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Events and Reports - Sweden Rock Festival 2008 - Day 2 (Stuart) - Picture, Primal Fear, Judas Priest
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Woke up with only the slightest of hangovers ready for the first day proper of the festival. The weather was perhaps even warmer that the previous day and was seriously threatening to sap my strength. But despite the weathers best efforts I made it from the Picture at twelve pm all the way through to the conclusion of Judas Priest at half one in the morning.
Dutch NWOBHM inspired traditional metallers Picture had managed to stay under my radar completely until their announcement for the festival. After reading a bit about them, checking out a couple of tracks and having Mad's assure me they would be excellent I was looking forward to seeing them.
They turned out to be, if not quite excellent then pretty damn good. One of the great things about Sweden Rock is going to hear a band you know next to nothing about only to end up singing along with the rest of the crowd like you have been a fan for years. The standout songs I can recall were "Night Hunter", "Live By The Sword" and closing track "Message from Hell". They are definitely a band I need to investigate further.
We then headed over to the Main Stage to see Sebastian Bach who was making his return to Sweden Rock after a successful appearance back in 2005. As we approached the main stage we were confronted by signs on the big screens either side of the stage which read:
"*Something in Swedish* Sebastian Bach *Something else in Swedish* Bonafide"
Now shamefully despite travelling to Sweden Rock for the past five years my knowledge of the Swedish language is still sadly lacking. I did however get the sinking feeling that the sign meant that Sab had cancelled and was going to be replaced by Bonafide (who had played the previous day). Unfortunately we soon had it confirmed to us that this was the case. Turns out that Sab had missed a connecting flight to Sweden and had no way of making it to the festival for his time slot. You can read a much more long winded explanation from the man himself here
We were all pretty gutted with this his turn of events as we wanted to see Sab in action again but decided to get over this by heading back to the campsite and.. yes you guessed it, downing another couple of beers. After returning to the campsite we discovered we were running dangerously low on beer. It was decided that The Hobbit and I would travel back into town in search of more alcohol after Primal Fear while Craig and Andy Nutt decided to be a a bit lazy (and in my opinion insane) and watch Coheed and Cambria.
Primal Fear were another band I was looking forward to as I have been a fan of the band ever since hearing Metal Is Forever in a club quite a few years back. They bust onto the stage with "Sign of Fear", the opening track from last album New Religion. This was the perfect introduction for the band as yet again the mix was spot on. This meant the Ralph's potent and frighteningly high screams were perfectly balanced with the music. The version of "Nuclear Fire" made my hair stand on end as it sounded utterly perfect and "Angel In Black" was every bit as intense as the recorded version. Other highlights were a rampaging "Angels and Demons" and a marathon version of "Fighting the Darkness", which included some obligatory slow arm waving from the audience.
Ralph's stage banter was perhaps a little on the weak side as he tried to rouse the oddly quiet Swedish audience with some Spanish style "Oley" chants but he did seem genuinely moved by the response from the crowd by the end of the set. "Metal Is Forever" then drew a brilliant gig to a close ...or so we thought. The band disappeared off stage and we along with a large part of the audience thought it was over and started to shuffle away, the band had one more surprise in store for us and bounded back on for a run through "Chainbreaker".
The Hobbit and I then headed to the bus stop and had a "fun" fifty minute wait on a bus. The Sweden Rock bus service is quite frankly rubbish with only one an hour during the afternoon, I'm hoping that's something they look at as the festival grows year on year. We made it into Solvesburg for around half five, bought the necessary three crates of beer then headed back to the bus stop. We were a bit bummed as we both wanted to see Testament but it didn't look like we would make it back in time and the bus we had got into town was long gone. As luck would have it a taxi pulled up just as we got the bus stop. We jumped in and managed to make it back to the campsite and dump the beer just as Testament were starting.
Nina and Mads were sitting at the campsite when we got there so I decided to hang about for a while for a chat and of course to sample some of our newly purchased beer before heading to catch Testament.
