Tag Archives: Darkane

A Metalsouth Year – Dark and Light!

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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.

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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!!

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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:

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“…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…”

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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!!

The Albums of the Year!

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Soilwork (Helsingborg, Sweden)

The Living Infinite, 2013, Nuclear Blast Records

Readers may understand the strong feelings for Soilwork. The band with its roots in the soil of the region just closely south from here. Many critics doubted the success of releasing a double CD, all in all, with 20 songs. The album was welcomed by the fans and the critics gave  highest marks in many of the reviews.

Recommended tracks: This Momentary Bliss, The Living Infinite I and II, Antidotes In Passing, Parasite Blues (as here earlier indicated…don’t forget to read the lyrics, which are very influenced by the metalsouth nature and surroundings).

Darkane (Helsingborg, Sweden)

The Sinister Supremacy, 2013, Massacre Records

How great it was to meet Darkane live again at the Metalbar, Tivoli, and to see them again at KB, Malmö, recently was just great!! The sixth album release is from many said to be their best. Also like Soilwork is Darkane with roots from the next door village south from here.

Recommended tracks: The Decline, The Sinister Supremacy, Hate Repentant State

Odyssey / Black Temple (Helsingborg, Sweden)

Abysmal Despair, 2012, Transubstans Records

The album is from 2012, but qualifies here due to its high quality as a debut album. Also this album was welcomed with high scoring reviews by local culture critics. This is a hard noise rock band and, not to forget, hard working live band. The energy experienced and described in an earlier post qualify these guys as the most promising band seen here in many years. We can only hope that their mission is now spread over a wider landscape in the aftermath of their recent European touring together with Bombus. When can we get more songs, Black Temple??

Recommended tracks: Wicked With, Abysmal despair, Keloma, No Fucking Way, Darkred

Free Fall (Karlstad/Stockholm, Sweden)

Power & Volume, 2013, Nuclear Blast records

Freedom Rockers, they have been classified as. I would say that with an musical upbringing in the 1970’s with bands like Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, AC/DC and Frank Zappa streams of happiness and nostalgia flow from listening to Free Fall. Mattias Bärjed who formed the band has heavy experience from The Soundtrack Of Our Lives has manged to put together a classical line up with drums, guitars, bass and vocals. The voice of Kim Fransson made a bunch load of us older guys (read: older AC/DC fans) happy when Free Fall kicked off the Metalsouth idea during Christmas Rock at the Tivoli late December 2012. Fabulous stuff!! Fantastic debut and just waiting for more!!

Recommended tracks: Power & Volume, Free Fall, World Domination

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)