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Bombus and Black Temple – Into The Fire European Tour 2013

How happy we were when it was confirmed that Black Temple will support Bombus on the main part of their European tour this autumn/winter. Tomorrow November 18, the party all starts in Frankfurt, DE, at the Nachtleben. Just check out the band’s respective homepage and Facebook below for more information about tour dates and locations. I definitely aim to be at the Beat in Copenhagen on December 7. An easy train ride on a Saturday afternoon on for a great time and Metalsouth experience. Best of luck for a super successful tour! As here earlier described, based upon the two bands recent live performances all points in the direction of total success!!

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http://www.bombusmusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/BLACKtempleswe

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Soilwork – ‘death’ at its best!

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DSC_0244The Living Infinite I (Music & Lyrics: Strid)

‘Surrender…Will there still be a place for me to grow?

Transcend me beyond this source we thought we knew

Like the river kissed this darkened sea

The shelter has to be somewhere beneath

Let me go…To where the purity comes alive

Drown me…In the living infinite, let me go’

My old Auntie died this past spring and she had prepared her funeral in the white archive, which is rather common these days. She had selected the hymns, the Reverend and the food to be served at the traditional coffee gathering after the ceremonial service. Her fine funeral made me think a lot about how I would like to have my own funeral. Hopefully, there’s still some time to go, but, of course, it would be nice to have selected at least the music to be played at the service. I have found the initial text lines of the first title song of this year’s album release from Soilwork, The Living Infinite, so strong that it is today my natural choice for the opening of my own funeral service. To have the church accept Soilwork live fully geared up and at full blast may be dreaming of the unreachable, but to have the song played from a CD player would be almost as fine and strong. The last alternative would be if Soilwork over the years (before it’s time) have produced an acoustic version to be played over some strong speakers. The words of this opus are so strong that they simply must be in the room.

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Soilwork, at KB in Malmö on last Saturday November 9, 2013, was a tight group having over the past year done numerous gigs all over the world’s different continents, opening up with ‘This Momentary Bliss’ and keeping an intense one hour forty minutes enormous party in the place for us being present. My high expectations mainly originating from one of Metaltown’s best performances last summer were completely met. I could also happily find the review in this morning’s local Helsingborgs Dagblad and understand that a more technical analysis of the performance was of a really high mark. The only disappointment of the evening was that too many metalheads out there missed this wonderful opportunity to see live one of the world’s greatest Melodic Death Metal bands. I would guess that at least a hundred more people would have easily found a space on the floor of KB.

Some wonderful news…I can only hope it will become real…comes from Stefan Lindqvist, who has written an article in Helsingborgs Dagblad on November 8, 2013, referring to an interview with Björn Strid that there are plans for Soilwork and Darkane to go on tour together. To see these two bands with members having roots in the region south of Helsingborg play on the same concert would be absolutely too good to be true!! The side project of Björn Strid and David Andersson ‘The Night Flight Orchestra’ is also worthwhile to listen into. Although, they will not qualify at my funeral, if you see what I mean!!

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To follow the tradition of introducing band members, Soilwork is:

Björn ‘Speed’ Strid (Vocals), Dirk Verbeuren (Drums), Ola Flink (Bass), Sven Karlsson (Keyboards), Sylvain Coudret (Guitars) and David Andersson (Guitars). To say that this band is the prime representative of ‘Metalsouth’ is an understatement, since they originate from Helsingborg, south of Helsingborg, Holland and France. Thanks for the greatest show, which is among the top three performances on my list!!

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We also direct our thank you to Keep of Kalessin (Norway) and Deals Death (Gothenburg) for their great supporting performances!

(Inspirational articles and Reviews: Helsingborgs Dagblad, Stefan Lindqvist, Nov. 8 and Nov. 11)

Upcoming events

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This Saturday November 9, one of my absolute favourite bands, Soilwork, will play at Kulturbolaget (KB) in Malmö.

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I have ever since intensely listening through their recorded career tried hard to see them live. Soilwork also opened my eyes for the metal, which originates from this area south of Helsingborg. More on that later. At Metaltown in Gothenburg this passed summer the dream came true. It was a fantastic hour and to now see them at KB in Malmö as a headline act on Saturday will be a feast! 

Free Fall – a tribute!