I made it to the Rock Stage just as Chuck Billy was announcing that they were going to play "More Than Meets The Eye", one of the tracks I've heard off the new album. This was followed by "Low" then "Trail of Tears". Having seen the band before, watching these three songs really encapsulated my problem with them. Basically for a Thrash band they don't really have any idea how to write a Thrash song anymore. Most of their later work seems to be decent enough but nothing that really captures the imagination.
Things got better towards the end of the set when they pulled out "The Preacher", "Alone In The Dark" and "Disciples Of The Watch". I had my fingers crossed for "Do or Die" but I figured there really wasn't much of a chance of them playing it. Although apparently I missed "Over The Wall" and "Apocalyptic City" at the start of the set. Bugger...
After Testament I met up with Craig and Andy Nutt and we went back to the campsite to prepare for the most controversial band of the entire festival The Disturbed. Now I accuse this band of appealing to nothing more than the lowest common denominator in metal. Their lyrics are appallingly juvenile rubbish and their down-tuned riff's turn my stomach. I was actually quite shocked when they were announced as I had never thought I would ever see a Nu-Metal band pollute the Main Stage at Sweden Rock.
Despite all my disgust for the band they do have two things going for them. The first is that front man "Mad" Davie Draiman makes me double up with laughter whenever I hear his macho-bullshit lyrics and the second is the song "Down With The Sickness". It's hard to put into words how I can have such affection for a commercial piece of tat like "The Sickness" but if your going to "Jump da fuck up" as it were, then you might as well do it to this song.
We had no intention of catching the rest of the bands set and were willing to bet that they would play and last. So we played the waiting game and pretty much got it spot on, arriving about a song and a half before they played it. And I have to say, it was hilariously brilliant. I reckon that I got down wit da Sickness so hard that they could hear me back home!
As the sky darkened it was time for a hotly anticipated reunion of one of Sweden's most popular extreme metal bands, At The Gates. I've never been a massive fan of the bands back catalogue but I like to dabble on occasion so I was hoping they would put on a good show. I thought that in the main they were pretty good and I thoroughly enjoyed the gig from my vantage point of being two people behind the barrier.
The sound was yet again devastating as the band played tracks like "Terminal Spirit Disease", "Under a Serpent Sun" and "Blinded By Fear" before finishing with an almighty rendition of "Kingdom Gone". My only real complaint is that, like many other Gothenburg bands, most of their songs follow the same formula making quite a few of them blend together with little differentiation. This made parts of the hour and a half set slightly tiresome.
There was indeed no rest for the wicked after At The Gates as we only had fifteen minutes to make it as far down the front as possible for Judas Priest. We worked our way through the crowd and got fairly close to the front just in time for the lights to dim and the intro tape to start.
The band came out on stage on by one and launched into "The Prophecy" from the Nostradamus concept album. Having never heard the song before I was pleased by its sing along chorus and crunching guitar, I was however quite surprised to see just how frail Rob Halford looked. He had come on stage dressed in what looked like a tin foil cloak and using a walking stick, which was all part of the Nostradamus act of course. But as the set progressed it became clear that he was not moving about with the freedom he used to. There were also times during the most demanding of vocal sections ("Painkiller" being the most obvious) where he was rooted to the spot, seeming using every last drop of energy to sing. His vocals are also sadly not quite what they used to be which is slightly disheartening.
Despite these reservations it didn't put too much of a damper on the overall performance as it's still obvious the Priest is very much back. The set list was an unusual mixture of the old, new and unexpected. This pleasingly included "Between The Hammer and The Anvil" and "Hell Patrol" from the Painkiller album. The latter being one of my favourite Priest songs and wonderful to hear live. They also played other, more obscure tracks like "Devils Child" and "Rock Hard Ride Free". It was a departure from previous greatest hits sets but I didn't hear too many complaints.
The set was finished with the power trio of "Hell Bent for Leather", "The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)" and "You Got Another Thing Comin'. Halford and the lads then said a protracted goodbye to an ecstatic crowd as Monty Python's Always Look On The Bright Side of Life was pumped through the speakers.
| Click pictures for a bigger version.
Primal Fear
Primal Fear
Primal Fear
Primal Fear
Primal Fear
Primal Fear
Primal Fear
Primal Fear
Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest
All pictures taken by Steen | Written by Stuart
Sunday, July 20, 2008 |
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