Sweden Rock Festival - Day One
10 June 2004
Sölvesborg, Sweden

Oh how we waited for this. Sweden Rock 2003 was probably the best festival I`d been to and to say I was looking forward to this was an understatement. I did have nagging worries that it wouldn`t live up to my expectations, but I have to say once again they were exceeded.

I thought some people may find use out of how we got there, so just skip this paragraph if you`re not interested. Our journey started at 3.45am, setting off in the car to Stansted to catch a 7.15 flight to Copenhagen. Having allowed time for any delays we were left with a three hour wait at Kastrup airport before our train. But when there`s the fine Danish beer Tuborg to be drunk, time passes quickly. Soon we were on the train to Kristianstad with 36 cans of Carlsberg tempting us. A quick change at Kristianstad and a short 20 min ride and there we were in Sölvesborg. The festival has buses organised to transfer people to the site from here, but since we were staying in a chalet (yes, I know - wimps!) a little further away we jumped in a cab. Bottom line, it`s simple to get there.

Cracking on with a review of the festival, this year the first day had been expanded with all four rather than just the smaller two stages used.

Opening a festival can be a difficult task, particularly if like at Download the organisation means people can`t get there in time to see you. Not so at Sweden Rock with the gates opened with plenty of time for a sizeable crowd to gather all waiting for their fix of rock. As a result, with an eager crowd, nobody else playing at the same time and the sun out everything was set for Lumsk and they duly obliged with an excellent performance.

Despite having heard their debut album Åsmund Fregdegjaevar beforehand, I really didn`t know what to expect from the live performance. Lumsk mix Norwegian folk with metal. The violin of Siv Lena adds a mournful tone similar to early My Dying Bride mixed with the crunching guitars of Eystein Garberg and Ketil Sæther, bringing to mind Into The Pandemonium era Celtic Frost.

Amongst the 8 person line-up, Lumsk employ two vocalist with the angelic Stine Mari Langstrand, who has only recently joined the band, sharing duties with the ever enthusiastic Steinar Årdel. Both are more than capable singers and I could imagine Stine being recruited for session work with black metal bands looking for female back-up vocals.

Lumsk aired a good selection from their album, though as it is all in Norwegian it`s difficult for me to identify them by name, though I do know Ormin Lange and Skip Under Lide were played. The reaction from the crowd and from everyone I spoke to was that their performance was a resounding success and I for one would certainly like to see them again.

Next up on the Sweden stage were Crazy Led, unsurprisingly being a Led Zeppelin cover band. I found it a bit odd that a cover band had been booked at all, particularly as the singer sounded like a strangled cat during opener Immigrant Song, so we took a wander.

Back on the Spendrups stage Dio, er I mean Astral Doors are on next. There`s no getting away from the fact that this Swedish band sound like an amalgamation of Ronnie James` career. That`s no bad thing however as they do it really well and in fact if Dio wanted someone to write and play (and sing!) some material for him, he could do worse than call these guys.

Singer Nil Patrick Johansson even adopts the Dio stoop, which looks funny given he`s about twice the height. He also appeared to have been enjoying the beverages at the festival, though that took nothing away from his performance. At times he sounds like Dio singing in the "Vic Reeves club style" then he`ll suddenly switch to a clear vocal that you`d swear was Ronnie himself.

With song titles like Hungry People, Man On The Rock and Slay The Dragon, you`d also get the impression that they`ve got a set of Dio song title fridge magnets and mixed up the words to create their own lyrics.

Reading this back it seems like I`m criticising them, but that`s not the case as they were very enjoyable and songs such as the Heaven & Hell like The Trojan Horse and the heads down of Cloudbreaker are great rock songs.

Astral Doors set list:
Hungry People / Burn Down The Wheel / Of The Son & The Father / Slay The Dragon / Man On The Rock / The Trojan Horse / In Prison For Life / Cloudbreaker

I was very much looking forward to seeing The Haunted now they are reunited with Peter Dolving. Marco Aro ably handled the vocals over the last two albums, but he seemed more directed in a metalcore direction and I had always preferred the sprinkling of melody of The Haunted`s debut.

It`s no surprise then that five tracks such as Chasm, Undead & Three Times are aired from that debut album with the more melodic material from the more recent albums such as Bury Your Dead, and Hollow Ground. Not that this means that The Haunted are any less powerful, in fact they put on one of the most intense sets I`ve seen at Sweden Rock, it`s just that the chosen material is more memorable than previous gigs I`ve seen them play.

Two new tracks bode well for the upcoming new album with 99 sounding catchy on first listen and the slow tuneful Abysmal featuring some Trouble like mourning guitar harmonies.

The Haunted recently supported Funeral For A Friend in the UK, which hints that they fancy tapping into a younger market, similar to what In Flames have done. While some might be horrified at losing one of "their bands" to that crowd, personally I see it as a good way for people to discover bands like The Haunted which may tempt them into listening to bands perhaps they wouldn`t usually consider.