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Tickets were bought to see Swedish band Graveyard from Gothenburg on Fri. March 8, 2013, at the main stage, Tivoli, in Helsingborg. My accompanying friend called me the day before and made me aware about the supporting act for the concert. Free Fall, my friend said, ‘you know, it’s the band Mattias Bärjed formed after the split up of The Soundtrack Of Our Lives (TSOOL) in 2012’. I had heard about it, but had no real idea which kind of hard rock they play. ‘Pretty interesting!’ and we agreed to be there in time to study the supporting act critically. Firstly, to see band members themselves struggling to get the gear in place on the Tivoli stage gave a really good impression! Secondly, what was delivered made me decide immediately if I ever get a chance to promote this band and its music I will do my best! I have spread the word the best I can and can hereby more concretely recommend to buy the premiere release from this year (2013) ‘Power & Volume’. Nuclear Blast is the record company and some interesting material on the start up of the band can be found on their homepage. The band consists of Jan Martens (bass), Mattias Bärjed (guitars), Kim Fransson (lead vocals) and Ludwig Dahlberg (drums). For many of us who grew up with AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen and many more this band’s music and performance bring back joyful memories. I can understand if bands and their members get tired of critics constant comparison to other bands like the ones mentioned here, but Kim Fransson’s great voice for many of us leads back to one of the greatest, Bon Scott. Sorry, for falling into the trap of comparing, but hopefully here it may be seen as positive. Mattias Bärjed, who we know from the career of TSOOL is an excellent guitarist and his sound and physical performance is the best entertainment. In the Men’s Room after Free Fall’s fabulous performance the loud honest expressions would never stop. ‘Who are these guys? Man, they were good! Give them another hour!! We want more of this stuff!!’

For a Monday morning driving to work…and yes, very loud volume, are the songs Midnight Vulture, Top Of The World, Damnation and last but not least with the perfect name ‘Power & Volume’ the best way to get in shape for a Monday morning entrance into the office landscape!! At the next opportunity Free Fall will play live close by I will be standing in the front line.

Odyssey/Black Temple – a working victory!

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We came there to see Odyssey perform in a name change event. ‘It’s the fourth time we change names and each time it feels better’, Jonas Pedersen stated. Odyssey is now ‘Black Temple’. I can see the identity problem of the name Odyssey with a number of bands with this name all over the world. To search for Odyssey songs at streaming suppliers takes some time to hit correctly. ‘Black Temple’ as a name sounds right, the band logo is again stylish and if the sound is better…? Well, it was cruel, hard and noisy as Odyssey and Black Temple continues to work hard and collects another victory this evening.

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Marcus Witold Östensson (guitars), Jonas Pedersen – (bass, vocals) and Jesper Karlsson (drums) give it all they have. Body and soul. This ‘hard noise rock’ gave me body ache like the worst gym session. I haven’t had my head ringing and my body aching from a live performance like this in a long time. Songs like ‘Wicked Witch’ and Abysmal Despair’ from the CD with the same name (2012) gives me the feeling of just wanting more.

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More is to come…and to have the rumour confirmed that Black Temple will be the supporting act to Bombus on their European Tour during Nov-Dec this year only makes this heavy metal weekend even more perfect. Let my head keep ringing to rememer this great weekend! Another t-shirt reference must also be made here. I could only happily notice that Jesper Karlsson on drums started the concert in a Frank Zappa t-shirt (picture of ‘Chunga’s Revenge’, 1970), which triggers ideas and bridging over to other personally interesting subjects for this blog. Many thanks to Black Temple and the best of good luck for the coming tour in Europe!!

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Drivvedsfolket – not only supports!

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Actually, our wish was to enter the Metal Bar on the Saturday evening October 26, just in time for the Odyssey performance. The last time with the old name and the first with the new name Black Temple. After a good meal at the Pub Ro in the Helsingborg North Harbour area, we entered the Metal Bar at ca. 23.00 only to see a band of young guys with a pretty funny and a bit strange name ‘Drivvedsfolket’ (hard to translate, but, something like…the Driftwood People) enter the stage. Drivvedsfolket is Johan Lindman (guitars, vocals), Carl Lindman (drums), Daniel Ringlund (bass) and Christoffer Columbus (guitars). This band stems from Norrköping and plays character strong pop rock and all lyrics are in Swedish (acc. to their homepage). We were surprised to see how well they performed. Great energy an definitely here gets an honourable mention with many good lucks for the future.

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Bombus bombardes!

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Supporting act to Danko Jones was Bombus from Gothenburg, which was formed in 2008. Two full length CD’s the band has released. ‘Bombus’ (2010) and ‘The Poet and the Parrot’ (2013). Yesterday evening we were honoured to have the band on main stage at the Tivoli in Helsingborg.

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Bombus bombardment in songs like ‘The Poet and the Parrot’ and my own favourite ‘Cut Deep’ set the mood of the Tivoli floor. It wasn’t packed during their excellent performance, but Danko Jones fans arriving gradually found an interesting meeting in this coming Swedish hard rock band. The at times ‘punk’ influenced songs we understand go very well in line with Danko Jones repertoire. To be able to see Bombus’, i.e. Feffe (guitars, vocals), Jonas (bass), Matte (guitars, vocals) and Peter (drums), tour plans for this coming November and December in Europe gives me, and I hope many more, a great urge to see them in a full length concert. As we discussed Friday, just before Danko Jones was to enter the stage…Bombus three last songs were cruel and another half hour with them would have put some extra pressure on the evenings main act from Canada.

