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Events and Reports - Sweden Rock Festival 2011 - Day Three: Agent Steel, Rob Zombie, Helloween and Ghost
Friday, June 10th
Agent Steel
Starting the day off, Agent Steel was set to play at the Sweden stage. The hangovers must have been severe, because an embarrassing small amount of people had show up. The band started with a lengthy instrumental intro, prolonging the excitement to hear original singer John Cyrus, finally back in the band again. When he finally entered the stage, it was with the insane high screams of Unstoppable Force, a great song that was performed with passion and power. John Cyrus lived up to everything he is on record, quite a feat for a man his age.
The sun was unbelievable hot, and it was a struggle just to headbang a little.
The band played all their classics and did a great job of it, delivering songs like The Rager, Mad Locust Rising and Agents Of Steel with lots of nerve and intensity, especially taking the early time into consideration. A great warm up for another festival day!
Setlist
The Day At Guyana
Unstoppable Force
Never Surrender
The Traveler
Children Of The Sun
The Rager
Mad Locust Rising
Nothing Left
Agents Of Steel
Bleed For The Gods
Guilty As Charged
After Agent Steel's show, I want for a few beers at the camp. I was tempted to visit the nearby beach, but the good company kept me in the camp.
On my way to meet up with my husband, Mads, I managed to catch a small bit of Stryper's performance. It was just a quick glimpse, so I can't really judge the show properly, but it looked like a good time was had, and the band was happy to be on stage. They even had their signature black and yellow striped guitars and stage attire with them.
Rob Zombie
When I was a kid, I was slightly fascinated with White Zombie. I was never that much a fan of electronic music, but a few bands managed to hold my attention and one of them was White Zombie. I remember listening to some of their albums, but what fascinated me the most, was their music videos, and the whole image build around the band with werewolves, zombies, circus freaks and strippers. It was like all the campy, freakish, cartoonish and horror oriented, all that was considered bad taste was expressed in this band. When Rob Zombie released albums under his own moniker, it was essentially the same music and image he continued. I'd never had the chance to catch the band (or frontman) live, so I didn't know what to expect.
Rob Zombie played a great mix of classic White Zombie material and highlights from his solo career. Listening to More Human Than Human brought my thoughts back to my teenage years, and the impact White Zombie originally had on the scene, with their almost militant, industrial sound.
The stage was graced with huge posters of classic movie monsters like King Kong, Wolfman and Frankenstein's monster, which was cool and underscored the horror vibe of the band. However, I was expecting some more on the show side, maybe that the band had brought some performers with them, like monsters, freaks, strippers, or maybe just used some fire, in the vein of what Rammstein does. But the show was actually very low key, relying only on monster make up on the band members, and Mr. Zombie's energetic running around, even jumping down the photo pit to be as close to his worshippers as possible. Very cool performance from the Devilman himself!
Demonoid Phenomenon really got the crown going with its infectious energy. Rob lifted a huge Swedish flag towards the sky, as a thank you to all at Sweden Rock for a great day, and invited everyone to sing along to Mars Needs Women.
I was ecstatic, when the band went into Supercharger Heaven, such a great song that really swiped the crowd off their feet.
The band quickly changed to long red coats, before delivering their biggest hit, the catchy Dragula, that got the huge field in front of the stage singing and jumping. A very solid performance from Rob and the ghouls!
Setlist
What Lurks on Channel X?
Superbeast
Scum Of The Earth
Living Dead Girl
More Human Than Human
Demonoid Phenomenon
Mars Needs Women
House Of 1000 Corpses
Drum Solo
Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)
Demon Speeding
Super-Charger Heaven
Thunder Kiss '65
Encores:
Dragula
Pussy Liquor
Lords of Salem
Helloween
The German Power Metal heroes in Helloween played simultaneously with Thrash legends Overkill, making it a tough call which band to chose. I did end up going for Helloween though, as they are one of my favorites.
Helloween is a great, accomplished live band and always deliver the goods. However, there's also a chance that the gig will suffer from too much goofing around as a result of the band's silly humor. Helloween represents the happy-go-lucky Power Metal I so adore, but that sometimes balance on the brink of becoming too silly, as the time I saw them and Michael Weikath kept talking in a high, cartoonish voice between all songs. What the F was that about?
The band's reputation of playing "kindergarden Metal" was aided by the fact that several children had shown up for the show, front row. Kids shouldn't be front row at a Metal show, they should be home watching cartoons or climbing trees so the grown ups can go berserk!
