A World of Music Festival at the Tivoli gives hopes for repeat!

Posted on 03/04/2014 by pnille61

When The Night Flight Orchestra had performed their last song as the last band of the new three day A World of Music Festival at the Tivoli in Helsingborg on March 29 Goran Raber of ABF (Arbetarnas Bildnings Förbund) as the initiator was called up on stage by Björn Strid. Lots of hugs and standing ovations for Goran’s work to make this idea come true were passed on. By his work totally 20 local bands were given the chance to perform before us happy hard rock-and metal fans. Today some of us can only regret that we didn’t see all of these bands for golden discoveries of more established, but also very new and fine productions. Below will follow some chronological impressions of the bands, which we happily experienced during the Friday-and Saturday evenings.

(An inspirational article to the posts related to the Festival was published in Helsingborgs Dagblad March 18, 2014, and written by Stefan Lindqvist)

Supercharger – massive energy from Copenhagen!

Posted on 03/04/2014 by pnille61

It’s really nice to extend our metalsouth region over to our Danish neighbours and their beautiful capitol of Copenhagen. We arrived on the Friday March 28 to Tivoli mainly to see the headline and last act of the evening Helsingborg based Black Temple heavily mentioned at this blog as the hardest noise hard working band seen in ages. The six men strong Supercharger hardly fitted into the Circus stage and we felt sorry for them not to be able to act out more of their intense body language. Extremely impressive and careful soundcheck for someting like 30 minutes. For an old fan of Swedish guitarist and blues artist Mats Ronander (good albums during the 1980’s) it was great to see his and Danish rock singer Sanne Salomonsen’s son Victor Ray temporarily substituting on guitar, since Dennis Samaras left the band some time ago. These Danish hardrockers performed very well. A bigger stage and more people in the crowd would work in the benefit of the experience. Still, the guys gave all for us applauding the best we could. Thank you Supercharger and we hope to see you soon and why not on home turf in Copenhagen!

Black Temple – continous victories!

Posted on 03/04/2014 by pnille61

New material was promised via the bands Facebook posts. Not only new material with an after taste of wanting more were thrown in our faces on Friday March 28. These guys are the most original and the most barrier crushing band of all we’ve seen in the region over the last year and of all we will experience during the festival. Variations from fast to slow with patience and fantastic sound waves gives content to what we think is classified as ‘stoner’. Do we really need to classify all we hear or can we just say that this is freaking fantastic Black Temple doing a freaking hard work for an all too small crowd. Still, their performance proves they aren’t effected by how many are there, ten or a thousand, it’s a hard work done with a will of giving it all. Impressive short soundcheck of close to ten minutes and then Marcus Witold Östensson screams ‘Då kör vi!’ (Let’s gooo!). We’re really happy to have been at this gig and look forward so much to a new album!

Riot Horse – another great metalsouth performance!

Posted on 03/04/2014 by pnille61

We have greeted Andreas Sydow of Riot Horse a few times at this blog when he has performed the great song Chaos vs. Order together with Darkane invited as a former singer. To see him perform on March 29 on the Tivoli’s big stage on the Festival’s last night was a great experience. Also a little surprising since it was our first encounter with this classic heavy rock band with obvious blues influences. They create the kind of happy southern American atmosphere as bands like Black Stone Cherry. Sorry, for again making a comparison, but we mean here a very beneficial one!! How many great bands do we have in this town and in this region?? It’s unbelievable and I wonder which other town in Sweden of our size ca. 130.000 can compete with us!! We’re happy to live here for many reasons, but the hard rock-and heavy metal supply here is super great!!

We will get even more acquainted with Riot Horse at their new album’s release party at the Metal Bar at Tivoli on May 31. Let’s be there and hear much more of this hard freaking southern American influenced hard rock!!

Royal Acid Orchestra – high energy attitude!

Posted on 03/04/2014 by pnille61

To have the slot just before the festival’s headline act The Night Flight Orchestra with two Soilwork members would be a challenge for any band. After three days of extremely good music it would be pretty easy to take the time,wind down and gather energy for the last band. Despite of this challenge the local Royal Acid Orchestra wakes up everyone with their rash attitude. We have with great interest followed the band’s development via Facebook and the production of their first album ‘Kingdom of Nothing’. We will listen more! We will follow more!! Thanks for a great performance!!

The Night Flight Orchestra – a trip back to the 70’s!

Posted on 03/04/2014 by pnille61

They have been mentioned as a Supergroup with band members from Soilwork (Björn Strid: vocals, David Andersson: guitar), Arch Enemy (Sharlee D’Angelo: bass), Von Benzo (Richard Larsson: keyboards) and Mean Streak (Jonas Källsbäck: drums). For all of us at the Tivoli this night the moment of seeing them together is strong. Growing up with and learning good music during the 1970’s meant musical discoveries as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Many in the crowd this evening made references to early days Deep Purple. The Night Flight Orchestra’s only album so far ‘Internal Affairs’ (Coroner Records, 2012) got really good reviews in local press. It was mentioned as a candidate to ‘Best hard rock record of the year’. When the vote was there for 2012 they were nominated in certain press, but didn’t go all the way. All the members in the band give proof of strong musical competence and to hear them play so well together is a pure joy. As a dedicated Soliwork fan it’s in particular gratifying to have Björn Strid singing more traditionally just confirming the great singer he is with a bandwith of infinite capacity. Thanks to The Night Flight Orchestra and thanks to Goran Raber of ABF and Amnezia for making this Festival happen. We can only wish for a repeat next year! This town, this region is so metalsouth!! Let the pictures speak for themselves!