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Danko Jones fills the house!

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Sold out!! It stated on all posters over town. In Helsingborg with 132.000 people, not all being metalheads, unfortunately, it isn’t very common with a sold out event like this. For a change I bought the tickets many months in advance, since the combination of Bombus, from Gothenburg and Danko Jones was very interesting. The Canadian band Danko Jones (formed in 1996) has a special relationship to Sweden since all released five studio albums are from the Swedish record company Bad Taste Records. The band consists of Danko Jones (guitars, vocals), John Calabrese (bass) and Rich Knox (drums).To have secured my tickets in time was my lucky shot. Danko Jones not only filled the house. They rocked the roof out of Tivoli! AND it was Friday October 25, 2013.

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Danko Jones I saw for the first time live at the Metaltown festival in Gothenburg this passed summer. Not only the band’s live performance was great, but to listen to Danko Jones talking to us in the crowd between the songs gave a lot of good laughs! ‘After all these years playing at Metaltown we now understand why we keep on getting invited…it’s only to give all of you metalheads a break in the massive sound attacks of the other metal bands here at Metaltown’ (as one example of Danko Jones’ comments). Also at the Tivoli yesterday he provoked parts of the audience only to take it back before leaving the stage. Danko Jones has played the Tivoli since 2002 and has here the faithful group of fans to sell the place out! His monthly chronicles in the Close-Up Magazine are always great to read and gives a good ground to many laughs and knowledge building in this field.

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No further reviews or marks are necessary. It was excellent! It was the perfect rock night out in Helsingborg. Please, continue to come to Helsingborg and sell the whole place out again and again!!

Upcoming events

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Tomorrow Friday October 25, we welcome Danko Jones with support of Swedish band Bombus, who play at the main stage at Tivoli here in Helsingborg.

On Saturday October 26, we really look forward to see Odyssey play at the Metal Bar, also at the Tivoli. It’s the last performance with the Odyssey name. Black Temple will be the new name.

It will be a heavy metal weekend, but how heavy happy this is!!

Darkane dominates!

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On Saturday October 5, Darkane was back on stage at the Metal Bar (Tivoli) in Helsingborg. Five years have passed since the band released an album and to be back on stage to play most of the songs from the Sinister Supremacy release from this year put some pressure on the band members and some great expectations in us fans who were there to meet Darkane live again.

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The album has been met by great reviews and personally I think it’s the best of the six albums they have released. The introduction of the new beer ‘Darkale’ from the micro brewery Helsingborgs Bryggeri was another reason to be at the Metal Bar in good time before Darkane was to perform. The Metal Bar opened at 20.00 with a promise to have Darkane on stage at 22.00. We were there already at 19.30 in order to secure some space in this smaller establishment housing approximately 200 people. Too early we were there, but only to be met by band members Peter Wildoer (drums) and Christofer Malmström (guitars) shaking our hands and wishing us most welcome. What a welcome and what a great feeling of being really close to the band’s music! I have followed their career via the CD’s, DVD, reading articles and reviews and here I am discussing the new beer with Peter Wildoer, to which Darkane has lent part of its name and logo type. An irrelevant comment here may be that the Darkale beer was most drinkable an can be a huge success.

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Darkane dominates!! At the regular Darkane slow intro with Peter Wildoer entering the stage, sitting down at the drum set giving a deep sigh we can see that some thoughts are there on how this will go. BUT, from the first strike Darkane is back and the one hour performance is incredibly intense and hits us in our faces massively.

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Finally, I must also mention and thank Klas Ideberg (guitars), Jörgen Löfberg (bass) and Lawrence Mackrory (vocals) in this great performance. Lawrence Mackrory is back again on vocals. He did vocals on Darkane’s debut album ‘Rusted Angel’ (1999) and with this fantastic comeback we can only hope that he will be a stable factor of the sound that the band currently gives. His t-shirt stating ‘Nihilist’ directs our thoughts up north to Stockholm where Nihilist towards the end of the 1980’s (1987-1989) set the base for the current band Entombed, which surely will be mentioned later at this blog.

A big bonus was given to us when the previous Darkane singer Andreas Sydow (currently with Riot Horse) entered the stage and did Chaos vs. Order together with Lawrence Mackrory.Thank you to Darkane for a great performance and we look forward to seeing you again at Kulturbolaget, in Malmö, on December 8, 2013.

(Inspirational articles and reviews: Close-Up Magazine #152/David Noaksson; Helsingborgs Dagblad, Oct. 7, 2013/Hannes Grönberg)