The Haunted set list:
Shadow World / Chasm / Trespass / God Puppet / 99 / D.O.A. / Dark Intentions / Bury Your Dead / Abysmal / Hollow Ground / Hate Song / 3 Times / God Puppet

People must have been heading for food during the afternoon slot of Sweden`s Debase as despite being scheduled against nobody else, a rather sparse crowd had gathered for them. That`s a shame as a very good set was missed.

Drummer Johan Hellgesson proved to be quite a character and had us in stitches with his comedy muscle posing in just his lycra pants during the intro. Guitarists Jonas Karlgren, Sigge Riesbeck and bassist Micko Twedberg lined up and grinded out the opening to Pleasuredome. Vocalist Michael Hansson finally appeared and took centre stage for the duration of the set.

Debase have three albums to date bearing their name, however their seven songs set consisted solely of material from latest album Unleashed. Being the only one I have, I had no problems with that and nodded along to the likes of Holy Caravan and Elected.

I`m not the first person to have difficulty describing the Debase sound. It`s definitely metal and varies from doom to trad metal with touches of thrash. It`s certainly melodic, definitely heavy and won over the few who had gathered this afternoon.

Debase set list:
Pleasuredome / The Blood Remains / Holy Caravan / Elected / Symphony For The Unholy / Restrained / Unleashed

The sun was out and it was officially scorching. A large crowd was gathering for TNT, but having downloaded some samples from their site I thought the conditions were perfect to sit back on the grass with a beer and relax in the company of Abramis Brama.

Abramis Brama are from Sweden and are another band who sing in their native tongue, save for a recent release where they recorded new English lyrics on some of their material. They were sticking to Swedish today unsurprisingly so it was fortunate we have a Swedish photographer to hand.

The band are as 70s as the dodgy white disco suit Uffe Torkelsson is sporting today. That`s the kind of stoner grooves that the likes of The Quill play and similarly to that outfit, both feature singers with a close vocal resemblance to Chris Cornell. Vad Jag ser could easily be an Audioslave song.

You can imagine the rest of the band, made up of Fredrik Jansson (drums), Dennis Berg (bass) and Per-Olof Andersson (guitar), have spent hours of endless jamming in the rehearsal studio, so tight are their grooves.

Two new songs are aired, which Johan translated to The Emperor`s New Clothes and The Grass is Greener. The driving Mamma Talar, think Kyuss` Green Machine, closes a set which was exactly at the right place and time.

A new edition to the festival this year was the Rock Tent. "House band" Raceway mostly frequented this, playing a variety of covers. The tent was rarely overly busy, mainly providing somewhere for a beer and shelter from a sudden rain shower. However, this wasn`t the case for Trading Fate as the tent was absolutely rammed and we had to make do with watching from outside.

Word had obviously got out about this young band (all around 18) as many of the people we had met over the festival had congregated here and in fact they probably drew a bigger crowd than Paragon over on the Spendrups stage at the same time.

Musically Trading Fate worship at the altar of Iron Maiden, with the likes of Temporary Dead and Trapt sounding like they could have come straight of Maiden`s latest album Dance Of The Dead. Vocalist Kenny Leckremo sounds so much like Bruce Dickinson he apparently won a competition to sing on stage with Maiden. As I`d noticed with Astral Doors, singers who obviously wear their influences on their sleeves, sometimes not only sound like their idols, but mimic their mannerisms too and this was the case with Leckremo. Stood in the traditional Dickinson legs wide apart pose sweeping his hand across the audience.

Musically the band are very talented too and it should not be long before a label picks them up. Given we couldn`t get comfortably into the tent I didn`t watch them intently, but what I saw was impressive. The band obviously knew this was a big break for them and put a lot of energy into their performance.

Time for a parting of ways, with Johan opting to check out D.A.D., whilst I went for Entombed. I don`t know whether it was me or them that just didn`t seem up for it tonight. I`d expected the set list to be similar to that at their show at the Garage back in February and it more or less was, though there just didn`t seem to be the same passion in their performance.

I kind of got the feeling that some members of Entombed are a bit bored playing the same songs and guitarist Alex Hellid in particular was adding some improvisation. My own opinion is that this can work when it`s your own headline gig and its pre rehearsed, but Entombed seemed sloppy tonight and would have been better served heads down delivering the songs as they are meant.

One person`s performance you can`t criticise is vocalist L.G. Petrov with a relentless delivery from start to finish, which as usual ended with him drenched in sweat.

Perhaps the only time during the festival where faced with a clash of bands I wanted to see, I ended up thinking I`d made the wrong choice.

Entombed`s approximate set list (not in correct order):
Demon / Serpent Speech / Scottish Hell / The Fix Is In / Retaliation / Revel In Flesh / To Ride, Shoot Straight & Speak The Truth / Out Of Hand / Flexing Muscles / Seeing Red / Hollowman / Wreckage / Wolverine Blues / Left Hand Path / Damn Deal Done

Prior to a festival with good intentions I will mark up who I intend to see, but it never usually pans out exactly as planned and generally some breaks are required. Having arrived mid way through Memory Garden`s set, we watched a little, but I have to say I was uninspired to stay for much. Perhaps the end of Candlemass leaves an opportunity for Memory`s Garden to take up their mantle, as they seemed to be moving closer to that act from what I heard. Unfortunately there was little to hold my attention and a wander round seemed more appealing.