When the band set into the immortal classic that is Eagle Fly Free, the whole crowd exploded in a burst of energy. A song I can never tire of, it is such a harmonious and sweet song that always gets a little needed nitty-gritty toughness added to it in a live situation!
March Of Time is one of the best Helloween songs ever, it is to me the perfect Power Metal song, always a pleasure to get this one served live. The support from the crowd was great, even the children lifted their little fists to the sky.
Andi Deris told us that the band is very fond of interacting with the fans on the internet and following the polls and discussions, it had come to his attention, that a lot of fans wanted to hear the longer songs live. That's why the band had decided to do a medley of Halloween, Keeper Of The Seven Keys and King For A 1000 Years. The band did a good job of boiling down the songs and mixing them, it's always hard to take the right parts from each song, but the medley was very enjoyable, though I personally would have preferred to hear just one of the songs in its full length.
The band played a powerful version of Steel Tormentor, it is evident that this song is actually written for Deris' voice, though he also did a great job on the always enjoyable Future World.
During the entire set, Andi Deris small talked too much between songs, its great to have a connection to the crowd, but his stories weren't too interesting and told in a dragged out way. When he told a long story about the drummer, calling him "a girl" as an offense, I got really annoyed. The ultimate insult, eh? Instead of all the blabbering I would have rather gotten a song or two extra.
The I Want Out sing-a-long was stretched out a bit too far too, leaving room for only one encore, Dr. Stein, that got the crowd jumping and the fists flying.
It was a great show, as Helloween always does, but a little too close to drowning in talk.
Setlist
Are You Metal?
Eagle Fly Free
March Of Time
Sasha Gerstner guitarsolo
Where The Sinners Go
Drum solo
I'm Alive
Medley: Keeper Of The Seven Keys/King For A 1000 Years/Halloween
Steel Tormentor
Future World
I Want Out
Encore:
Dr. Stein
Ghost
Ghost is the newest Swedish Metal sensation. The band consists of.well, that's not entirely clear, since the band members hide behind masks and dark hooded monk's attire, not providing any recognizable faces or names. From day one, the band has been spun in mystique, spawning urban legends and vague speculations from the beginning. The whole way the band has been introduced to the scene has been brilliant. From the cover art to the lyrics, the anonymity of the band, and the live acts, Ghost have maintained an aura of mystique and created a complete concept. The band's music is very 70's influenced, mixed with heavy King Diamond/Mercyful Fate influences. In fact, King Diamond/Mercyful Fate is probably the band I can best compare Ghost to, due to the satanic-occult lyrics and the theatrical image. On stage, Ghost performs a strange parody of the traditional Catholic mass. Wearing a creepy mask and priest's hat and robe embroided with reversed crosses, the singer acts as a satanic priest, by spinning the Catholic ritual around. Being raised a Catholic, I must admit I felt a cold chill watching the show. The smell of the smoke jar, the parodied costume of a priest and the chanting nature of the music went straight to my senses, past my reasoning. I understand that for a non-religious or satanic person, this will be just a splendid show, but to me, it was just too accurate to the actual mass to feel comfortable. I do realize, this is probably just a gimmick, but unlike other satanic bands I listen to, Ghost presents their Satanism as a real religious belief, as opposed to a political or humanistic view. That I felt my Catholic beliefs slightly violated during the show, is probably the best advertisement the band can get, if you´re into that sort of satanic show. Trying to be objective, the show was very nicely made, and had a complete feeling to it, with attention to each detail. The frontman's costume as well as the other band member's, who were dressed in black monk's robes, hiding their faces and wore large reversed crosses, was all tremendously well crafted. The band played all songs from their debut album, and the songs held up very well live. The sound was great, especially for the small Zeppelin stage, and the band's musical performance was top notch. The field was over filled with hungry Metalheads, screaming along. From an objective point of view, the show was a tremendous success! The band played very well, the audience was spellbound and the whole performance was spun in that certain eerie, occult atmosphere that has already come to categorize the band. I spoke to several people who though that this was the best performance of the entire festival!
Setlist
The entire Opus Eponymous album
Here Comes The Sun (Beatles cover)
After the Ghost ride, I went to the camp to drink a little. Though I was a little curious about Whitesnake, I was too done for to go.
| | | Written by Nina
Thursday, August 11, 2011 |
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