hard and seemed in a good mood, but it was clear that they weren't 100% played together yet, this being their first live show ever. Absolute highlights were a rocking version of Silent cries close to the end of the show where the audience really sang along and Red light where I went into a jumping frenzy during the chorus. The Key, Fields of yesterday and Back to hell were cool too. All in all a very satisfying performance.
Dark Tranquility (Nina)
Dark Tranquility is a band I've been wanted to check out for a long time, but just never found the time to do it. Being the headliner of the festival, I expected to see an outstanding show. Well, my expectations were partly ruined by a lot of sound problems, ironically, this show was the one most plagued by that. At a point it even revealed that singer Mikael Stanne doesn't even sound that way without a distortion effect on the microphone! Hmm, anyway I like the way they sound, and the band had a good energy on stage, especially Mikael Stanne, going totally amok. I enjoyed the show, despite the aforementioned problems, and found myself headbanging and being swept away by the music on several occasions.
This was the end of this year's 2000 Decibel festival!
It was a nicely arranged experience, with enough (clean) toilets, a huge waterpost, no major delays in the running order and a surprisingly good sound at most concerts!
The weather was very cold, and one night the guards even came and gave us warm coffee for free at the camping ground, and in general the service was top notch!
I've heard after I returned home, that the festival is in some kind of crisis, and may not be set up again next year, because fewer people came there than anticipated. This would be a shame, so if the festival is happening next year, and you have the possibility, please show up and support it!
| You can click most pictures for a bigger version
Åmål Bus station - The perfect camping ground
Draconian
Lefay
Lefay
Lefay
Lefay
Lefay
Ironware
Pain of Salvation
Pain of Salvation
Pain of Salvation
Pain of Salvation
A very enthusiastic audience member
Pain of Salvation
Pain of Salvation
Morifade
Morifade
About 5 minutes after we woke up...
Persuader
Persuader
Notre Dame
Notre Dame
Tad Morose
Cans
Cans
Dark Tranquility
Dark Tranquility
Dark Tranquility
Dark Tranquility
All pictures taken by Nina & Steen | Written by Nina
Thursday, June 10, 2004 |
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RevelationZ Comments
| Comment by HASSE (Anonymous) - Saturday, August 21, 2004 | ' SNOWY SHAW´S NOTRE DAME RULE AND WERE THE DEFINITE HIGHLIGHT ON THE FESTIVAL. NO QUESTION ABOUT IT!
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