Like Entombed, I had expected Helloween to play a similar set list to their last visit to the UK, but this was exactly the same save for them running out of time and not playing How Many Tears.

Therefore the surprise of opening the set with Starlight and Murderer followed by the lengthy Keeper Of The Seven Keys was lost on me. I`d really enjoyed the last gig in London, though when we were sorting through the photos from this festival, Johan commented that he`d forgotten we`d seen them, which is pretty much how I felt.

Given most of the gathered fans here probably saw them on the recent tour, I can`t have been the only one disappointed by the predictability of the set and it would have been nice if Helloween had made the effort to mix things up a bit for their Summer festival appearances.

Having said that, the quality of songs like Future World got me singing along and with a few Spendrups consumed, bouncing up and down to Dr Stein seemed like a good idea.

Helloween set list:
Starlight / Murderer / Keeper Of The Seven Keys / Future World / Eagle Fly Free / Hey Lord! / Forever & One (Neverland) / Open Your Life / Dr. Stein / If I Could Fly / Back Against The Wall / Power / Sole Survivor / I Can / Where The Rain Grows / Sun 4 The World

I was really looking forward to seeing the reunited Judas Priest and apparently wasn`t the only one as most of the festival seemed to have gathered to see them. Making our way forward, which is no fun with a day pack for company, we eventually found a spot as The Hellion intro started and a shiver went down my spine.

Priest were the only band playing the main stage today, which gave them the advantage of a whole day to get their sound correct and construct their impressive stage set. Chrome stepped levels rose up either side of the drum kit leading to two raised walkways held aloft by the Judas Priest fork symbol. Behind this the backdrop mirrored the cover of the Electric Eye DVD, with Rob Halford appearing in the eye for that opening number.

Metal Gods quickly followed seeing Rob stomping along the walkways in robotic fashion whilst Glen Tipton and K.K. Downing lined up together to swing back and forth in time with the beat. Halford greeted the crowd and just like the Priest Live video, suggested "Let`s go Heading Out To The Highway".

Throughout the gig I don`t recall Rob mentioning his return to the band and it was as if The Ripper years had never happened and indeed no reference was made to Tim Owens when that song was played. The version was very true to Unleashed In The East, as was much of the older songs played.

Following that the lights went down and the familiar intro to A Touch Of Evil commenced. Rob was nowhere to be seen, until he suddenly rose from a trap door in the stage. I recall the stage lights being very effective for this one and at the end Rob returned back through the trap door.

It was about this point that the crush became unbearable and we had to retreat a little. During that period Priest ran through one of my personal favourites The Sentinel with awesome guitar interplay between Tipton & Downing, and Turbo Lover in its original form.

Last time I saw Halford live he seemed to be struggling with his vocals, but Victim Of Changes in particular showed he was back on top form, hitting all the high notes. Sticking with the old stuff, acoustic guitars on stands were then brought out for a stripped down version of Joan Baez`s Diamonds & Rust.

Priest could probably play Breaking The Law in their sleep and they proved they could play it on other people`s instruments as Halford lined up with Downing, Tipton and Ian Hill to play out the riff on each others guitar necks.

Again, darkness fell and a huge mirror ball descended and was used to great effect during the emotional Beyond The Realms of Death. The stage then fell green, of course for Priest`s version of The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown). Rob got hands and voices raised for the closing Wooahhs!

Time for Scott Travis to show his worth with the furious drum intro to Painkiller. The amazing guitar solos on the song were also spot on as Ian Hill in his usual rear stage right position rocked along keeping the pulse.

Now Halford`s outfits have always been camp, but since publicly coming out he seems to have raised the game, which was the case tonight, looking like the biker from the Village People as he rode out on his Harley for first encore Hell Bent For Leather. Living After Midnight had us literally rocking ‘til the dawn!

United is not one of my favourite Priest songs but live it`s a completely different beast, garnering a response not unlike Queen`s We Will Rock You. Finally You`ve Got Another Thing Coming closed the set.

There have been a lot of complaints on the Priest message board that this set was too predictable, but I don`t know why people really expected anything different for a comeback tour. Interestingly although Halford had said he would be prepared to sing Ripper era songs, this period was ignored. Ram It Down was the only other album skipped tonight, although save for Blood Red Skies, there`s little else you could have hoped for from it.

Judas Priest set list:
Hellion / Electric Eye / Metal Gods / Heading Out To The Highway / The Ripper / Touch Of Evil / The Sentinel / Turbo Lover / Victim Of Changes / Diamonds & Rust / Breaking The Law / Beyond The Realms / The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown) / Painkiller / Hell Bent For Leather / Living After Midnight / United / You Got Another Thing Coming