Upcoming events

Posted on 23/03/2014 by pnille61

A World of Music Festival at the Tivoli, Helsingborg, March 27 – 29, 2014.

On Thursday March 27 the 3 day Festival starts. Totally 20 bands from the region and mainly from Helsingborg will perform on different stages at the Tivol in Helsingborg. Many thanks to the initiators of the Festival, which gives a great opportunity to meet with local bands and their music.

A direct recommendation from metalsouth is to listen to Black Temple (with a few new tracks from a new album in production) 22.30 on Friday March 28, Riot Horse (read here previous articles on Darkane) 19:30, Royal Acid Orchestra 20:15 and The Night Flight Orchestra (read here previous articles on Soilwork) 21:00 on Saturday March 29.

An why not buy tickets for all 3 days and take the chance to make new good acquaintances of local music strenght!

Kayser at the Tivoli, Helsingborg, May 24, 2014.

Yes, yes, February 17, the fantastic comeback album was released, which will be followed up with a gig at the Tivoli. The timing is superb giving us fans a possibility to build up a happy feeling for a great meet on May 24. Kayser will be supported by local Helsingborg band Outrigger, which became nationally known in Sweden as Eurovision participants with their song Echo. They did well and many phone votes were given by metalsouth. Can we call their style ‘Eurometal’?

Soilwork and Darkane – an epic metalsouth collaboration!

Posted on 23/03/2014 by pnille61

Great many apologies from metalsouth on not actively promoting the fantastic tour these two bands just have finished in Europe. We can only hope that this collaboration with two of the finest representatives from the region will be taken up again. Help us out to inspire Soilwork and Darkane to do a gig nearby. Why not at the Big scene at Tivoli here in Helsingborg or at KB in Malmö. To have followed the bands via their respective Facebook posts have only raised the happy wish of seeing them together close by.

To read about not only fantastic performances, but also stories like the one when the Master drummer Dirk Verbeuren in Soilwork fell ill for the concert in Bristol March 11 and Peter Wildoer intensly rehearsed the 16 Soilwork songs to perform firstly the Darkane show and thereafter Soilworks’ and as I understand with an excellence that only he can. It would have been extremely interesting to compare the differences in sound when one of the best metal drummers in the world temporarily was replaced by another world class drummer. You know your stuff when 16 songs are rehearsed and performed in such a short time. Congratulations to all who experienced this classic show and by the way…it’s great to see Dirk back on track again!!

Soilworks first recording of a live DVD in Helsinki March 21 is also creating some happy expectations. Floor Jansen from Nightwish partcipates. We haven’t been able to find out when the DVD will be released, but our focus is on the market!!

The next encounter of these bands and their band members will be at the Tivoli’s ‘A World of Music Festival’ the upcoming weekend when we can see Björn Strid and David Andersson from Soilwork performing with A Night Flight Orchestra on Saturday March 29. More on that under Upcoming events.

The Album of the Day!

Posted on 23/03/2014 by pnille61

Kayser (Helsingborg, Sweden)

Read Your Enemy, 2014, Listenable Records

As a contrast of Soilwork’s more melodic style, but closer to Darkane’s trash intensity this comeback release from the Helsingborg band Kayser is an extreme highlight. Track after track I smile in my car at high volume moving myself back to my teenage room playing air guitar to long intense riffs and heavy drums. In an article in Helsingborg’s Dagblad February 17, 2014 by Stefan Lindqvist the band’s style is described as American influenced thrash metal with influences initially from Megadeth, Slayer and Black Sabbath. ‘Buy, buy’ – it’s a must! Also have a look at Upcoming events. Soon it’s ‘buy, buy’ tickets for a gig at the Tivoli in Helsingborg.

Recommended tracks: Read Your Enemy, Almost Home Where I belong, He Knows Your Secrets…but, enjoy all tracks in a really compact production.

A Metalsouth Year – Dark and Light!

Posted on 31/12/2013 by pnille61

The past year 2013 has music wise and with a metalsouth perspective been a very strong and positive year. Really good albums have been released by bands from the region and many fantastic and forever memorable live acts have taken place in towns locally and on reasonble distance. The festival Metaltown in Gothenburg in July was a prime fiesta! Bad news can now be read that 2014 will be skipped and full planning is instead in process for 2015. The main reason is that the coming summer will be pretty strong on hard rock and heavy metal events in southern Sweden and Metaltown has for that reason without real success found strong headline acts. Still it’s great to read that the planning is set for 2015 and all the best luck to all working with the festival. A recommendation is hereby given to all interested metalheads to propose bands on the Metaltown website. My own immediate idea would, naturally, be Soilwork (again), Darkane, Black Temple and Free Fall.

The darkest moment of the year was when my Aunt passed away during Spring. She has now joined my father-in-law, my cousins and many more dearly missed friends and relatives. My strong belief is that they all have a really good time together…wherever their souls are…celebrating a real New Year’s Party!!

As previously described, my Aunt’s funeral was very inspirational in the sense that her way of planning for the music during service made me think about the appropriate music for my own. In her memory should the lyrics from the fabulous Soilwork ‘The Living Infinite II’ be quoted, and let’s say that a few lines would here be perfectly placed:

Music & Lyrics: Strid

“…the feelings you carry won’t ever die, they’re one with eternity, the tears you’ve shed, the words you’ve said, are all a part of a constant realm, wuthering emotions, turn into mindful dust, the reality you’ve known, has always fed your trust…”

Please, find below some words on the most recommended Album releases from a metalsouth perspective. It’s been a great year with great albums, songs and live acts, which have lifted my life to wuthering heights!

A Happy New 2014 Year from Metalsouth in Helsingborg, Sweden!! Get ready for the PARTY!!