STILL HOT!

The second day of the festival didn’t not present any relief from the tropical heat. Record temperatures between 30-35 degrees C have been noted all over Sweden over the period of early May until this day. The arrangement adapted to this with water easily accessible to mix with beer, which is produced by a brewery, in which In Flames singer Anders Fridén has a part ownership.

Tribulation (SE)

It’s, of course, tough to be first out in the afternoon when In Flames will conclude the day. To be early this day to see Tribulation enter the stage was really a winner. The crowd not too complete yet, but instead a feeling came trough that the pure fans were there. The band was formed in Arvika in Värmland, Sweden, which made me particularly interested and proud. Interested because it was the first time seing them live after many listenings of their albums (e.g. The Children of the Night, 2015, Century Media). Proud, because I was born in Karlstad, Värmland, and we spent many wonderful summers just outside of Arvika.

Tribulation are Jonathan Hultén, Adam Zaars, Johannes Andersson and Jacob Ljungberg. Thank you for a great performance! With your darkness and great black sound you balanced the heat and sun this early afternoon. We hope to see you somewhere in the metalsouth region very soon.

Satyricon (NO)

Norwegian black metal at its best! The darkness set by Tribulation was concretely bridged into the performance of Satyricon. The band formed in 1991 was a first live experience for us, but gave a wish for more. To see more of their strong visuals and experimental shows is now on our list. Also here the light and sunny afternoon makes the demands on the show harder, but we are happy that musically it was super good!

Graveyard (SE)

Gothenburg has produced many great bands and this festival makes this concrete in its band list. Graveyard is the next in line and was formed in 2006. The band we have covered in an earlier post from The Tivoli in Helsingborg. That gig with Graveyard had Free Fall as support, which has a natural link to another band member and performance mentioned here later. Again Graveyard dominates and shows that their blues oriented rock is perfect at an evening like this! No direct talk with the audience, but the band connects to the big crowd via its excellent music.

Graveyard members are Joakim Nilsson, Jonatan Larocca-Ramm, Truls Mörck and Oskar Bergenheim. We are thankful that Graveyard continues and we look forward to more record releases and great performances like the one at Borgholm Brinner.

Refused (SE)

When Bullet For My Valentine unfortunately had to cancel Refused was announced as joining the festival instead. According to Dennis Lyxzén the question even though asked only two weeks ahead of the festival was impossible to ‘refuse’. We at metalsouth with tickets already acquired since long celebrated this addition to the band list. In an earlier post from KB, Malmö, Refused are celebrated for the intense and energetic performance only they can do.

Yes, Mattias Bärjed’s band Free Fall supported Graveyard at the described gig at the Tivoli, Helsingborg. Mattias was the guitarist of The Soundtrack of Our Lives and has since the band stopped (2012) been active with other bands and not to forget his own Free Fall. He has also in his own name composed soundtracks of films like Gentlemen (2014) and Call Girl (2012). Since a few years Mattias has toured together with Refused and we were so happy to see him enter the stage at Borgholm Brinner.

Refused are so intense on stage and Dennis Lyxzén’s ‘acting’ on stage falls in line with the  punk oriented hardcore sound the now close to filled up court yard experiences. He moves, dances and juggles with the microphone together with a band who gives it all and has great fun on stage.

Refused are Dennis Lyxzén, David Sandström, Jon Brännström, Kristofer Steen and also for this evening Mattias Bärjed. The bands political views are clear in their lyrics and  in Dennis Lyxzén’s introduction with a question, if we in the audience were ready for some ‘revolutionary rock’. He also towards the end of the performance took the opportunity to thank In Flames for the invitation, but with a challenge in that no women or women bands were to be found on the festival stage. A feeling in our minds was clear that this will probably not be without reaction from Anders Fridén, In Flames front man and host of the festival, who was soon to enter the stage as the concluding act of the festival. The tension was in the air to see if there was to be a reaction. Still Dennis Lyxzén made us  at metalsouth immediately to think about candidates like Thundermother, VA Rocks and Arre Arre, as our particular favourites!

In Flames concludes the festival

It was time for In Flames to conclude the 2 day festival by performing again as the headline act. Many of us asked how they were to attract the audience again and not copy the Friday ending show. This had In Flames, of course, had thought through and planned for some Saturday conclusion gig surprises. At the intro, and for a couple of songs, a string quartet was on stage and made us ‘second time in a row goers’ very surprised and tempted to stay to the final end of the show.

And yes, Anders Fridén took up Dennis Lyxzén’s comment on no women being invited to the festival. He started by celebrate Refused as a band and Dennis Lyxzén’s dance-and microphone abilities. He could not himself treat a mic like that since his is wireless!!

Luckily or was it all planned??…a woman violinist (sorry, that we don’t have the name) showed up as member of the string quartet on stage and Anders Fridén turned directly to Dennis Lyxzén and now waits to see a female band member in Refused!! If the verbal battle between the two singers was planned or not doesn’t really matter. The festival was a success with the band list it offered and from this debate only gives room for more bands next year and hopefully for many coming years.

Musically, again In Flames performs as a world class band and we don’t need to go into details on song list. To be headline act two nights in a row demands a good long list of songs, which this band has! Anders Fridén was happy for the support and the ca. 9 000 sold tickets over 2 days must be considered a success. We can now only hope that the event also financially is a success to give In Flames the incentive to do this again. The Borgholm castle and the surroundings are just fantastic for a metal event. We would like to direct our outmost thanks for giving us the party of our lives over 2 days and we can only hope for a new gathering in 2019. Then maybe also with fireworks, barbecue possibilities and slightly less heat!

(sources of information: many thanks to Wikipedia and Metal-archives.com for being there)